Exploring Perfectionist Athletes' Perceptions and Application of their Coach's Feedback
Exploring Perfectionist Athletes' Perceptions and Application of their Coach's Feedback
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Issue Date
2008
Authors
Del Nostro, Cynthia
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Abstract
Despite a wealth of research on perfectionism in sport, there has been very little research looking at the actual experience of the perfectionist athlete themselves. This experience is especially important when looking at how they use feedback from others, particularly their coaches, whose main job is to provide that very feedback. A study was designed employing Grounded Theory to look at how perfectionist athletes view and apply the feedback they receive from their coaches. The participants were three self-identified perfectionist current and former athletes from multiple sports and three coaches who have coached perfectionist athletes. The perfectionist athlete's continual evaluation was found to be the central phenomenon. Other themes that were found were that the athlete evaluates the coach to determine their ability to give them helpful feedback; the athlete evaluates the feedback to determine whether it would be useful to them; the athlete evaluates the overall situation to determine its potential outcome; the athletes often have an extreme emotional and physical reaction to the feedback; that there is always a specific outcome of the feedback; and that there are specific components to feedback that are important for the perfectionist athlete to be able to employ them. It was determined that perfectionist athletes employ a constant evaluation process when receiving feedback from their coach. The awareness of this process will enable coaches to be able to give perfectionist athletes more effective feedback and lead to less frustration and more enjoyment for both coach and athlete.