Savouring with elite adolescent tennis players: a feasibility study
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Date
2023-08-08
Authors
Hillier, Craig
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Abstract
Adolescent tennis athletes can struggle with mental well-being and emotional regulation during practices and competitions (Lauer et al., 2020). One strategy to control emotions and boost levels of happiness is by savouring positive experiences (Bryant, 2021; Hurley & Kwon, 2012). Savouring is a form of adaptive emotion regulation involving the intentional and deliberate up-regulation of positive affect (Gregory et al., 2023). Savouring-focused interventions have been shown to enhance savouring behaviours and promote psychological well-being (Klibert et al., 2022; Smith & Hanni, 2019). This study for the first time examined the feasibility of a novel savouring-focused intervention with elite adolescent tennis athletes. Participants were high performance adolescent tennis athletes (N = 14) recruited from Taylor Tennis Academy and the Manitoba Provincial and Canada Games Teams. Athletes participated in a savouring intervention in which they (a) completed 3 online surveys (pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 30-day post-intervention) (b) attended an in person savouring intervention, and (c) tracked 7 days of savouring. A subset of athletes (n = 5) also participated in semi-structured exit interviews. Exploratory results showed that the savouring-focused intervention increased savouring scores and positive emotions, and decreased stress levels and negative emotions. Interviewed athletes reported that savouring was beneficial and planned to continue to use savouring in future. This feasibility study gives preliminary evidence that a savouring-intervention is feasible and acceptable to elite adolescent tennis athletes. Future savouring- focused interventions should be explored within elite sport contexts.
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Keywords
Savouring, Positive affect, Intervention, Adolescent, Elite athletes