Abstract:

Sport is a privileged social context that provides rich opportunities for interpersonal interaction (Côté et al., 2007). The social network established throughout athlete’s sport participation plays an important role in how they experience sport, with a special emphasis in the influence that peer had throughout this process (Bruner et al., 2013). Thus, the purpose of this study was to understand the perceptions of highly skilled and less skilled volleyball players about the influences that peer had on their long-term sport development and performance achievement. A qualitative descriptive approach was considered in this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 highly skilled and 30 less skilled volleyball players to gain an in-depth understanding of the influence of peer on players’ sport development. Content analysis was used to analyse the data. Results suggested that both highly skilled and less skilled players recognized that peers were not only one of the main reasons to start playing volleyball, but also an important source of support to remain engaged and staying motivated to do sport. This positive first experience helped them to enjoy practicing volleyball at that time and stay involved in this sport throughout the time. Additionally, both highly skilled and less skilled players described friends outside of sport (i.e., friends that were not involved in volleyball) as an important source of support and encouragement to play volleyball. They mentioned the importance of their friendship and invitation to social events despite their busy agenda related to volleyball (training sessions and competitions). They highlighted how positive is this understanding about their sport career and recognized the contribution of these behaviors to a stable psychological state and well-being, which was favorable for their development as an athlete. However, only highly skilled players mentioned that teammates provided a stimulating motivational climate during training practices. They explained that teammates’ push and critiques during practice were important for training with higher quality, which are represented in behaviors such as asked the player to do more and better when he/she were not doing, providing corrective feedback concerning technical and tactical actions, establishing rivalry and a competitive environment when they are playing. They also mentioned this motivational climate promoted by teammates was positive since enhanced team cohesion, friendship, and players’ motivation, which they believed contributed to potentiate their development and the achievement of high levels of performance. Furthermore, only highly skilled players described how their friends outside of sport acted as an escape from all the pressure and stress of volleyball in the later years of their career. They mentioned they were important to think and talk about other issues than volleyball and therefore relax from all the pressure and negative things related to their sport career. Despite the importance of these findings, further studies are needed to examine the specific peer behaviours that may facilitate (or not) healthy sport experiences throughout players development. Further studies should also explore different sporting and cultural contexts to provide a deeper understanding of peer influences in sport.

References:
[1] Bruner, M., Eys, M., & Turnnidge, J. (2013). Peer and group influences in youth sport. In J. Côté & R. Lidor (Eds.), Conditions of children's talent development in sport (pp. 157-178). Fitness Information Technology.
[2] Côté, J., Baker, J., & Abernethy, B. (2007). Practice and play in the development of sport expertise. In R. Eklund & G. Tenenbaum (Eds.), Handbook of sport psychology (3rd ed., pp. 184-202). Wiley.

Keywords:

Social influences, sport participation, teammates, sport development.