Classification of college tennis players based on group cohesiveness and life skills:

Approach by latent class analysis

Abstract

    This research focuses on factors other than technique and physical strength that influence the game of tennis, which is an individual competitive sport. Specifically, group cohesiveness and life skills can be considered to be psychological factors influencing competitive ability. Competitors were classified into “competitive performance”, “group cohesiveness”, and “life skills” based on information about players, and to grasp the characteristics of each group. The research methods included a questionnaire survey of 373 college tennis players from a tennis club, who belonged to the first and second divisions of the Kanto Intercollegiate Tennis Federation’s tennis league. A latent class analysis was used to examine participants’ answers (79％ of surveys returned, effective answer rate of 69％). Based on the results, college tennis players were divided into 4 classes: Class 1 (24.7％) was “high group cohesiveness and life skills”; Class 2 (31.0％) was “high group cohesiveness, low ability to think” Class 3 (17.9％) was “low group cohesiveness, low communication skill”; and Class 4 (26.4％) was “low group cohesiveness and life skills”. Additionally, when looking at “the college’s best result” and “the change in the best result at college from high school” among college tennis players, there was a tendency for the top players to gather in Class 1; this class comprised tennis players who improved their best result at college compared to high school. Also, Characteristics of each class from group cohesiveness and life skills were examined, along with coaching methods for each class.