Psychological Growth of Athletes who Have Experienced the Yips on Baseball Player

Abstract

The present study aimed to explore the psychological growth achieved by athletes during coping with the yips. We interviewed six university baseball players (mean age=21.0 years, SD=1.15 years) who experienced the yips using the episode interview method and then gathered narrative data related to the experience of the yips or the psychological growth accompanying the same. As a result of analysis of the data, it was roughly divided into two types of narratives: “narratives of negative psychological changes accompanying the experience of the yips” and “narratives of psychological growth accompanying the experience of the yips.” Further analysis of the latter yielded the following five category groups on psychological growth: “positive changes in consciousness of competition,” “changes in self-recognition,” “mental margin,” “changes in the views of a way of others,” and “deepening of understanding of competition.” These results suggest that the experience of the yips leads to negative as well as positive psychological changes in the athlete.