Abstract
Pre-performance routines (PPRs) are essential motor skills prior to a competition for athletes. But we believe that a specific kind of sport has its own PPRs. Using a qualitative research design, this study conducted in-depth interviews with 14 elite Chinese athletes in competitive diving and their coaches as well as observed and analyzed the behaviors of 13 athletes during diving competitions. The results showed that the divers’ PPRs were constituted of four components (psychological skills, pace setting, mastering competition progress, and behavioral strategies), which could be divided into 20 core categories, with the entire diving process divided into three sections and ten stages, including 13 subcategories in off-platform, 12 subcategories in on-platform and the diving stage. Thus, patterns in the PPRs for divers were established and a clear and comprehensive picture of the diving process, as well as the psychological characteristics and behavioral patterns of athletes during the process, were obtained. The findings entail implications for developing PPRs for diving athletes and future studies on PPRs in other competitive diving and other sports.
Highlights
Pre-performance routines (PPRs) are pre-arranged sequential thoughts and actions that help athletes stabilize and control their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors prior to a competition (Singer, 2002; Cotterill, 2010)
The results showed that the divers’ PPRs were constituted of four components, which could be divided into 20 core categories, with the entire diving process divided into three sections and ten stages, including 13 subcategories in off-platform, 12 subcategories in on-platform and the diving stage
PPRs involve a variety of psychological skills and behavioral responses, which are widely adopted in different sports; they are most commonly adopted in the preparation stage of self-paced events involving technical performance (e.g., Lonsdale and Tam, 2008; Clowes and Knowles, 2013)
Summary
Pre-performance routines (PPRs) are pre-arranged sequential thoughts and actions that help athletes stabilize and control their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors prior to a competition (Singer, 2002; Cotterill, 2010). Scholars have suggested that PPRs are extremely important for high-performing or elite athletes; the motor skills of these athletes tend to be over-learned and the operation of the expected movements becomes mechanized, whereby they are executed without conscious attention (Cotterill, 2010). They are faced with an increased likelihood of being disturbed by internal and external non-task-related. The use of cognitive and behavioral procedures helps these athletes avoid interference and ensures smooth performance in the competition
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