Experiencing aggression in sport: Insights from a Lacrosse World Championship tournament

Abstract

This paper examines aspects of aggression experienced by elite lacrosse players taking part in a World Lacrosse Championship tournament. Insights into players’ experience of sanctioned and unsanctioned physical aggression during games were obtained from semi-structured post-game interviews with four volunteer team members. The athlete statements were analysed using structural (deductive) analysis procedures. These procedures were based on reversal theory (Apter, 2001), and included the four types of aggression (play, anger, powerandthrill) proposed by Apter, and applied to sport by Kerr (2005). Among the interview statements from those players who did not engage in unsanctioned aggression, one athlete explained his desire to compete physically, but without animosity when challenging opposing players for the ball. This was a clear example ofplayaggression within the laws and player norms of lacrosse. Statements from those players who did engage in unsanctioned physical aggression, included descriptions of acts recognisable as examples of retaliatoryangeraggression and intimidatorypoweraggression. The implications of the results for applied sport psychology are discussed.