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The purpose of this study was to develop a grounded theory of how to promote personal development in high-performance sport environments. Individual interviews were conducted with 32 members of the Canadian junior and senior national biathlon teams, including 18 athletes (9 women, 9 men, M age = 20.8 years, SD = 2.9), 5 coaches (1 woman, 4 men), 3 technical leaders (2 women, 1 man), and 6 parents (3 mothers, 3 fathers). Follow-up interviews were conducted with five key participants. Straussian grounded theory methodology was used. Analytic techniques included open coding, constant comparison, questioning, memoing, diagramming, and theoretical integration. The grounded theory is based on the core category that personal development is a continual and individualized process. Three propositions represent how to promote athletes' personal development process. Proposition 1: Athletes use realistic self-evaluation and goal setting. Proposition 2: Athletes experience different situations and reflect on their areas for personal development. Proposition 3: Athletes perceive and receive social support. The grounded theory portrays propositions that can be used to promote athletes' personal development in high-performance sport environments. It may inform future applied research and the delivery of sport psychology support to high-performance athletes. • We developed a grounded theory of how to promote personal development in high-performance sport environments. • The grounded theory is based on a core category and three propositions that represent how to promote athletes' personal development process. • Proposition 1: Athletes use realistic self-evaluation and goal setting to promote their personal development. • Proposition 2: Athletes experience different situations and reflect on their areas for personal development. • Proposition 3: Athletes perceive and receive social support that benefit their personal development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goal setting can improve endurance performance, yet how endurance performers maintain goal striving and bring it to a successful close has received limited attention. In this study, we investigated the self-regulatory processes employed by long-distance runners during goal striving in excellent competitive performances. Through in-depth, event-focused interviews, we explored 21 long-distance runners' experiences of goal striving in excellent competitive performances (M = 77.43 h post-race). Furthermore, we recruited 10 additional participants with relevant experiences (runner n = 7, coach n = 2; sport psychologist n = 1) for external member-reflection interviews. Through our matrix analysis, we interpreted that by contrasting their current and future goal status periodically throughout their excellent performances, using a process called mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII), this helped the runners to make decisions about whether to persist with a goal, or disengage from a goal and reengage with an alternative. Furthermore, our findings depict how these goal decisions unfolded when runners perceived they were behind, equalling, or exceeding their goal(s). We also illustrate how goal revision was used as an adaptive process to maximise performance, and to avert or manage action crises. Our findings extend theoretical understandings of goal striving and the self-regulatory processes endurance performers employ to attain and/or adapt their goals. Psychological support provided for athletes should go beyond simply setting goals, but also include training on mental frameworks such as MCII to manage goal-striving challenges and decisional conflict encountered during performances. • New insights offered into the dynamics of goal striving and goal revision in running. • Contrasting current and future goal status aided goal-striving decisions. • Goal revision can be an adaptive process to aid performance. • Mental contrasting with implementation intentions could help to avert and manage action crises. • Education for runners on flexible goal-revision processes could enhance interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clutch performance refers to positive performance under pressure. Definitions of clutch performance, however, differ on the performance level required to constitute this phenomenon. This definitional divergence centres on whether clutch performance requires increased, or maintained, performance. Further, it is unclear what performance benchmark (e.g., season average) clutch performances should be compared against. Accordingly, this study aimed to explore athletes' perceptions of what performance level is required for clutch performance, and what performance benchmarks clutch performances are compared against. Twenty-four athletes (M age = 27.13 years) participated in event-focused, semi-structured interviews soon after a positive performance under pressure (M = 93 h later). Data were analysed utilising reflexive thematic analysis. Three themes were generated: (1) clutch performance is assessed against goal achievement , suggesting that the achievement of self-referenced goals is the primary indicator athletes' use to assess clutch performance; (2) clutch performance exists on a performance spectrum , suggesting that the performance level required for clutch performance differs due to the appraisal of pressure and the athletes' own goals; and (3) different benchmarks are used to assess clutch performance , suggesting that athletes' may draw on both previous performances, and the performance itself, to assess clutch performance. This study suggested that clutch performance is a situational and context-dependent phenomenon. Specifically, athletes assessed clutch performance on the extent to which they perceived achievement of self-referenced goals. Defining clutch performance in this manner may resolve tensions between existing definitions, and further, may facilitate development of a measure of clutch performance. • Twenty-four athletes were interviewed within four days of performing under pressure. • Athletes use self-referenced goal achievement to assess clutch performance. • Clutch performance may be situational and context-dependent. • A refined definition of clutch performance is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the end of the 20th century, the elite athlete mother has been a growing social phenomenon, with increasing numbers of female athletes returning to elite level sport postpartum. Allyson Felix and Serena Williams are two recent elite athletes who successfully transitioned into their new identity of elite athlete mother. However, there is no guarantee that all transitional journeys will be as successful. The purpose of the present study was to enhance current knowledge of the experiences during pregnancy and motherhood in elite sport by exploring how becoming a mother impacted on the perceived personal and physical identity of elite athletes. Two elite athletes who had recently given birth to their first child were interviewed at two-months, six-months, and 15–16 months post-birth. Interviews were analyzed using a reflexive thematic analysis to explore how identity may have changed over the initial 15–16 months of motherhood. Three themes were developed, comprising: athlete identity ; mother identity ; and athlete mother identity. The sub-themes of identity, physical identity, shifting of goals, juggling athlete and mother identity, dual identity, priorities, and lifestyle were generated and demonstrated both similarities and nuances in the experiences of the two athletes. This study is the first to provide longitudinal insights into the experiences of both para and non-para elite athlete mothers during the initial stages of motherhood. Findings highlight the individual nature of such an experience and illuminate some of the negotiations of the personal, athlete, and mother identity that an athlete mother may experience. • This study provides the first longitudinal experiences of Elite Athletes transitioning into motherhood. • Pregnancy and early motherhood reduces the Athlete identity in a physical and mental capacity. • These two identities both complement and conflict across the course of this transition. • Identity is renegotiated to allow for the coexistence of both the Mother and the Athlete. • Each transitional journal is unique and so too is the degree of success of this coexistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]