AUTHOR(S): Vinoy Vincent T and Dr. M Senthil Kumar

ABSTRACT:
The main purpose of this study was to identify strategies used by Kerala elite badminton players to cope with stressful situations they had experienced as elite athletes. Participants were 16 current Kerala elite badminton players who had experienced playing in the National Champonship. Each participant was interviewed using an in-depth, open-ended interview technique that inquired about stressors experienced, ways of coping, and their effectiveness. The interviews were conducted in Malayalam language, taped recorded, transcribed verbatim, and the Malayalam transcripts were translated into English by two bilinguals naive to the purpose of the study. The English transcripts were treated as the main data for analysis. An inductive content analysis technique was used to develop stress source and coping strategy general dimensions. Seven stress sources and 14 coping strategy general dimensions were identified. The seven stressor dimensions, in order from most to least cited by the players, were: precompetition stressors, competition stressors, psychological demands of being an elite shuttler, social relationship problems, illness and injury concerns, failure issues, and personal life concerns. These findings provided further evidence that there is a range of stressor dimensions into which a wide variety of specific stressful situations fit, and that each individual perceived a different pattern of stressors. Results also revealed that the players used a range of strategies to cope with different stressors.

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