Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Nov;8(6):595-600.
doi: 10.1016/j.jshs.2016.05.007. Epub 2016 May 25.

Emotions and performance in rugby

Mickaël Campo  1 , Stéphane Champely  2 , Andrew M Lane  3 , Elisabeth Rosnet  4 , Claude Ferrand  5 , Benoît Louvet  6
Affiliations

Emotions and performance in rugby

Mickaël Campo et al. J Sport Health Sci. 2019 Nov.

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigated emotion-performance relationships in rugby union. We identified which emotions rugby players experienced and the extent to which these emotions were associated with performance, considering how emotions unfold over the course of a game, and whether the game was played at home or away.

Methods: Data were gathered from 22 professional male rugby union players using auto-confrontation interviews to help identify situations within games when players experienced intense emotions. We assessed the intensity of emotions experienced before each discrete performance and therefore could assess the emotion-performance relationship within a competition.

Results: Players identified experiencing intense emotions at 189 time-points. Experts in rugby union rated the quality of each performance at these 189 time-points on a visual analog scale. A Linear Mixed Effects model to investigate emotion-performance relationships found additive effects of game location, game time, and emotions on individual performance.

Conclusion: Results showed 7 different pre-performance emotions, with high anxiety and anger associating with poor performance. Future research should continue to investigate emotion-performance relationships during performance using video-assisted recall and use a measure of performance that has face validity for players and coaches alike.

Keywords: Emotion; Game location; Game time; Linear Mixed Effects model; Multilevel analysis; Performance assessment; Team sport.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Time effect on individual performances (values were centered with respect to the general mean performance: 5.50).
Fig. 2
Fig. A1
Some potential situations of time effect and halftime effect on performance using specific values of parameters in Eq. A1 (in the 4 examples b0 = 3 and b1 = 0.08).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Martinent G., Nicolas M., Gaudreau P., Campo M. A cluster analysis of affective states before and during competition. J Sport Exercise Psy. 2013;35:600–611. - PubMed
    1. Woodman T., Davis P.A., Hardy L., Callow N., Glasscock I., Yuill-Proctor J. Emotions and sport performance: an exploration of happiness, hope, and anger. J Sport Exercise Psy. 2009;31:169–188. - PubMed
    1. Lane A.M., Beedie C.J., Jones M.V., Uphill M., Devonport T.J. The BASES expert statement on emotion regulation in sport. J Sports Sci. 2012;30:1189–1195. - PubMed
    1. Campo M., Mellalieu S., Ferrand C., Martinent G., Rosnet E. Emotions in team contact sports: a systematic review. Sport Psychol. 2012;26:62–97.
    1. Lazarus R.S. Springer Publishing Co.; New York, NY: 1999. Stress and emotion: a new synthesis.