A Qualitative Study of 11 World-Class Team-Sport Athletes' Experiences Answering Subjective Questionnaires: A Key Ingredient for 'Visible' Health and Performance Monitoring?

Alan McCall^{1

2

3

4}, Adrian Wolfberg^#⁵, Andreas Ivarsson^#^{6

7}, Gregory Dupont⁸, Amelie Larocque^{9

10}, Johann Bilsborough^{11

12}

Affiliations

¹ Arsenal Performance and Research Team, Arsenal Football Club, London, UK. amccall@arsenal.co.uk.
² School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, UK. amccall@arsenal.co.uk.
³ School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. amccall@arsenal.co.uk.
⁴ Medical Department, Football Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia. amccall@arsenal.co.uk.
⁵ Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
⁶ School of Health and Welfare, Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden.
⁷ Department of Sport Science and Physical Education, University of Agder, Agder, Norway.
⁸ School of Sport and Exercise, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
⁹ University of Ottawa Law School, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
¹⁰ Geneva Graduate Institute of International Studies and Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland.
¹¹ School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
¹² New England Patriots, National Football League, Foxborough, MA, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 36763237
PMCID: PMC10115681
DOI: 10.1007/s40279-023-01814-3

A Qualitative Study of 11 World-Class Team-Sport Athletes' Experiences Answering Subjective Questionnaires: A Key Ingredient for 'Visible' Health and Performance Monitoring?

Alan McCall et al. Sports Med. 2023 May.

. 2023 May;53(5):1085-1100.

doi: 10.1007/s40279-023-01814-3. Epub 2023 Feb 10.

Authors

Alan McCall^{1

2

3

4}, Adrian Wolfberg^#⁵, Andreas Ivarsson^#^{6

7}, Gregory Dupont⁸, Amelie Larocque^{9

10}, Johann Bilsborough^{11

12}

Affiliations

¹ Arsenal Performance and Research Team, Arsenal Football Club, London, UK. amccall@arsenal.co.uk.
² School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, UK. amccall@arsenal.co.uk.
³ School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. amccall@arsenal.co.uk.
⁴ Medical Department, Football Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia. amccall@arsenal.co.uk.
⁵ Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
⁶ School of Health and Welfare, Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden.
⁷ Department of Sport Science and Physical Education, University of Agder, Agder, Norway.
⁸ School of Sport and Exercise, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
⁹ University of Ottawa Law School, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
¹⁰ Geneva Graduate Institute of International Studies and Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland.
¹¹ School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
¹² New England Patriots, National Football League, Foxborough, MA, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 36763237
PMCID: PMC10115681
DOI: 10.1007/s40279-023-01814-3

Abstract

Background: Athlete monitoring trends appear to be favouring objective over subjective measures. One reason of potentially several is that subjective monitoring affords athletes to give dishonest responses. Indeed, athletes have never been systematically researched to understand why they are honest or not.

Objective: Because we do not know what motivates professional athletes to be honest or not when responding to subjective monitoring, our objective is to explore the motives for why the athlete may or may not respond honestly.

Methods: A qualitative and phenomenological approach was used, interviewing 11 world-class team-sport athletes (five women, six men) about their experiences when asked to respond to subjective monitoring questionnaires. Interview transcripts were read in full and significant quotations/statements extracted. Meanings were formulated for each interviewees' story and assigned codes. Codes were reflected upon and labelled as categories, with similar categories grouped into an overall theme. Themes were examined, articulated, re-interpreted, re-formulated, and written as a thematic story, drawing on elements reported from different athletes creating a blended story, allowing readers a feel for what it is like to live the experience.

Results: Overall, four key themes emerged: (i) pursuit of the ideal-self, (ii) individual barriers to athlete engagement, (iii) social facilitators to athlete engagement; and (iv) feeling compassion from performance staff.

Conclusions: Our main insight is that athletes' emotions play a major role in whether they respond honestly or not, with these emotions being driven at least in part by the performance staff asking the questions.

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Conflict of interest statement

Alan McCall, Andreas Ivarsson, Gregory Dupont and Johann Bilsborough acknowledge their overall positive experience with implementing subjective monitoring questionnaires with athletes (albeit not necessarily easy). Adrian Wolfberg and Amelie Laroque declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

**Fig. 1**
Factors supporting the theme ‘pursuit of ideal self’

**Fig. 2**
Factors supporting the theme ‘individual barriers to athlete engagement’

**Fig. 3**
Factors supporting the theme ‘social facilitators to athlete engagement’

**Fig. 4**
Factors supporting the theme ‘experiencing compassion from the performance staff’

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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A Qualitative Study of 11 World-Class Team-Sport Athletes' Experiences Answering Subjective Questionnaires: A Key Ingredient for 'Visible' Health and Performance Monitoring?

Affiliations

A Qualitative Study of 11 World-Class Team-Sport Athletes' Experiences Answering Subjective Questionnaires: A Key Ingredient for 'Visible' Health and Performance Monitoring?

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources