Experiencing a team performance crisis during a losing streak: A case study

While poor performance (e.g., losing streaks) seems to be necessary for a performance crisis, it is not a sufficient criterion. A team performance crisis is defined as lasting underperformance, involving threat states of team members. The team cannot cope with the situation and team functioning suffers. The overall aim of the present study was to align these theoretical considerations with the perspective of athletes experiencing poor performance. More specifically, the research questions focus on the understating of crises, predispositions and triggers of crises, as well as emotional and cognitive responses. In a case of N = 12 female youth athletes of a team that experienced a losing streak, semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed using content analysis. First, athletes defined a crisis similar to the theoretically conceptualised team performance crisis. Second, many team factors and context variables were identified as either protective (e.g., the motivational climate in the team in question) or as a risk factor (e.g., frequent fluctuation of players) for performance crises. Third, attribution, expectations, and consequences played a role in the experience of crisis, but in a more complex way than theoretically proposed. Based on the findings, we suggest preventative measures for sport psychology consultants and coaches, as well as possible reflections for practitioners dealing with teams in crises.