Team resilience in competitive sport

Competitive sport teams are required to perform in highly pressurised situations and although some teams are able to withstand challenging conditions, many experience damaging effects during setbacks and adversity. Developing an understanding of how athletes withstand the pressures of competitive sport and sustain excellence has recently been addressed in sport psychology through the study of psychological resilience (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2012; Galli & Vealey, 2008; Gucciardi, Jackson, Coulter, & Mallett, 2011). However, understanding how teams positively adapt despite encountering the demands of competitive sport has been largely overlooked. The purpose of this thesis, therefore, is to investigate the construct of team resilience in elite and competitive sport. The thesis is organised into seven chapters. Chapter one explores the challenges and pressures that competitive sports teams encounter and provides a brief overview of group dynamics in sport psychology research. Chapter two reviews the construct of psychological resilience, recent developments in sport psychology research, how resilience at the team level has been defined and conceptualised in general psychology and why it is important to extend team resilience research to the sport context. [Continues.]