Blame it on the racket: Norm-breaking behaviours among junior tennis players

Objectives. To investigate the antecedents of norm-breaking behaviours during tennis competitions in skilled young male players, and their relation to set outcomes. Design and procedure. Talented young male players (n=17) aged 13-14 years were observed in 46 sets in various tournaments. Expert adult tennis players developed a taxonomy of norm-breaking behaviours. The taxonomy consisted of 4 categories: behaviours directed toward the self, property, opponent/umpire, and other inappropriate behaviours. One hundred and fifty five behaviours were coded in 23 matches. The behaviours and their antecedents were coded by two skilled observers and subjected to descriptive statistics and Structural Equation Modelling to examine a postulated model which link rank difference and set sequence to set outcome via the mediation of the norm-breaking behaviours. Results. Norm-breaking behaviours against property and verbal self-directed behaviours were the most frequent ones. Most of these followed a self-fault. Interviews with the players indicated that self and others' expectations, and feelings of stress, were the main causes of such behaviours during the first phase of the match or in a tie situation. Players also reported that as the game progressed, stress declined, and their behaviours were expressions of their frustration over their game/errors or the umpire's decisions. Structural equation modelling applied to the data also indicated that rank-difference directly and through norm-breaking behaviours affected set outcome. In addition, these behaviours, committed by either the player or their opponent, enhanced the chances of winning the set by the player who avoided such behaviours. Conclusions. The Crisis Theory (Bar-Eli, M. & & Tenenbaum, G. (1989). A theory of individual psychological crisis in competitive sport. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 38, 107-120) accounts for norm-breaking behaviours in junior talented tennis players. Such behaviours originate from frustration as well as from environmental and social circumstances, which occur during the competition, mainly during the last set. These behaviours are associated with unsuccessful actions and sometimes evoke similar behaviours by the opponent. In most of the cases such behaviours fail to reverse the set outcome. Similar studies in "real-life" situations are recommended to advance the research and theory on frustration-aggression linkage in sport.