EMOTIONS / 003 [WHY DO YOU TRY TO CALM YOUR TEAMMATES DOWN?]

Question
How and why do players manage their teammates' emotions?

Study
Researchers ran two interview studies with French male rugby players. In the first, 22 professional players watched video of their own recent match and picked moments with intense emotions. In the second, 30 under 23 players were interviewed after a match with 97 spectators that they believed counted for selection.

Findings
Players used 47 different ways to manage emotions, and every player had his emotions influenced by teammates at least once. In the second study, every player tried to influence his teammates' emotions. 73% did so to help the teammate, and 80% did so at least partly for themselves, for example to protect their own confidence or to stop nerves spreading through the team. About three quarters of all reasons they gave were at least partly about themselves. Players who didn't step in said it was useless, that it was the captain's job, or that they were busy with their own emotions.

What It Means for Athletes
Emotions are contagious in a team. When you calm a teammate down, you are often also calming yourself, and that's fine. Just check whether what you do actually helps them, because you don't always read others correctly. This study involved only male rugby players and relied on memories afterwards.

Try this: next time you want to fire up or calm down a teammate, ask yourself first: what does he or she need right now? A shout, a calm word, or simply space?

Source
Campo, M., Sanchez, X., Ferrand, C., Rosnet, E., Friesen, A., & Lane, A. M. (2017). Interpersonal emotion regulation in team sport: Mechanisms and reasons to regulate teammates' emotions examined. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 15(4), pp. 379 to 394.

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