Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Introduction 

The study is based on tennis and its connection to sport psychology. Matches are often five hourslong, against opponents who possess the same tennis skills as oneself. Mental toughness cantherefore be the deciding factor, especially over time. 

Aim

The aim of this study is to investigate whether mental toughness is a decisive factor in criticalmoments in tennis at the elite level, and to form a deeper understanding of the impact that mentaltoughness has in tennis by means of qualitative interviews with world-class Swedish coaches. 

Method

Qualitative interviews were implemented to gather relevant answers to the study's researchquestion. Thematic analysis was conducted for each interview where we researchers processed theentire transcription and then looked for meaningful patterns and themes given the data that theresearchers had obtained.

Results

The researchers divided the interview results within different sections where each section belongedto individual interview results, these are Mental toughness and self-confidence, Coaches' views onthe critical moments of tennis, Handling in critical moments and Mental toughness as an area fordevelopment. The results presented in this study are linked to the themes associated with theinterview guide, which in turn are designed to answer the research questions.DiscussionThe same subheadings were used as in the result section. The discussion combined the results fromthe interviews with the sources that were found which helped answer the research questions. Theresult indicates that the coaches believed the best tennis players in the world are mainly the bestbecause of their mental toughness. That mental toughness is needed to handle critical moments intennis and that it can be trained