Abstract

This study longitudinally explored the characteristics of coaches’ behaviour towards an elite Japanese university athlete exhibiting psychosomatic movement disorders and examined avenues to provide psychological support to coaches throughout their careers. Generally, coaches in elite sports education are teachers and ex-players who began their athletic careers in early childhood. According to existing literature, some coaches exhibit problematic behaviour such as abuse and violence. From the psychodynamic perspective, this is likely the result of psychological characteristics that were developed based on their parents and surrogate relationships since childhood. Research data was initially collected using semi-structured interviews and Sano and Makita’s sentence completion tests to analyse the psychological development of the athlete. The participant was longitudinally followed up after five years. The data were analysed using Marcia’s identity status rating scale and Kawakita’s affinity diagrams. Consequently, in the first study, the athlete was categorised under ‘foreclosure’ as per Marcia’s model and ‘invaded’ as per Ogawa’s categorizations, which demonstrates psychological immaturity and family dependency. In the first study, coaches and parents often interfered excessively, which annoyed the athlete. At the five-year follow-up, it was noted that the athlete began considering their athletic retirement independently. However, coaches tended to display continuous interference and sabotage the athlete’s independence. Therefore, (a) considering co-dependency in the coaches and athlete relationships is essential for both athletes’ and coaches’ psychological development, and (b) coaches’ psychological development should be prioritised in order to support coaches’ aptitudes.

Keywords

athlete and surrogate relationships, elite education, family dependency, abuse in sports, coaches’ aptitudes

Introduction

Elite athletes in Japan tend to have unique lifestyles compared to most other people. For example, they start their athletic careers in early childhood and spend most of their time in small groups, such as with coaches, families, and teammates. They are often absent from school because they need to travel and participate in national or international sports games. Athletes often start their athletic careers, because of their parents’ directions or coaches’ enthusiastic recruitment. Especially in Japanese elite sports education, athletes usually enter school with special recommendations for sports based on their athletic rather than academic achievements and often commence coaching careers post-retirement. Furthermore, coaches in Japanese elite sports education are generally ex-players who also began their athletic careers in early childhood. Because they have been strongly influenced by their parents or coaches as athletes, after their coaching career begins, they exert a considerable influence on the players they coach. Therefore, coaches play the important role of surrogates who behave like real parents for athletes. In Japan, athletes tend to be immature in their relationships with parents and surrogates (Kemuriyama & Ogawa, 2021). Since the athletes are usually together, elite sports may have limited and distinct cultures that lead to athletes not creating their own networks, and as a result, their psychological features are passed down through generations like family relationships. Furthermore, coaches are sometimes athletes’ biological parents who have played in elite sports.

According to the author’s previous research Ogawa (2013) as well as public reports such as Human Rights Watch (2020) and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) (2021), some coaches exhibit problematic behaviour such as abuse and violence. The discussions imply that child abuse happens in the relationships between athletes and coaches, who act as parents. From the psychodynamic perspective, coaches’ problematic behaviours are due to the psychological characteristics that develop based on interactions with their parents and surrogate relationships since childhood. This study discusses a case study of coaches’ behaviour towards an athlete who displayed psychosomatic movement disorders.

Methodology

Introduction of the participant

This case study research was conducted longitudinally with five-year follow-up. In the first study, the participant was a 22-year-old athlete who had just graduated from university and continued participating in competitive sports in the workplace. They originally started their sports in the lower grades of elementary school, but they did not play competitive sports during junior high school. They encountered a different sport and wanted to play it in high school. After consulting with a teacher, they decided to take an entrance examination for a high school that required special skills apart from sports. During high school, they achieved the goal of being a high-ranking player at the national games for Japanese high schools. Around the same time, they started displaying psychosomatic movement disorders. After completing high school, they entered university, obtaining an athletic scholarship in elite education and again attained high-ranking scores at the national games. In addition to the psychosomatic movement disorders, they struggled with tight schedules and difficult social relationships within family and sports contexts during university. Difficult interpersonal relationships persisted after they graduated from university. In order to acquire psychological and life stability in both social relationships and the workplace, they eventually decided to attend another job interview for those with special skills related to sports and were successful in obtaining a new job that allowed them opportunities to participate in competitive sports games. In the second study, they started thinking about their athletic retirement after a traffic accident. 

Several people had mainly coached the participant in their schools or workplaces. Five people had coached them since the participant started sports in elite education, and three continuously dealt with the participant’s sports career even after university graduation. The participant continued playing sports after university, and additional three people coached or managed the participant in the workplace.

Research Method

Research data were initially collected to analyse the psychological development of the athlete. The participant was longitudinally followed up after five years. Semi-structured interviews and Sentence Completion Tests (SCT; Sano & Makita, 1960) were conducted in order to analyse the athlete’s psychological state. Interview questions were based on the identity status interviews (Marcia, 1964), the participant’s developmental history, and family condition, including the characteristics of coaches, acting as surrogate parents to the athlete. Data were analysed using the identity status rating scale (Marcia, 1964), the developmental theory (Erikson, 1959), and the KJ method (Kawakita, 1967), which is common technique used to analyse qualitative research data in Japan. In this study, the coaches’ psychological characteristics were focused on and discussed based on the affinity diagrams of the KJ method.

As for validity in the first study, three clinical psychologists supervised different elements of this research, and all three evaluated the data analysis process to ensure efficacy. They confirmed that the research design was valid. In the second study, four psychologists ethically evaluated and validated the KJ method of qualitative research before the second study was started. Two psychologists evaluated and validated the analysis after the data were collected.

Results

Regarding the participant, their psychological development status was categorised under ‘foreclosure’ (Marcia, 1964, p.25) and ‘invaded’ (Ogawa, 2013, p.14), which demonstrates psychological immaturity and family dependency. The basic spatial pattern of this category, according to Ogawa (2013), is shown in Figure 1. Ogawa (2013, pp.19-20) stated that, in the ‘invaded’ category, athletes often feel annoyed with ‘excessive interference’ (see Figure 1) by parents or surrogates. After they move away from the interference, they feel frightened and try to find ‘sports’ as a ‘defence’ (see Figure 1) or safe environment; otherwise, they ‘return to’ (‘dependence’ to father or mother in Figure 1) the protection of their parents or surrogates. Such behaviours indicate a vicious circle of evasion and dependence (see the circle of ‘excessive interference’, ‘Dependence to sports’ and ‘Dependence to Father or Mother’ in Figure 1). Hence, they are dependent on their parents or surrogates permanently. Alternatively, sports become a ‘defence’ (see Figure 1) against ‘the interference of parents’ (see Figure 1). Athletes tend to get agitated because of unexpected situations. Furthermore, somatic symptoms and problematic behaviour are displayed when they cannot handle situations with rules and orders given by parents or surrogates. Athletes are rarely challenged from childhood onward to tackle developmental tasks (Erikson, 1959); therefore, they do not acquire efficacy.

Figure 1: Participant’s inner world in the invaded category

Coaches’ Characteristics in the First Study

In this case, the first study was conducted just after participant’s university graduation, so they talked about several people who had coached them throughout their sports career. In addition to coaches, a teacher suggested that the athlete should appear for a high school entrance examination. The examination was designed for people with special skills unrelated to the sports they wanted to participate in at that school.

A coach at the university recruited elite athletes, including the participant, but later behaved abusively towards the participant when their behaviour or achievements in sports were unacceptable to the coach. Another coach at the university was an active international sportsperson, but their narcissistic coaching style was not accepted by the participant.

During university sports, the participant also felt annoyed by the excessive interference from their mother. Based on the affinity diagram in Figure 1, the participant unconsciously persued sports as psychological protection from their mother’s interference. However, as the environment, with respect to coaches’ behaviour was unstable, sports did not always provide them with psychological stability. Therefore, they would go back to the protection of their mother when confronted with the problematic situations created by their coaches in elite sports education.

Coaches’ Characteristics in the Second Study

After five years, in the second study, the participant mentioned that they required prolonged rest due to ‘a traffic accident’ (see Figure 2). The accident was a stressful event, but it made them begin considering their athletic retirement independently. They decided to attend a job interview for a ‘workplace’ that would provide a ‘stable’ environment including social relationships (see ‘Stable new workplace with Surrogates’ in Figure 2). Meanwhile, the coaches in the workplace, who were different from the people at the university, strongly ‘sabotaged’ the participant’s challenge (see ‘Sabotage independence’ in Figure 2) by placing the participant in the office and giving long lectures in order to control the participant. It is considered that the participant was again abused psychologically by the coaches, who were strongly dependent on the athlete. In that case, the athlete thus ‘confronted’ to the coaches (see ‘Confrontation’ in Figure 2) and tried to ‘behave independently’ (see ‘Process to gain independence’ in Figure 2). However, the coaches, in their roles as surrogates, tended to display continuous interference and sabotage the athlete’s independence.

Furthermore, the athlete’s ‘grandfather passed away’ due to an illness (see ‘Death of Grandmother’ in Figure 2). This situation united their family emotionally (see ‘Stronger family relationships’ in Figure 2) and provided the mother with an opportunity to change how she interacted with the participant. Meanwhile, the participant hoped to depart from home. The mother was initially surprised and objected to this decision. However, she eventually showed kindness toward the participant. Finally, the mother tried to ‘understand’ and ‘Support’ (see ‘Acceptance’, ‘Support’ from Mother in Figure 2) the participant’s independence because they made an effort, ‘with their sister’s help’ (see ‘Support for independence’ from Sister in Figure 2), to find ‘adequate words to carefully explain their own opinions and their need for independence from their mother’ (see ‘Hopes for protection’ from athlete to Mother in Figure 2).

Thus, in the second study, it was revealed that the participant became psychologically ‘independent’ (see ‘Process to gain independence’ in Figure 2) because of certain situations and family understandings. However, the behaviour of the coaches who were ‘strongly dependent on the participant continued to be psychologically immature’ (see ‘Sabotage independence’, ‘Battlefield’). The inner world of the participant at the time of fifth year is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: The inner world of the participant in 5^th year

Discussions and Conclusion

This longitudinal case study research revealed that the participant, an elite Japanese university athlete, gradually became psychologically independent from their mother and coaches. They had been suffering from psychosomatic movement disorders since high school. It is possible that their self-efficacy had not developed because of their relationships with parents and surrogates since childhood, and they were unable to cope with the stress put on them by their coaches in elite sports education. Furthermore, the offer to take an entrance examination for special skills apart from sports, which was recommended by a teacher, may have created unconscious confusion for the participant. However, through the duration of the study, the participant seemed to tackle their developmental tasks (Erikson, 1959) on some occasions, such as unstable interpersonal relationships and a traffic accident; they could further become psychologically independent with their family’s support. Previous studies have not revealed much on how athletes cease to be psychologically dependent on their parents or surrogates (Ogawa, 2013); the results of this case study demonstrate how the transformation takes place.

The results from this case study are similar to the public reports of Human Rights Watch (2020) and the NSPCC (2021), in terms of the coaches’ abusive behaviours toward athletes, both in the first year and fifth year. The coaches were still psychologically immature and were found to be severely dependent on the participant during the five-year follow-up study. Research has been conducted in the field of sports science from psychological perspectives, such as studies on corporal punishment in educational settings, using a social psychological viewpoint (Uchida et al., 2020). However, there has been no academic discussion about the characteristics of coaches’ personality and aspects of abuse, which also takes into consideration its lifelong development from childhood. To support athletes’ psychological independence, it is essential to support athletes from childhood and assist coaches’ psychological development after their athletic retirement from elite sports education. Japanese elite athletes generally have difficulty expressing their emotions (Ogawa, 2013). According to Ogawa (2021a), it is expected that they will learn appropriate ways of communicating and expressing emotions at school by experiencing Structured Group Encounter (SGE) exercises (Kokubu, 2004), which were developed as methods to cultivate emotional exchanges between people while considering Japanese cultural characteristics.  Furthermore, the Solution-focused Team Meeting Method (Sato, 2021), which was developed based on the solution-focused counselling approach and business facilitation, has recently attracted attention in Japanese schools (Ogawa, 2022b). By using this method to support children, teachers can identify the next steps in 30 minutes per difficult-to-solve problem. The use of this method by coaches in meetings with athletes would enable them to teach without generating negative behaviours and attitudes owing to immature personality traits. It is expected that the effectiveness of implementing these methods will be examined in future research.

In conclusion, there are two important points for supporting coaches in elite sports education. First, considering co-dependency in the coaches and athlete relationships is essential for both athletes’ and coaches’ psychological development. Second, a focus on coaches’ psychological development after their athletic retirement should be prioritised in order to better understand their aptitudes in elite sports education and support the athletes’ psychological independence.

Acknowledgment

This research was supported by JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) under Grant [number 18K03143, 21K03109]; and Support for gender equality program in the University of the Ryukyus under Grant [number 120, 24 Jan 2022]. I appreciate the cooperation of the participant and the assistance of Prof. Takashi Furukawa (The University of the Ryukyus) and Prof. Ryuta Suzuki (Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University).

This paper is a revised version of the presentation at the 4^th International Academic Conference on Teaching, Leaning and Education, which took place 11-13 March 2022, in Berlin, Germany.