Performance behaviour in elite sports
Blijlevens, Suzan
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10.33612/diss.109492160
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Publication date: 2019
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Blijlevens, S. (2019). Performance behaviour in elite sports. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. https://doi.org/10.33612/diss.109492160
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Chapter 4
The perceived challenges and psychological
competencies of Dutch baseball players
transitioning to play baseball in the United
States
Suzan J.E. Blijlevens, Paul Wylleman, Kayan Bool, Chris
Visscher & Marije T. Elferink-Gemser
Abstract
In-depth knowledge of the challenges faced by culturally transitioning athletes is necessary for supporting them in their athletic career development during different stages of their cultural transition. To understand the perceived
challenges and psychological competencies of Dutch baseball players within the context of their cultural transition to play baseball in the United States in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 male high-potential baseball players in different phases of their cultural transition (M = 20.1 years, SD = 2.5 years). The results show that several perceived challenges are related to aspects of
transitioning to a higher level of performance (e.g. adaptation to higher throwing speed), while others are more related to cultural aspects of their transition (e.g. coaching climate). The reported psychological competencies change from the pre-transition phase to the acute cultural adaptation and the sociocultural adaptation phase. These results provide useful insights for giving psychological support fitting with athletes’ transitional phase.
Keywords: athletic career development, cultural transition, challenges, psychological competencies, transnational athletes
Introduction
Due to growing globalisation and commercialisation, more and more high-potential and elite athletes travel around the world to enhance or sustain their athletic careers (Ryba, Schinke, Stambulova & Elbe, 2018). Reasons for their travel are mostly athletic career development, to be exposed to better training standards and/or higher level of competition. In the Netherlands, almost every young high-potential baseball player aspires to become a baseball player in the Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States, which is considered as the highest international competition. From the perspective of international performance levels, the highest-ranking competition in the Netherlands could be categorised as ‘competitive’, whereas the comparable level in the United States is considered ‘world-class’ (Swann, Moran & Piggott, 2015). Hence, the environment in the Netherlands does not provide a context in which high-potential baseball players can maximise their athletic high-potential and achieve world-class level of performance. Therefore, to continue their athletic career development, many high-potential baseball players decide to migrate from the Netherlands to the United States. On the other hand, high-potential Dutch baseball players already need to achieve high performance levels in the
Netherlands in order to be actually scouted and selected to play baseball in the United States.
Athletic career transitions
The MLB’s official rules stipulate that players who have graduated from high school, or who are in college, are eligible for selection and can be contracted by MLB clubs (MLB, 2018). Therefore, MLB clubs scout for talented boys aged 16 years and older. Consequently, high-potential Dutch baseball players usually transition from the Netherlands to the United States around the ages of 16–18 years after they have graduated from high school in the Netherlands and can attend American colleges or when they are scouted by an MLB club. Young baseball players’ decision and the process to continue their athletic career in the United States is an important transition in their career. A career transition is a turning phase in athlete development that brings a set of demands (usually
apprised as stressors) and requires relevant coping process in order to continue in athletic and parallel careers (Stambulova, 2016). Dutch baseball players’ transition to the United States is quasi-normative, because it is predictable but only for certain groups of athletes (Schinke, Stambulova, Si & Moore, 2018). During the transition process athletes leverage their internal (person-related) and external (environment-related) resources against the challenges and barriers they face (Stambulova, 2016, 2017). Looking from a holistic perspective, athletes experience transitional challenges at different levels of development (i.e. psychological, psychosocial, educational/vocational and financial) (Wylleman & Rosier, 2016). A successful transition is the outcome of effective coping, with a good fit between transition demands and the athlete’s coping resources and strategies on the other (Samuel & Tenenbaum, 2011; Stambulova, 2016). On the other hand, failure to do so can lead to mental struggles,
stagnation in development and even drop out of sports (Stambulova, 2017). Cultural transition for athletic career development
Although not for cultural reasons, Dutch baseball players’ transition implies that they move to new cultural settings and their (voluntary or less voluntary)
engagement into the cultural transition and acculturation processes constructed across a range of social, cultural, political, and sport contexts (Ryba et al., 2018). They are expected to fit in and comply with the structures and processes of the training context and competition, and learn how to elevate skills and maximise his potential in the context of college or professional baseball in the United States (Schinke & McGannon, 2014). In this way, the process of a cultural
transition offers additional challenges to the challenges that are associated with transition to a higher level. Besides the challenges of being faced with more mature and experienced senior athletes and higher frequencies and standards of training and competition (Bruner, Munroe-Chandler & Spink, 2008; Finn & McKenna, 2010; Pummell, Harwood & Lavallee, 2008; Wylleman & Rosier, 2016), they are for example confronted with a new language, unknown food, unusual local traditions in and off sport (Ryba et al., 2018; Samuel, Stambulova & Ashkenazi, 2019). Research has further shown that transnational athletes experience challenges imputing meanings to the shifting experiences of the
sport at home and in their host countries (Schinke, McGannon, Battochio, & Wells, 2013) as non-participation in daily social practices and developing a relationship with the new environment (Ryba, Haapanen, Mosek & Kwok, 2012). Players who return home after an unsuccessful transition report a lack of competencies for coping with loneliness, an unfriendly climate and inability to adapt to a new lifestyle (Brandão & Vieira, 2013). A cultural transition has thus implications for the performance and the athlete’s cognitive, emotional and relational functioning (Ryba, Stambulova, & Ronkainen, 2016).
According to Ryba and colleagues (2016), the process of a cultural transition consists of three phases: (a) pre-transition in which they need to produce corporeal mobility and activate psychosocial mobility, (b) acute cultural adaptation phase with the tasks of fitting into the team or club culture and developing normative belonging, and (c) socio-cultural adaptation aimed at establishing equilibrium between self and society. The cultural transition model further underlines the psychological mechanisms that plays a role during a cultural transition and that these mechanisms work differently in different transition phases.
Optimising the psychological support of transnational athletes Sports organisations are often able to assist with practical arrangements and facilities, but they are less likely to offer psychological support to facilitate adaptation to a cultural transition because they lack knowledge of how to guide transnational athletes (Ryba et al., 2016). The ISSP therefore challenges and encourages sport psychology researchers and practitioners to analyse sporting contexts to identify transnational athletes’ acute needs (e.g. cultural transition, successful and less successful acculturating environments) (Ryba et al., 2018). Psychological support of transnational athletes is aimed at athletes’ optimal functioning, performance, and well-being in the unfamiliar cultural setting. Coaches and practitioners might help athletes providing in-advance-information, developing realistic expectations and the “right” mindset in athletes (Ryba et al., 2018). One way to do that is to strengthen transnational athletes’ resources by enhancing their psychological competencies.
Psychological competencies are individual internal resources to cope with the demands of a career transition. Psychological competencies (1) are based on action in order to respond successfully to a demand or purpose, (2) are linked to a specific context, (3) can be learned and evaluated and (4) mobilize and
integrate different elements: knowledge, skills and attitudes (Bezanilla et al., 2014; Villa, 2008). Given the different tasks in each of the phases of the cultural transition, Dutch baseball players might experience other challenges in each of the phases of their transition (Blijlevens, Wylleman, Bool, Elferink-Gemser & Visscher, 2019). As a result, they might partly rely on other resources and/or use other coping strategies in different phases of their transition, to successfully continue their athletic development. To prepare Dutch baseball players for their transition, and to provide them appropriate psychological support that fits with their transitional phase, it is necessary to understand the challenges they experience, the psychological competencies they require and how they use (or not use) them when facing challenge in each of the transitional phases. Study objectives
Therefore, the aim of the present study is to understand the perceived challenges and the psychological competencies of Dutch baseball players in order to make progression in their athletic development, within the context of their cultural transition to play baseball in the United States. The present study was framed in terms of two research questions. First, what challenges are Dutch baseball players facing during pre-transition, acute cultural adaptation and sociocultural adaptation phases of their transition to the United States in the areas of their training, competition and daily life activities? Secondly, what psychological competencies do baseball players perceive to require to successfully deal with the challenges in each of the phases of their cultural transition?
Method
Study designA qualitative approach is used since it allows examination of the multiple meanings that individuals attach to their subjective experiences (Smith & Caddick, 2012). Moreover, the use of in-depth interviews enables the researcher to acquire insights into experiences, feelings and perceived behaviours. In order to stay as close as possible to the baseball players’ experience and to gain insight into the challenges and psychological competencies required in each of the stages, we chose to carry out in-depth interviews with baseball players who were currently in the pre-transition, acute cultural adaptation and socio-cultural adaptation phase. By interviewing only those baseball players who had
successfully transitioned to the United States information would have been obtained about the situation at the time of their transition (which may be years ago). However, considering ongoing changes in mobility and connectivity and changes in the structure, vision, and professionalism of the development programme in the Netherlands in recent years, this would not have provided insight in the challenges baseball players are facing today. We have therefore chosen to interview athletes who are currently going through a transition. To also get a better understanding of the transitioning process to the United States, the concurrent perspective of a cross-sectional design is combined with the retrospective accounts of players who were on the acute cultural adaptation and the sociocultural adaptation phases. To get insight how challenges might shift during a cultural transition, baseball players in the acute cultural adaptation and socio-cultural adaptation phases were also asked about their own perceptions of whether current challenges are different from previous phases.
Participants
Data were collected through in-depth interviews held with 10 male baseball players aged between 16 and 24 years (M = 20.1 years, SD = 2.5 years). We used a combination of purposeful strategies to select participants who were
undergoing one of the phases of cultural transition. Purposeful selection enables the researcher to select information-rich cases pertaining to the
research question (Patton, 1990, p. 196). Considering our research question, we applied three sampling strategies: we selected Dutch male baseball players (i.e., homogenous sampling) who decided to continue their athletic career in the United States and were preparing for their transition, had recently transitioned or had successfully transitioned to the United States (i.e. intensity sampling). The following additional criteria (i.e., criterion sampling) were included: (1) baseball players belonged to the Dutch national team or to youth national teams, (2) they had participated in the Dutch talent programme, that is, they had trained at one of the baseball academies in the Netherlands and (3) they were considered high-potential by the national head coach, demonstrating the potential to become successful baseball players in the United States. The Dutch baseball federation selected players who met these criteria. Of these players, 10 male baseball players were invited to participate in the study and all of them agreed to do so. All participants had the Dutch nationality, were raised in the Netherlands and the Dutch language was their first language.
At the time of the interviews, four participants (#1, 2, 3, 4) decided to continue their athletic career in the United States and were preparing for their transition to the United States (M = 18.2 years, SD = 1.2 years). Accordingly, they had a player agent who was in contact with colleges in the United States to facilitate their selection. They were all in the last year of high-school in the Netherlands. One of them already got selected by a college and would move to the United States within a month. Although the other three players were not selected yet, it was expected that they would move to the United States within six months. Three of the baseball players (#5, 6, 7) had moved to the United States in the past year to continue their athletic careers there and were in the acute cultural adaptation phase (M = 19.9 years, SD = 0.6 years). They all graduated high-school and were first year baseball players at college level at the time of the interviews. The remaining three baseball players (#8, 9, 10) were considered to be in the sociocultural adaptation phase (M = 23.0 years, SD = 2.5 years). At the time of the interviews, they had been playing baseball in the United States for a few years (2–4 years). They had all been contracted by professional clubs and were playing in the Minor League, with the aspiration of joining the MLB. Two of them
were directly contracted by a professional club and one of them got contracted after two years of college baseball.
Procedure
Approval for the study was granted by the ethics committee of the University of Groningen. After the baseball federation had selected players to participate in the study, they informed the athletes about the purpose of the study and the significance of their participation, requesting their cooperation. Afterwards, the researchers contacted the athletes to schedule the interviews. Prior to the interviews, the baseball players received a letter explaining the aim of the study and they all signed, indicating their informed consent. If the baseball player was a minor, both parents also signed the informed-consent form.
To ensure the confidentiality of the data, a data-management plan was applied that included features such as using only participant numbers throughout the research project. After conducting the interviews, we applied a participant number to both the audio and the transcription. Only the first author had access to the original tapes and coding key, which was saved separately from the other data. To ensure that the participants’ identities could not be traced, an
independent person, active in men’s baseball, checked whether it might be possible to recognize the participants, for example, from their quotes. He confirmed that this was not possible.
Interviews
The interviews were conducted by two different individuals. The first interviewer (i.e., the first author) is a 26-year-old woman with a professional background as a sports psychologist and an academic researcher. The second interviewer is a 25-year-old man with an educational background in human movement sciences. Both interviewers have prior experience conducting qualitative research activities, including interviewing. Because both interviewers did not have any professional experience in baseball, they were ‘educated’ about the game in terms of terminology, written and unwritten rules, competition set up by the head coach of the talent programme. They further attended several training
sessions and games before starting with the data collection. The interviewers were introduced to the participants by the head coach of the talent programme, whose long acquaintance with the players had led to formal and close contact with all of them.
A semi-structured interview guide was developed to direct the interviews. Each interview started with a few questions aimed at establishing rapport and gathering demographic information. The players were therefore first asked to draw a timeline of their athletic careers up to that point. They were asked to highlight important moments in their athletic careers on the timeline, thus having an opportunity to share their career stories in ways that were meaningful to them. To cover a holistic perspective, the interviews further consisted of three main topics, namely training, competition and daily life activities. For each of the topics, we first discussed the challenges recently encountered by the athlete to delineate the tasks they need to perform. Then, instead of asking the player directly about which psychological competencies he had used to deal with a specific situation, we asked what he had done and how he had handled the situation. Consistent individual behaviours can be explained by psychological factors (Dohme, Backhouse, Piggott & Morgan, 2017). We therefore chose to ask the athlete about his perceived behaviour so that we could later identify the underlying psychological competencies deployed by the athletes. We tried to gather similar data in terms of depth and complexity from all the players to facilitate a comparison of each transitional phase. Table 4.1 shows the semi-structured interview guide.
Table 4.1. Semi-structured interview guide Timeline
Q1 Can you highlight several important moments in your athletic career on the timeline?
You are free to highlight moments within or outside your athletic career which are meaningful to you.
Differences between the Netherlands and the United States
Q2 What are the biggest differences between playing baseball in the Netherlands and the United states, in terms of training, competition and your daily life activities?
Training
Q3 Walk me through a training session. What do you do just before, during and after the training session?
Q4 Can you describe two or more challenging situations that you recently experienced during your training sessions?
Q5 Can you describe how you handled these situations? What did you do? Was your behaviour helpful/effective? What did you need in order to handle these
situations at that moment?
Q6 Did you experience those challenges earlier in your athletic career? Do they differ from previous phases? If yes, how? How did you handle them back then? What did you need to handle them in previous phases?
Competition
Q7 Walk me through a general match day from the moment you arrive at the location until you are finished. What do you do just before, during and after your performance at a match?
Q8 Can you describe two or more challenging situations that you recently experienced during matches?
Q9 Can you describe how you handled these situations? What did you do? Was your behaviour helpful/effective? What did you need in order to handle these
situations at that moment?
Q10 Did you experience those challenges earlier in your athletic career? Do they differ from previous phases? If yes, how? How did you handle them back then? What did you need to handle them in previous phases?
Daily life
Q11 Can you describe your living situation and daily life activities? What does your week normally looks like?
Q12 Can you describe two or more challenging situations that you recently experienced in your daily life?
The interviews were conducted face-to-face at the athlete’s homes or clubs. Skype interviews were conducted when it was not physically possible to conduct face-to-face interviews, because the player was living in the United States. Given the interactive nature of the interviews and the players’ freedom to introduce their inputs, each interview lasted between 52 to 85 minutes (M = 73 minutes, SD = 10.9 minutes). All of the interviews were audio recorded and subsequently transcribed verbatim.
Data analysis
Qualitative data analysis entails an ongoing analytic process in which researchers impart meanings to their first impressions as well as to the final product. Accordingly, the active role of the researcher in identifying patterns and selecting those of interest, which may be influenced by their assumptions, is acknowledged. We used thematic data analysis to identify, analyse and report patterns (themes) in the data. Thematic data analysis was chosen as an
analytical strategy because it provides a rich and detailed, yet complex account of the data, while simultaneously providing theoretical flexibility (Braun & Clarke, 2006). It further usefully summarizes key features of a large body of data and can highlight similarities and differences across the data set, which is in line with the research question of the present study. It was decided to partly work deductively, meaning we searched for themes related to athletes’ challenges and psychological competencies. Thereafter, we worked inductively, meaning we did not use preconceived themes from a theoretical framework but worked data-driven; depicting themes from the data. As we were actually interested in the underlying psychological competencies, latent themes were chosen to theorise the broader structures and meanings as underpinning that which is actually articulated in the data (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
Q13 Can you describe how you handled these situations? What did you do? Was your behaviour helpful/effective? What did you need in order to handle these
situations at that moment?
Q14 Did you experience those challenges earlier in your athletic career? Do they differ from previous phases? If yes, how? How did you handle them back then? What did you need to handle them in previous phases?
Thematic analysis was done by following the step-by-step guide proposed by Braun and Clarke (2006). Initially, we read and re-read each transcript, noting down some initial ideas about the story conveyed by the data. First, we assigned initial codes to interesting quotes about perceived challenges or self-reported competencies (e.g., ‘take the responsibility for choosing the right nutrition in the cafeteria’ or ‘do not let a bad training session in the morning influence your match in the afternoon’). When all of the relevant quotes had been coded, the codes were clustered into potential themes, describing the challenge at hand or the competency of the same nature being used. We then checked whether the themes applied to the coded extracts and whether they provided a good overview of the entire data set. Thereafter, we refined the specific details for each theme and the overall story conveyed by the analysis by generating clear definitions and names for each challenge and psychological competency. Lastly, we analysed how the identified competencies were used (or not used) in relation to the challenges for each phase of cultural transition.
Rigor
We believe that research is always influenced by the researcher’s theories, hypotheses, frameworks, or background knowledge (Smith & McGannon, 2018). Therefore, by providing as much as possible information about the steps we took and the researchers' interpretations, we tried to give the reader a clear view of how we reached the results. Further steps were taken to ensure the rigor within the present study. By encouraging the participants to feel comfortable enough to speak openly and frankly, building rapport was one of them. It
enabled us to understand the athletes’ experiences and the meanings that these held for them. Data analysis was carried out by the first author, who is an
experienced qualitative researcher. Considering our epistemology (i.e. that we can never achieve theory-free knowledge), inter-rater reliability will always be influenced by the theoretical proclivities of individual researchers, thus tying the method (and results) to their subjectivities (Smith & McGannon, 2018). Instead of calculating the inter-rater reliability, we chose to rely on the critical reflections of colleagues regarding the choices made in the coding process, thereby creating
an opportunity for dialogue about the multiple truths, perspectives and results entailed in the research process.
Results
Figure 4.1 presents an overview of the challenges and psychological
competencies for the pre-transition, acute cultural adaptation and sociocultural adaptation phases, as mentioned by the participants.
Pre-transition phase
Dutch baseball players in the pre-transition phase start preparing for their transition when they are around 16 or 17 years old. One of the greatest challenges in this phase entails getting noticed by colleges and clubs in the United States. To handle this challenge, they reported to undertaking actions such as signing up with an agency, recording videos of themselves and posting them online and contacting Dutch baseball players who are playing or have played in the United States. The athletes reported that being able to utilise the available resources, elicit social support and profile themselves so as to be noticed by scouts were necessary competencies for accomplishing these challenges, as illustrated by the following quote:
The Dutch national team had a collaboration with an organisation that helps Dutch athletes to go to America, and I decided to join them. They helped me with making a video, writing a resume and brought me into contact with coaches in America (#1).
Further, one of the athletes noted that when they had several options to choose from, he felt challenged to choose a college or club that could be considered a logical next step in the development of their athletic careers. By this, he meant that he would choose a club that offered him sufficient opportunities to advance to a higher level of performance, but one that did not require a level so high as to increase the likelihood of their failure to adapt. Consequently, he needed to identify the best options for himself in the long term. This could mean rejecting a
prestigious high-level college because it might not be advantageous for their long-term benefit, as was confirmed by individuals who had returned from the United States: ‘It’s tough to play there when you’re not used to this. That’s why so many people come back to the Netherlands’ (#3). This decision making requires the competency of being able to keep in mind the long-term goal and the bigger picture. Thus, it is evidently important to focus on the process instead of on short-term results and rewards.
When they succeeded in affiliating with a college or club, an important task mentioned by athletes was preparing for their transition not only in terms of the actual relocation but also by finding out what it is like to live in the United States and play baseball there. To acquire a good sense of what would be expected from them, athletes mentioned that it is important to contact and talk to Dutch baseball players who are currently living in or have lived in the United States, asking them about their experiences.
[I learnt about life and baseball in America] from stories, from the experiences of boys who have been there, and from coaches. The coach of the national team has been a scout for an American club, so he knows what it’s like there. And from coaches from the European team who have been there and
coached there. They know how hard and tough it is. They are trying to prepare us for that by giving us instructions and telling us stories about what it’s like there. (#1)
Hearing these stories helped them to prepare for their transition and to determine what they needed to work on, as explained by the following player: ‘I’ve heard a lot of stories about the mentality in the USA, which is way tougher than it is here. I may have to work on that’ (#2).
Besides preparing themselves for their transition by listening to stories of others and past experiences, they reported that they need the ability to be prepared for the unexpected and having back up plans. One of the players (who was currently in the sociocultural adaptation phase) mentioned that two days after he signed his first contract he needed to move to the United States. He included a clause
• To be sc out ed/selec ted b y c olle ges/ clubs in the Unit ed S ta tes • To choose a c olle ge/ club tha t is an appr opria te ne xt s tep in y our c ar eer • To g et a cle ar under st anding wha t it is lik e to play b aseb
all in the Unit
ed S ta tes • To arr ang e the ac tual r eloc ation • Ability t o… • utiliz e av ailable sour
ces and social
support •be assertiv e (being self -assur ed and ac ting with c onfidenc e) • plan the tr ansition c onscientiously in adv anc e Challeng es Psy chologic al c ompe tencies • To do e ver ything it t ak es t o bec ome a be tt er b aseb all play er • To t ak e r esponsibility t o impr ov e y our athle tic perf ormanc e • To r ec ov er quickly a fter mis tak es and sho w resilienc e a fter se tb acks • To de al with unc ert
ainties (e.g. playing
time, being c ontr ac ted) • To be open t o ne w e xperienc es and cultur es • To be sa
tisfied with the mono
tonous lif e Ability t o… • be willing t o mak e sacrific es and choic es t o suc ceed • mak e y our o wn r esponsible decisions Psy chologic al c ompe tencies Challeng es • To immedia tely adap t the ne w cir cums tanc
es, such as:
• Higher le vel of perf ormanc e • Dir ec t w ay of c oaching •No
t being the bes
t anymor e •The c ontinuous pr essur e of mutual c ompe tition • To t ak e o wn r esponsibility t o impr ov e y our athle tic perf ormanc e • To se t out t o liv e on y our o wn • To e xpr ess y our self in English • To mak e ne w friends and t o maint ain rela
tions with home
• To achie ve ac ademic r esult s in or der t o play Challeng es Psy chologic al c ompe tencies Loc at ed in the Unit ed St at es Sociocultur al tr ansition phase Loc at ed in the Ne therlands Acut e cultur al tr ansition phase Pr e-tr ansition phase
•tak e r esponsibility f or their a thle tic de velopment • cr ea te individualiz ed r outines • se t and pr ot ec t their boundaries • se t r ealis tic g oals • critic ally e valua te and modify y our g oals
when needed •work s
tep wise t ow ar ds their g oals • rec ov er quickly a fter b ad perf ormanc es (physic al and ment al) • under st
and the import
anc e of r es t and recuper ation • cope with s tr ess • re gula te emo tions in di ffer ent situa tions (e.g. in de
aling with unc
ert ainty) • belief in y our o wn ability t o o ver come challeng es • be aw ar e of y our s tr engths, w eaknesses and c ap abilities • use se tb acks as a positiv e s timulus • be pr ep ar ed f or the une xpec
ted and having
back up plans •be fle
xible and chang
e plans if nec essar y • be self -discipline t o manag e and b alanc e all their ac tivities • collabor at e with v arious c oaches and support s ta ff • be open t o o ther cultur es and pr ac tic es Ability t o… •adap t w ell t o ne w situa tions •c ollabor at e with ne w support s ta ff (e.g. co ach, t eacher) •t ak e r esponsibility f or their a thle tic de velopment •be aw ar e of y our s tr engths, w eaknesses and c ap abilities •belief in y our o wn ability t o o ver come challeng es •use se tb acks as a positiv e s timulus •r egula te emo tions in di ffer ent situa tions •be self -discipline t o manag e their a thle tic pr ogr ession •se t r ealis tic g oals •critic ally e valua te and modify y our g oals
when needed ork s•w
tep wise t ow ar ds their g oals •be assertiv e (being self -assur ed and ac ting with c onfidenc e) •liv e independently with c ompe tent lif e skills •eng ag e in social r ela tions with ne w people •maint ain r ela
tions with import
ant o ther s •c ommunic at e with o ther people •ask advic e t
o the right people a
t the right time • decide wha t the y need t o bec ome a be tt er play er • focus on the pr oc
ess and
long-term g oals • be e ag er t o lis ten and le arn fr om o ther s and p as t e xperienc es • under st and wha t it t ak es t o suc ceed in the ne w c ont ex t • be pr ep ar ed f or the une xpec
ted and having
back up plans Act ual reloc ation
that he would not go to the Dominican Republic. However, after a month in the United States, he had to go the Dominican Republic for two weeks.
I signed my contract on Wednesday, my 18th birthday, and I had to take the flight to the United States two days later on Friday morning. That all went very quickly! … After a month in the States, I nevertheless had to go to Dominican Republic because of troubles with my work visa. It would only be for 5 days, they said. So I packed my bags for one week. Eventually, I needed to stay there for two weeks. So I needed to adapt to that.. (#8).
Acute cultural adaptation phase
Upon their arrival in the United States, baseball players reported that they are immediately challenged by a higher throwing speed, a tough and direct
coaching style, not being ‘the best’ anymore, the continuous pressure of mutual competition. They therefore need the ability to adapt well to new situations. According to the Dutch baseball players, playing baseball in the United States is about survival of the fittest, described as: ‘you’re utterly replaceable’ and ‘you’re on your own’. This means that they need to take responsibility for their own development and to take the initiative to continue improving their athletic performance. By contrast, reflecting on the situation in the Netherlands, competition between baseball players at the highest level is rare, as explained by a respondent:
Everybody wants to play in the MLB, but there are only a limited number of positions. So, everybody is fighting for their own spot. That’s something I experienced. Sometimes I thought: “He only really thinks of himself”. In the Netherlands, you don’t see that. There, you have already achieved the top when you play at the highest national level. (#7)
To immediately adapt to these conditions, baseball players reported that it is important to focus on their own development and on their positive qualities, reminding themselves that they are worth it to sustain their self-confidence. One of the players mentioned that he was afraid of throwing and sometimes made mistakes, which did not help him. He reported to need the ability to regulate his
emotions and to use setbacks as a positive stimulus. Therefore, he transformed this behaviour in a positive way by focussing on his strengths.
If you’re on the field, you need to think: “Okay, I’m the best. Today I’m the best one on the field and I’m going to show it” instead of: “Oh, that’s a good batter, I’d better be careful not to get hit”. That’s something I was confronted with. Now, I turn this into thoughts like: “Okay, you’re good, but I’ll show you that I’m better”. (#5)
Athletes also mentioned that in the acute cultural adaptation phase, they were confronted with another coaching style characterised by a tough,
straightforward and direct approach. In the United States, the coach tells players what to do and they need to do that, whereas in the Netherlands, there is room for discussion and asking questions. For example, one athlete said ‘He [the coach] went to everyone. He told me, “Your hitting is the worst”. He is very harsh. He just says whatever he wants’ (#6). Athletes reported to need self-discipline to manage their athletic progression. In the Netherlands, athletes felt supported and guided by their coach to improve their performance, whereas in the United States, if a player’s performance was bad on one day, the coach would just tell him to fix it for the next game, as the following quote illustrates:
In the Netherlands, the pitching coach will come to the pitcher and says: “Hey, I saw that your throwing wasn’t good last weekend. What went wrong?” That won’t happen in college. The coach won’t come to you saying: “What went wrong? Do you want to work on that today?” Here, you need to take your own initiative to work on your weak points; the coach won’t help you. And if you’re not able to adapt and [to] fix it, you just won’t play the next game. (#5)
Consequently, athletes mentioned that they felt that they were the only ones responsible for their development and athletic performance and that they needed to take the initiative to work on these. They mentioned that they required the competencies of being able to set realistic goals for each training and competition, evaluate their own performances, reflect on what they needed
to do to become better players and work, step by step, on their improvement. They felt that it was necessary to perceive each training session or game as an opportunity for self-development. So, they would come to the training session with the intention of improving and becoming the best version of themselves in each game.
Additionally, athletes noted the importance of profiling themselves by being assertive and self-assured. They observed that taking the initiative in requesting feedback and showing a pro-active attitude was appreciated by coaches:
From what I’ve learned, the coaches appreciate it when you take a lot of initiative, saying: “Hey, I want to work on this today, I need to improve this and want to work extra hard on that after training”. At a certain moment, when there is another player with the same qualities, these kinds of behaviour will be to your benefit. Thus, a player who asks to do extra work after training, who is working really hard, will get more out of it than the one who’s only going to the main training session. (#5)
Besides the challenges to achieve high levels of performance within the context of the transition while playing, athletes need to accomplish several tasks extending beyond baseball. All athletes reported having to live independently for the first time while being far away from home. This meant having to do their laundry, cook and clean their rooms/apartments. In American colleges, shared dorms for boys are the norm, which Dutch boys are unaccustomed to at home, resulting in some challenges as described below:
I recently had a flatmate who smoked weed in his room. Fortunately, he wasn’t my roommate. But still, it was quite difficult as an 18-year-old boy to go to him and say: “Hey, these are our house rules and you are going to [have to] stick to them”. (#5)
Baseball players further reported that they had to make new friends and develop new social relations. All of their new friends were their teammates because they did not have time for socialising outside of college and sports. Therefore, their social relations and activities did not extend beyond the team.
Moreover, their families and friends were not physically present to provide social support, which was seen as challenging:
When I had those stupid days ... In the beginning, when I had performed really badly, that sucked. All the other boys had their families come to see the game and afterwards they could go talk to them. I didn’t have that; I had nobody to talk to. That was hard for me. (#7)
Athletes also reported that they required competencies to make use of the available social support, for example, talking to the coach, teammates or roommates, or seeking contact through Skype, FaceTime or WhatsApp with people back home, which was sometimes hindered by the time difference. Finally, college players reported that they had to achieve satisfactory academic results to be able to play. Baseball players have to achieve 12 study credits per semester to be entitled to play. This was challenging for some of the athletes, partly because of the language barrier. One of the athletes in the acute cultural transition phase mentioned that the biggest challenge he faced was speaking English, so he was unable to achieve the credits required to play baseball:
In the beginning, I only took the easiest courses; the easiest English courses and computer classes, for example. You also need to take the math classes, but that was just too difficult for me. Math is already hard for me in Dutch, let alone in English. Eventually I decided to follow a basketball course so that I made sure I achieved the credits I needed to play baseball. (#6)
To tackle this challenge, he turned to his social network for help: ‘I had two roommates who came from Curacao; they spoke both Dutch and English. They helped me a lot with learning English and also with school’ (#6). This statement underlines the need for baseball players to acquire competencies for utilising the social support available to them, while also enabling them to consider opportunities requiring problem-solving skills.
Sociocultural adaptation phase
Baseball players in the sociocultural adaptation phase shared their reflections on how they adapted to the higher throwing speed, coaching style and living on their own. They had entered a new phase characterised by their attempts to feel at home in the United States in order to the delivery of consistent high
performance. The following quote summarizes the outcome of this phase ‘It’s simple: the one who can adapt best can be very successful’ (#9).
The players mentioned that the main challenge that they are confronted with during this phase was making an all-out effort to become better players and achieve the MLB standard during their training sessions on-field or outside of their sport. Therefore, they still needed to bear all of the responsibility and take the initiative to ensure their continuing improvement:
It’s all those kinds of challenges—on the field, your team, your coaches. Sure, you’re going to have coaches who don’t care about your development. I think you’re the best teacher to yourself. And you have to be honest with yourself. Look in the mirror at the end of the day and ask yourself the question: “Did I do everything I could to improve myself today or not?” (#10)
Athletes reported that they required competencies, such as the ability to make responsible decisions that contributes to their development and to oversee and accept the consequences, while simultaneously being able to protect their boundaries and being able to say no when necessary. For example, all of the baseball players living in America spoke of choosing the right nutrition. There is an abundance of junk food available, which is also cheaper than healthy nutrition. So, this choice could be challenging, as reflected in the following quote:
The easy choice is going to McDonalds… But how do you want to take care of yourself? By buying fruit in the supermarket and having a nutritious meal, so that you’ll recover as much as possible and can deliver an optimal
In the United States, there are teams at different levels within professional baseball clubs. Within the club, players can be promoted to a higher team, or in cases where they perform badly, they can be demoted to a lower-level team. The baseball players mentioned that the club structure helps them to work step by step to improve their performance. For example, they reported that they themselves define what is required to be promoted to a higher team. This is what they work on weekly and monthly during their training sessions. That is why they mentioned that the ability to focus on the process and work stepwise to be promoted to a higher team was also a required competency:
On the first level, they’re working on throwing fastballs, for example. When you’re able to do that steadily, you’ll be promoted to the next level. On the next level, they’re improving your curveball. That’s a difficult one for lots of boys. The moment you’re able to throw a steady curveball, you’ll be sent to a higher team. There, they’re working on improving your curveball, by varying in striking batters on the inside or outside. When you’re able to throw that steadily, you’ll be promoted to a higher team again. And so on … You need to improve yourself like that. If you want to play in the MLB, you need to be able to throw all kind of balls. (#9)
Contrasting with players at the college level, the professional players in the sociocultural adaptation phase play matches six days a week, with Sunday being the only rest day. This means that they need to recover very fast, both physically as well as psychologically, after bad performances, which can be challenging. Athletes mentioned that they need the ability to approach bad performances as challenges rather than mistakes and the ability to recover very quickly from bad performances, reflected in thoughts like ‘That was yesterday; today is a new day’, as illustrated in the following quote:
You often have times when it won’t work out, when you’re not striking. But you have a game every day. Imagine you’re striking very badly one day, and the next day you need to perform again. So, you really need to flip a switch like “that was yesterday; this is how I’m going to do it today”. I think that this
is very important to become a really good player—that mentality—because baseball is a mentality. (#8)
The view that ‘baseball is a sport of failure’ was reported to be a helpful attitude by the athletes: Furthermore, a lot of money is being invested in baseball in the United States. The Dutch baseball players in the sociocultural adaptation phase reported that this situation is challenging and had an influence on them and on their adaptation process because it creates uncertainties about their contract and whether or not they will be able to play. As one of the athletes explained: ‘You can play the game of your life, but it might be that you’re not playing the next day’ (#9). This situation has to do with the amount of money invested in players:
Imagine you’re going to a party and you can choose between two watches: one that’s worth 10 euros and one that’s worth 500 euros. Which one are you going to wear? The player who’s been paid the most for is going to play. It’s just business, you know; they invested a lot of money in that boy, so he’s going to play, whether he strikes or not. (#9)
Another player offered the following explanation: ‘You’re contracted for 7 years, but they can kick you out in 2 days’ (#10). To deal with these uncertainties and cope with stress, and given the strong competition between players, athletes reported that it is important for them to stay positive, ability to focus on their strengths, belief in their ability to overcome challenges, reminding themselves that they are worth it and use setbacks as a positive stimulus. One of the athletes mentioned that he wrote down the positive points:
I don’t like the term diary, but I’m keeping notes. They’re about everything. Whenever I try something new in my strike during practice, I write down how it felt. I write it down because you lose all the thoughts you have on a day. There are so many things I think about … It really helps me because I read it when things aren’t working out. In the bad moments, I read my book and think: “What did I do back then and how can I use it again?” It really helps me. (#10)
Beside contractual uncertainties of being fired, athletes reported uncertainties about whether they would play and in which team. Therefore, players
mentioned that it is important to cope with stress and to show flexibility in new and unexpected situations.
You need to adapt. Sometimes you’re called in the evening and they say: “you need to catch a flight tonight at 3 AM, because you’ve been promoted”. Then you need to play the next day; you need to stand your ground. Frequently, this means that another player got injured and you need to fill that spot. Even though you only had a few hours of sleep, you need to show the best version of yourself. They do understand the circumstances, but there are no excuses. (#10)
There is also a possibility of being sent to ‘the Dominican’. Most of the
professional clubs also have departments in the Dominican Republic, where the main spoken language is Spanish. There are also many South American baseball players. Therefore, the athletes reported that they needed to be open to other cultures and to new situations. Although language barriers existing within the team may be challenging, athletes reported the need to show flexibility regarding new experiences, not getting stuck in assumptions and not being judgmental about other cultural norms and values, as explained by one athlete:
As I told you, I’ve been to the Dominican where they only speak Spanish. I think you always need to show respect to others. I always tried to speak Spanish, just to learn Spanish and to show my respect like: “Look, I’ve just arrived here”. But I learned a lot there. My teammates taught me Spanish words, and I helped them learn English. That’s what it’s like, each day, also in the United States. The first year in America, I was obliged to take Spanish classes, but now I’m taking them on a voluntary basis. (#8)
Athletes simultaneously reported that the life of a professional baseball player is very monotonous. The baseball players said that it was necessary to accept this monotonous life and that it helped them to enjoy the game of baseball and the
life of a professional athlete by focussing on the good things that their careers offered them.
Finally, the baseball players highlighted respect as an important theme within American culture. According to them, this does not mean that it is not important within the Netherlands, but it was more explicitly present within their daily practices within the United States. They explicitly stressed the importance of showing respect to their coach, teammates, club, and to the American society. As the athletes in the sociocultural adaptation phase are adapting to the American culture for the long-term, they considered this as part of their acculturation process.
Nine out of ten coaches like me, because I show respect and commitment. There are a lot of boys, mostly Dominicans, who are very lazy and don’t make any effort. So, coaches would rather help me than them to work on things. That’s why I think it’s also important to show respect. Coaches will notice that. (#8)
Discussion
The aim of the present study was to understand the perceived challenges and psychological competencies of Dutch baseball players in order to make progression in their athletic development within the context of their cultural transition to play baseball in the United States. Dutch baseball players move to the United States for athletic career development, instead of cultural reasons. Consequently, several challenges of Dutch baseball players transition are related to aspects of transitioning to a higher level of performance (e.g. adaptation to higher throwing speed, not being ‘the best’ anymore and taking responsibility for your athletic progression), while others are more related to cultural aspects of their transition (e.g. other language, coaching climate and dealing with continuous mutual competition). It was further identified that athletes’ perceived challenges change during the different phases of transition. As a
result, the present study indicates that the need for, and importance of specific psychological competencies changes throughout the cultural transition. Players reported to need competencies to utilise sources and social support effectively to gain contracts and prepare for their actual relocation especially in the pre-transition phase. Earlier studies (Bimrose & McNair, 2011; Ryba et al., 2016) has shown that the most important task in this phase is to activate a psychosocial mobility, related to one’s identity and motivation to move home to develop as a player. Although baseball players in the present study reported to require the ability to utilize available sources and psychosocial support, they mostly reported to be confronted with procedural challenges in the pre-transition phase (e.g. being scouted/selected, preparing their relocation). An explanation for the lack of challenges related to psychosocial aspects, might be that baseball players were interviewed who already decided to continue their athletic career in the United States. As young high-potential baseball players have no opportunities for career development in the Netherlands and their goal is to become a MLB-player from an early age, they might already getting used to the idea of them being a transnational athlete. It might also be that baseball players were unaware of the psychosocial impact of their transition related to their identity as a player at that point in their career. Further, baseball players in the acute cultural adaptation and sociocultural adaptation phase reported corresponding competencies to deal with their challenges (e.g. being able to take responsibility, focus on own strengths, use setbacks as a positive stimulus). Because the acute cultural adaptation phase is about immediately adaptation to the new circumstances and the sociocultural is characterised by more long-term adaptation in their lifestyle, they simultaneously reported to require other competencies. The competencies identified in the present study are further in line with competencies important for optimal talent development and high performance (e.g. Blijlevens, Elferink-Gemser, Wylleman, Bool & Visscher, 2018; Harwood, 2008; Holt & Dunn, 2004; Mills, Butt, Maynard & Harwood, 2012) and for student-athletes managing a dual career (De Brandt, Wylleman, Torregrossa, Defruyt & Van Rossem, 2017; De Brandt et al., 2018).
Baseball players in the acute cultural adaptation and sociocultural adaptation phase mainly reported competencies that enable them to adapt to the new environment (directly or on long-term), rather than those that enable them to create an optimal environment. In contrast, earlier research among elite gymnasts training in their own country (e.g. Blijlevens et al., 2018) has shown that they do use competencies to create an environment in which they can optimally perform and develop their athletic potential. Evidently, the cultural status of baseball as well as the performance climate in the United States substantially impact on the challenges faced by Dutch baseball players when transitioning to the United States and the competencies they require. For example, the way that competitions are organized and the roles of MLB clubs and investments in the United States are reflected in the uncertainty
experienced by Dutch baseball players (e.g., in earning playing time and being downgraded). Because of the number of training hours and games (i.e., six games a week), baseball players find it difficult to participate in daily social practices. Consequently, it is hard for them to develop social relationships outside of their sport that give meaning to the new environment (Ryba et al., 2012; Schinke et al., 2013). Players characterised the baseball performance climate in the United States as one entailing survival of the fittest, ongoing rivalry between players and a direct coaching style. Because of this static environment, opportunities to create their own optimal performance climate seem limited.
The baseball players who participated in the present study were considered to have the potential to become successful baseball players in the United States because they were successful at the time of their interviews. However, this approach did not enable us to ascertain whether these baseball players would actually succeed in joining the MLB or to identify whether a successful cultural transition occurred. The present study arises the question of what should be defined as a successful transition in case of transnational athletes seeking to transition abroad to higher and more prestigious competition levels. Does it mean successful adaptation to the new culture or does continued athletic development constitutes a successful transition? Considering the present study,
it is highly unlikely that a player can be successful professionally, but be miserable in terms of his cultural adaptation, because these aspects are inextricably linked to each other. According to Stambulova (e.g. 2016, 2017), a successful athletic career transition is the outcome of effective coping, with a good fit between transition demands and the athlete’s coping resources and strategies, while failure to do so can lead to mental struggles, stagnation in development and even drop out of sports. A successful cultural transition, on the other hand, means successful adaptation and acculturation to the new culture (Ryba et al., 2018). Cultural aspects place additional demands to career
transitions of transnational athletes, which should be handled effectively to be successful professionally. Ineffective coping with cultural demands may also lead to stagnation in athletic development, resulting in deselection. Conversely, as quoted by one of players in the present study: “the one who can adapt best can be very successful”.
A number of limitations need to be recognised when discussing the results of the present study. Since the interview questions of the present study were open and broad, focussing on challenges within training, competition and daily life activities, several important aspects of a cultural transition were not identified. For example, issues of self-identity and feelings of loneliness and belonging were not explicitly discussed (Brandão & Vieira, 2013; Ryba, et al., 2016, 2018; Samuel et al., 2019). The interviewer did not discuss these topics, unless the player came up with these topics himself. By doing so the present study was limited in identifying these cultural aspects. On the other hand, it is arguable that the present study did not identify these challenges, because professional aspects dominated baseball players’ experiences within the context of their cultural transition. Another limitation lies in the way baseball players were assigned to different groups (i.e. different phases of the cultural transition model). The way athletes were sampled in different phases entails the assumption that athletes go through these phases automatically. It might be that individual athletes undergo phases of the transition faster than others. Several baseball players who currently were in the sociocultural adaptation phase were sent to the Dominican Republic or a subdivision of their club. This
experience in itself can for example be considered as cultural transition itself. Furthermore, each group of participants is at a different age and different stage of their athletic development, which should be acknowledged when discussing the results. Last, the present study focussed on psychological competencies as internal resources transnational athletes require to cope with the demands of their cultural transition. Having these competencies does not mean always that athletes use their competencies. Athletes might behave “incompetently”, especially in stressful situations. It thus is important to evaluate whether individual difficulties experienced in the cultural transition process reflect personal failure, for example, because of a lack of competencies or ineffective coping, or whether they are indicative of organisational problems and poor conditions or facilities (Ryba et al., 2016). A recommendation for future research would therefore be to examine the external resources and what kind of
psychological support is provided by sport organisations, and at what point in time, and how this is reflected in the way that athletes deal with transitional challenges.
From an applied perspective, our study can be of help to transnational athletes and coaches, trainers, sport psychologists and other people involved in the cultural transition of Dutch baseball players. Furthermore, it might potentially inform other people involved in optimizing the cultural transition of
transnational athletes, especially those from smaller nations and sports where athletes seek to transition abroad to more prestigious leagues and higher competition levels. Based on the findings of the present study, we have two recommendations regarding the provision of psychological support
transnational athletes. Firstly, the psychological support provided should match the transitional challenges of baseball players in each phase of cultural
transition. As Holland, Cooley and Cumming (2017) have argued, the
effectiveness of guidance and support provided to athletes may diminish if it is not appropriate to the athlete's developmental stage. Psychological support should focus on enhancing their internal resources by developing competencies that are required for a specific phase of the cultural transition. Secondly, the psychological support should focus on preparing players for their transition by
enabling them to develop those psychological competencies which are reported to be important in advance. Athletes preparing for their cultural transition should be provided opportunities to deal with appropriate and progressively demanding stressors (corresponding to those they might face in the new environment) to develop the required psychological competencies. This could be done by encouraging young athletes to undergo challenges and by using debriefing as a tool to aid reflection and learning (Blijlevens et al., 2019; Collins, MacNamara, & McCarthy, 2016; Sarkar, Fletcher, & Brown, 2015). In line with the KNBSB’s ambition of creating an environment that is consistent with the performance climate in the United States (KNBSB, 2017), this can be done by having baseball players share rooms, strengthening mutual competition from time to time, making them play against pitchers with higher throwing speeds, conducting full training sessions in English or Spanish and simulating pressure. One of the next steps for stimulating the development of the required
psychological competences would entail the cooperative design of more exercises to achieve this goal with baseball coaches in the Netherlands.
In sum, this study shows that several perceived challenges are related to aspects of transitioning to a higher level of performance (e.g. adaptation to higher throwing speed), while others are more related to cultural aspects of their transition (e.g. other language). The reported psychological competencies change from the pre-transition phase through the acute cultural adaptation and social-cultural adaptation phase. These results provide useful insights for giving psychological support fitting with players’ transitional phase.
Acknowledgement
We extend special thanks to all of the baseball players who participated in this study for their honesty and openness. We thank Steven de Vegt for his inputs into this study. We also wish to express our thanks to the Baseball Federation of the Netherlands for making this study possible. Finally, we would like to thank Martijn Nijhoff, in particular, for his cooperation and contribution to the study.
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