Designing and evaluating a preliminary pressure training intervention to develop resilience in female basketball players

It has been suggested that challenging or adverse experiences can – paradoxically – contribute to the development of resilience (Seery, 2011). Scholars have therefore argued that resilience development interventions should be set up in a sufficiently challenging environment, and include deliberate and carefully implemented planned disruptions (e.g., Fletcher & Sarkar, 2016). However, to date no empirical studies have examined the effectiveness of such planned disruptions on resilience development in sports. This study thus aimed to design a pressure training intervention and evaluate its effectiveness on the development of individual and team resilience. The intervention was set up as a quasi-experimental mixed-methods design, delivered within an elite female basketball academy (N = 18, Mage = 18.2, SD = 2.1). Quantitative measures included the CD-RISC-10 (Campbell-Sills & Stein, 2007) and the CREST (Decroos et al., 2017). Qualitative data was gained through semi-structured interviews with 7 athletes (M age = 18.3, SD = 2.0) and 3 coaches (M age = 38.0, SD = 8.8). Quantitative results indicated that the intervention was effective in reducing team-level vulnerabilities but did not necessarily lead to increased individual- or team-level resilient characteristics. Qualitative evaluations highlighted that participants perceived the intervention as effective. More specifically, participants reported increased awareness, emerging leadership, stronger communication channels, and the development of shared mental models. These results provide preliminary support for the pressure training intervention. However, this study is limited due to the small population, quasi-experimental design, and lack of a sport-specific resilience scale. Further research is thus necessary.