The process of resonance of four track athletes.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify if and how athletes experience resonance and how they feel it affects their performance and overall well-being. Four middle distance track athletes (M = 16.5 years old) in their specializing years of participation (Cote & Hay, 2002) participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews using the Resonance Performance Model (RPM, Newburg 2001) as a structural framework. Over a period of 10 weeks, each athlete was interviewed once every three weeks and completed a daily journal to follow their personal process of resonance and its affect on training, competition, and well-being. Results showed that athletes experienced resonance in their sport but were often unaware of their dream feeling. Over time, athletes became more aware about how they felt during training, performance, and daily living. Resonance was also positively regarded as affecting well-being and overall quality of track performance. Implications for future research and future application of the RPM are discussed.