Abstract

Coping with acute stress is an inherent component of sport competition. A model, referred to as the acronym COPE, is presented based on the serial use of selected cognitive and behavioural strategies for coping with acute stress in sport. COPE reflects: controlling emotions, organising input, planning the subsequent response, and executing the appropriate actions. The primary abjectiveof using the model and in the coping process is the athletes appraisal of self-control over the stressful situations. The genesis of the model is derived from four sources: 1) the extent literature in the areas of counseling, psychology, sport psychology, and motor behaviour, 2) empirical abservations and interviews with elite and nonelite athletes 3), anecdotal evidence derived from athlete interviews and media reports, and 4) a test of the model with intercollegiate tennis players. Subjects were exposed to 10, 15 or 20 pretreatment stress trials. The analysis indicated that the coping strategies significantly improved performance and affect for all treatments for pre- and post-intervention comparisons. However, between group comparisons showed that competitors who experienced 20 pre-intervention stress trials were significantly better on post-treatment scores in contrast to the other groups. The sue of cognitive-behavioural strategies commensurate with the COPE model as an approach to handling acute stress (i.e., negative verbal input) in a sport situation was at least partially supported. Verf.-Referat