A naturalistic investigation of former Olympic cyclists' cognitive strategies for coping with exertion pain during performance

Abstract

In endurance sports, there is one element that all athletes who wish to excel must confront...exertion pain. The purpose of this study was to describe and explain the nature and effects of the cognitive strategies former Olympic cyclists used to cope with exertion pain during performance. Nine participants were asked to describe exertion pain and how they managed it. Two hundred twenty-two quotes formed the basis for the analysis. The quotes were coalesced to six higher-order themes. The following conclusions were extracted from the themes: (I) the degree of pain was purely a perception, (2) pain varied depending upon the satisfaction the athlete received from the experience when ail physiological variables were held constant, (3) cognitive skills such as goal setting, imagery, and positive self-talk were routinely used, (4) the mind and body were viewed as a dualism when performing, (5) pain was a positive experience and part of sport and an individual's identity, and (6) riding in a position of control tended to lessen the perception of pain. The results revealed that former Olympic cyclists used a myriad of cognitive strategies to cope with endurance pain while training and competing and that all of them attended to the pain rather than attempting to ignore it.