Sources of stress experienced by elite male wheelchair basketball players

The purpose of the study was to examine the sources of stress in an international squad of elite male wheelchair basketball players (n = 10) via structured interviews. inductive content-analysis was used to derive stress categories from the athletes' perspective. Ten distinct general stress source dimensions emerged: preevent concerns, negative match preparation, on-court concerns, postmatch performance concerns, negative aspects major event, poor group interaction and communication, negative coaching style/behavior, relationship issues, demands or costs of wheelchair basketball, and lack of disability awareness. The findings suggest that elite wheelchair basketball players experience sources of stress relating to the whole competition process, organizational aspects of competing at a major event, communicating or relating to important others, and two dimensions that are noncompetition specific (demands or costs of wheelchair basketball and lack of disability awareness).