Perseverence in sports (2011)

The purpose of the present research was to extend our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of perseverance in sports. It was investigated if perseverance and the execution of athletic performance affect each other because of a depleted self-regulatory strength. First, an explorative field-study with Biathlon race results was conducted, which did not provide high ecological valid evidence for the strength-model of self-control. However, a second study tested hypotheses postulated from the first study more systematically in a lab experiment with table tennis as athletic performance and the handgrip task as measure of perseverance. The results showed that attentional control during a table tennis game seems to require self-control and chronic sport practice predicts the degree of ego-depletion. Therefore, the present research seems to suggest that the strength-model of self-control can be generalized to the sport-domain and might be an underlying mechanism of perseverance in sports.