Exploring team performance in endurance sports: how do individuals use their self-regulatory skills to perform optimally within a team?

Background: Self-regulation is key to excelling in individual sports. However, little is known about the use of self-regulatory skills when athletes perform within teams (group-based self-regulation), where collaboration with teammates is required. Insight into an athlete’s success orientation, focusing on personal versus team success, might help understanding whether and how athletes adapt their self-regulatory skills in team events. Aims: (1) Examine differences between individual and group-based self-regulation of endurance athletes within teams, stratified by success orientation. (2) Explore the relationship between behavior, satisfaction, and performance within teams. Methods: Twenty-nine competitive long-track speed skaters (14 males, 15 females), aged 16 (15–16) years, skated an individual time trial (1500 m) and a team pursuit, consisting of skating three laps in a team of three skaters. Participants completed questionnaires on individual and group-based self-regulation, including the skills reflection, planning, evaluation, effort, self-efficacy, speaking up, coaching, and questions on general team behavior and satisfaction. Differences between individual and group-based self-regulation were tested with Two Related Samples Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test and the relationship between behavior, satisfaction, and performance were explored with Spearman’s rho correlations (p<0.05). Results: Distribution of success orientation was as follows: personal (n=18), mixed (n=11), and team (n=0). Athletes engaged more in coaching each other when performing within teams and only athletes more focused on team success adapted planning strategies when tasked with a team performance (p<0.05). Considerable variation in behavior, satisfaction, and performance highlights the complexities of team performance. Conclusion: Group-based self-regulation (planning, coaching) may be used to navigate these complexities and improve team performance.