Case Diagnosis
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CASESTUDY.pdf
The 14th International Scientific Conference eLearning and Software for Education
Bucharest, April 19-20, 2018 10.12753/2066-026X-18-187
Employing Social Media in Working with Athletes: A Case Study Discussing Ethical
Implications for Applied Sport Psychology Consultants
Elena-Madalina MARGARIT BASES Accredited Sport & Exercise Scientist, Bucharest, Romania
Florentina TONITA, Nicolae ANGELESCU Romanian-American University, Faculty of Physical Education, Sport and Kinetotherapy, Expozitiei Bvd, Romania
[email protected]; [email protected]
Abstract: This paper aims to discuss the use of social media platforms, namely Facebook and WhatsApp,
as tools in supporting sport psychology interventions. The sharing of applied practice offers an
opportunity to reflect both on the effectiveness of such tools and the consequent ethical implications. In
terms of impact, social media could prove itself useful in fostering better communication at the cost of
blurred boundaries and privacy issues. The scenarios presented focus on supporting communication
within coach-athlete dyads and team environments as part of larger pre-season and competitive season
interventions. The first author discusses her experience working with a university netball club within the
British Universities & Colleges Sport League. Facebook was used to aid communication especially in the
area of feedback, reflection and access to information from sport psychology sessions. The other scenario
focuses on the work conducted with the Romanian National Handball junior female team by the second
author. WhatsApp was used to enhance team cohesion and to facilitate intra-group communication.
Furthermore, an example from tennis illustrates a different perspective on WhatsApp and its impact on
the coach-athlete dyad. By taking into consideration the athletes', coaches' and consultant's perspective
we hope to provide an alternative view on client-consultant relationships in this age and day, specifically
in the sports industry. In offering this account of applied practice, we aim to emphasize the importance of
ethics in informing decision-making when applied sport psychology consultants choose their tools.
Finally, the paper highlights the advantages and disadvantages of using social media platforms when
supporting athletes.
Keywords: social media; applied sport psychology; netball; handball; tennis; ethical considerations.
I. LITERATURE REVIEW
Online technologies and mobile devices have shaped the way we interact, affecting not only our
private lives, but our profession as well. The growing range of communication media, software and
sport specific ‘apps’ available to sport science practitioners has presented us with opportunities of
reaching larger audiences, deliver sport science support in a variety of places and formats, as well as
allowing us to monitor progress and follow up with clients more easily. Social media platforms such
as Facebook and Twitter, for example, have altered the dynamics of sport communication [1] and
exercise intervention delivery [2]. In the realm of communication media, Skype has been mentioned as
a viable tool to overcome geographical boundaries in both group and one-to-one sessions delivery [3;
4].
A growing body of research focuses on athletes’ self-presentation on the Internet and its
possible impact on their relationship with important stakeholders from the sports industry, exploring
communication patterns on Twitter in high school, collegiate and professional athletes [1; 5; 6].
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Nonetheless, Forrest and Bruner (2017) successfully employed Facebook to facilitate an
indirect teambuilding intervention to promote exercise adherence among first-year university students.
Their findings supported the benefits of an online teambuilding intervention impacting group
cohesion, increased group task satisfaction and improved physical fitness. Among the advantages of
the online intervention, both participants and group leaders who delivered the exercise protocol in
person and teambuilding sessions via Facebook mentioned improved communication, accessibility to
the program, and a sense of cohesion. Similarly, in an anecdotal account, Heaney (2013) mentioned
the benefits of online support as it allowed athletes located in different parts of the world to have
access to group sessions, supported contact between consultant and service users that otherwise would
not have been possible, and the overall costs were low.
However, online technology has its downsides which pose both ethical and practical
challenges for sport psychology consultants. Blurred boundaries between personal and professional
relationships, confidentiality, privacy, young demographic groups, informed consent, service
termination are just to name a few [4; 7]. More and more researchers are drawing attention to the gap
in understanding about ethical issues associated with the use of social media, apps and wearable
devices [7; 8]. While social media empowers people to network more easily, develop businesses and
champion humanitarian causes, it also empowers trollers, stalkers and predators to access victims
online [7]. It has been argued that social media and online technologies commodifies relationships,
services and communication making it easier for individuals to lose their humanity and become items
of consumption, thus altering the relationship between individuals and their environment. What is
more, the boundaries between physical and virtual reality are blurred by constant movement between
physical space and online space, online interactions and offline interactions, creating a sense of
connection and disconnection concurrently [7]. Naturally, debates regarding social media policies and
professional guidelines for online communications have emerged, the fields of health [10] and social
work [7; 8] being more proactive in doing so. Ethical dilemmas and procedures are largely discussed
considering four internationally recognized ethical principles: informed consent, anonymity,
protection from risk and harm and legality [8]. Nevertheless, these debates are always revolving
around research and not necessarily applied work.
As far as sport psychology is concerned, Cotterill & Symes (2014) have sparked the
discussion on the integration of social media and new technologies into practice, highlighting the lack
of specific practitioner guidelines when it comes to sport psychology. This is a conversation we would
like to continue by sharing some examples of applied practice. We aim to present three case studies
from team (netball and handball) and individual sports (tennis) and discuss the practical implications
of using social media when working with clients.
II. NETBALL SCENARIO
This case study depicts part of the work and subsequent reflections on such work that was
conducted during pre-season with a university netball club within the British Universities & Colleges
Sport League (BUCS). Sport psychology support was provided by the first author during her
traineeship as a Sport and Exercise Scientist (Sport Psychology Support). Prior to the season
discussed, the first and second teams of the club had experienced a very successful previous season
culminating with promotions for both teams. What is more, the club had been experiencing continuous
organizational restructuring for the past three years, each year adding a new layer of staff to the
support team.
I had had the chance to be involved with this squad for two seasons including the time frame
reflected on here, so was aware of the organizational changes. On a smaller scale, the team dynamics
fostered an ego-centered climate, which also demanded a lot of management from the part of the
coach, communication being an obvious weakness among the athletes. As a result, my work for the
first season with the team focused on improving communication and self-awareness both among the
athletes and between coach and athletes mainly via training and match debriefs and my own
behavioral example of interacting with them. Despite the incongruencies regarding vision, roles and
communication at organizational level, I managed to develop a highly functional relationship with the
head coach based on trust and collaboration, which fueled our work together. The purpose of this case
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study is to present how social media (Facebook) was used to aid my work with the team and reflect on
the main issues dealt over the pre-season period.
The pre-season represented the first stage of developing the most effective team within the
available means and constituted of creating the concepts that defined the said team. These concepts
were related to the trademarks and benchmarks of the future team, thus creating shared knowledge
between players, impacting on team coordination and eventually on performance. Along with face to
face teambuilding sessions, training observation, performance profiling and reflection sessions with
the coach, a Facebook closed group for first team athletes and staff was employed to aid open
communication and the generation of shared knowledge. The sport psychology consultant played an
active role during this phase by supporting both the coach and athletes in defining the team
benchmarks (i.e. needs analysis, communication exercises) and, secondly, facilitating the
communication between the two parties (i.e. session summary and feedback to coach, performance
feedback to athletes either via direct match debrief or Facebook posts).
During the introductory pre-season meeting with the athletes it was agreed that Facebook will
be used for the following purposes: (a) communicate key information (times, venues, preparation,
equipment needed etc.) regarding training, strength and conditioning and sport psychology sessions,
(b) team match/training feedback from myself and the coach, (c) players’ match reports, (d) clarifying
and reflective questions from the sport psychology consultant to aid shared knowledge, both regarding
team values and position switching, (e) to announce the selected team for BUCS matches, (f)
templates of some of the materials used in sport psychology sessions. Both myself and the head coach
used professional Facebook profiles to limit athletes’ access to personal information. The Facebook
group was used for the entire season, but the sport psychology consultant was active only during the
pre-season and first two matches of the season. The head coach, assistant coach, team manager,
strength and conditioning coordinator and coaches were also members of the group.
On the one hand, the Facebook group fostered faster replies from athletes compared to email,
the coach and assistant coach used posted comments to inform their tactical training planning and
decision-making, athletes had access to reflection templates/team profile to use in their own time.
Furthermore, I was better updated regarding official match schedule and friendly matches.
Occasionally, the face to face interactions between the coach and myself were maximized because we
already had access to what the other had discussed with the athletes. Finally, the online group offered
the opportunity for players to message me privately and access individual support.
On the other hand, there were times when important face to face communication could be
avoided (e.g. when the coach communicated the factors impacting on selection and the number of
compulsory strength and conditioning sessions to be attended depending on burnout symptoms).
Besides, not all athletes followed the group because of the large amount of news feeds. In terms of
content, posts needed to be team specific and quite neutral in tone, only factual information could be
shared due to confidentiality and how the other members of the staff would use that information
impacting selection and athlete playing time. What is more, through the Facebook group I had access
to athletes’ personal information that made it harder for me to keep a non-judgmental attitude at all
times.
Finally, reviews had been mixed from all sides: athletes, coach, myself. Even though social
media could be useful in supporting communication within a team environment, it also emphasizes
that one size does not fit all. But, more than just effectiveness, the privacy issues associated with using
such a platform are more concerning. Recently, during a peer review meeting a real-life scenario of
mishandling information from reflective practice by third parties was discussed. In that particular
situation, management staff have manipulated players’ reflections (without the consent of the athletes
or the sport psychology support team), which were accessible online, in order to rid the organization of
a certain athlete. Fortunately, the sport psychology team and athletes were informed timely and
managed to save the situation without destroying the confidence bridges in the organization.
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III. HANDBALL SCENARIO
In January 2016 I (the second author) was asked to support the Women’s U20 Romanian
Handball team in their preparation for the World Championship. The team had experienced great
success in the past, winning the 2014 Women’s U18 World Championship. Unfortunately, the same
level of performance could not be replicated the following year, the team finishing the 2015 European
Championship on the 10th place. Along with the overall drop in performance, the frequent change of
coaches only accentuated the uncertainty, lack of motivation and self-belief among the players. Given
the context, the new staff which I was part of was not wholeheartedly received by the team. Initially,
both the players and the other members of the staff had been skeptical about sport psychology and the
benefits I could bring to the table. Consequently, I focused on building rapport, improving the overall
sense of cohesion and trust within the team. Group sessions were delivered on a weekly basis at this
stage. Just before the trip to Russia to the World Championship I had planned and delivered a
teambuilding session focused on the team’s journey leading up to that moment. While each player
analyzed their role in the team’s success and failure, the athletes realized that their resilience is
stronger than the issues they had faced and their confidence started to build up. During this time, I
managed to obtain buy in from the team captain and establish a highly functional working relationship
with her.
Knowing that I would not accompany the players to the World Championship, I decided in
conjunction with the captain that we would keep in touch via WhatsApp. This particular
communication platform was chosen because it was already used by the Romanian Handball
Federation to communicate official training times and venues and all the players and staff were
familiar with it. Apart from the ‘official’ WhatsApp group which included all members of the staff and
players, the athletes had a group of their own. As a token of their trust they asked me to join their
private group. However, due to privacy issues and the possibility of blurring the lines between
professional and personal relationships I declined the invitation and explained my motives.
During the World Championship I had followed closely both the preliminary round and the
main round but did not contact the players unless they requested it. Unfortunately, the team lost the
match that qualified them for the final. Not surprisingly, losing the opportunity to fight for the 1st place
negatively affected the team’s morale. I decided that it was the right moment to intervene. Therefore, I
contacted the captain and sent pictures of the players’ journey to becoming a team which were created
during the face to face teambuilding sessions along with a motivational message for what was going to
be their last match as a U20 team. Eventually, the team finished the competition with a bronze medal.
Following these events, I received a lot of positive feedback from the athletes and head coach.
What is more, my ‘WhatsApp intervention’ was deemed a crucial moment for the team’s evolution.
My actions could have multiple implications. Firstly, I managed to intervene timely to impact the
team’s performance by overcoming the geographical boundaries. At the same time, if athletes have
access to support so easily how will it affect the development of their problem-solving skills and
autonomy on the long term? Boundaries are sometimes difficult to manage offline, but what impact
could 24/7 potential access to the sport psychology consultant have? Reflecting on my online
behavior, I was surprised when the athletes confessed that my refusal to join their private discussion
group led them to exclude the strength and conditioning coach from that group on the realization that
his comments were crossing the professional boundaries. In this case I was unknowingly a whistle
blower and the inappropriate behavior of the staff member was dealt with timely and without further
negative consequences. However, this incident highlighted the lack of policies regarding online
technology and professional behavior at organizational level.
IV. TENNIS SCENARIO
The final scenario illustrates the use of social media to support a professional tennis player
(450 WTA-Women’s Tennis Association) who is also a third-year university student. During a
working trip to the National Tennis Training Center I (the third author) was approached by a fellow
strength and conditioning coach for a potential collaboration with one of his athletes. The support he
was looking for was mental training. Considering my sports science and coaching background and my
emerging interest in sport psychology I accepted the challenge. I have been working with this athlete
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for three years and managed to establish a very good working relationship with her. Initially, most of
my work focused on improving the communication between coach-athlete-strength and conditioning
coach. The overall training process was jeopardized by the coach’s ego-centered approach and lack of
consideration for the athlete’s life as a student. Eventually, the athlete decided to bring new staff into
her team and collaborate with a different strength and conditioning coach, as well as head coach.
Along with the new staff came more self-awareness regarding the training process and a more nuanced
view on performance which were actively developed through debrief sessions between mental training
coach, athlete and head coach.
Soon enough the athlete requested mental training support during competition. I do not do
mental training as a full-time job, so travelling with her on tour was not a possibility. We decided that
we would continue our sessions via WhatsApp. Using this platform was the athlete’s choice as she
was already using it to schedule her training sessions. Even tough in face to face sessions the coach
sometimes participates, during the online debrief sessions I only communicate with the athlete and
later feedback to the coach if the athlete approves. We communicate via texts and the discussions are
always focused on performance. Besides, I correlate the debrief protocol with the match statistics that
I can access online. Furthermore, by using WhatsApp I can check if the athlete has seen the message
as opposed to email and it also feels a little more personable. During competitive season most of our
interactions are online.
Interestingly, I noticed that many of the online debriefs are more performance centered than
the face to face ones and the athlete is better able to make an action plan and implement it from match
to match. This could happen because the emotional issues are better discussed face to face as one
person has better access to the other person’s reaction in real time, which online messaging impairs
[7]. Naturally, when the emotional input is taken away it is easier to focus solely on performance.
Alternatively, it could be related to the absence of the coach from the online space. Besides, by having
access to athletes’ ‘online activity’ status I have a more realistic view on recovery and sleeping times.
This is helpful in asking more targeted questions. However, is this a breach of privacy if we have not
formally discussed that recovery and sleeping patterns would be monitored for performance
enhancement? Again, online technology offers the opportunity for low cost mental training support but
poses questions of relationship management both online and offline.
V. CONCLUSIONS
Social media platforms proved to be effective means of aiding sport psychology interventions
complementing the traditional face to face support. All three practitioners acknowledged that their
online communication was based on already functional working relationships with their clients
developed through in person interactions. Social media was used to enhance access to information and
group cohesion (netball scenario), overcome geographical boundaries and high service costs (handball
and tennis scenarios). In spite of that, questions of relationship management, professional boundaries
and content management emerged. To our knowledge, only The Association for Applied Sport
Psychology’s (AASP) has formally addressed the integration of technology in professional services in
sport, health and exercise psychology. Nonetheless, the complexity of real-life ethical decision-making
that practitioners face requires more nuanced professional guidelines.
Using a case-study approach that favors in-depth exploration of real-life situations [12] and
critical reflection [13] we discussed some of the ethical complexities posed by employing social media
when delivering sport psychology services. Recurrent themes were professional boundaries,
relationship and content management. In line with research from the areas of social work, sport and
education [7; 8; 11] the relationship between practitioner and client is impacted by online
communication. The switch from physical space to virtual space and lack of control over content
shared once the latter is online poses difficulties for both the consultant and service user in
maintaining clear boundaries [7]. What is more, this may lead to confusion regarding professional
responsibility. If the formal professional relationship has ended, does “Facebook friend” and former
sport psychology consultant have any further responsibility for potentially vulnerable athletes? Are the
athletes and coaches entitled to prolonged support? How does one deal with confidentiality once
content is posted and consultants have no control over how that information will be used and by
whom?
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On reflection, better consideration should be given to: (1) platform choice, (2)
information/content shared, (3) who has access to what information, (4) for what purposes said
information is used. From an applied perspective some practical alternatives could be: limited access
to group only to people that are directly involved, deciding in conjunction with athletes, coach and
other staff members what platform will be used, for what purposes, what type of information can be
shared and how it will be used, checking the privacy policy of social media apps and platforms to
inform decision on posted content and use choice as well as employing face to face meetings,
especially as far as the staff is concerned.
Echoing researchers from other disciplines such as health and social work [7; 8; 9; 11], the
human relationship between consultant and service user is being reshaped by online communication
and careful consideration should be given to the boundary between virtual and physical space. This
sharing of applied practice mentions but a few of the realities faced by sport psychology consultants
when using technology in their work. Furthermore, governing bodies and professional associations are
encouraged to engage in the discussion and development of social media policies.
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