ABSTRACT
Sport can be a very emotional experience. Winning can result in feelings of happiness and joy, whilst defeat can often result in disappointment, anger, and frustration. The emotional state of each player in the team can impact upon the outcome of team performance by influencing his or her personal effectiveness in both training and competition. Team performance, then, is an accumulation of these individual emotional responses. Both emotional awareness and emotional management have important consequences for team performance as they help individuals maintain effective relationships with other team members (Jordan and Troth, 2004). Emotions have also been shown to determine affect-driven behaviours such as impulsive acts, organization behaviours, and transient effort (Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996). This chapter will first explore what emotions are and how they impact upon the individual. The following sections will then explore the emotional characteristics of the group and the influences that the team can exert on the individual and the influence the individual has on the team. Finally, this chapter will explore strategies to enhance emotional control in the individual player and also how to influence and control group emotional responses and environments.
