Collegiate Baseball players experience in perfectionism

Perfectionism has been defined as striving for flawlessness and setting excessively high standards for performance accompanied by tendencies for over-critical evaluations (Stoeber & Rambow 2007). It has been found that perfectionistic athletes are most susceptible to various sources of stress (Hewitt & Fleet 2002). There are two different types of perfectionism common in athletes, adaptive and maladaptive. Adaptive perfectionism is less harmful to athletes, in which they can accept being less than perfect with their goals (Enns, Cox, & Clara, 2002; Haase & Prapavessis, 2004). Maladaptive perfectionism, on the other hand, is more negative, and the athlete may be over-demanding of themselves in meeting their goals (Flett & Hewitt 2005). The purpose of this study was to learn about the different experiences of college baseball players dealing with perfectionism surrounding statistics and perceived expectations. Six upperclassmen, male collegiate baseball players participated in semi-structured interviews. These interviews revealed perceptions of perfectionism were dependent on specific roles (i.e clean-up hitter), role expectations (i.e getting on base), and statistics (i.e slugging percentage). The perceived amount of support from coaches also impacted the ways in which players viewed how perfectionism influenced their performance. This study demonstrates the impact of perfectionism on baseball players’ performance and mental well-being. It is important that sport psychology professionals, coaches, and other support staff are aware of how perfectionism can potentially influence sport performance in order to provide optimal care