Hiroshi Sekiya’s research while affiliated with Hiroshima University and other places

The purpose of our study was (1) to clarify the elements and mechanisms of loss of spirit (LOS), and the ways to prevent LOS during competition, and (2) to identify the factors that prevent LOS. We interviewed 18 athletes and analyzed their interview transcripts by creating tags and categories. We divided the text of each transcript into text segments (tags) containing information about LOS or ways to prevent LOS. We then gathered tags with similar meanings and labeled the cluster of tags (categories) to briefly indicate the topic (Côté et al., 1993). Results revealed that the phenomenon of LOS had the following three phases: (1) cause of LOS (e.g., game situations, negative emotions), (2) condition of LOS (e.g., poor concentration, losing the will to fight, negative game situations), and (3) response after the game (e.g., undesirable result). The phenomenon of preventing LOS had the following five phases: (1) cause of nearly experiencing LOS (e.g., game situations, negative emotions), (2) condition of nearly experiencing LOS (e.g., decrease of concentration, losing the will to fight), (3) opportunity to prevent LOS (e.g., positive words and actions of others, heightening the fight), (4) condition after preventing LOS (e.g., improvement of performance, emergence of positive emotions), and (5) response after the game (e.g., evaluation of the game). Furthermore, a comparison of these phenomena revealed that LOS may be prevented by high levels of motivation before the game, positive words and actions of others, keeping the fight, reframing one’s thoughts, improving the game situations, and preserving stamina.

In team sports, hesitation occurs when teammates make way for each other, and collision occurs when they crash into each other. The current study investigated reasons of these failures by focusing on the effect of the location of a target and the participants’ intentions on the failures. Ten and 6 pairs performed a choice-reaction task in cooperation in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. Participants were told that they had to push a flashing button as quickly and accurately as possible and that either member could push. In Experiment 1, the distance between participants and the target (equal/unequal) and the location of the target (on the diagonal line between participants/on the off-diagonal line) were independent variables, and the number of failures were dependent variables. After completing the task, they participated in a semi-structured interview. In Experiment 2, the distance between participants and the target (equal/unequal) and the target row (center row/other rows) were independent variables. Quantitative analyses revealed that hesitations were triggered by the target in the center row. Qualitative analyses revealed that the failures have a connection with various reasons such as the target’s location and participants’ personality; moreover, the failures are divided into hesitation and collision according to the participants’ attitudes to the failures and their visual perception of their partner and the target.

Although many studies on choking under pressure used closed skills, such as golf putting, we examined the influence of pressure on movement during a dynamic skill by studying participants' kinematic and kinetic changes during a table tennis forehand task under pressure. Thirty novice table tennis players hit forehand shots toward a target for 135 practice trials and then performed 10 no-pressure and 10 pressure trials. We added psychological pressure by instructing participants they could earn monetary rewards for successful performance and by cancelling accumulated scores for a poor performance. We measured racket head and ball movements as kinematic variables and grip force as a kinetic variable. We also measured state anxiety and heart rate as checks on our manipulation of psychological pressure. In the pressure condition, both state anxiety and heart rate increased significantly ( p < .025), though the pressure level was relatively small. Analysis of kinematic measures revealed that back swing and forward swing were reduced in length; speed of forward swing and ball speed decreased significantly ( p < .008) under pressure. Also, under pressure, ball and racket contact point shifted forward significantly ( p < .008) to reduce the distance between impact and target locations, and performance declined as the ball-landing locations shifted leftward ( p < .007). Grip force showed no significant change. We conclude that, under pressure, movement was modified toward reduced displacement and lower speed in an apparent risk-aversive hitting strategy; these modifications resulted in a performance decrement.

Japanese athletes often use the phrase “Kimochi ga kireta” (“I lost my spirit” in English) when they describe negative feelings during competitions. Although many athletes use this phrase and face this psychological problem, what it means and how it happens have not been studied. The purpose of this study was to clarify the mechanism underlying the “loss of spirit” phenomenon during competitions and the usage of this term, through a qualitative analysis. After semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 athletes (M=8, F=6; mean age=20.43±1.40 years; mean duration of competitive career=11.64±4.62 years), 16 cases of “loss of spirit” were qualitatively analyzed with the KJ method (Kawakita, 1967) and classified into four types depending on causes of this phenomenon. It was revealed that “loss of spirit” is caused by (a) low motivation before the game, (b) opponent’s attitude or gap in ability, (c) bad tide of the game, and (d) unexpected events. The results also showed that the mental state of “loss of spirit” includes low motivation, decreased concentration, and feeling physical fatigue and pain. Moreover, it is indicated that this phenomenon leads to dissatisfying results in competitions. Therefore, this phrase is often used by athletes because it is a short expression of a mental state with multiple causes.

[Purpose] Japanese athletes often use the phrase “I lost my spirit” when negatively evaluating their feelings and performance during competitions. This research aims to classify the patterns of “loss of spirit” (LOS) during competitions. [Method] The study sample included 332 participants (111 female and 221 male; mean age = 19.94 ±1.24 years; mean competitive career = 9.47 ±4.33 years) who had experienced LOS in competitions. A questionnaire comprising 36 items based on previous research on LOS asked participants how they felt and what they thought during periods of LOS. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted in order to identify the factors inherent in patterns of LOS. Eighteen items were used, with items of factor loading less than .50 being removed. Cluster analysis was performed on each factor score and participants were divided into groups with similar patterns of LOS. Then, factor scores between the groups were compared using Welch’s t-test in order to classify the characteristics of groups. [Results] Two factors were identified: “loss of confidence and anxiety,” contained in 11 items (e.g., I had lost confidence, I became depressed, I felt anxiety), and “decreased will to fight and win,” contained in 7 items (e.g., I lost the fight, I lost the will to win, I lost the will to be tenacious). Furthermore it was found that the participants were divided into three groups and that factor scores differed significantly (p<.001). A post hoc test revealed that first factor scores were high in the order of 1 (M=0.83, SD=0.37), 3 (M=0.06, SD=0.78), and 2 (M= -0.61, SD=0.82), and second factor scores were high in the order of 2 (M=0.60, SD=0.57), 1 (M=0.22, SD=0.44), and 3(M= -1.29, SD=0.56) (all p<.001). [Conclusion] The mental state of LOS comprises the following patterns: (1) decreased will to fight and win together with heightened negative emotions (e.g., loss of confidence, anxiety), (2) decreased will to fight and win without heightened negative emotions, (3) no decrease in the will to fight and win. Future research can investigate why and how such patterns arise so as to find ways to inhibit LOS.

Solvation plays an essential role to control mechanism and dynamics of chemical reactions in solution. The present study reveals that changes in the local solute-solvent interaction have a great impact on the timescale of solvent rearrangement dynamics. Time-resolved IR spectroscopy has been applied to a hydration rearrangement reaction in the monohydrated 5-hydroxyindole–water cluster induced by photoionization of the solute molecule. The water molecule changes the stable hydration site from the indolic NH site to the substituent OH site, both of which provide a strongly attractive potential for hydration. The rearrangement time constant amounts to 8 ± 2 ns, and is further slowed down by a factor of more than five at lower excess energy. These rearrangement times are slower by about three orders of magnitude than those reported for related systems where the water molecule is repelled from a repulsive part of the interaction potential toward an attractive well. The excess energy dependence of the time constant is well reproduced by RRKM theory. Differences in the reaction mechanism are discussed on the basis of energy relaxation dynamics.

Isomerization between two hydrogen-bonded (H-bonded) isomers of 5-hydroxyindole-(tert-butyl alcohol)1 cluster cations ([5HI-(t-BuOH)1]⁺) was investigated in the gas phase. In the S0 state, jet-cooled 5HI-(t-BuOH)1 has two structural isomers, 5HI(OH)-(t-BuOH)1 and 5HI(NH)-(t-BuOH)1, in which the t-BuOH molecule is bound to the OH or the NH group of 5HI. The IR photodissociation spectrum of [5HI-(t-BuOH)1]⁺ generated by two-color resonant two-photon ionization (2C-R2PI) via the S1-S0 origin of 5HI(NH)-(t-BuOH)1 provided evidence of both [5HI(OH)-(t-BuOH)1]⁺ and [5HI(NH)-(t-BuOH)1]⁺ coexisting in the D0 state, indicating that [5HI(NH)-(t-BuOH)1]⁺ isomerizes to [5HI(OH)-(t-BuOH)1]⁺ after 2C-R2PI of 5HI(NH)-(t-BuOH)1. The lower limit of the energy threshold for the isomerization of [5HI(NH)-(t-BuOH)1]⁺ to [5HI(OH)-(t-BuOH)1]⁺ was experimentally determined to be 3362 ± 30 cm⁻¹, and the corresponding energy threshold for the isomerization of [5HI(NH)-(H2O)1]⁺ to [5HI(OH)-(H2O)1]⁺ has been reported to be 2127 ± 30 cm⁻¹. Thus, the energy threshold for the isomerization is elevated by at least 1200 cm⁻¹ when the solvent molecule changes from H2O to t-BuOH. The elevation of the energy threshold is explained by the difference in the stabilization energies of [5HI-(t-BuOH)1]⁺ and [5HI-(H2O)1]⁺ in the initial and transition states owing to the larger proton affinity of t-BuOH than H2O1.

Japanese athletes often use the phrase “I lost my spirit” when negatively evaluating their feeling and performance during competition. Avoiding loss of spirit (LOS) can help improve psychological condition and performance. Our purpose was (a) to clarify the elements and mechanisms of LOS and ways to inhibit LOS during competition, and (b) to identify the preventive factors for LOS. We interviewed 18 athletes (F=7, M=11; mean age=21 years) and analyzed the interview transcripts by the following steps: (1) creating tags: we divided the text of each transcript into text segments containing information about LOS or ways to inhibit LOS, and (2) creating categories: we gathered tags with similar meanings and labeled the cluster of tags to briefly indicate the topic (Côté et al., 1993). Results revealed that the phenomenon of LOS had the following three phases: (1) cause of LOS (e.g., tide of the game, negative emotion), (2) condition of LOS (e.g., poor concentration, losing the will to fight, bad game situations), and (3) response after the game (e.g., undesirable result). The phenomenon of inhibiting LOS had the following five phases: (1) cause of nearly experiencing LOS (e.g., tide of the game, negative emotion), (2) condition nearly of experiencing LOS (e.g., decrease of concentration, losing the will to fight), (3) opportunity to escape from LOS (e.g., positive words and actions of others, heightened the fight), (4) condition after escaping from LOS (e.g., improvement of performance, arising of positive emotion), and (5) response after the game (e.g., evaluation of the game). Furthermore, a comparison of these phenomena revealed that high motivation before the game, positive words and actions of others, heightened fight, reframing one’s thought, improving the game situations, preservation of stamina, and keeping the fight in a situation in which LOS is nearly experienced may inhibit LOS.