LIVED EXPERIENCES OF SOFTBALL ATHLETES IN HIGHER MEET:

A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY

(Daryll Ypanto, Sertiza Gabayeron, Nenita Guilaran, Laila Mae Tolitol, Zeryl Pancho)
 Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

In 2005, softball was excluded from the 2012 Olympic Games, along with

baseball. Following the removal, the International Softball Federation (ISF) began its

efforts to reinstate softball to the Olympic Program (Yu Zhou, 2015). Study shows that

advancing to the higher meet needs skills in pitching (softball or baseball). Andrew V.

Pytiak, et Al., (2017), stresses elbow injury rates and mechanisms will differ between

high school softball players. A soft ball game usually played between two teams of nine

players, on a large diamond-shaped pitch. A maximum of seven innings (or up to an

agreed time limit) are played during which the teams alternate between batting and

fielding. The aim is to score more runs whilst batting than the other team at the last

completed innings. The sport of softball consists of several disciplines depending on the

nature of the pitching action permitted (Nicholas Flyger, 2015). According to Kissinger

and Miller (2009), student athletes generally face six distinctive challenges; these are,

balancing athletic and academic responsibilities, balancing social activities with athletic

responsibilities, balancing athletic success and or failures with emotional stability,

balancing physical health.

Softball leagues as a form of recreation provides excellent opportunities for

young girls to compete in an organized sport and learn the fundamentals and basics of

the game while also learning valuable social skills, such as teamwork and

sportsmanship (Katie Powell, 2013). By teaching correct fundamentals and designing

the game of softball can become that much more enjoyable and rewarding for the

participant.

Concerning female athletes, (Petrie and Stoever, 1997) stresses that, the amount of

variance in grades explained by SAT score decreased as the women matriculated

through college and that other factors came into play the longer women remained in

school. Physiological profiling of athletes, particularly longitudinal investigations of

physiological characteristics, can provide valuable information to coaches and sports

scientists. (Nelly A. Dela Cruz et Al., 2008) stresses that, in the University Athletics

Association of the Philippines, the female softball players were influence between

internal factors (perceived ability and athletic identity) and external factors (coach's

coaching style, parents' support, and peers' support). Between the two, its external

factors (coach's coaching style and peers' support) influences the athlete's motivational

climate.

The number of women participating in softball at the collegiate level continues to

rise, yet little known about collegiate softball player (Grete R. Hornstrom et Al., 2011).

Most of the studies were conducted focuses on the lived experiences of the student-

athletes, which had emphases on skills, challenges and nutrition. In general, there have

been limited studies about the lived experiences of softball athletes in college level and

there have been a very limited research focused on lived experiences of softball

athletes particularly in Senior High School.

athletes and seek answer to their problems and provide solution and strategies to

improve the performance of the softball athletes in higher meets.

Statement of the Problem

This study will describe and interpret the lived experiences of softball athletes in

a DepEd school in Region XII to better understand their performances and skills in the

higher meets. Specifically it seeks to enumerate and explain the answer in the following

questions:

1. How does being a softball athlete motivate them to perform in a higher meet?

2. What are the challenges encountered by the students’ athletes during the

higher meet?

3. How are the challenges overcome by the softball athletes?

Scope and the Delimitation of the Study

The study will focus on the lived experiences of softball athletes in Polomolok

National High School, Polomolok, South Cotabato (Deped Region XII). In addition, the

researchers will conduct this study to describe and interpret the lived experiences of the

young athletes of softball and to have a better understanding about their performances

and skills in the higher meets.

It delimits that the study will not include the whole population of students-athletes

in Polomolok District and student-athletes not enrolled in Polomolok National High

School.
Theoretical Lens

The theoretical lens guiding the present study is a combination of identity

development (Arnett, 2000; Erikson, 1982; Marcia, 1966) and coping (Grove et al.,

1997; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Wiese-Bjornstal, 1998). These theories will influence

the interview protocol. The researchers will interview participants, which are the student

athletes who will share their lived experience in softball. According to Paul et al. (2005),

everyone interprets experiences differently. Therefore, data analysis will be guided by

phenomenological constructivism.

Phenomenological constructivism is a theoretical perspective that accounts for

multiple truths of events in the social world (Burrell & Morgan, 1989). Rather than

making assumptions of how athletes experience in coping with the challenges they have

encountered, the researchers will use a constructivist approach to evaluate the impact

of values, beliefs, and mental processes to understand how participants make sense of

the life event (Merriam, 2009; Patton, 2002; Paul et al., 2005). Due to the inherent link

between self and research in qualitative research, it is essential to confront ethics,

truths, and politics affecting a study (Soobrayan, 2003). While no single set of rules

exist to assess these measures, it is essential the researcher recognize statements are

not to be accepted as universal truths and can change given context and political

environments (Soobrayan, 2003).

Therefore, the researchers will regularly assessed the implications of this

research. Hermeneutic phenomenology (van Manen, 1990) is based on practical

understandings of a human experience (Packer, 1985), therefore lending itself to

hone their perspective, grounded the study in theory, constructed a coherent and

integrated framework, and connected with their target audience (Ponterotto & Grieger,

2007).

In this case, the researchers will base the study in constructivism, grounding it in

hermeneutic phenomenology, connecting identity development to the lived experiences

of student athlete in softball, and will plan to distribute the findings to counselor

educators, and athletic departments. This research can enhance the understanding of

how was the performance of the athletes in higher meets, the challenges they have

encountered, the way their training is conducted, and the motivation factor of the

student athletes to advocate for the possible improvement of the support and facilities in

the institution.

The McClelland‘s Achievement Motivation Theory will also serve as the basis of

this study. According to this theory, the more achievements that they may gain from the

sports activities, the higher they are motivated to continue their actions. The better the

effect in engaging in different sports activities, the higher the tendency that the

respondents would continue in doing those actions.

Being motivated, according to McClelland’s Theory arises from one of three

motives: achievement, power or affiliation. However, only one of these factors at a time

can affect an individual’s behavior. The tenets of this theory also extend that internal or

external drivers influence the manifestation of either achievement, power or affiliation

(Souders, 2020). Are you motivated by power, achievement or affiliation? For a moment
about how McClellan’s Achievement Motivation Theory would apply to the way, you

learn. The following chart collated by Jayabalan (2016) summarizes the key behaviors,

which individuals whose motives lie in the various categories, would exhibit.

Significance of the Study

The purpose of this study is to seek and examine insights in the Lived

Experiences of Softball Athletes in Polomolok National High School one of the High

Schools in the Division of South Cotabato. The findings of this study could provide

insights into the lived experiences of softball athletes in a certain school in the

Philippines and their academic performance.

The findings of this study will redound to the benefit of as follows:

The Student Athletes - the direct recipients of the output of this research are the

student athletes to help improve their performances and skills in the higher meets, to

address the challenges encountered by them, such as the way their training was

conducted, the support given by the school they represent, the motivating factors that

they needed, as well as, it may pave the way for the school availability of facility for

softball.

The Parents - the research benefits the parents of the student athletes for them to

properly guide, help in inculcating discipline and motivate their daughter to do better in

their chosen sport events, especially in softball. As parents who enrolled their children in
a particular institution, comes with self-assurance that their children are given enough

support by the school and hone their child’s talent, as well as, skills that would make

them a functional individual in the society.

The Teachers - this study will be very beneficial to the teachers, especially to the

physical education teachers or coaches try to understand our athletes and seek answer

to their problems and provide solution and strategies to improve the performance of the

softball athletes in higher meets.

The Curriculum Planner - for they will stress the use of the recommended technique

generated from the findings of this study in the school curriculum in order to improve

student athletes' performance in softball and other sports.

The Administrators - this study will be used as basis for implementing the raised

curriculum and on how to enhance the learning process for the 21 st generation of

student athletes.

The Society - the finding of this study will be beneficial to the society considering that

sports particularly softball plays a significant role in education today. For the people in

the society to better understanding of the athletes’ performances and skills in the higher

meets, especially the challenges encountered by the students’ athletes, the way their

training was conducted, is the support given by the school enough, the motivating

factors that they needed, as well as, if the school has facility available for softball.
The Researchers - the outcome of the study is beneficial to the either present

researchers or the future researchers. This study may be one of the bases that a new

theory in learning will arise. This study will help them uncover critical areas in the

educational process that many researchers were not able to explore. Thus, a new

theory on improving sports performance and learning may be arrived at.

Definition of Terms

Higher Meet. It is an organized sports event at which a number of trained softball

athletes from different delegations are expected to participate and compete.

Lived experiences. These refers to the representation of the experiences and

choices of the student-athletes in Polomolok National High School, and the knowledge

that they gain from these experiences and choices which offers additional life lessons in

their teamwork, leadership, discipline and perseverance.

Softball. It is a game resembling baseball that is played on a smaller diamond,

with a larger, different colored ball, and is pitched underhand. It is popular as an

amateur sport.

Student-athlete. The present study examines student-athletes as the population.

For the purpose of this study, student-athletes are full-time students who are official

members of a varsity athletic team at Polomolok National High School.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Athlete’s Motivation in Sports Participation

Motivations are factors that stimulate the behavior of a person, lead them in a

certain direction and bring about coordination because of them. Individuals are not only

different in terms of the ability to do a certain job, but in terms of the will to do that job or

the motivation that drives them. It is important to understand the motivation behind the

behavior in sport participation motivation, what the catalyst is and what modifies the

behavior. In the relevant literature, this topic refers to the participation motivation (Deci

& Ryan, 1985). Individuals are motivated to sport because of internal factors (such as

enjoyment or skill development and mastery) and external factors (such as rewards,

improved health, looking good). Some studies have shown that the most important

reasons for sport participation motivation are developing skills, recreation, learning new

skills, fighting and physical fitness. Sports psychologists are interested in understanding

the initial reasons why people get involved in sports and their commitment to

participation (Deci & Ryan, 1985). The study by Frederick & Ryan (1993) in this regard
showed that, the motivation of participants in sporting competitions is different from that

of participants in routine sport and recreational activities. Vazou, Ntoumanis, & Duda

(2007) also state that the enjoyment motivation is a positive and important predictive

factor for continuity of the participation and emphasized by coaches and participants.

The role of sport and physical activity is very important as a strategy that has the

potential to contribute to health, social and economic goals. In fact, during the last

decades, the opportunity for individuals to participate in sport activities has increased,

which is why researchers seek to determine the importance of sport participation

motivation (Cunningham & Kwon, 2003). The motivation to participate in a sport is one

of the topics of interest to researchers in the field of sport psychology. Researches has

been done on the reasons for individuals taking up a particular field of sport or the

reasons for not continuing the activity as well as the degree of variability of motivational

priorities with respect to the variables of the individual characteristics such as age,

gender, experience, and others (Jones, Mackay & Peters, 2006). What is important in

assessing the motivation for participation in sports is to understand the priorities and

processes of participation motivation in order to carry on and maintain physical activity

(Weiss & Petlichkoff, 1989).

Time Management

Time management has been described using many different terms including

spontaneity, balance, flexibility, and having control over time (Lakein, 1973).

Time management has also been characterized as a habit developed only through

determination and practice (Simpson, 1978), as prioritizing and respecting those

priorities (Soucie, 1986), and as setting priorities and scheduling tasks (Jordan et al.,
1989). Time management can also be considered as the process by which an

individual more effectively accomplishes tasks and goals (Schuler, 1979), a

process by which an individual obtains control over the timing and the content of

what he/she does (Oncken & Wass, 1985), and as what can be accomplished with

time (Mackenzie, 1972, 1975, 1990).

In order to utilize time effectively, individuals must first be able to predict

how much time is needed for the activity (Kelly, 2002). An individual will become

effective in using their time only when the individual clearly knows what they

want to do, what they need to do, and for which specific target date (Soucie,

1986).

Individuals need to become more disciplined in their use of time by

respecting their established priorities while minimizing distractions from others as well

as from situations that have the ability to displace priorities in terms of time and

energy (Soucie, 1986). According to Crutsinger (1994), time management

involves determining what one should do by setting goals, deciding which events are

the most important and realizing that other activities will have to be scheduled around

them (prioritizing), making decisions about how much time to allow for certain

tasks (time estimation), adjusting to the unexpected (problem solving),

reconsidering goals and priorities on a regular basis (evaluation), and observing

patterns and trends in behavior.

Athletes’ Sports participation and Parents level of support

A study by Wheeler (2011), on ‘family culture for sports participation highlighted

some interesting findings related to parental support. The study showed that parents’
support for their children’s sports participation was related to their child’s enjoyment and

the opportunity for keeping fit and healthy. Parents also believed participation in sports

would provide their children with the opportunity for making new friends, socializing and

encouraging their future sports participation. Another finding revealed that parents, who

were actively involved in sports and physical activities, are more inclined to support their

children’s sporting involvement. Wheeler also discussed the positive effects of sports

participation on parents and children’s relationships. The majority of the parents in the

study believed that through sports their relationship with their child became stronger.

At the same time, the study highlighted some of the negative aspects related to

parents’ involvement in their children’s sports participation. Financial issues related to

children’s sports participation was highlighted in another study conducted in Iran. The

study found a strong correlation between parents’ socio-economic status and children’s

sports participation. Financial issues were of concern to some parents whose resources

could not support their children’s participation in expensive sports. The higher the

parent’s income the more likely it was that the children were participating in sport

(Nezhad, Rahmati, & Nezhad 2012).

Family socio-economic status also appears to be a critical influence on

secondary students’ participation in sports. Findings by (Wright, MacDonald, & Groom

2003), show that sport and physical activity tend not to be important to low socio-

economic families where concern for adequate food and clothing take priority. At the

other end of the scale, children from high socio-economic families are often constrained

to sports that contribute to the ethos of their school and produce the right rather

attributes (Wright et al. 2003).

Student athletes may experience many emotions relating to their sport and associate

these feelings only with athletics. For example, (Settles, et al., 2002) found that student

athletes who identified themselves as an athlete more than a student reported lower

levels of self-esteem, higher levels of stress, and feelings of depression. This is cause

by the tendency of student athletes to place less emphasis on performing well

academically, and cause more conflicts between the two identities (Settles, et al. 2002).

Chickering’s involves developing autonomy, whereby an individual develops the ability

to handle crises, life events, and relationships without the help of others. Many students

will experience and develop this in several ways, from navigating through the

challenges of scheduling classes to deciding which academic major to pursue. (Kiener,

2006) researched the decision-making abilities of 230 college students, including

freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. He states "students who actively engage

in their decision making have the ability to be more aware of their needs and the steps

necessary to accomplish their goals”. Therefore, students who can make decisions on

their own will start to develop autonomy. Most general college students learn how to

make decisions by managing their time for taking classes, studying, socializing, and

even work. By being able to accomplish these tasks on their own, they can develop a

sense of autonomy (Watt & Moore III, 2001). Student athletes often have their schedule

set for 32 them by their coaches because of team obligations (Martens & Lee, 1998).

This may hinder the ability for student athletes to develop autonomy because they had

little opportunity to do so, nor have they had too (Watt & Moore III, 1998). Lally and Kerr
(2005) support the idea of student athletes experiencing trouble in developing both

identities. As part of their research, they conducted in-depth retrospective interviews

with four male and four female athletes from a large Canadian university who were

either in their fourth or fifth year of eligibility. Their study on student athletes researched

the career plans they had when entering college and looked into both their student and

athlete identities. Many of their subjects admitted to focusing primarily on their athletic

identity when they entered college and defined themselves as an athlete. These

students developed their athletic identity at the cost of their student identity. This

ultimately hampered their academic achievements due to a lack of focus in their classes

resulting in poor grades.

Chapter III

METHODOLOGY

This chapter will discuss the methods and procedures that will employ for this

study. It includes research design, sampling, research participants, instrument, ethical

concerns, methods of data collection and methods of data analysis and presentation of

actions to be conducted.

Research Design

This study will employ the phenomenology as a theory of inquiry. It is appropriate

for the study since the researchers will be studying the lived experiences of softball

athletes in one of the DepEd schools in the Division of South Cotabato in Region XII to

better understand their performances, participations and skills in the higher meets

through semi- structured interviews. This design is flexible and typically evolves
contextually in response to the lived realities in the field of research. Since it is

qualitative, this approach involves multiple stages of data collective with refinement of

information (Creswell, 2007).

This study will assess the level of participations that the softball athletes lived

experiences in their involvements in the higher meets based on their performance,

challenges being faced as students’ athletes, the types of training they engaged and the

factors that motivates them as students’ athletes . Using the lens of social

constructivists’ view where individuals seek understanding of the world in which they

live and work.

Research Local

This study will be conducted at Polomolok National High School one of the

High Schools in the Division of South Cotabato. The school is located at Barangay

Cannery, Polomolok South Cotabato.

MAP OF POLOMOLOK, SOUTH COTABATO

There will be ten (10) Senior High School softball athletes purposively selected to

be the participants of this study.

Inclusion Criteria

To be a participant of the study, she must be a Filipino citizen, (b) officially

enrolled in Polomolok National High School (b.1) a senior high school student, (b.2) age

is ranging from 16-18 years old, (c) has parental consent to be interviewed, (d) a

member of softball team/varsity in school (d) and is willing to participate in the study.

Research Instrument
 The researchers will utilize a semi-structured interviews designed to explore the

lived experiences of the athlete’s participation in softball during the higher meets.

Participants will be asking to attend an interview that will be scheduled for

approximately 25-30 minutes. Interviewing is a particularly effective technique for

collecting data about the lived experience of participants (Van den Berg, 2005).

Interviews were conducted with a semi-structured approach reflecting on the framework

presented in the literature.

Data Collection

The respondents of this study are the softball players of Polomolok National High

School in Polomolok, South Cotabato. A briefing will be given before the interview. The

content of the briefing consist of the objectives of the study. Data collection will be

conducted during their softball practice together with their sports coordinator. The

researchers will use cell phone recorder. Interview will be conducted based on the

questions listed in the Interview Guide. However, participants were allowed to share

their experiences in a way in which they were comfortable.

Data Analysis

The gathered data will be sorted, transcribed, and assessed in numerous steps.

The researchers will execute and apply the Thematic Analysis (TA) when analyzing the

responses. According to Kampira (2021), Thematic Analysis is a type of data analysis

that focuses on finding, describing, explaining, validating, and connecting themes. It is

based on the belief that all information has meaning, which can be determined by

identifying a key concept or a cluster of ideas that gives it a comprehensive

(2013): transcribing, reading and familiarization, coding, searching for themes,

evaluating themes, defining and labelling themes, and concluding the analysis.

During the transcription of data, the researchers should familiarize the data in

order to easily notice things of interest. Once the researcher is familiar with the data, the

researchers can move on to the coding. The researchers will (a) identify important

remarks, (b) recognize preliminary themes, (c) develop aggregated themes, and (d)

define significant themes. At the final stage, the researchers’ questions should be

answered with the developed sub-themes and themes.

TRUSTWORTHINESS OF THE STUDY

When we are going to conduct the research, we should always consider the

liability of the responses of our informants. We should also consider all the details of our

data. We will check all the transcriptions and the importance of the data related to each

other.

To show the trustworthiness and integrity of the study, the research lens that will

help the procedures in the study will govern the discussions about trustworthiness. We

will affirm that in this study, the veracity will be determined by the response of the

informants.
 Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.

Integrity is the interpretation of the data drawn from the participant’s original data

according to LINCOLN and GUBA (1985). To address the integrity, we use three

methods. First, we extend the integrity of the experiences as an intent of truthful

emphasize the fact, which were experiences in which our participants were included.

Second, in plotting the research procedure, we are going to conduct a focus group

discussion, which extracted ideas on the student athletes. Third, we will ask the

informants of the issues they encountered as student athletes. Our intention was to

create layers of data from each participant.

Transferability is the degree to which the findings of this investigation can apply

or transfer beyond the bounds of the project according to Lincoln and Guba (1985). To

direct transferability in this study, we have included in the appendix about several of the

data analysis used to give answers to the questions to gain access to the inquiry.

Dependability is the quality of being trustworthy and reliable.

Confirmability is the degree to which the findings of the research study could be

confirmed by other researchers. Confirmability is concerned with establishing that data

and interpretations of the findings are not figments of the inquirers imaginations, but

clearly derived from the data. To address the issues of dependability and confirmability

of the study, we accumulate on an audit trail of the participants responses wherein their

identity were treated with confidentiality.

In our study, conformability will be done through transcribing, member checking

and triangulation. All participants will be asked to review, interview, transcript, and add
anything that might have been left out. The description of phenomenon under scrutiny

previous research will be employed to frame findings. In this manner, this will increase

the trustworthiness, credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability of the

study.

ETHICAL CONSIDIRATION

Ethics usually include references to morals or the rules or standards governing

the conduct of a person or the member of a profession.

Ethical issues are: 1. Justification for the research, 2. Access to

participants/privacy, 3. Informed consent, and 4. Potential harm. With research,

involving human subject the risk and cost must be balanced against the potential

benefits. Repetitive research is may be unethical where the subjects are at risk. We

followed ethical standards in conducting the study as pointed by Boyatzis 1998; Mack et

al, 2005; these are Respect for person, Beneficence, consent, and confidentiality.

Respect for person, the researcher has an obligation not to utilize the participants.

Avoid self-sufficiency in order to maintain friendship and trust among the participants

and the researcher. In advance, we will ask permission from the sports coordinator of

the school by writing a letter of permission to conduct study before conducting the

research (Creswell 2012). This will be done to pay respect for the individuals concerned

in the study.

Consent is important way of showing respect to persons during research.

Written consent will be provided for them to get their approval.

participants were protected, so not every files of information were left unattended.

Confidentiality towards the results including the safety of the participants, some

of the participants were hesitant to be interviewed at first because they were afraid what

to say but because of our reassurance to them in regards to the confidentiality of their

responses, they later showed comfort in answering questions.

Justice is very important to acknowledge the contributions of all as they

generally part of the research. They were not able to spend any amount during the

interview. Sensible tokens were given to them as a sign of recognition to their efforts.

We are hoping through this study, they will be set free into whatever negative

experiences they had and maintain a good name into what positive contributions they

could offer in this study.