Effect of mental skills (basic, cognitive and psychosomatic) on improving athletic performance and reducing sports burnout in athletic students of
Farhangian University
Heidar Sajedi
Department of Physical Education and Sports science, Farhangian University, Sanandaj, IRAN.
Email: [email protected]
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of mental skills (basic, cognitive and psychosomatic) on improving athletic performance and reducing sports burnout in athletic students of Farhangian University.
The method of this research is descriptive and correlational. The statistical population includes all student-athletes of the Farhangian University, which is equal to 320 people. To determine the sample size, Cochran's sample size estimation formula was used and the number of samples was 175 people who were selected by stratified random sampling by gender. The OMSAT-3 Psychological Skills Questionnaire was used to measure the mental skills of athletes and also the Sports Performance and Sports Burnout Questionnaires were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Regression coefficient was used to analyze the hypotheses.
Results show that basic skills predict 0.40 and psychosomatic skills predict 0.24 of the changes in athletic performance of students. It also predicts basic skills of -0.46, cognitive skills of -0.32 and psychosomatic skills of -0.28 of the changes related to sports burnout in student-athletes.
Therefore, it can be concluded that mental skills and its components have a significant role in improving athletic performance and reducing sports burnout in athletic students. Therefore, it is recommended that university officials try to prevent and reduce sports burnout and improve athletic performance by teaching mental skills.
Keywords: Mental skills, athletic performance, sports burnout
Introduction
The athletic performance of players varies according to the type of goal they are evaluating in the sport.
Usually, the sports performance of the players is evaluated according to the goals, and the result of the game is determined by the win or loss of the players' performance. Researchers believe that in order to accurately assess the athletic performance of players, it is not enough to just evaluate the results and process goals should also be considered. Process goals place more emphasis on players' performance in performing performance components during play (HUGHES and BARTLETT, 2002). Previous research has confirmed the effect of mental skills on athletic performance. The results of Vanyperen (2010) and Johnson et al. (2004) show that the optimal performance of players has a significant relationship with their ability in mental skills. Dallaire (2006), Weintroub (2006) and Mike (2005) in a study concluded that with the help of education, mental skills can be developed.
Voaght (2010) and Thelwell et al. (2006) also found in a study that mental skills training reduces the level of anxiety and stress in athletes and increases their athletic performance. Isfahani and Ghezel Sofloo (2013) also concluded that among mental skills, sports illustration, concentration and level of mental energy, respectively, have the greatest impact on the athletic performance of karate workers.
On the other hand, mental skills can reduce sports burnout among athletes. Stress, anxiety and fear of re-injury and loss of team position are some of the factors that affect the process of rehabilitation of sports injuries. These factors have been reported in a number of other studies as a cause of athletes' burnout (Lemyre et al., 2007; Nipprty & Dmith, 2008; and Podlog & Eklund, 2007).
Optimal performance requires intense training, and sports competition itself is a factor in creating the negative effects of burnout that may lead to withdrawal from sports (Goodger et al., 2007). Sports burnout is the withdrawal and psychological, social and physical isolation from previous activities, as a result of severe stress that has been placed on the athlete over time (Gould et al., 1996). Sports burnout has a part called time in which the athlete experiences high pressure and dissatisfaction during a long period of time (Arazshi et al., 2018).
Gucciaardi et al. (2008) reported that mental stubbornness weakness is logically negatively associated with sports burnout among cricketers. However, there is limited information on the relationship between mental stubbornness and sports burnout. (Gerber et al. 2015).
Nixdorf et al. (2020) concluded that among psychological factors, dysfunctional attitudes, coping strategies, perfectionism and stress have a significant effect on sports burnout. Moen et al. (2017) in their study concluded that the studied psychological factors explain 0.57 of the variance of athlete burnout and the direct effect on athlete burnout is mainly due to positive variables, anxiety and negative impact.
Considering that most of the studies that have been done in the field of identifying psychological risk factors in the incidence of sports burnout and improving athletic performance have examined the relationship and by examining the extent of relationships, sports performance cannot be predicted, we are answering the question that what effect do mental skills (basic, cognitive and psychosomatic) have on improving athletic performance and reducing sports burnout of Farhangian University student- athletes?
Methodology
The method of this research is descriptive and correlational. The statistical population includes all athletic students of Farhangian University, which is equal to 320 people. To determine the sample size, Cochran's sample size estimation formula was used and the number of samples was 175 people who were selected by stratified random sampling by gender.
Carbanio (2001) sports performance questionnaire was used to measure athletic performance. This questionnaire has 5 questions that are designed in the form of a 5-point Likert scale. The validity of this
questionnaire was confirmed in the study of Biglari et al. (2017) and the reliability of the questionnaire in the study of Biglari et al. (2017) was equal to 0.76.
Athletes' psychological skills were assessed using the OMSAT-3 questionnaire (Ottawa-3 Psychological Skills Measurement Tool). The questionnaire consists of three subscales and several mental skills in each subscale: basic psychological skills (self-confidence, commitment and goal setting), psychosomatic skills (stress response, relaxation, fear control and activation) and cognitive skills (Focus, Focus Recovery, Mental Exercise, Visualization, and Contest Design). Scoring the answers given to this questionnaire is on a seven-point scale from strongly agree (7 points) to strongly disagree (zero points). The maximum scores that can be obtained under the subscales of basic skills, psychosomatic skills and cognitive skills are 84, 112 and 140, respectively. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were assessed by Shahbazi et al. (2011) on 333 athletes. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was 74 based on Cronbach's alpha test and its reliability was equal to 0.82 by retesting .
The Sports Burnout Questionnaire was designed and validated by Raedeke and Smith (2001). This questionnaire has 15 items, the items of which are scored on a five-point Likert scale. The questionnaire has three subscales of five items that include reduced sense of progress, emotional exhaustion and worthlessness. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for reduced sense of progress was 0.84, emotional exhaustion was 0.89 and worthlessness was 0.89.
Also, age, sex and sport were determined in the first questionnaire and descriptive statistics were used to determine the level of mental skills and prevalence using SPSS software. Due to the normality of the data in psychological tests, sports burnout and the incidence of sports injuries, regression coefficient was used.
Results
Table 1- Demographic characteristics of the studied samples Weight Height
Age var
01 / 69 16
/ 171 18
/ 23 mean
17 / 5 34
/ 4 41
/ 1 Standard
deviation
According to the results of the table above, the average age of student-athletes is 23.18, their average height is 171.16 and the average weight of student-athletes is 69.
Table 2 - Summary of regression model The effect of Psychological skills on athletic performance R
R Square Adjusted R Square
F Sig
76 / 0 57
/ 0 56
/ 0 23
/ 69 001
/ 0
According to the results of Table (2), the correlation coefficient between mental skills and sports performance is equal to 0.76 and the coefficient of determination is equal to 0.57. In other words, it can be said that 0.57 of the changes in athletic performance are determined by mental skills and 0.43 by other variables.
Table 3 - Multiple regression results on the effect of mental skills on athletic performance
Model
Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients
t Sig.
B Std. Error Beta
1
(Constant) 1/49 1/17 1/01 0/000
Basic skills 0/36 1/19 0/40 4/36 0/000
Cognitive
skills 0/09 1/07 0/11 2/07 0/071
Psychosomatic
skills 0/21 0/96 0/24 2/96 0/000
According to the results of Table (3) and considering the beta coefficient, it can be said that basic skills predict 0.40 and psychosomatic skills predict 0.24 of the changes in the performance of athletic students.
Table 4 - Summary of regression model The effect of Psychological skills on Sports burnout R
R Square Adjusted R Square
F Sig
82 / 0 68
/ 0 65
/ 0 12
/ 71 001
/ 0
According to the results of Table (4), the correlation coefficient between mental skills and sports burnout is 0.82 and the coefficient of determination is 0.68. In other words, it can be said that 0.68 changes in sports burnout are determined by mental skills and 0.32 are determined by other variables.
Table 5 - Multiple regression results on the effect of mental skills on Sports burnout
Model
Unstandardized Coefficients
Standardized Coefficients
t Sig.
B Std. Error Beta
1 (Constant) -1/56 1/24 -1/05 0/000
Basic skills -0/40 1/24 -0/46 -4/72 0/000 Cognitive skills -0/37 1/23 -0/32 4/25 0/000 Psychosomatic skills -0/33 0/29 -0/28 -3/44 0/000
According to the results of Table (5) and considering the beta coefficient, it can be said that basic skills predict -0.46, cognitive skills predict -0.32 and psychosomatic skills predict -0.28 of the the changes related to sports burnout in student-athletes .
Conclusion
The results showed that basic mental and physical skills affect the athletic performance of student- athletes. In other words, it can be said that basic psychological skills and psychosomatic skills in athletic students improve athletic performance.
The research results are consistent with the findings of Biglari et al. (2017). If their research shows that mental stubbornness as one of the psychological skills has a significant direct impact on athletic performance. The results are also consistent with the findings of Vanyperen (2010), Johnson et al.
(2004), Dallaire (2006), Weintroub (2006) and Mike (2005), Voaght (2010) and Thelwell et al. (2006).
All the mentioned researches have confirmed the effect of mental skills on athletic performance.
The results also show that basic skills, cognitive skills and psychosomatic skills have a significant negative effect on sports burnout in student athletes and with increasing basic skills, cognitive skills and psychosomatic skills, their rate of sports burnout decreases.
This finding is consistent with the results of research by Nixdorf et al. (2020), Moen et al. (2017), Arazshi et al. (2018) and Gucciaardi et al. (2015). Nixdorf et al. (2020) concluded that psychological factors have a significant effect on sports burnout. Moin et al. (2017) in their research concluded that the studied psychological factors explain 0.57 of the variance of athlete sports burnout. Arazshi et al.
(2018) in their research concluded that mental stubbornness with a correlation coefficient of -0.42 has a strong negative relationship with sports burnout in injured athletes.
Psychological skills refer to the innate or learned traits that make success possible or probable. These skills are the main and proven components of continuous performance at a highly competitive level.
Researchers now believe that structures such as resilience and mental stubbornness can predict changes in athletic success and mental health in athletes. People with basic skills, cognitive skills, and high psychosomatic skills are likely to have more resilience, and resilience is negatively correlated with reduced sports burnout.
Effective performance not only requires the necessary psychological skills in any sport, but according to the definition of Jones et al. (2002), one must be able to cope with pressures and difficulties, overcome obstacles and failures, focus on the goal, maintain and gain peace of mind after failure, have a stable performance at high levels of competitiveness and competitiveness. Therefore, it can be said that having a negative and significant relationship between the level of mental skills and sports burnout in the present study, means that the more basic skills, cognitive skills and psychosomatic skills in athletes, the less they suffer from sports burnout.
Overall, the results showed that psychological skills can predict sports burnout and athletic performance; Therefore, it seems that identifying successful athletes in sports performance by recognizing their psychological components can be possible. Coaches and researchers can also use this to design and implement depletion prevention programs for at-risk players.
Considering that in the present study, mental skills and its components have a significant role in sports burnout and athletic performance of athlete students, it can be recommended to university officials, coaches and sports specialists and sports psychologists that through training psychological skills and increasing the level Psychological skills in athletes of different levels, especially higher levels, should try to prevent and reduce sports burnout and improve athletic performance. Finally, in addition to reducing sports burnout, athletic performance also increases.
References
Arazshi, Negar; Alikhani Dehghi, Zahra and Mohammadi, Zahra (2018). The Relationship between Mental Stubbornness and Sports Burnout in Professionally Injured Athletes, Journal of Sports Psychology Studies, 7( 26), 133-150.
Isfahani, Noushin and Ghezel Sofloo, Hamid (2013). Comparison of psychological skills of hero and non-hero karatekas and its relationship with their performance in sports competitions, Journal of Psychological Studies, 9( 1), 109-120.
Shahbazi, Mehdi; Wazini, Taher Amir and Rhimizadeh, Meysam (2011). Relationship between the prevalence of sports injuries and mental skills of male and female students in the 10th Student Sports Olympiad, Journal of Sports Medicine (Movement), 6, 125-144.
Biglari, N., Parsa Asl, M., & Hosseini Nia, R. (2017). “Investigating the Casual Relationships of Motivational Climate with Competitive Anxiety and Perceived Sport Performance among Futsal Player Female Students”, Journal of Sport Psychology Studies, 21, 71-86.
Dallaire, J. (2006). Develop your mental skills by training to improve personal performance.
Performance prime.
Gerber, M., Feldmeth, A. K., Lang, C., Brand, S., Elliot, C., Holsboer-Trachsler, E., et al (2015). The relationship between mental toughness, stress, and burnout among adolescents: A longitudinal study with Swiss vocational students. Psychological Reports, 117, 703e723.
Goodger, K., Gorely, T., Lavallee, D., & Harwood, C. (2007). Burnout in sport: A systematic review.
The Sport Psychologist, 21, 127e151 .
Gould, D., Tuffey, S., Udry, E., & Loehr, J. (1996). Burnout in competitive junior tennis players:antitative analysis. Sport Psychologist, 10, 341-366.
Gucciaardi, D. F. Gordon, S., & Dimmock. J. A. (2008). Towards an understanding of mental toughness in Australian football. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 20, 261-281.
HUGHES MIKE D and BARTLETT ROGER M (2002) The use of performance indicators in performance analysis, Journal of Sports Sciences, vol 20. Pp 739-754.
Johnson, J. J. M., Hrycaiko, D. W., Johnson, G.V., &Halas, J. M. (2004). Self-talk and female youth soccer performance. The sport psychologist, 18(10), 44-59.
Lemyre, P. N., Hall, H. K., & Roberts, G. C. (2008). A social cognitive approach to burnout in elite athletes.
Mike, S. (2005). The role of Mindfulness in peak performance. The journal of sports sciences, 46(13), 67-79.
Moen, F. ; Myhre, K. ; Klöckner, C. A. ; Gausen, K. ; Sandbakk, (2017). Physical, affective and psychological determinants of athlete burnout. Author Affiliation : Department of Education, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491Trondheim, Norway .
Nipprty, S.H. & Dmith, A.M.(2008). "Psychologic stress related to injury and impact on sport performance". Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America, 19(2); PP:399-418.
Nixdorf, Insa, Beckmann, Jürgen, and Nixdorf, Raphael (2020). Psychological Predictors for Depression and Burnout Among German Junior Elite Athletes, Journal List Front Psycholv.11.
Podlog, L & Eklund, R.C. (2007)." The psychological aspects of a return tosport following serious injury: A review of the literature from a self-determinationperspective". Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 8, PP:535-566.
Raedeke, T. D., & Smith, A. L. (2001). Development and preliminary validation of an athlete burnout measure. . Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 23, 281–306.
Thelwell, R., Greenless, I. A., &Weston, J. V. (2006). Using psychological training to develop soccer performance. Journal of applied sport psychology, 18(6), 254- 270.
Vanyperen, N.W. (2010). why some make it and others do not: identifying psychological factors that predict career success in professional adult soccer. The journal of the sport psychologist, 23(5). 317- 329.
Voaght, M. (2010). Sources of stress and coping strategies of us soccer officials. The journal of the stress and health, 25(6), 91-101.
Weintroub, A. (2006). Finding your peak performance with mental skills training. The Journal of Sport Psychologist, 16(3), 35-48
