LEVEL OF CONTROL ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SKILLS BY YOUNG PLAYERS OF RACKET SPORTS: TABLE TENNIS AND BADMINGTON

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to establish the psychological skills of a group of table tennis and badmington players belonging to young categories and to compare the level of control on these skills considering players’ level of athletic experience (years playing and years competing) and their gender. METHODOLOGY: Twelve table tennis players (4 females; age: M= 11.09, sd= 1.38) y 4 badmington players (1 female; age: M= 16.25, sd= 0.5) participated in the study. All of them were federated athletes and were regularly participating in national as well as international competitions. The Cuestionario de Habilidades Psicológicas y Conductas en el Deporte de Competición–Escala infantil-juvenil (CHPCDC; Godoy-Izquierdo, Vélez, Ramírez y Andréu, 2006a,b) was administered in order to assess 21 variables and psychological skills in athletics. RESULTS: Young players showed a deficient level of control on some relevant skills (activation and anxiety control, use of self-talk, attribution of success and failures, coping with success and failures, use of visualization, attention control, reflexivity-impulsivity, and self-confidence), and a higher level of control on other variables and skills (sport motivation, daily motivation, competitive motivation, relationships with pairs, coach or parents, and fairplay). Players with more years of athletic and competitive experience showed lower scores for several psychological skills and a lower total score. Nevertheless, no significant differences were found between more experienced players and novel players. No significant differences due to gender were found either.

CONCLUSIONS: Results point out the suitability of a psychological training as a part of the complete formation of athletes, with the goal of providing them appropriate psychological skills which allow them to face the crescent sport demands as their implication grows.