Effect of mental skills training programme on attentional direction of amateur athletes in Ibadan, Oyo State
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Date
2018
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Department of Kinesiology, Health Education and Recreation, Faculty of Education, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria
Abstract
Sports competitions are usually loaded with stresses which are the processes involving substantial incongruencies between demands and response capacities. Many of the non-elite athletes have entered into competitions without adequate psychological preparations which have negatively impacted on their performance in crucial competitions. Athletes therefor need psychological conditioning (mental skills training) to be able to attend to the psychological demands of competition. This study therefore examined the effects of mental skills training on attentional direction of non-elite athletes in Ibadan, Oyo State. Pre-test post-test experimental design and systematic random sampling technique was adopted. Sample comprised 63 non-elite athletes while structured questionnaire adapted from Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS) developed by Thomas, Murphy and Hardy (1999) was instrument used for data collection. Parametric statistic of Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level level. This study concluded that coaches and sports psychology experts should consider the task outcome of performance on athletes while administering psychological interventions on athletes in order to direct attentional focus and increase arousal during performance. It was recommended that athletes and coaches should be enlightened that mental skills are acquirable, hence mental skills training should be taught to athletes the same way physical skills in various sports are taught to enhance athletes’ performance.
Keywords: Mental skills training, attentional direction, amateur athletes
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Keywords
Mental skills, attentional direction, amateur athletes