Abstract
The mental toughness and self-efficacy of athletes are some of the most important factors that directly influence and predict an athlete’s performance. The aim of this research is to evaluate the impact of improving basketball players’ mental toughness and self-efficacy on increasing performance indicators. Material and methods: research participants – U-16 basketball players (n=15), the Psychological Performance Inventory Alternative version (PPI–A), the Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ) and the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) questionnaires, the control exercise method was applied before and after the determining experiment, as well as mathematical statistics. Three measuring instruments adapted to the Latvian environment – PPI-A, SMTQ, GSE (Astaficevs, Vazne & Fernate, 2020) – were used in the research. The
results show that the performance indicators of basketball players are affected by the implementation of psychological tasks improving mental toughness and general self-efficacy in sport in two control exercises –
midrange jump shots (p<0.05) and free throws (p=0.001). An increase was also found in the results of other shots, but it was not statistically reliable. Moreover, moderately close correlations were found between mental toughness and self-efficacy improvement (“Self-efficacy and determination”; “Positive cognition and imagery”, “Self-belief”) after the implementation of psychological tasks in the training process and in individual performance indicators of basketball players (p<0.05).
results show that the performance indicators of basketball players are affected by the implementation of psychological tasks improving mental toughness and general self-efficacy in sport in two control exercises –
midrange jump shots (p<0.05) and free throws (p=0.001). An increase was also found in the results of other shots, but it was not statistically reliable. Moreover, moderately close correlations were found between mental toughness and self-efficacy improvement (“Self-efficacy and determination”; “Positive cognition and imagery”, “Self-belief”) after the implementation of psychological tasks in the training process and in individual performance indicators of basketball players (p<0.05).
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 34-49 |
Journal | LASE Journal of Sport Science |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 2 |
Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Keywords*
- improvement of mental toughness
- performance indicators of basketball players
- U-16 basketball players
- Basketball
- improvement of general self-efficacy
Field of Science*
- 3.3 Health sciences
Publication Type*
- 1.2. Scientific article included in INT1 or INT2 category journal of ERIH database