Abstract
The purpose of this article is to define the perspective from which a coach should analyze and evaluate personality traits that influence sports performance in team sports. The subjects of the research are Polish players (N = 300) in senior age (20–29 years) from 10 team sports (each n = 30). A sample of champions (n = 13) was selected from the study population, and the Big Five model was applied to examine their personality with the use of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory questionnaire. Statistical analyses were performed with the IBM SPSS Statistics software, version 25. The study revealed statistically significant differences between team sports in four personality traits: neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Champions of team sports were characterized by a lower level of neuroticism, a higher level of extraversion, and openness to experiences in relation to other sportsmen. It was also confirmed that the personality traits distribution levels depend on the sport discipline. Therefore, an important role must be assigned to those mental training techniques that favor emotional balance, team communication, and tactical thinking skills and are manifested in triggering start-up readiness.
Highlights
Sports competition is related to an enormous mental burden
The strongest effect was again observed for neuroticism – around 18% of the explained variance
The highest level of neuroticism was noted among Ultimate Frisbee players, and it was statistically significantly different from all other team sports disciplines
Summary
Sportsmen must publicly demonstrate their superiority over other sportsmen. It is a media test of their training level. Research on personality in sport is extremely popular because it is useful in diagnosing the psychological image of individual sportsmen. The personality diagnosis allows for the definition of the image of the good, desired, strong, and weak features of a given sportsperson (Piepiora, 2020). Such information is essential for coaches because this way they can guide their charges in an appropriate and most beneficial way. The coach’s lack of knowledge about the specificity of personality characteristics and structure of representatives of various sports may adversely affect the development of the sports of their charges and manifest itself in artificial and ineffective activities
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