Correlative Study Regarding Intelligence Level And Sports Performance in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics

Abstract

The aim of this study is to highlight the influence of intelligence on sports performance in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics for gymnasts aged 8 to 11-and-a-half years old. The subjects of this study were 15 gymnasts between the ages of 8 and 11 and a half. They are members of the following Artistic Gymnastics sports clubs in Bucharest: CSS Steaua, CS Dinamo and CSS no. 2. The research methods used were the test and statistical and mathematical methods. For this study, the gymnasts were applied the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM) test. The results obtained from this test were correlated with the results achieved by the athletes in competitions, both at each apparatus and the individual all- around. The correlation test used was Spearman, performed with the help of IBM SPSS Statistics software(version 20.0). The analysis of the results has shown that, at the uneven bars and the floor exercise, there are significant positive correlations between the level of intelligence and the achieved performance, with a correlation coefficient equal to r = 0.563, p = 0.029 for the uneven bars, and r = 0.548, p = 0.034 for the floor exercise. In the other events (vault, balance beam and individual all-around), there were no significant correlations. We believe this is caused by the fact that, in the vault event, movements are automated. At the balance beam, sports performance is influenced by several factors, such as: level of balance, great courage, self-control, stress, emotions, degree of concentration.