Investigation of Psychological Skills Use between Skilled and Less-skilled Amateur Archers in Hong Kong

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LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in English; abstract also in Chinese. The current study is aimed to investigate the relationship between skilled and less-skilled amateur archers in Hong Kong based on their use of psychological skills. The Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS; Thomas, Murphy, & Hardy, 1999) was administered to 72 participants (42 skilled and 30 less-skilled; Mean age = 36.07, SD = 12.61, Range: 18.10 to 63.64 years). The TOPS is a 64-item self-report instrument that can assess a total of 16 psychological skills during practice and competition. Results from t-tests indicated statistically significant differences in the use of psychological skills automaticity during practice and competition between skilled and less-skilled archers. Two binary regression analyses were performed to further investigate the relationship between psychological skills use and skill level. Automaticity in competition and practice subscales were found to have statistically significant predictive powers in accounting for archers’ skill level achieved. The regression models indicated a range of 6.1% to 12.7% of variance accounted for skill level, and the model successfully classified 58.3% to 63.9% of cases per time. These findings link back to a number of skills learning theories that posit it is common to find the automatic stage of skill performance at the highest stage of learning (Haywood,2006). 本研究旨在暸解香港業餘射箭運動員技術水平與心理技能使用的關係。72名射箭運動員分為兩組(較高技術水平42人和一般水平30人) ，並填寫中文版運動表現策略量表 (TOPS) 。TOPS可檢測運動競賽和練習時所用的心理技能。t檢驗結果顯示心理 技能自動化(automaticity)在競賽和練習時的使用在不同技術水平的射手中有顯著差異。本文遂採用回歸分析以探討心理技能和射 手技術水平的預測和情形。研究結果發現心理技能自動化在競賽和練習的使用可有效預測射箭運動員的技術水平。