Mental Toughness in Sport: Critical Reflections and Future Considerations

Abstract

The present study was aimed to identify the role of Mental Toughness among open and closed skill athletes. In order to achieve the objective of the study, one hundred and twenty (N=120) male university level athletes of 19 to 25 years were selected to act as subject. A prior consent was sought from all the subjects after being informed about the objective and protocol of a study. The subjects were segregated into two groups of sixty (n=60) open skill athletes and sixty (n=60) closed skill athletes of various games and sports. To measure the level of Mental Toughness of the subjects, the Mental Toughness battery constructed by Goldberg (1998) was administered. One way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was employed to compare various sports groups i.e. open and closed skill athletes. Where ‘F’ values were found significant, LSD (Least Significant Difference) Post-hoc test was applied to find out the direction and degree of differences. For testing the hypotheses, the level of significance was set at 0.05. Insignificant differences were noticed among open and closed skill athletes on the subvariables; reboundability, ability to handle pressure, concentration, confidence, motivation and over all mental toughness.