Abstract
Psychological characteristics of athletes play a key role in sport performance and may moderate and mediate the influence of technical, tactical, and physical abilities athletes show. Different authors have emphasized the special attention such psychological characteristics should receive considering the extent they can influence athletes’ behavior either in training or in competition. This paper is aimed at describing the psychological profiles of two cycling sports: triathlon and road cycling. One hundred and twenty-nine male and female professional and amateur cycling athletes (35.74 years old average age ±12.79; 14.94 average number of years practicing cycling ±11.20) were assessed on different psychological characteristics. For that purpose, the Psychological Characteristics related to the Sport Performance (CPRD) Questionnaire and the Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports (PSIS) was used. Results showed significant differences among triathlon and road cyclists (Stress control = t116 =-3.711, p = 0.000, d = 0.48 ; Influence of Performance Evaluation = t115 =-3-115, p = 0.002, d = 0.49; Motivation = t124 =-5.520, p = 0.000, d = 0.82; Mental Skills = t119 =-4.985, p = 0.000, d = 1.02). There were no significant differences between men and women though there were differences among pros and amateur athletes. Triathlon professional, compared to amateurs, showed higher scores in all the psychological dimensions assessed (Stress control = t85 = 3.005, p = 0.003, d = 1.07; Influence of Performance Evaluation = t83 = 2.858, p = 0.005, 0.77; Motivation = t91 = 2.721, p = 0.008, d = 0.26; Mental Skills = t87 = 2.556, p = 0.012, d = 0.77). The results of this descriptive study contribute to establishing a model of optimal psychological profiling applied to the different cycling groups that can be used by sport psychologist, trainers, and coaches in order to promote peak performance of these athletes.
Highlights
Nowadays it is well known that psychological variables are quite significant aspects in sports performance, both in elite and amateur athletes (Morris, 2000; MacNamara et al, 2010; Castilla and Ramos, 2012; Abdullah et al, 2016; Swann et al, 2017)
Qualitative probabilistic inference according to magnitude-based inferences (MBI) resulted in the differences in Mental Skills being as very likely (95–99% probability of the effect being substantially positive), the differences in Motivation being likely (75–95%), and the differences in both Stress Control and Influence of Performance Evaluation being possible (25–75%)
This study has explored the psychological profile of two different endurance sports, cycling, and triathlon, and analyzed whether gender and professionalism level present differences in athlete’s core psychological characteristics
Summary
Nowadays it is well known that psychological variables are quite significant aspects in sports performance, both in elite and amateur athletes (Morris, 2000; MacNamara et al, 2010; Castilla and Ramos, 2012; Abdullah et al, 2016; Swann et al, 2017). The role of psychological characteristics is relevant due to its direct impact on athlete’s performance (e.g., coping with or choking under stress), and as a mediator between the athlete’s physical, technical, and tactical skills and his/her performance in competition, whether positively or negatively (Mahamud et al, 2005; Anderson et al, 2014; Arthur et al, 2017) In this vein, some seminal studies found that the physiological variables accounted for between 45 and 48% of the sport performance, but when psychological variables were added, the percentage of variance explained rose to about 79% and 85% in sports such as wrestling (Nagle et al, 1975; Silva et al, 1981; James et al, 2016). That is the case with Gee et al (2007), who conducted a piece of research over 15 years with professional ice hockey players in North America (NHL) and showed that competitiveness, self-confidence, and analytical disposition were significant predictors of the athletes’ performance
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