Abstract
The aim of our research consisted in checking the influence of the mental coaching using the mental imagery and relaxation based on cardiac coherence, on the improvement of the cognitive, emotional and behavioural reactions of the Tunisian karate Elite at school age. Our study was about to check if the Tunisian karate Elite at school age who had undergone a mental coaching has a better mental profile than their counterparts of other sporting disciplines and karate players with usual training method. Our sample consisted on an experimental group (N = 24 athletes) and control group (N = 22 athletes), all aged from 16 to 19 years. The experimental group followed for 10 months a psychological and mental coaching. The control group continued to train normally for the same period of time. To assess the mental skills of the participants, we used the OMSAT-3 (Guelmami et al., 2014). Our study showed that a 10 month mental coaching was needed to improve 4 mental skills, i.e. “goal setting” “relaxation”, “imagery” and “mental practices”. Our findings sustained the importance of a three-dimensional mental coaching in relation to one basic skill (goal setting), a psychosomatic skill (relaxation) and two cognitive skills (imagery and mental practice).
Highlights
The improvement and consolidation of psychic abilities and mental skills of the athlete is one of the most im-During the coaching of athletes, a particular interest must be granted to the interactions between the sportsman considered as a biological, psychological and cultural entity, in his space of motion.The mental coaching is basically oriented towards the technical strategies and trainings techniques which make it possible for the sportspersons to progress and to better manage the environment of the game (Calmels & Fournier, 1999)
The initial version of the OMSAT-3 ranged the subscales in 3 categories these are: 1) Basic Skills; 2) Psychosomatic Skills; and 3) Cognitive Skills
All participants were divided into 2 groups: an experimental group made up of 24 athletes (17 male and 4 female) and a control group composed of 22 athletes (13 male and 9 female)
Summary
The improvement and consolidation of psychic abilities and mental skills of the athlete is one of the most im-During the coaching of athletes, a particular interest must be granted to the interactions between the sportsman considered as a biological, psychological and cultural entity, in his space of motion.The mental coaching is basically oriented towards the technical strategies and trainings techniques which make it possible for the sportspersons to progress and to better manage the environment of the game (Calmels & Fournier, 1999). The mental coaching can be defined as a set of techniques which the athlete learns applies in an autonomous way in order to develop his psychological abilities and to optimize his performance (Baert & Dufour, 2007; Calmels et al, 2003) and it includes a set of techniques which the athlete needs to sharpen the sporting gesture and copy with the stress and their generating influences. Before seeking to make the athlete powerful, it is very necessary to take care of his personal fulfilment (Abrezol, 2002) To perform this goal several psychological strategies, procedures or methods can be set up or directly taught to the sportsmen in order to facilitate emotional rebalancing of the athlete and enhance his psychological and mental resources. The modern concept for the physical and sporting activity is physical and motor and psychological
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