Predictors Of Athletic Performance Research Articles

The influence of the five-factor model of personality on performance in competitive sports: a review.

Personality is considered to be a factor affecting athletic performance. However, inconsistency in the research results regarding size and even direction of the relationship. An evaluation of the evidence of the relationship between personality and athletic performance was conducted in order to summarize the evidence available. A systematic literature search was conducted in March 2023. Sport performance and the Big Five personality model were identified in our research. We used PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, Wang Fang (Chinese), Wei Pu (Chinese), and CNKI (Chinese) databases for the systematic literature search (Prospero registration number: CRD42022364000), screened 4,300 studies, and found 23 cross-sectional studies eligible for inclusion in this review. The results of this systematic analysis show that, besides neuroticism, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness are all positively correlated with sports performance. Conscientiousness and extraversion are the two main personalities in team sports. Openness and agreeableness show different results in different sports, and it is not clear to which project they are beneficial. The value of personality as a possible predictor of athletic performance is generally positive. Therefore, professionals such as applied sports psychologists, coaching personnel, athletes, and sports administrators must comprehensively grasp the significance of personality's role in achieving success in major competitions. Considering these facts, sports practitioners should promote personality screening and personality development programs.

Relationship between Functional Movement Screen, Core Stability, and Swimming Performance

Background: The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) is a series of functional movement tests composed of seven tests designed to predict injury risk as well as sports performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between functional movement screen, core stability, and swimming performance. Methods: A total of 60 adolescents, boys aged 15 to 19 years, club-level swimmers participated in the present study. The Pearson and Spearman correlation methods were used to examine the relationships between variables (p≤0.05). Results: There was no significant relationship between any of FMS scores and swim performance (p>0.05). There was also no significant relationship not only between any of each individual FMS tests and core stability tests, but also between total core function and total FMS scores (p>0.05). Conclusions: Regardless of the fact that FMS is valuable in identifying individual weaknesses, compensations, asymmetries, and dysfunctional movement patterns, no significant relation was seen between FMS tests, swim performance and core stability. It seems that FMS is not a suitable assessment tool in assessing swimming performance. Therefore, this information is viable for those looking to do more research on the FMS as a predictor of athletic performance because it does not show results in favor of the FMS, according to this study.

Jumping ability is related to change of direction ability in elite handball players

PurposeThis study investigated the relationship between vertical and horizontal jumping ability and change of direction (COD) to measure athletic performance in 51 elite male handball players.Scope.Countermovement jump (CMJ), peak power, and standing long jump (SLJ) were measured. Participants performed a 20-m sprint test (time measured at 5, 10, and 20 m) and a zigzag test (COD: 135°, 90°, and 45°). The COD deficit, an index of the time required for COD, was calculated. The correlations between CMJ height and zigzag test times were relatively large (at 135°, r = − 0.607; at 90°, r = − 0.594; at 45°, r = − 0.613; p < 0.01), whereas those between CMJ height and COD deficit were moderate (at 135°, r = − 0.399, p < 0.01; at 90°, r = − 0.350, p < 0.05; at 45°, r = − 0.323, p < 0.05). SLJ showed a negative moderate correlation with COD deficit (at 135°, r = − 0.439, p < 0.01; at 90°, r = − 0.469, p < 0.01; at 45°, r = − 0.380, p < 0.01). ConclusionsThis study is the first to analyse SLJ ability and COD deficit parameters of handball players. We found that SLJ ability is moderately related to COD time and deficit; therefore, SLJ measurement may be a useful predictor of athletic performance.

Leveling the playing field: can psychological coping resources reduce the influence of physical and technical skills on athletic performance?

ABSTRACTBackground and Objectives: The present study assessed the extent to which individual differences in psychological coping resources are related to athletic performance; whether they can attenuate the amount of performance variance accounted for by physical/technical skills; and whether coping resources remain significant predictors of performance when physical/technical skill level is statistically controlled.Methods: Twenty college golf coaches rated the physical/technical skills of 189 men and women varsity golfers on their teams. Athletes completed the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI-28), with the total (Personal Coping Resources) score serving as a global measure of sport-relevant psychological coping resources. Subsequent performance (stroke average per round) of 105 golfers was assessed over a mean of 12.04 competitive rounds during the remainder of the season.Results: Physical/technical skills and psychological coping resource measures were minimally correlated and both were significant and similarly influential predictors of performance. With psychological resources controlled, performance variance accounted for by physical/technical skills was reduced from 21.2% to 10.6%. With physical/technical skills statistically controlled, psychological coping resources, though reduced from 18.2% to 7.5% of accountable variance, remained a significant predictor of performance.Conclusion: Results support the significant role played by psychological coping resources as predictors of athletic performance, together with their ability to “level the field” by reducing the influence of physical/technical talent.

Association between angiotensin-converting enzyme gene polymorphism and competitive anxiety in Tunisian athlete

The present study attempted to test whether the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) genotypes can be associated with precompetitive anxiety that can be potentially used as predictors of athletic performance. Eighty-seven track and field athletes (47 males, 40 females; age 20.55 ± 2.22 years; body mass = 77.5 ± 7.1 kg, height = 170.7 ± 5.4 cm) competing at an international level voluntarily participated in this study. The athletes were prospectively classified into two groups according to their genetic polymorphism to physical efforts: endurance group (allele I, n = 48) and power group (allele D, n = 39). Suggested, this genetic predisposition was specifically associated with athlete’s success in sports. Precompetitive anxiety was assessed before competition, and the ACE gene polymorphism was examined by polymerase chain reaction. It was found that the score performances were associated with psychological factors. In carriers of allele I (related to the endurance), the self-confidence explained 18 % of the variance of score performance (R = 0.46, R 2 = 0.21, adjusted R 2 = 0.15; F = 3.83, p < 0.02). In carriers of allele D (related to the power) (R = 0.30, R 2 = 0.09, adjusted R 2 = 0.01; F = 1.19, p < 0.33), any factors of anxiety can explain the variance of performance. The current study is the first to interpret the relationship between the ACE gene and somatic anxiety, cognitive anxiety and self-confidence in sportsmen and has provided evidence of association between ACE I/D polymorphism predisposition and success in distance runners. Taking into account the effects of multiple comparisons, this result should be interpreted with caution and needs confirmation in a larger sample.

Leg stiffness: Comparison between unilateral and bilateral hopping tasks

Leg stiffness is a predictor of athletic performance and injury and typically evaluated during bilateral hopping. The contribution of each limb to bilateral leg stiffness, however, is not well understood. This study investigated leg stiffness during unilateral and bilateral hopping to address the following research questions: (1) does the magnitude and variability of leg stiffness differ between dominant and non-dominant legs? (2) Does unilateral leg stiffness differ from bilateral leg stiffness? and (3) Is bilateral leg stiffness determined by unilateral leg stiffness? Thirty-two physically active males performed repeated hopping tests on a force platform for each of the three conditions: bilateral hopping, unilateral hopping on the dominant leg, and unilateral hopping on the non-dominant leg. Leg stiffness was estimated as the ratio of the peak vertical force and the maximum displacement using a simple 1-D mass-spring model. Neither the magnitude nor variability of leg stiffness differed between dominant and non-dominant limbs. Unilateral leg stiffness was 24% lower than bilateral stiffness and showed less variability between consecutive hops and subjects. Unilateral leg stiffness explained 76% of the variance in bilateral leg stiffness. We conclude that leg stiffness estimates during unilateral hopping are preferable for intervention studies because of their low variability.

Skinfold thicknesses associated with distance running performance in highly trained runners

It has been postulated that additional adiposity has a negative effect on performance in heterogeneous groups of runners. Previous studies have not tested this hypothesis in homogeneous groups of elite runners. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the sum of skinfold thicknesses and specific single skinfold sites were related to competitive running performance in homogeneous groups of male and female elite athletes. In total, 184 top-class runners (130 males and 54 females) volunteered to participate in the study. Skinfolds were measured at the following sites: biceps, triceps, subscapular, pectoral, iliac crest, abdominal, front thigh and medial calf. Runners were classified into groups in accordance with their best performance times. Correlation analysis and partial correlation coefficients that controlled for age and weight were applied to each single skinfold, the sum of six skinfolds (excluding biceps) and the extremity (sum of triceps, front thigh, medial calf) to trunk (sum of subscapular, iliac crest, abdominal) ratio and performance. Performance was rated by the scoring procedures of the International Amateur Athletics Federation. In male runners, the pectoral, iliac crest, abdominal, biceps, triceps, subscapular skinfolds and the sum of six skinfolds were not associated with performance score for any of the distances. High correlations were found between the front thigh (r = 0.78, P = 0.000) and medial calf (r = 0.55, P = 0.018) skinfolds and 1500 m run time, and between the front thigh (r = 0.59, P = 0.014) and medial calf (r = 0.57, P = 0.017) skinfolds and 10,000 m run time. In female runners, the front thigh and medial calf skinfolds were highly correlated with 400 m run time (r = 0.71, P = 0.022 and r = 0.81, P = 0.005, respectively). The results of this study indicate that skinfold thicknesses in the lower limb are positively associated with running time over several distances, and may be a useful predictor of athletic performance.

Predicting athletic performance using the five-factormodel of personality

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to determine if the dimensions of thefive-factor model of personality could be used as predictors of athletic performance and (b) todemonstrate the utility of the five-factor model as a theoretical paradigm capable of organizingpersonality research on athletic competition. Subjects were 79 female athletes from four differentwomens NCAA Division 1 soccer teams. All subjects completed a bipolar adjective scaledesigned to measure the five factors. Coaches ratings on several performance dimensions andactual game statistics were also collected. Regression analyses indicated that the personalitydimensions of neuroticism and conscientiousness explained approximately 23% of the variancein coaches ratings, while conscientiousness was the sole predictor of actual games statistics,explaining about 8% of the variance. The potential theoretical and empirical value of thesefindings were discussed.

RANKINGS OF PREDICTORS OF ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE BY TOP LEVEL COACHES

Abstract Two studies are reported in which coaches of Dutch top level athletes ranked 10 general factors recognized as predictors of athletic performance. In the first study, the coaching staff of the national teams in judo, speed skating, swimming, and table tennis were involved (n=50), and in the second coaches in field hockey, golf, and track and field (n=65); in track and field, two types of athlete were assessed: the “explosive” and the “endurance” types. Agreement among coaches within a sport appears to vary from rather high to quite low, indicating that they do not always rank the various factors in an identical way. In spite of these imperfect interjudge reliabilities, most of the groups of coaches made very similar group rankings, in which three factors were generally considered to be of primary importance: physical fitness, mental fitness and natural endowment These findings are discussed in the context of the emphasis which is often given to the effects of the immediate environment in the devel...

The Relationships among Isometric, Isotonic, and Isokinetic Concentric and Eccentric Quadriceps and Hamstring Force and Three Components of Athletic Performance

This study was supported in part by a grant from the Foundation for Physical Therapy, Inc. The purpose of this study was to compare the relationships among isometric, isotonic, and isokinetic concentric and eccentric quadriceps and hamstring forces and three components of athletic performance in college-aged, male athletes. Bilateral quadriceps and hamstring muscle torque were obtained (N = 39) using a KinCom(R) for concentric (rate at 60 degrees /sec and 180 degrees /sec), eccentric (rate at 30 degrees /sec and 90 degrees /sec), isotonic, and isometric (knee angles at 30 degrees and 60 degrees ) contractions. Athletic performance was assessed using vertical jump performance, 40-yard dash time, and agility run time. The best predictor of 40-yard dash time was the right peak isokinetic concentric hamstring force at 60 degrees /sec (R = .57; p < 0.05). The best predictor of agility run time was the left mean isokinetic eccentric hamstring force at 90 degrees /sec (R = .58; p < 0.05). There were no significant correlations between any quadriceps or hamstring force and vertical jump. It was concluded that isokinetic eccentric quadriceps and hamstring forces were no better predictors of athletic performance than muscle forces assessed in other ways. However, they may be more predictive of some specific components of performance. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 1991;14(3):114-120.

Trait anxiety, state anxiety, and coping behavior as predictors of athletic performance

Abstract Employing the data of 36 top table-tennis players the present study analyzes the relations between general and sport-specific trait anxiety, coping dispositions, use of “naive” self-regulatory techniques, emotional and cognitive anxiety reactions in situations of varying stress, and success in athletic competition. The study is based on the cognitive theory of evaluative anxiety, Spielberger's trait-state anxiety model, Lazarus' theory of coping, and the concept of person-specific coping modes. The interaction between trait anxiety and degree of stress, postulated by the trait-state model, could be verified empirically for both, emotional and cognitive anxiety. This result, however, only holds true for a test of general, not for a test of sport-specific anxiety. In addition, several significant associations between the preferred use of vigilant coping strategies and the amount of cognitive (interfering) anxiety reactions were observed. Successful table-tennis players were characterized by few int...

Anaerobic Threshold as a Predictor of Athletic Performance in Prepubertal Female Runners

Interest in pediatric ergometric parameters as predictors of athletic performance has increased parallel to the dramatic increase in childhood competitive sports. In adult athletes, anaerobic threshold (AT) appears to be more predictive of performance rank (PR) than maximum oxygen consumption (Vo 2 max). 1 For reasons yet to be defined, prepubertal children are felt to have less anaerobic capacity than adults. 2 The predictive value of AT vs oxygen consumption (Vo 2 ) of PR in ten prepubertal female cross-country runners was evaluated. METHODS Subjects Parental informed consent was given to evaluate ten highly conditioned female cross-country runners, aged 10 to 13 years and Tanner stage 0, after a season of competition. Their training schedule had consisted of four 1½-hour workouts per week for three months. Each workout included running four intermittent 440-yd (402-m) distances at race pace interspersed with a jogging pace and finishing with a 3-mile (4.8-km) run at