Comparison of Mental Skills between Elite and Non Elite Male Athletes of Kerala

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to analyze the mental skills of elite athletes from the state of Kerala.The samples comprised of One hundred and twenty (nm = 120) randomly selected. Sixty (n_m = 60)elite male and sixty (n_f = 60) elite female was selected from state of Kerala. Their age ranged from 18 years to 24 years. The following mental skills variables were examined for this study and are classified as follows; (1) Foundation skills – Goal Setting, Self Confidence and Commitments; (2) Psychological Traits - Stress Reaction, Fear Control, Relaxation and Energizing (Activation) and (3) Cognitive Skills – Imagery, Mental Practice, Focusing, Refocusing and Computation Planning measured by using Ottawa Mental Skills Assessment Tool (OMSAT-3): The OMSAT was developed and validated by Durand – Bush, N., Shamela,J.H., and Green – Demers, I. (2001) and Performance in those respective sport (Subjective judgment by five experts). Descriptive statistics, independent t test, one way ANOVA were used for comparison. Pearson’s Product moment correlation was used to correlate the mental skills in relation to the performance of athletes of Kerala. The calculated numerical results were interpreted meaningfully. In all cases, the criterion for statistical significance was set at 0.05 level of confidence (P < 0.05). The findings of the study are, On the basis of the findings of the study, the following conclusions were drawn; In this study, many of the mental skills variables were examine and found that female athletes were more dominant than the male player.  On analysis of mental skill variables among male athletes from different types of sports disciplines it was found that individual, team and racket game male athletes were dominating in most of the variables and combative players were dominating in  a very few of the them. Out of twelve sub variables of mental skills all the male athletes were similar in nature. Among female athletes, none of the variables of mental skills were found similar between each group. Individual, team and racket game players were dominating in most of the variables and in a very few variables combative game players dominated. The study revealed that most of the variables of mental skills were similar in nature among elite athletes from different types of sports disciplines. After the study the research scholar concluded that, the conditions and reasons of the findings of this study might be as follows; in the state of Kerala, more numbers of female athletes participated in the international and national level championship and secured individual achievements comparing the Kerala male athletes. In the selected subjects, most of the combative game players secured positions and participated in the south zone national championships. In the case of racket game players, the selected subjects were high of socio economic status than the rest of the other sports disciplines.