Mental Skills Training: An Intervention for Athletic Coping Skills for Team Game Players

Abstract

The present research aim is to investigate the effectiveness of -(i) Visuo-Motor Behavior
Rehearsal training (ii) Autogenic training for improving athletic coping skills of team game
players. Material and Methods.Thirty (30) male team game players (mean ± SD; age 21 ± 4
years) were randomly selected fromLakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education,
North East Regional Centre, Guwahatiand each group had ten (10) subjects. All the subjects
were randomly divided into 03 groups, i.e. experimental group-1: Visuo-Motor Behavior
Rehearsaltraining group, experimental group-2:Autogenic training group and one control
group. Experimental groups attended mental skill training thrice a week while control group
did not attend any mental skill training except their daily schedule for 12 weeks. Athletic
Coping Skills of team game players were assessed by Athletic Coping Skills
Inventory.Results.Analysis of covariancerevealed that experimental groups were significant
for coping with adversity (F=33.79, η2 = 0.72), peaking under pressure (F= 45.40, η2 = 0.77),
goal setting/mental preparation (F= 38.20, η2 = 0.75), concentration (F= 66.46, η2 = 0.84),
freedom from worry (F= 78.01, η2 = 0.86) and confidence & achievement motivation (F=
75.21, η2 = 0.85), coachability (F= 32.25, η2 = 0.71) and overall athletic coping skills (F=
321.28, η2 = 0.96) at 0.01 level of significance.Further results of the study revealed that
experimental groups and control group differ significantly at 0.01 level of significance. Post
hoc results showed that significant difference was also found between Visuo-Motor Behavior
Rehearsaland Autogenic Training groupsat 0.05 level of significance. Conclusions. The study
concludes that Visuo-Motor Behavior Rehearsaltraining program is better than Autogenic
training program to significantly improve the athletic coping skills of team game players.