N.V. Kostikova, candidate            
E.V. Romanina, professor, Ph.D.
Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sport, Youth and Tourism (SCOLIPhC), Moscow

Key words: individual psychological personality traits of athlete, efficiency of competitive activity, emotional stability, team sports.

Introduction. The problem of identifying the relationship of individual psychological personality traits and emotional stability of team players is relevant in today's training of athletes.

According to the analysis of literary sources and our own teaching experience, emotional stability is the key factor of success in athletes’ competitive activity, which enables the player to show his best most effectively using his neuropsychic energy [2,5].

 Materials and methods. The research methods included theoretical analysis and synthesis of the scientific literature, observation, instrumental techniques on the "Activatiometer" device - RMO, diagnostics of attention switch and selective attentiveness, tapping test), the method of determination of psychoemotional stability of athletes (emotional sensory, emotional motor and emotional associative), Cattell's 16 personality factors test.

The study involved 40 people aged 14-17 from the group of sportsmanship.

Results and discussion. The diagnostics revealed a reliable relationship of psychological personality traits with indicators of emotional stability. The analysis of subjective evaluations of emotional stability scales revealed reliable differences for all the given factors of individual psychological personality traits (t = 2.46 at p <0.01)

As seen in Figure 1, the highest indicator belongs to those athletes who have dominating intellectual emotional stability by the factor (C). As for the factor of courage (H), the values of all athletes with different scales of attitudes towards emotional stability were almost the same. The lowest indicators were shown by athletes with regards to the factors of sociability (A) and self-control (Q3).

Proceeding from the conducted thereby analysis of the correlation of psychological personality traits and success in competitive activity, the most successful athletes showed higher values ​​on the scale of emotional stability (C), while less successful athletes had the lowest value of this index, along with the lowest value on the scale of stress tolerance (F3).

Objective measures of competitive activity give an idea of ​​the effectiveness of technical and tactical training of athletes in team sports. However, in a tense competition the effectiveness of actions will largely depend on the individual personality traits displayed by athletes. Team sports impose a number of substantive requirements on the athlete’s personality - conscience, the factors that characterize the achievement motivation, directly connect volitional qualities with the motives of sports activity – proneness to competition, focusing on success with high self-esteem [1, 3, 4].

  In order to implement the active play principle as a defining feature of effectiveness a team player needs the high level of competitiveness, a constant search for ways of taking the initiative, creating a conflict always focusing on success; leadership, dominance - the strong-willed and communication skill, the formation of which displays modern trends in the development of table tennis, requiring being active, full of initiative, persistent, self-confident and self-reliant and inflexibly determined in a competition with an opponent of any rank. The above mentioned personality traits of athletes determine high activity of team players, their desire to seize the initiative, focus on the success of their actions with high self-esteem, tactical and psychological dominance, which is necessary for an effective completion of the specific situation of fight.

Along with the aforementioned positive qualities, we must mention the contrary personality traits such as expressiveness, excessive anxiety, which adversely affect the dynamics of effectiveness of technical and tactical actions, activity and stability of the game. The presence of such personality traits as indecision and self-doubt often predetermines the unjustified loss of initiative, the inability to play originally and implement tactical plans effectively in an emergency situation.

Conclusions. The monitoring of athlete’s individual psychological personality traits and their consideration when developing emotional stability of athletes in the teaching and training process promotes an enhancement of the quality of competitive performance.

References

1. Barchukova, G.V. Control of functional preparedness of table tennis players: study guide / G.V. Barchukova. – Moscow: Prince Center, 2010. – 50 P. (In Russian)
2. Gorskaya, G.B. Psychological support of long-term training of athletes. Krasnodar, 1995 - 186 P. (In Russian)
3. Gritsaenko, M.V. Factors determining mental reliability of athletes’ competitive performance. Interuniversity collection of scientific works "International sports and Olympic Movement: History, Theory, Practice" – Voronezh, 1999. - P. 138-141. (In Russian)
4. Rodionov, A.V. The influence of psychological factor on results in sport. Moscow: FiS, 1983. - 112 P. (In Russian)
5. Chernikova, O.A. The study of emotional stability as a crucial indicator of athlete’s psychological preparedness for competitions. - In: Psychological issues of sports training. - Moscow: FiS, 1967. - P. 3-13. (In Russian)

Corresponding author: nataliag_72@mail.ru