PhD, Associate Professor E.G. Babich
PhD, Associate Professor A.I. Rybakova
PhD, Associate Professor N.V. Belyakova
PhD, Associate Professor M.V. Tarasov
Russian State Social University, Moscow

Keywords: emotions, sport psychology, control, prestart emotional conditions, basketball

Background. Mental stresses in modern sports that athletes have to cope with in their professional careers have been on the rise for the last few decades due to the growing competition and competitive success expectations both in the continental and national championships. Recent studies have demonstrated that competitive situations may be of either encouraging or destructive effects on the mental balances of athletes depending on the individual reflections and sentiments with the relevant mental and emotional dominants and the relevant immediate and delayed responses and interpretations being critical for the mental condition control situations [2]. In this context special attention is to be given to the mental safety of the professionals operating under stresses on the whole and professional athletes in particular [2, 4]. Leading sport specialists tend to increasingly acknowledge that the modern training systems need to give a growing priority to a variety of special prestart emotional condition control methods rather than concentrate their efforts only on the training process intensity building and  process design and management methods – to secure further growth of competitive accomplishments [1, 3, 5, 6, 7].

The prestart conditions are evoked by the individual sentiments and intrapersonal traits rather than only the objective competitive conditions as many still tend to believe. The prestart emotional tension often emerges and mounts well before the actual competition and, when left uncontrolled, may drain the athlete’s nervous system and be of destructive effect on his/her competitive performance. This is the prime reason why so high priority is being given today to practical actions and tools to effectively mitigate the inevitable emotional tensions experienced by the athletes. Athletes need to master modern mental self-control methods to be able to adapt to the stressing situations by the relevant mental conditioning mechanisms being activated on a deliberate, focused and responsible basis to correct mental processes, conditions and efforts. It may be pertinent to mention that the self-learning and educating processes in modern sports are so closely interconnected that they cannot be separated, and every knowledgeable and experienced coach should take reasonable efforts to both train and learn the trainees and help them master the mental conditioning, self-learning, self discovery and control basics.

It is important for a coach being capable of helping by a timely discussion to switch over the athlete’s attention to some other matters and thereby mitigate and control the prestart conditions albeit such help will always be based on a good warm-up practice that is still considered the most effective control tool. The warm-up practice is run at moderate pace with a special emphasis on deep rhythmic breathing practice since the respiratory system is known to be of powerful balancing effect on the cerebral cortex. When the prestart condition is dominated by apathy, the warm-up is to be run at a fast pace to wind up the excitation levels of the nervous and muscular systems.

Objective of the study was to analyse the professional athletes’ prestart conditions and offer specific mental conditioning methods.

Methods and structure of the study. Subject to the experimental work under the study were players of Dinamo UOR#2 Basketball Club. Mental condition tests of the subjects were performed using the K. Izard's Differential Emotions Scale (A.B. Leonova's version) and Spielberger-Hanin State-Trait Anxiety Inventory [8]. The tests found the prestart emotions being of high influence on the personal and situational anxiety of the athletes. Based on a correlation analysis of the test data generated by the Volitional Self-control Test (hereinafter referred to as the VSCT) and the Spielberger Inventory we found the volitional self-control test rates of the subjects being closely correlated with their anxiety levels.

Based on the above test data, we split up the subject athletes into the following three groups. Group 1 was composed of the athletes tested with low anxiety rates and low emotionality rates with some subjects found even to express no emotions concerning the upcoming games. Group 2 was composed of the athletes tested with normal anxiety rates; normal or slightly increased self-control and persistence rates; and reasonably expressed emotionality rates in anticipation of a game. Group 1 was composed of the athletes tested with high state and trait anxiety rates; normal or low self-control rates; and high emotionality rates and fears in anticipation of a game.

Study results and discussion. The test data correlation analysis found the athletes’ emotionality rates being correlated with the precompetitive anxiety rates (p≤0.01); and variations of some emotionality rating indices evoking the relevant variations of the state and trait anxiety rates of the athletes (p≤0.05). Some emotionality rates showed significant correlations with the anxiety rates that may be indicative of the athletes’ ability to achieve the required prestart mental setting by focusing on personal known manifestations of some emotions and thereby being able to control the anxiety status. Based on the prior tests, we grouped the athletes by their prestart condition manifestations as follows.

Group 1 was formed of the athletes tested with low or subnormal heart rates and low or subnormal anxiety rates, plus predominantly low emotionality rates, the individual emotions being often dominated by negativism including disgust, contempt and/or depression; and subnormal self-control test rates. Generally these test rates were interpreted as indicative of prestart apathy.

Group 2 was formed of the athletes tested with normal heart rate (<100 5 min and <= 85 30 min before the game); normal anxiety rates; and normal or slightly increased self-control and persistence rates; with the emotionality rates being dominated by constructive anticipations of the game. The group condition may be described as fairly fit for the game.

Group 3 was formed of the athletes tested with a prestart fever as verified by the high heart rates (>100 and >85 5 and 30 min before the game, respectively); high state and trait anxiety rates; and subnormal to low self-control rates, emotionality rates and expressed fears in anticipation of the game.

Each group of athletes was subject to individual interviews to analyse their mental conditions and work out sets of group-specific recommendations so as to address every stage in the precompetitive mental conditioning process. Group 1 was recommended to listen to motivating music and warm up using game-simulation practices plus additional special exercises, plus being motivated by references to the success stories of the prominent masters of the sport. Group 3 was recommended to make resort to calm classical music; fairly analyse their opponents’ game styles; have a relaxation massage session; and make due adjustments in the game process. And Group 2 was recommended to reasonably combine the above mental conditioning tools to keep the mental settings within the desired limits. The subjects’ success in fulfilling the above recommendations was tested on a permanent basis with the actual performance being corrected when necessary. The coaching teams also received a special set of recommendations on how to improve the players’ mental conditioning methods and practices under a variety of stressors that may be detrimental for the game control and success.

The above mental conditioning model benefits were tested by a variety of progress rates dominated by the individual game success rates. These individual game success rates demonstrated good progress of most of the subject players, with the progress being additionally confirmed by feedbacks from the coaching teams. The feedbacks confirmed the athletes showing more confident and balanced game, particularly in the tense match completion situations. Both the practical performance rates of the athletes and their feedbacks confirmed their notable progress in the precompetitive mental conditioning practices due to the above recommendations.

Conclusion. Good knowledge of own individual prestart emotions and the relevant mental conditioning methods and tools plus the sport- and game-specific knowledge and self-control skills may be highly beneficial for competitive success. Reasonable mental conditioning practices prior to competitions should be focused on the critical technical, tactical and other performance components rather than on the anxiety and perceived risks as such for success in the competitions. The adequate mental conditioning process resulting in a due mindset helps build up good confidence in own powers and be ready to succeed.

References

1. Babich E.G., Petrova E.A., Savchenko D.V., Belyakova N.V. Osobennosti emotsionalnykh predstartovykh sostoyaniy professionalnykh sportsmenov (na primere MBK «Dinamo», Moskva) [Prestart emotional states of professional athletes (case study of MBC "Dinamo", Moscow)]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2016, no. 3, pp. 29-31.
2. Vardanyan Y.V., Vardanyan L.V. Kontseptualizatsiya predstavleniy o psikhologicheskoy bezopasnosti v sporte: problemy eksperimentalnogo issledovaniya [Conceptualization of ideas about psychological safety in sport: experimental study issues]. Sovremennye issledovaniya sotsialnykh problem. 2013, no. 8 (28). Available at: http://journal-s.org/index.php/sisp/article/download/8201311/pdf_404.
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5. Malkin V.R. Upravlenie psikhologicheskoy podgotovkoy v sporte [Mental conditioning control in sport]. Moscow, Fizkultura i sport publ., 2008, 200 p.
6. Rodionov A.V. Psikhologicheskaya podgotovka basketbolista na osnove mentalnogo treninga [Mental conditioning of basketball players based on mental conditioning]. Available at: http://www.vst-basket-lesgaft.ru/content/view/30/7/ (02.12.2016).
7. Sopov V.F. Teoriya i metodika psikhologicheskoy podgotovki v sovremennom sporte [Theory and methods of mental conditioning in modern sport]. Moscow: Triksta publ., 2010, 116 p.

Corresponding author: BabichEG@rgsu.net

Abstract

The study considers the professional athletes’ prestart emotional condition control aspects. A variety of methods to balance and control prestart emotions may be applied depending on the individual requirements and traits of every athlete including his/her mental and physical skills, sport qualification and other conditions and aspects. In the prudent mental setting for the upcoming event being attained, the growing mental and emotional tension will be controlled and focused on the critical technical, tactical and other performance components rather than on own anxiety and perceived risks as such for success in the competitions.

The study data and correlation analysis was used to work out practical recommendations for the prestart condition control by athletes. The subject athletes were provisionally split up into three groups by the prestart emotional condition classes, and each of the groups was given the group-specific recommendations whilst the group coaching teams were given general instructions on how to improve the athletes’ precompetitive mental conditioning tactics and practices. The prestart emotional condition knowledge and mental control skills acquired by the athletes plus the group-specific teamwork-related knowledge and skills were found beneficial as verified by the growth of their competitive success rates. The mental condition self-control skills provided by the proposed mental conditioning model were proved to be one of the pivotal aspects of the athlete’s mental balancing skills.