Abstract

OLMEDILLA, Aurelio; GARCIA-MAS, Alexandre  and  ORTEGA, Enrique. Psychological Characteristics for Sport Performance in Young Players of Football, Rugby, and Basketball. Acción psicol. [online]. 2017, vol.14, n.1, pp.7-16. ISSN 2255-1271.  https://dx.doi.org/10.5944/ap.14.1.19249.

To have knowledge of the psychological characteristics of grassroot team players can be very valuable so that, together with their physical and anthropometric features, may enable their coaches to individualize the training processes and thus optimize them. The objectives of this study are to study the psychological characteristics of football, rugby and basketball young players, and determine if there are psychological differences between them regarding the sport they practice. The participants were 149 male athletes. 36 were soccer players, 70 basketball players and 43 rugby players, with a mean age of 15.99 ± 1.47. The Psychological Characteristics related to Sports Performance Questionnaire (CPRD) was used. Results indicate that all players have a similar trend in their scores, although basketball players are the ones who score lower. Footballers score higher in stress control, motivation and team cohesion, while rugby players do so in influencing performance assessment and mental ability. In general, athletes shown a good ability to control their stress; to adequately manage the external evaluation made upon their performance, as well as a good level of motivation towards the practice of the sport. However, the data show that there is still room for improvement that justifies the implementation of adequate training programs.

Keywords : psychological profile; grassroot players; football; basketball; rugby.

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