European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science ISSN: 2501 - 1235 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1235 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu Volume 3 │ Issue 10 │ 2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1058978 THE EVALUATION OF MENTAL ABILITIES OF ATHLETES IN DIFFERENT BRANCHES Mehmet Şirin Güleri, Süleyman Erim Erhan Asst. Prof., Kafkas Üniversitesi, 1 Sarıkamış ”eden Eğitimi ve Spor Y(ksekokulu, Kars, Turkey Asst. Prof., Atatürk Üniversitesi, 2 Spor Bilimleri Fakültesi, Erzurum, Turkey Abstract: This paper aims to evaluate the levels of mental ability of licensed athletes who are actively engaged in sports at branch level in Turkey. A total of 340 athletes, including 116 women and 224 men, from various regions of Turkey who are actively engaged in sports at elite level in different branches voluntarily participated in the survey which evaluates their levels and techniques of mental training. It was considered important that athletes participated in the survey should be licensed and importance of the study was emphasized to them. The survey model was used in this study. Current information related to research problem was systematically given by scanning of relevant literature, so a theoretical framework on the subject was created. First of all, a twelve-question personal information form developed by researcher was applied. Ottawa Mental Skills Assessment tool (OMSAT-3) which is developed by Durand-Bush, Salmela and Green-Demers (2001) and adapted to Turkish language by Erhan, Güler, “ğduman and Gerek was applied to evaluate the levels of athletes’ mental ability. In the adaptation phase, the scale was applied to 220 athletes and internal consistency value was found to be 0.94. The scale consists of 48 items and 12 subscales and these subscales are evenly divided into four items. The scale consists of a total of 48 items and constructed on a 7-point Likert-type. The scoring was formed from 1 to 7 according to the statements, Strongly disagree , Disagree , Slightly disagree , Neither agree nor disagree , “gree , Slightly agree and Strongly agree . Frequency Analysis was Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 311 Mehmet Şirin G(ler, Süleyman Erim Erhan THE EVALUATION OF MENTAL ABILITIES OF ATHLETES IN DIFFERENT BRANCHES applied to determine the demographic characteristics of participants and Shapiro-Wilk Test was applied in order to decide whether the questionnaires are suitable to normal distribution and Mann-Whitney U test was applied in order to determine the dimensions according to parameters such as gender, marital status, and type of sports, level of contact and level of sport. Kruskal-Wallis H test was applied for analysis of the dimensions in terms of age, sports age and educational level. Finally, correlation analysis of Spearman was used in order to determine the relation between subdimensions of total satisfaction score. The significance level (p<0.05) was accepted in analysis. As a result, there is a significant difference in mental ability dimensions of active athletes in different branches according to their mental ability levels and variables such as age, type of sports, sports level and sports age. Therefore, it is observed that mental ability levels of athletes in different branches vary according to these variables. Keywords: mental ability, sports, mental development 1. Introduction It is clear that hereditary factors, capabilities and skills and environmental issues play a key role in terms of success of sporting activities. However, these factors are not enough alone to achieve success (S. Erim and et al., 2006). The studies which carried out prove that success in sports could not be correlated with only one reason. The reasons behind the success of sports activities have generated interests of many researches who have already tried to put their points of view forward. Many researchers correlate the reasons behind the success with motoric reasons. However, today’s modern researches draw attention to a different point and reveal that mental factors are also important as well as motoric reasons. In addition to this, when the relevant literature is analyzed, researches on mental factors are observed as insufficient; and this absence is felt much more in our country. Although there are many studies related to the discovery of mental abilities, it is obvious that these studies are not used enough for the purpose in our country. Many studies are carried out in terms of dimensions of mental ability and terminological expressions which have been used as follow.   Goal setting: It is a kind of targeting of goals and objectives that provide motivation and guidance (Burton, 1993). Self-confidence: It refers to an individual’s belief in her ability and purpose (Vealey, 1986). European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 3 │ Issue 10 │ 2017 312 Mehmet Şirin G(ler, Süleyman Erim Erhan THE EVALUATION OF MENTAL ABILITIES OF ATHLETES IN DIFFERENT BRANCHES    Tenacity: It is defined as individual’s concentration and commitment on his goals (Orlick, 1992). Stress: It includes one’s reactions in response to the requests (Selye, 1974). Fear Control: It is an ability to cope with factors and situations causing anxiety  and fear (Rotella & Lerner, 1993).  tension and anxiety level (Williams & Harris, 1998). Relaxation: It makes possible to reduce individual’s psychological concern, Revitalization: It is a process which raises individual’s physiological and mental situation in case of need that individual should increase her energy, motivation  and concentration (Zaichkowsky & Takenaka, 1993).  her purposes (Nideffer & Sagal, 1998).  (Orlick, 1992).  situations in mind (Murphy & Jowdy, 1992). Focusing: It is an ability that individual can direct and maintain her attention to Re-focusing: It is an ability to regain effective attention when it is distracted Imagination: It includes the use of feelings and ideas to stimulate different Imagination in Mind: It is a process that athlete rehearses her physical abilities and the play in her mind without clearly moving her body clearly (Murphy &  Jowdy, 1992). Action Planning: It refers to a Planning which guides the ideas, feelings and actions before, during and after a competition (Orlick & Partington, 1998). The discovery of mental factors in sporting activities is become possible with education of athlete’s skill and talent-related actions. The requirement of imaging in mind and placing individual’s conscious of these educated actions reveal the concept of requirement of mental training. Therefore, definition of this concept is quite important (S. Erhan and et al., 2015). The early studies on the concept of mental training were held in the Soviet Union and East Germany in the 1950s. Especially in East Germany, athletes were motivated by mental trainings and they gained important achievements in the 1976 Summer Olympics (Aktepe, 2006). The success that East Germany enjoyed was attracted by other countries and thus, other countries have also been begun to research the techniques of mental training. The research by Dr. Ikai and Dr. A. H. Steinhaus (1961) reveals that athletes, who were hypnotized and preached by emphasizing that they are so strong and they can use this power to the end, can lift more than 30% weight in terms of their highest level of power while in a hypnotized situation. Therefore, Dr. Ikai has revealed the importance of mental factors alongside of physiological factors. Mental training involves various strategies according to the characteristics of sport and athletes. The different strategies such as confidence, relaxation, motivation, European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 3 │ Issue 10 │ 2017 313 Mehmet Şirin G(ler, Süleyman Erim Erhan THE EVALUATION OF MENTAL ABILITIES OF ATHLETES IN DIFFERENT BRANCHES goal setting and concentration are applied by considering especially individual differences and the needs of athletes “ltıntas and “kalan, . Mental training can complete athletes’ training, help to increase their performances and contribute to make them more productive. Mental training can help to solve problems that many athletes face with, such as anxiety, inability to concentrate, inability to relax, facing with oppression and preventing and contain practices to increase the performance (Syer ven Connolly, 1998). Koruç defines mental training as planned and intensively imaging of action that may arise against positive or negative situations during training and competition whether the mentioned action is practical. Body is obliged to obey the orders given by the brain during conscious action. In other words, mental training is defined as being mentally ready against such situations and prepared to wait for cases to occur on consists of real competitions Koruç, action in mind before realization . Mental training is also defined imaging of Hecker and Kaczor, . More clearly, mental training is an insensitive effort to acquire in mind before practicing the action. Konter defines mental training as development of well-known movement for a particular purpose by only using of mind before physical action or learning of a new movement (Konter, 1999). Mental training which is a systematic and programmed process consisting of being motivated to achieve high performance, being concentrated, focusing attention, goal setting, self-confidence, positive thinking and emotion, learning and development of self-control and such psychological abilities, has a vital role in sport activities (Neff, 2010) Due to the priorities, this concept has attracted the attention of researchers. Anshel emphasizes the differences of managing emotions and emotional orientation of athletes in terms of their personal differences. In addition to this, it was also stated that being able to manage their emotions can affect the performance of athletes (Anshel, 1990). At this point, mental training gives athletes the ability to manage this kind of mood. In the light of definitions above, mental training can be defined as an imaging process of actions with all phases due to hereditary factors in the nature and actions emerging with environmental factors and imbedded in individual’s subconscious through trainings (S. Erhan et al., 2015) As a result of all this information, it can be said that mental training is related with increasing of success in sport activities or competitions. Therefore, all features and sub-dimensions of mental training should be examined. For viewing / downloading the full article, please access the following link: https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejep/article/view/1194 European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 3 │ Issue 10 │ 2017 314