ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Original Research

Authors

Akbarzade   B. (1)
Ahar   S. (*)
Dadashzade   M. (2 )






(*) Motor Behavior Department, Physical Education & Sport Sciences Faculty, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
(1) Sport Psychology Department, Physical Education & Sport Sciences Faculty, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran
(2 ) Evaluating & Measuring Department, Psychology & Educational Faculty, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

Correspondence

Article History

Received:  November  14, 2016
Accepted:  January 31, 2017
ePublished:  April 24, 2017

BRIEF TEXT


… [1-6]. Mental strength is one of the psychological characteristics of success in sports [7]. … [8-15]. Some researchers have described mental strength as a personality trait that is genetic and intact [16-17]. While, according to some other research findings, some of the factors and interventions that are organized such as training of mental planning skills, can affect the mental well-being and improve it. According to these researchers, mental planning skills can be taught to disabled athletes [8, 18-20]. One of these skills is Neuro-Linguistic Planning skills (NLP). This skill was first introduced in 1970s by Bandler and Glinder to create a successful therapeutic model. This therapeutic model was created to make effective ways of thinking and communicating [21].

… [22-25].The results of research by Akbarzadeh showed that the use of neuro-linguistic planning strategies increases self-efficacy, self-confidence, and performance of disabled athletes [26]. Moraro et al. in their research showed that the use of all NLP subunits in mental exercises is important and increases the performance of the sport [27] … [28]. In the study of Suardalavar and Bagheri, the use of meta-pattern (one of the NLP techniques) led to a significant difference in the experimental group compared to the control group both in the reconstruction of the verbal model and in the athletic state self-confidence [24].

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of training neuro-linguistic planning strategies on mental strength of disabled and veteran athletes.

This is a semi-experimental research with pretest and posttest design.

This study was conducted in 2016 among all male physical-movement disabled athletes and veterans in Tabriz City.

30 samples were selected using convenience sampling method and were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups (each 15 subjects).

The instrument used in this study was a Sheard et al. Questionnaire for Mental Toughness which is the only special tool for assessing mental strength in exercise and evaluates mental strength with three main factors: confidence, stability and control. The reliability of this questionnaire was evaluated through Cronbach's alpha, and the subscales of confidence, stability and control with the reliability of 0.84, 0.74, and 0.71 respectively had acceptable reliability. The validity of the questionnaire, also, was confirmed by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis [6]. The method of conducting research was that after randomly substituting participants into two experimental and control group, all participants were trained in their specific physical fitness skills for a period of 24 sessions during 2 months (three sessions a weeks each for 90 minutes). After a randomized placement, a pretest was taken to ensure that the groups did not differ in mental strength, so that if a significant difference was observed, the pretest scores were considered as covariate. Subsequently, the experimental group was subjected to NLP intervention. Participants in the experimental group performed two sessions per week, each session 30 minutes before the start of training and physical fitness training for two months, and completed a total of 16 sessions of neuro-linguistic planning strategies. The placebo control group also performed exactly the same exercises in the experimental group, and the only difference was the intervention's content before the training began. The use of placebo control group instead of mere control group in which no intervention has been done, is one of the weaknesses in the methodological skills of mental skills, which may lead to Hawthorne's effect on participants, and thereby seriously threatens the internal validity of the research[15]. After completing 24 sessions of physical fitness training and NLP interventions, the Questionnaire of Mental Toughness was distributed again among all the participants and was completed by them. The proposed neuro-linguistic planning intervention was a combination of existing methods in this field derived from the previous studies [11, 14, 15, 18, and 24]. This intervention was presented to the experimental group as a half-hour workshop for 16 sessions in 8 weeks. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics were used to examine the demographic characteristics and Shapiro-Wilk's statistical test was used to examine the random distribution of data; multivariate analysis of covariance was also used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention.

The mean age of subjects was 35.69±5.40 years in the range of 23 to 48 years. In the post-test, the mean mental toughness score was significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group (p=0.001). Also, 44.2% of mental toughness variance was explained by NLP strategies. Mean score of self-confidence scores (p=0.026) and control (p=0.001) were significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group. However, there was no significant difference between the control and experimental groups regarding the stability component (p=0.637). In addition, 50.5% of confidence variance and 18.2% of control variance were explained by NLP strategies (Table 1).

In the first explanation, NLP as mental skills directly enhance mental strength in the disabled athletes and veterans. The result of this research is consistent with the research results that show that the training of these strategies affects mental strength [26, 28-30]. Because in the training process of neuro-linguistic planning strategies, many strategies are taught to the participants such as targeting, time management, assertiveness skills, and representation systems, with acquisition of these strategies, different variations are created in the individual and interpersonal characteristics of the learners that this characteristics increase the mental strength of participants [31]. On the other hand, the use of meta verbal plan (verbal clarification, educational self-verbal, and motivation) leads to the improvement of stability (sustainability) component by reducing the internal and external distraction factors and focusing one the execution stages of the skill in the difficult and high-level pressure condition. In addition to the above issues, using motivational expressions improves the confidence component of mental strength [15]. The last strategy is the use of illustration along with observation of principles of conditional behaviors in which the athlete increases the confidence component of mental toughness by reviewing the previous achievements. Also, with this strategy, the individual reaches a mental state that increases his motivation and commitment, especially in high-pressure conditions, and thus improves the stability component of mental strength [26]. However, on the other hand, the results of this study are inconsistent with the other studies that used this intervention to improve problem-solving ability and self-efficacy and did not report a significant effect [32, 33].

It is suggested that future intervention be investigated in both sexes, in other sports, at different ages and levels of physical fitness.

The limitations of this study included limitations in sample size, sport, and various levels of fitness, age and gender.

Training of neuro-linguistics planning strategies is effective on the mental strength of disabled and veteran athletes and improves their athletic performance.

We would like to thanks to the work of the research team, the chairman and secretary of the Sport Delegation of Veterans and Disable People in the East Azarbaijan Province, and all the athletes who devoted their valuable time to this study, and we wish them all a happy and healthy future.

Non-declared

For participation of the subjects in the study, the consent form was distributed and collected. Information about individuals was kept confidentially and the subjects who were interested in receiving the results of the study were informed these results by e-mail.

The resources required for this study were provided by the researchers.

TABLES and CHARTS

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