THE EVALUATION OF MENTAL ABILITIES OF ATHLETES IN DIFFERENT BRANCHES

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, Ağduman 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”, “Agree”, “Slightly agree” and “Strongly agree”. Frequency Analysis was 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 sub-dimensions 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.Article visualizations

The mediator role of communication skill in the relationship between empathy, team cohesion, and competition performance in curlers

Understanding the psycho-social factors such as communication, empathy, cohesion, etc., that affect successful athletic performance is a high priority and primary focus for applied sports psychology. Detailed examination of the athletes' psycho-social characteristics is essential in revealing which processes play an active role in achieving optimum performance. Developing these features of the athlete can contribute to coordinating the team, sharing tasks, increasing motivation, preparing team members for a change, and improving performance. For this purpose, the mediating role of communication skills in the relationship between empathy, team cohesion, and competition performance was examined in a sample of 241 curlers competing in 69 teams in the Turkish Curling League in the 2021-2022 season. During the data collection process, Personal Information Form, Empathic Tendency Scale, Scale for Effective Communication in Team Sport, and Group Environment Questionnaire were used. Competition performance was calculated by giving 1 point for each match won by the teams in the competitions in which the single-circuit round-robin system is applied. Structural equation modeling was used in data analysis to determine the direct and indirect predictive effects between variables. The study showed that empathy and team cohesion predict competition performance through communication skills, and communication skills fully mediate this relationship. Based on the research results, it was evaluated that communication skills have a substantial effect on the competitive performance of athletes, and this finding was discussed in the context of the literature

The Role of Hand, Eye, and Ear Lateralization in the Sense of Rhythm of the Athletes

This study was carried out to investigate the relationship among the hand, eye, and ear lateralizations and the sense of rhythm of the athletes randomly selected from different sport branches.A total of 115 elite athletes including 72 males (62.6%) and 43 females (37.4%) whose mean age was 22.3±2.4 years and who receive training at different departments of the Faculty of Sports Sciences, Ataturk University were included in the study. Hand preference was assessed based on the Geschwind score by applying Edinburgh Inventory test. The dominant eye was tested by the Dolman Method (hole-in-the-card test). Hearing durations were measured using 128 Hz diapason and digital chronometer. The rhythm perception and application skills were assessed considering the rhythmic answers given practically to the rhythm patterns previously prepared by the researcher.As for the handedness of the athletes, 16.5% of them were left-handed (n=19), 7.8% (n=9) were two-handed, and 75.7% (n=87) were right-handed. While 18.3% (n=21) had good hearing durations with left ear, and 13.9% (n=16) had good hearing durations with right ear, 67.8% (n=78) had very close hearing durations with two ears. While left eye of 41.7% (n=48) was dominant, the right eye of 58.3% (n=67) was dominant. According to the rhythm perception and application test results, 46.1% of the athletes were weak (n=53), 30.4% at the midlevel (n=35), 13.9% (n=16) good, and 9.6% (n=11) at very good level.No significant relationship was found between the eye and ear lateralization of the athletes and their rhythm perception and application skills; however, it was found that the sense of rhythm of the left-handed individuals was better than the right-handed ones with respect to the handedness

THE PRACTICIBALITY OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORT COURSE IN CITY-CENTERS OF EAST ANATOLIAN REGION, THE PROBLEMS OF THE PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON STUDENT'S ATTITUDES

Bu araştırmanın amacı, Doğu Anadolu bölgesindeki il merkezlerinde bulunan ilköğretim ve ortaöğretim okullarında beden eğitimi dersi için gerekli alt yapı ve malzeme durumunu belirlemek, beden eğitimi öğretmenlerinin sorunlarını ve öğrencilerin beden eğitimi dersine ilişkin tutumlarını araştırmaktır. Araştırmanın evrenini, 20082009 eğitim-öğretim yılında Doğu Anadolu bölgesi il merkezlerinde faaliyet gösteren, Milli Eğitim Bakanlığına bağlı ilköğretim ve ortaöğretim okullarında görev yapan 522 beden eğitimi öğretmeni ve bu okullarda öğrenim gören 216000 öğrenci oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmanın örneklemini ise Doğu Anadolu bölgesinde bulunan (Ağrı, Erzincan, Ardahan, Bingöl, Elazığ, Muş, Malatya, Erzurum, Kars, Iğdır) illerin şehir merkezlerinde bulunan ilköğretim ve ortaöğretim okullarında görev yapan 277 öğretmen ve bu okullarda öğrenim gören 5825 öğrenci oluşturmaktadır Araştırmada verilerin toplanmasında üç farklı veri toplama aracından yararlanılmıştır. Bunlar öğretmen sorunlarını belirleme formu, beden eğitimi dersine karşın tutum anketi ve okul araç gereç belirleme formudur. Bu gruplara uygulanan anketlerden oluşan veriler SPSS for Windows 12.00 istatistik programında değerlendirildi. İstatistiksel işlem olarak Ki-kare, Pearson Momentler Çarpımı, Korelasyon, Tek Yönlü Varyans, LSD Post Hoc Testi analizlerini kullanılmıştır. Verilerin istatistiksel analizi ve yorumlarında p=0.05 anlamlılık düzeyi dikkate alınmıştır. v Araştırmada il merkezlerindeki okullarda spor malzemelerinin ve spor salonlarının yetersiz olduğu. Beden Eğitimi öğretmenlerinin dersle ilgili karşılaştıkları sorunların başında ders saatinin yetersiz geldiği görülmüştür. Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi'nin iklim koşullarından kaynaklanan sebeplerden dolayı kış aylarında büyük oranda ders yapma imkânının olmadığı ve iklim koşulları yüzünden Beden Eğitimi öğretmenlerinin genelde ders planlarını hazırladıklarını fakat uygulayamadıkları görülmüştür. Bölgenin sosyo-kültürel şartları göz önüne alındığında Beden Eğitimi ve Spor derslerine kız öğrencilerin katılımının yüksek olduğu gözlemlenmiştir.In this study, it is aimed to investigate the facilities and equipments that are necessary for teaching physical education and sports at primary and secondary schools in Eastern Anatolian city centers and to determine the problems of physical education teachers and their effects on attitudes of studens towards physical education. The universe of the survey consists of 522 physical education teachers who work at primary and secondary schools in Eastern Anatolian city-centers in 2008-2009 and 216.000 students in these schools. The sampling of the survey includes teachers (277) and students (5825) at the schools in Eastern Anatolian city-centers (Ağrı, Erzincan, Ardahan, Bingöl, Elazığ, Muş, Malatya, Erzurum, Kars, Iğdır). It has been benefited from three different data gathering instruments for the acquisiton of the data. These instuments are the form of designation of teachers problems, the questionnare of attitude toward physical education lesson, and the form of designation of school equipments. The data obtained from questionnares applied on the groups has been evaluated by SPSS for Windows statistic programme. Statistical test were used analysis of chi-square, one-way variance, the test of LSD Post Hoc. The significance level of p=0.05 is taken into consideration during the statistical analysis and interpretation of the data. According to results of the study: 53% of the schools in the city-centers had insufficient sport equipments and 78% of them did not have gyms. 71% of the Physical Education Teachers claimed that course hours per week was inadequate, 71% of the Physical Education Teachers stated that they had problems during the practice of the lesson due to inconvenient climatic conditions of the region. Although there was unfavourable socio-cultural conditions, it had been observed that 98% of the female students attended physical education and sport courses