TY - JOUR

T1 - Competitive Performance Effects of Psychological Skill Training for Youth Swimmers

AU - Meggs, Jennifer

AU - Chen, Mark A.

N1 - The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Perceptual and Motor Skills, 126 (5), 2019, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2019 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Perceptual and Motor Skills page: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/pms/ on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/

PY - 2019/10/1

Y1 - 2019/10/1

N2 - This study assessed the effect of two different psychological methods of skills training-self-talk and goal setting-on the swimming performance of youth swimmers. We allocated a convenience sample of club and county level youth swimmers ( N  = 49; M age  = 10.8, SD  = 1.25) to one of the three groups: self-talk, goal setting, or a control group engaged in no systematic psychological method of skills training. The groups were balanced in terms of competitive performance ability, age, and gender. Participants in the experimental conditions (self-talk and goal setting) completed a 5-week psychological skills intervention program and were measured on pre- and post-200-m swimming time in competition. After controlling for level of engagement in the program, analysis of covariance revealed a significant omnibus effect ( p  = .006, η p 2  = .20) with post hoc pairwise comparisons using magnitude-based statistics demonstrating that goal setting had a small positive effect compared with self-talk ( η 2 = .40; ± 0.45). Both self-talk ( η 2 = .50; ±0.48) and goal setting ( η 2 = .71; ±0.4) showed a small and moderate positive effect, respectively, relative to the control group. A social validation check confirmed that the swimmers found the intervention to be relevant, beneficial, and meaningful for improving performance. Psychological skills training may be effective in improving youth swimming performance; specific mechanisms underlying these benefits need further exploration.

AB - This study assessed the effect of two different psychological methods of skills training-self-talk and goal setting-on the swimming performance of youth swimmers. We allocated a convenience sample of club and county level youth swimmers ( N  = 49; M age  = 10.8, SD  = 1.25) to one of the three groups: self-talk, goal setting, or a control group engaged in no systematic psychological method of skills training. The groups were balanced in terms of competitive performance ability, age, and gender. Participants in the experimental conditions (self-talk and goal setting) completed a 5-week psychological skills intervention program and were measured on pre- and post-200-m swimming time in competition. After controlling for level of engagement in the program, analysis of covariance revealed a significant omnibus effect ( p  = .006, η p 2  = .20) with post hoc pairwise comparisons using magnitude-based statistics demonstrating that goal setting had a small positive effect compared with self-talk ( η 2 = .40; ± 0.45). Both self-talk ( η 2 = .50; ±0.48) and goal setting ( η 2 = .71; ±0.4) showed a small and moderate positive effect, respectively, relative to the control group. A social validation check confirmed that the swimmers found the intervention to be relevant, beneficial, and meaningful for improving performance. Psychological skills training may be effective in improving youth swimming performance; specific mechanisms underlying these benefits need further exploration.

KW - goal setting

KW - mental toughness

KW - peak performance

KW - psychological skills training

KW - self-talk

KW - swimming

U2 - 10.1177/0031512519852533

DO - 10.1177/0031512519852533

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 31185808

AN - SCOPUS:85067796381

VL - 126

SP - 886

EP - 903

JO - Perceptual and Motor Skills

JF - Perceptual and Motor Skills

SN - 0031-5125

IS - 5

ER -