Intervention of Autogenous Training Techniques for Psychological Preparedness of Sports School Students

Abstract

Athletes' success in sports is linked not only to good physical, technical and tactical preparedness, but also to psychological fitness. In sports psychology there are two basic types of psychological preparation, namely general psychological preparation and special psychological preparation. Just as comprehensive physical preparation is the basis for an athlete's special, technical, tactical fitness, so comprehensive psychological preparation is the basis for an athlete's mental toughness both during the training and competing. Regardless of the stressors, the athletes with higher levels of mental toughness can overcome more easily the negative effects of stress. In order to gain mental toughness skills, it is necessary to develop basic psychological skills at the same time as starting sports activities, and this process should continue in parallel with the entire training process. The aim of the study: to explore the intervention benefits of autogenous training (AT) techniques for improving the psychological skills of young women volleyball players. Research method: a survey was employed for obtaining the athletes' feedback. Results: Statistically significant changes were found in the self-assessment of athletes' well-being after autogenous training. The self-assessment results show that athletes reach different AT acquisition levels as the result of a two-month AT intervention: 7.7% of athletes do not have difficulty with AT techniques, for 30.8% AT come easy, but not always, 53.8% of athletes sometimes manage to feel warmth in different parts of the body, relax, concentrate, focus attention on breathing and repetition of the target formulas, but for 7.7% of athletes the acquisition results of AT techniques are poor.

The relationship between physical activity intensity, sleep quality and stress levels in adolescent physical fitness

“…This study's results align with previous research (Vecenane & Vazne, 2022). They conducted a study on 220 college students and concluded that those who engage in regular physical activity have better levels of physical fitness and reduced levels of mental stress compared to their peers who do not exercise.…”