John H. Salmela *, Shamsi S. Monfared **, Fatolla Mosayebi ** and Natalie Durand-Bush *
(*) University of Ottawa, Canada
(**) National Olympic Committee of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iran
Citation
H. Salmela, J., S. Monfared, S., Mosayebi, F., Durand-Bush, N. (2009). Mental skill profiles and expertise levels of elite Iranian athletes. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 40(3), 361-373.
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to determine whether differences between of the OMSAT-3 scales occurred with an international sample of Iranian athletes with various levels of expertise in sport, e.g., qualifiers versus non-qualifiers or medalists versus non-medalists. Durand-Bush, Salmela and Green-Demers (2001) showed how the OMSAT-3 differentiated between international and national level Canadian athletes on most mental skill scales after ANOVA and MANOVA analyses. It was believed that with the present sample, fewer scales would differentiate between skill levels. Six months prior to the 15th Asian Games in Doha, the Persian version of the OMSAT-3 was administered to 208 Iranian athletes, 110 of whom were selected for the Games in 15 different sports. An overall ANOVA revealed that the selected athletes reported higher mental skill scores. Post-hoc analyses revealed that stress reactions and refocusing skills separated the selected and non-selected athletes at (p < .05) and that the relaxation skill differences approached borderline significance. Following the Games, 38 medal winners and 30 non-medalists were compared and it was found that the stress reaction scale was the only one that differentiated between both groups of athletes. This demonstrated there are expertise-related differences between selected OMSAT-3 scales in international sport.
Keywords: Expertise, International sport performance, Iranian athletes, Mental skills