The Comparative Analysis of Mental Toughness and Will to Win Between Amateurs and Experienced Sportsmen of Various Sports

“When the going gets tough, the tough gets going” is one way to say it. Or, as one sports psychologist put it, mental toughness is “the ability to consistently perform toward the upper range of your talent and skill regardless of competitive circumstances.” Mental toughness is a quality of players to cope up better than your opponents and unshakeable pre service conviction towards same goal despite pressure and adversity. JONES et al., (2002) defines that “cope better than your opponents with the many demands (competition, training, and lifestyle) that sports places on a performer. Specifically be more consistent and better than your opponents in remaining determined, focussed, confident, and in control under pressure.” The psychological characteristics of Olympic champions identified that mental toughness as a significant contributor to sports performance enhancement (GOULD et al., 2002). Will to win is the extent to which a person desires to reach some standard of excellence or defeat of opponent. The athletes high in will to win mainly compete to first position and may have something of win at all cost attitude. WHITE (1959) found that will to win is also related with competitive and by acknowledging this, an athlete is able to put in his best and complete the activity successfully. DAINO (1985) defined as “the intensity of desire to defeat an opponent or to exceed some performance standard in given sports.” Will to win is an important parameter which makes great competitors. It has been observed in some competitions that players who although lacked physical fitness ended up winning the match, all due to their determination to win. A correct attitude towards winning always helps in achieving high performance in sports. This ability to work to one’s full potential is directly related to an individual’s Will to Win. Low will to win indicates that competitors are careless about winning.

The present study was conducted on male sportsmen and based on their playing experience; they were further divided into two groups. The sportsmen who had represented at least three universities were categorized into experienced players and further those who were in B. PEd first year and had no experience of playing universities were categorized into amateurs. Purposive sampling was used for the study. The data was collected in Lakshmi Bai National Institute of Physical Education, Gwalior. 60 subjects were selected for the present study, which study was delimited to 18 – 28 years.

For the collection of data mental toughness questionnaire prepared by Allan Goldberg (1995) was administered. The questionnaire comprised of 60 questions/statements based on Handling Pressure (20 questions), Concentration (17 questions), Mental Rebounding (14 questions) and Winning attitudes (09 questions). Every statement had two possible responses i.e. true or false. Will to win level was measured by applying will to win questionnaire prepared by Kumar and Shukla (1988). Will to win questionnaire consists of 14 items which measure the will to win and only yes/no option for answers.

The results of mental toughness and will to win of amateur and experienced cricket players are presented in tables and interpretations are given accordingly.

Table 1- F- and T-table for the testing of variances and equality of means of two unrelated groups of amateurs and experienced players with regard to concentration ability, confidence ability, handling To test the equality of variances, Levene’s test was used. The, F-value is insignificant as the p-value is more than .05 Thus the null hypothesis of equality of variances may be accepted, and it is concluded that the variances of the two groups are equal. In case of concentration ability it can be seen from Table 1 that the value of t statistic is -2.765. The t value is significant as its p value is which is less than .05.thus it is concluded that the concentration ability of experienced players is more than that of amateur players. In confidence ability it can be seen from Table 1, that the value of t statistic is -2.697. The t value is significant as its p value is which is less than .05.thus it is concluded that the confidence ability of experienced players is more than that of amateur players. In case of ability to handle pressure it can be seen from Table 1, that the value of t statistic is -2.849. The t value is significant as its p value is which is less than .05.thus it is concluded that the ability to handle pressure of experienced players is more than that of amateur players. In case of reboundability it can be seen from Table 1, that the value of t statistic is -2.915. The t value is significant as its p value is which is less than .05.thus it is concluded that the reboundabillity of experienced players is more than that of amateur players. In case of mental toughness(total) it can be seen from Table 1 that the value of t statistic is -2.941. The t value is significant as its p value is which is less than .05.thus it is concluded that the mental toughness(total) of experienced players is more than that of amateur players. It case of motivation it can be seen from Table 1 that the value of t statistic is 1.116. the t value is insignificant as its p value .269 is which is more than .05.thus it is concluded that the motivation of experienced players is not more than that of amateur players. Table 2 F- and T-table for the testing of variances and equality of means of two unrelated groups of amateurs and experienced with regard to Will to Win.

Graph 1- depicting the mean values of the two groups on the mental toughness factor. Graph 2- depicting the mean values of the two groups on the will to win factor One of the conditions for using the two sample t-ratio for the unrelated groups is the variance of the two groups must be equal. To test the equality of variances, Levene’s test was used. In table 7 , F- value is .335 which is significant as the p value is . 565 which is less than .05. Thus the null hypothesis of equality of variances may not be accepted, and it is concluded that the variances of the two groups are not equal. It can be seen from Table 7 that the value of t statistic is -1.377. the t value is insignificant as its p value is which is more than .05.thus it is concluded that the Will to win of experienced players is less than that of amateur players.

It is concluded from the above findings that significant differences were found between amateurs and ability and overall mental toughness. Golby and Sheard (2004) have also reported professional rugby league footballers performers playing at the highest standard (International players) having scored significantly higher in all three hardiness subscales (commitment, control and challenge) and in two of the seven mental toughness subscales (negative energy control and attention control). Chen and Mark(2013) who also investigated whether mental toughness distinguishes mixed martial art (MMA) athletes competing at different levels. There were statistically significant differences between the three groups on mental toughness. The professional group had higher scores compared to semi-professional and amateur groups with regard to confidence, positive cognition, and determination. The findings supported previous work that athletes performing at higher levels have superior mental toughness. However, no significant differences were noticed regarding the sub variables i.e. motivation. It has been also concluded that insignificant differences were noticed between amateurs and experienced sportsmen on the variable will to win. Thus it is concluded that the motivation of experienced players is not more than that of amateur players. Newland et al. (2013), however, found no differences between starters and non-starters basketball players and suggest that it is possible that the constituents of mental toughness may differ in particular sports. It has been also concluded that insignificant differences were noticed between amateurs and experienced sportsmen on the variable will to win.

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