Comparative Study of Mental Toughness between Racket Game Players and Ball Game Players

Mental Toughness is a widely used expression in modern sports. It is a quality which differentiates winner from the loser, the champion from the rest of the field. Basically sportsman with mental toughness has the ability to raise their game to the highest level at crucial moments in a match. This also implies that the mental toughness gives them the necessary focus and ability to concentrate on the job in hand. Mental Toughness is the ability to concentrate on the proceeding of a particular sporting discipline and not let the pressure of the match situation or the sense of occasion to get the better of the player. Sportsman, whether from Racket game or ball game players are constantly under stress and anxiety while competing in tournaments, they struggle for each point or score and often put their best efforts to get success. In competitions, there are situations that require the utmost concentration to face difficult circumstances. It is always questionable that which Players, Volleyball or Football, possesses better mental toughness. Therefore, observing the felt requirement, we consider it necessary to attempt to study the Mental Toughness of Racket players and Ball game players of LNIPE, Gwalior.

For the purpose to examine Mental Toughness, 20 racket game players and 20 ball game Players of LNIPE Gwalior were purposively selected to serve as subjects. For the collection of data Mental Toughness Questionnaire (1995) prepared by Allan Goldberg was administered. The Questionnaire comprised of 60 questions/statements based on Handling Pressure (20 questions), Concentration (17 questions), Mental rebounding (14 questions) and Winning attitude (09 questions). Every statement had 2 possible responses i.e. True or False. To analyze the data, collected by administering the questionnaire to all the subjects of University level „t‟ test was employed.

To find out the significant difference in Mental Toughness between racket Players and Ball game Players „t‟ test was employed at 0.05 level of significance. The statistical analysis of data pertaining to the Mental Toughness is given below.

It is evident from table 1 that there was significant difference in Mental Toughness between the Racket game and ball game players of LNIPE, Gwalior since the calculated „t‟ value 03.49 was found to be more than tabulated value 2.00 at 0.05 level of significance. Thus, data provides significant evidence to ensure that the mean Mental Toughness of the racket game was found significantly higher than the mean Mental Toughness of the ball game Players of LNIPE, Gwalior

The findings of the study revealed that there was statistically significant difference between the Mental Toughness of racket game Players and the ball game Players of LNIPE, Gwalior. This clearly indicates that the mean Mental Toughness of the Racket game may be attributed to the fact that the racket games involve themselves more to prepare mentally to participate in various tactical moves in different situations during the game. Therefore necessary care needs to be taken in training to enhance or cope up the Mental Toughness of Racket players and Ball game Players.

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Assistant Professor, LNIPE, Gwalior E-Mail – niburkrishna@gmail.com