A Comparative Study of the Mental Toughness among Different Level of Football Players

Examining the Variations in Mental Toughness Among Football Players of Different Levels

Abstract

Mental toughness is having a natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to normally cope better than your opponents with the many demands (competition, training, lifestyle) that sports places on a performer (Jones et al. 2002). The purpose of the present study was to compare the mental toughness among male football players of U-15, U-17 and senior level. A total of 90 male state and national level football players completed Psychological Performance Inventory (PPI) for mental toughness. To determine the difference of Mental Toughness level among players One-Way ANOVA was used for determining the differences across groups and was tested at 0.05 level. The results revealed that there was a significant difference found in the sub factors of mental toughness (Self -confidence, negative energy control, attitude control, visualization and imagery control and attitude control among the levels or groups, with no significant differences in the sub factors of motivation and positive energy). The senior level players had a significantly higher score on visualization and imagery and attitude control. The U-15 had a significantly higher score on the negative energy control and attention control. Whereas, U-17 had a significantly higher score on self-confidence. Overall, results appear to indicate that from an early age, some differences in regard to mental toughness can be found depending on the level of performance.