School of Biokinetics, Recreation and Sport Science, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, Potchefstroom, South Africa; School of Psychosocial Behavioural Sciences, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, Potchefstroom, South Africa; North-West University, Private bag X6001, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa
Heever, Z.V.D., School of Biokinetics, Recreation and Sport Science, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, Potchefstroom, South Africa; Grobbelaar, H.W., School of Biokinetics, Recreation and Sport Science, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, Potchefstroom, South Africa, North-West University, Private bag X6001, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa; Potgieter, J.C., School of Psychosocial Behavioural Sciences, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, Potchefstroom, South Africa
The purpose of this study was to compare junior netball players, from successful and less successful provincial teams, regarding their sport psychological skill (SPS) levels. One hundred and forty four female South African provincial netball players (19.08 ± 1.68 years) completed three sport psychological questionnaires (CSAI-2, ACSI-28 and PSI). The results show that the successful players obtained better results than their less successful counterparts in 13 of the 19 tested sport psychological variables. Moderate practically significant differences were found between the groups for peaking under pressure (d = 0.44), cognitive state anxiety direction (d = 0.35) and state sell-confidence direction (d = 0.47). A forward stepwise discriminant analysis identified eight of the tested 19 variables as discriminators between the two groups with self-confidence intensity, mental rehearsal and peaking under pressure reported as significant discriminators. The developed prediction functions further proved to be 69.44% effective in classifying the players into their original groups. The important role of physiological conditioning, morphological attributes, technical and tactical abilities etc. should also be taken into account when comparing more and less successful netball players as it plays a major part in the performance outcome of netball teams. The results of this study clearly highlight the important contribution of sport psychological skills to netball performance. ©2007 Teviot Scientific Publications.