Classification of mental states of athletes

In modern conditions, a person's life, their success in work, in joint work, in everyday life, in communication, in sports largely depends on the ability to regulate their behavior, restrain their feelings, control their mood, taking into account the demands of others and the situation.

This applies entirely to such a complex and respectable type of human activity as sports. Holding competitions, where the athlete is required to give their full effort, working at the limit of their capabilities creates situations in which the athlete needs to regulate their mental state. If the physical exertion is high, and the athlete does not manage his condition well, excessive mental stress occurs, which reduces the effectiveness of the activity, leads to its disorganization, and as a result to a loss, which can lead to loss of self-confidence, to mental stress, depression.

It is undeniable that both among the components of success and among the causes of defeat in a sports competition, a certain share belongs to the mental state of the athlete before and during the competition. The modern level of sports science allows us to recognize the dependence of the effectiveness and reliability of an athlete's competitive activity on his mental state that precedes or accompanies it.

A sports situation is accompanied by significant mental and emotional tension and acquires the character of a stressful one. The complexity of the picture of psychological stress can be adequately understood only when analyzing a fairly large number of its manifestations.

At this time, in a dispute between athletes who are equal in their physical, technical, and tactical capabilities, the one who is better able to manage his mental state, who is psychologically more resistant to the influence of various stress factors, who has the ability to self-control and self-regulation, and psychoregulation, usually wins.

But not only competitive activity places high demands on the ability to manage one's state. The ability to self-control and self-regulation in the training process is no less important.

Modern sport is characterized by a significant increase in training loads, in some sports - by 4-5 times. This, in turn, led to an increase in mental stress. The monotony of the training process, caused by repeated repetition of the same exercises, movements that contribute to their improvement, the uniformity of the training environment cause not only physical fatigue, but also enormous mental stress. This requires carefully thought-out, systematic psychological preparation, one of the components of which is teaching athletes methods of self-control and psychoregulation.

The emergence of a mentally stressful state is a fairly frequent phenomenon in sports practice, caused by reasons of an objective and subjective nature. Subjective reasons include: upcoming performance in a competition, insufficient preparation of the athlete, responsibility for performance at the competition, uncertainty in a successful performance, health status (unsatisfactory), excessive excitability and anxiety as personal qualities, individual psychological characteristics of the personality, successful and unsuccessful performance in previous starts and in the first starts of a real competition, the athlete's attitude to failures. Objective reasons include: the strength of the opponents, the organization of the competition, biased refereeing, the behavior of the coach at the competition or his absence from the competition, the team's mood, and improperly organized pre-competition preparation.

Today, in sports practice, it is a common phenomenon when athletes compete in competitions, not sufficiently prepared - physically, technically, tactically, psychologically. This becomes obvious already during the period of direct preparation for the competition. The athlete has a reluctance to compete, which causes a natural reaction of the body for such a case, which does not ensure the athlete's mobilization readiness for the start. As a result, an unfavorable mental state of uncertainty, anxiety, fear, apathy is formed. Unfortunately, many coaches do not attach importance to this and include the athlete in the team. Naturally, the performance of an athlete with insufficient preparation will not be successful and will cause negative emotions after the competition. The coach needs fairly complete information about the athlete's attitude to the upcoming competition. Repeated performances of an athlete with insufficient preparation lead to the consolidation of negative emotions, reluctance to compete and the constant occurrence of unfavorable pre-start states according to the principle of a conditioned reflex.

From a psychological point of view, a state of stress includes a specific form of reflection by a person of an extreme situation and a model of behavior as an appropriate reaction to this reflection.

A state of stress can be acute or chronic. Previously, it was believed that only extreme situations could be a provocateur of stress. In this case, we are dealing with acute stress. Now the peculiarities of the existence of society, in particular information overload, are the cause of chronic forms of stress.

The emergence of adverse emotional states, both due to negative personality traits and situational ones, caused by extreme (especially difficult) conditions of activity, makes it necessary to develop means of their prevention and regulation, as well as the education of emotional personality traits that contribute to high emotional stability.

General concept of mental states in athletes

A mental state is mental activity in a certain period of time, which shows the peculiarities of the course of mental processes determined by the conditions of the external environment and the characteristics of the individual.

The formulation of the problem of psychological states in sports activities is of great practical importance. Success in a duel depends on taking into account not only the athlete's personality, but also his temporary mental states.

Until recently, the vast majority of studies of mental states in sports were related to the pre-start period. The first descriptions and classifications of starting states have a rather short life span (Puni A.Ts., Chernikova O.A.).

The practice of sports necessitates a theoretical analysis of these states and, first of all, their classification.

It is necessary to dwell on the very concept of "mental state". In our opinion, it is possible to classify mental states only depending on the activity they accompany. When analyzing, it is worth considering:

Personal and situational states.

Deep and superficial states.

Positive or negative states.

Long and short states.

More and less conscious states.

The existing classification of pre-starting states takes into account only the previous sports activity state. As for the states characteristic of direct sports activity (conditionally called "game"), then, of course, when classifying them, they should be distinguished taking into account the features of the pre-starting states preceding them.

Adverse states disrupt the optimal course of mental functions, form negative, not adequate to social requirements, features and properties of the athlete's personality, worsen the effectiveness of actions, destroy sports form, weaken mental and physical health.

The unfavorable conditions include:

associated with negative asocial character traits and personality traits, obsessive and persistent in their manifestations (for example, arrogance);

reducing results, socially significant sports activities, asthenic or passive emotions, for example, complacency, apathy;

distracting from the main sports task, directed at extraneous objects, which are active in nature, but lead away from the main activity, for example, certain worries, excitement, anger caused by personal relationships;

adversely affecting physical and mental health (irritating the psyche, causing gross dysfunction of internal organs, weakening the body's defenses).

Classification of mental states of athletes

The mental state of an athlete that he experiences before the start of the competition is expressed in relation to the upcoming struggle, in the assessment of his capabilities, in the strengthening of the processes of excitation, in the change of mental processes associated with the reception and processing of incoming information. In training and competitive activities, various mental states may arise, causing ambiguous changes in the body and differently affecting the athlete's activity. The following mental states are considered the most common.

State of anxiety

The state of anxiety is the most common state in athletes before the start and before the first complex exercise performed. It occurs in an athlete before the start, the results of which are significant for him, but the result is unknown. Symptoms of the state of anxiety are as follows: doubt in future results, slowing down of motor reactions, disruption of the respiratory cycle, reduction in the volume and frequency of respiratory movements. The state of anxiety is increased by the athlete's uncertainty.

State of fear

This state occurs before performing dangerous sports exercises (possibility of failure and injury) and before meeting a strong opponent (boxing, wrestling, etc.). Symptoms of the state of fear are as follows: increased heart rate, pallor or redness of the skin, dilated pupils, numbness, tremor, inhibition. It is worth bearing in mind that the course of the state of fear and its symptoms are influenced by the athlete's personal characteristics (properties of the nervous system, strong-willed qualities).

State of monotony

is most characteristic of marathon runners, skiers, skaters, rowers, weightlifters, cyclists, etc. The state of monotony is characterized by: a decrease in interest in training work, premature fatigue, weakening of attention, a feeling of dissatisfaction, drowsiness, an increase in the time of complex reaction, responding to erroneous attacks of the opponent, a shortening of the time of simple reaction.

State of mental oversaturation

This state, as a rule, appears after monotony, but can also occur independently. Symptoms of this state include: excitement, irritability, aversion to the work being performed, shortening of the time of complex reaction, decrease in heart rate, breathing, lung ventilation and energy expenditure.

State of stress

Stress caused by the athlete's participation in competitions is a holistic psychophysiological state of the individual that arises in a difficult situation, associated with an active positive attitude to the activity being performed, characterized by conscious responsibility and accompanied by non-specific vegetative and emotional changes. In a state of stress, both positive and negative shifts in the activity being performed can occur. The dynamics of the state of stress are due to the properties of the nervous system. The level of achievements of an athlete in a state of stress is determined by the degree of development of stress and the strength of the nervous system.

Stress has physiological, psychological, personal and medical signs. In addition, any stress necessarily includes emotional tension.

Physiological signs: wheezing, rapid pulse, redness or pallor of the skin of the face, increased adrenaline in the blood, sweating.

Psychological signs: change in the dynamics of mental functions, most often slowing down mental operations, distraction, weakening of memory function, reduction of sensory sensitivity, inhibition of the decision-making process.

Personal signs: complete suppression of the will, decreased self-control, passivity and stereotyped behavior, inability to make creative decisions, increased suggestibility, fear, anxiety, unmotivated anxiety.

Medical signs: increased nervousness, the presence of hysterical reactions, fainting, affects, headaches, insomnia.

In the dynamics of stress, three stages of its development are distinguished.

1. The anxiety stage is characterized by the fact that under the influence of psychotraumatic factors, a person experiences anxiety, worry, and the physiological functions of the body (heart rate, breathing, blood pressure) are rebuilt. The body's resistance decreases. Then, the mobilization of internal adaptive reserves and protective forces gradually begins, additional capabilities are revealed, and mental processes are activated. Due to this, the effectiveness of activity increases to a certain limit.

2. The stage of resistance follows the anxiety stage. The human body and its psyche are rebuilt, adapted, and adapted to new conditions of activity, actively spending internal resources. After relative stabilization, as a result of the continued impact of an extreme situation, the body weakens, performance decreases, and decline begins.

3. The stage of exhaustion is characterized by the depletion of "adaptive energy", which leads to disorganization of activity and neuro-emotional breakdown. The signs of this stage are as follows: weakening of physical and volitional activity, dulling of mental processes (thinking, perception, memory, attention), inhibition in decision-making, causeless irritation, etc.

State of uncertainty

The state of uncertainty in a successful performance is the result of the athlete's assessment of the future competitive situation. If the athlete is confident in a successful performance at the competition, then the planned result is usually achieved. The state of uncertainty (low confidence) negatively affects future activity, the planned result is not achieved.

State of frustration

The state of frustration is a human condition expressed in characteristic features of experience and behavior, caused by objectively insurmountable difficulties that arise on the way to achieving the goal (N.D. Levitiv, 1967). A similar state occurs quite often in sports, when a physical, social, imagined obstacle interferes with an action aimed at achieving a goal or interrupts it. M. Selye called frustration “the stress of a shattered hope.”

The state of frustration is considered not only as a negative phenomenon. In the behavior of many people, it also has a constructive role, contributing to the achievement of a goal. Due to its influence on the human psyche, in the motivational sphere of the individual, achievement motives often acquire a dominant value.

The constructive effect of frustration on a person is manifested in the following. There is an intensification of efforts on the way to achieving a goal. For many people, the more complex the obstacles that arise, the more actively the mobilization of internal reserves to overcome them occurs. There may be a replacement of the means of achieving the goal and a revision of previous actions, a reassessment of the entire situation, a replacement of the goal.

At a low level (threshold) of resistance (tolerance) to frustration, its destructive effect on the personality may appear, which consists in the following:

impairment of fine coordination;

cognitive limitation, due to which the subject does not see alternative ways or another goal;

emotional disturbance with partial loss of control over oneself and the situation.

With increasing frustration, generalization of aggression occurs, the vagueness and elusiveness of its source increases, impulsiveness and disorderly actions appear.

Aggressive actions associated with frustration are more often observed in ill-mannered people, unrestrained, rude, psychopathic. Depressive reactions to frustration are more common in people of a neurotic nature, insecure in themselves, anxious and distrustful.

The state of frustration in sports occurs after an unsuccessful action by an athlete, in which the motive remains unsatisfied. This condition occurs when an athlete expects success in an activity, but does not achieve it. Frustration can lead to the following forms of behavior in the athlete:

The extra-intentional form is characterized by irritability, increased sensitivity, annoyance, bitterness, stubbornness, and the desire to achieve the set goal;

The intra-intentional form is characterized by anxiety, self-blame for failures;

The impunitive form is characterized by the fact that the situation that has arisen is viewed by the athlete as insignificant for him, correctable in the future, and the athlete does not focus on it.

"Horting Encyclopedia"

Eduard Yeromenko


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This applies entirely to such a complex and respectable type of human activity as sports. Holding competitions, where the athlete is required to give their full effort, working at the limit of their capabilities creates situations in which the athlete needs to regulate their mental state. If the physical exertion is high, and the athlete does not manage his condition well, excessive mental stress occurs, which reduces the effectiveness of the activity, leads to its disorganization, and as a result to a loss, which can lead to loss of self-confidence, to mental stress, depression. It is undeniable that both among the components of success and among the causes of defeat in a sports competition, a certain share belongs to the mental state of the athlete before and during the competition. The modern level of sports science allows us to recognize the dependence of the effectiveness and reliability of an athlete's competitive activity on his mental state that precedes or accompanies it. A sports situation is accompanied by significant mental and emotional tension and acquires the character of a stressful one. The complexity of the picture of psychological stress can be adequately understood only when analyzing a fairly large number of its manifestations. At this time, in a dispute between athletes who are equal in their physical, technical, and tactical capabilities, the one who is better able to manage his mental state, who is psychologically more resistant to the influence of various stress factors, who has the ability to self-control and self-regulation, and psychoregulation, usually wins. But not only competitive activity places high demands on the ability to manage one's state. The ability to self-control and self-regulation in the training process is no less important. Modern sport is characterized by a significant increase in training loads, in some sports - by 4-5 times. This, in turn, led to an increase in mental stress. The monotony of the training process, caused by repeated repetition of the same exercises, movements that contribute to their improvement, the uniformity of the training environment cause not only physical fatigue, but also enormous mental stress. This requires carefully thought-out, systematic psychological preparation, one of the components of which is teaching athletes methods of self-control and psychoregulation. The emergence of a mentally stressful state is a fairly frequent phenomenon in sports practice, caused by reasons of an objective and subjective nature. Subjective reasons include: upcoming performance in a competition, insufficient preparation of the athlete, responsibility for performance at the competition, uncertainty in a successful performance, health status (unsatisfactory), excessive excitability and anxiety as personal qualities, individual psychological characteristics of the personality, successful and unsuccessful performance in previous starts and in the first starts of a real competition, the athlete's attitude to failures. Objective reasons include: the strength of the opponents, the organization of the competition, biased refereeing, the behavior of the coach at the competition or his absence from the competition, the team's mood, and improperly organized pre-competition preparation. Today, in sports practice, it is a common phenomenon when athletes compete in competitions, not sufficiently prepared - physically, technically, tactically, psychologically. This becomes obvious already during the period of direct preparation for the competition. The athlete has a reluctance to compete, which causes a natural reaction of the body for such a case, which does not ensure the athlete's mobilization readiness for the start. As a result, an unfavorable mental state of uncertainty, anxiety, fear, apathy is formed. Unfortunately, many coaches do not attach importance to this and include the athlete in the team. Naturally, the performance of an athlete with insufficient preparation will not be successful and will cause negative emotions after the competition. The coach needs fairly complete information about the athlete's attitude to the upcoming competition. Repeated performances of an athlete with insufficient preparation lead to the consolidation of negative emotions, reluctance to compete and the constant occurrence of unfavorable pre-start states according to the principle of a conditioned reflex. From a psychological point of view, a state of stress includes a specific form of reflection by a person of an extreme situation and a model of behavior as an appropriate reaction to this reflection. A state of stress can be acute or chronic. Previously, it was believed that only extreme situations could be a provocateur of stress. In this case, we are dealing with acute stress. Now the peculiarities of the existence of society, in particular information overload, are the cause of chronic forms of stress. The emergence of adverse emotional states, both due to negative personality traits and situational ones, caused by extreme (especially difficult) conditions of activity, makes it necessary to develop means of their prevention and regulation, as well as the education of emotional personality traits that contribute to high emotional stability. General concept of mental states in athletes A mental state is mental activity in a certain period of time, which shows the peculiarities of the course of mental processes determined by the conditions of the external environment and the characteristics of the individual. The formulation of the problem of psychological states in sports activities is of great practical importance. Success in a duel depends on taking into account not only the athlete's personality, but also his temporary mental states. Until recently, the vast majority of studies of mental states in sports were related to the pre-start period. The first descriptions and classifications of starting states have a rather short life span (Puni A.Ts., Chernikova O.A.). The practice of sports necessitates a theoretical analysis of these states and, first of all, their classification. It is necessary to dwell on the very concept of "mental state". In our opinion, it is possible to classify mental states only depending on the activity they accompany. When analyzing, it is worth considering: Personal and situational states. Deep and superficial states. Positive or negative states. Long and short states. More and less conscious states. The existing classification of pre-starting states takes into account only the previous sports activity state. As for the states characteristic of direct sports activity (conditionally called "game"), then, of course, when classifying them, they should be distinguished taking into account the features of the pre-starting states preceding them. Adverse states disrupt the optimal course of mental functions, form negative, not adequate to social requirements, features and properties of the athlete's personality, worsen the effectiveness of actions, destroy sports form, weaken mental and physical health. The unfavorable conditions include: associated with negative asocial character traits and personality traits, obsessive and persistent in their manifestations (for example, arrogance); reducing results, socially significant sports activities, asthenic or passive emotions, for example, complacency, apathy; distracting from the main sports task, directed at extraneous objects, which are active in nature, but lead away from the main activity, for example, certain worries, excitement, anger caused by personal relationships; adversely affecting physical and mental health (irritating the psyche, causing gross dysfunction of internal organs, weakening the body's defenses). Classification of mental states of athletes The mental state of an athlete that he experiences before the start of the competition is expressed in relation to the upcoming struggle, in the assessment of his capabilities, in the strengthening of the processes of excitation, in the change of mental processes associated with the reception and processing of incoming information. In training and competitive activities, various mental states may arise, causing ambiguous changes in the body and differently affecting the athlete's activity. The following mental states are considered the most common. State of anxiety The state of anxiety is the most common state in athletes before the start and before the first complex exercise performed. It occurs in an athlete before the start, the results of which are significant for him, but the result is unknown. Symptoms of the state of anxiety are as follows: doubt in future results, slowing down of motor reactions, disruption of the respiratory cycle, reduction in the volume and frequency of respiratory movements. The state of anxiety is increased by the athlete's uncertainty. State of fear This state occurs before performing dangerous sports exercises (possibility of failure and injury) and before meeting a strong opponent (boxing, wrestling, etc.). Symptoms of the state of fear are as follows: increased heart rate, pallor or redness of the skin, dilated pupils, numbness, tremor, inhibition. It is worth bearing in mind that the course of the state of fear and its symptoms are influenced by the athlete's personal characteristics (properties of the nervous system, strong-willed qualities). State of monotony is most characteristic of marathon runners, skiers, skaters, rowers, weightlifters, cyclists, etc. The state of monotony is characterized by: a decrease in interest in training work, premature fatigue, weakening of attention, a feeling of dissatisfaction, drowsiness, an increase in the time of complex reaction, responding to erroneous attacks of the opponent, a shortening of the time of simple reaction. State of mental oversaturation This state, as a rule, appears after monotony, but can also occur independently. Symptoms of this state include: excitement, irritability, aversion to the work being performed, shortening of the time of complex reaction, decrease in heart rate, breathing, lung ventilation and energy expenditure. State of stress Stress caused by the athlete's participation in competitions is a holistic psychophysiological state of the individual that arises in a difficult situation, associated with an active positive attitude to the activity being performed, characterized by conscious responsibility and accompanied by non-specific vegetative and emotional changes. In a state of stress, both positive and negative shifts in the activity being performed can occur. The dynamics of the state of stress are due to the properties of the nervous system. The level of achievements of an athlete in a state of stress is determined by the degree of development of stress and the strength of the nervous system. Stress has physiological, psychological, personal and medical signs. In addition, any stress necessarily includes emotional tension. Physiological signs: wheezing, rapid pulse, redness or pallor of the skin of the face, increased adrenaline in the blood, sweating. Psychological signs: change in the dynamics of mental functions, most often slowing down mental operations, distraction, weakening of memory function, reduction of sensory sensitivity, inhibition of the decision-making process. Personal signs: complete suppression of the will, decreased self-control, passivity and stereotyped behavior, inability to make creative decisions, increased suggestibility, fear, anxiety, unmotivated anxiety. Medical signs: increased nervousness, the presence of hysterical reactions, fainting, affects, headaches, insomnia. In the dynamics of stress, three stages of its development are distinguished. 1. The anxiety stage is characterized by the fact that under the influence of psychotraumatic factors, a person experiences anxiety, worry, and the physiological functions of the body (heart rate, breathing, blood pressure) are rebuilt. The body's resistance decreases. Then, the mobilization of internal adaptive reserves and protective forces gradually begins, additional capabilities are revealed, and mental processes are activated. Due to this, the effectiveness of activity increases to a certain limit. 2. The stage of resistance follows the anxiety stage. The human body and its psyche are rebuilt, adapted, and adapted to new conditions of activity, actively spending internal resources. After relative stabilization, as a result of the continued impact of an extreme situation, the body weakens, performance decreases, and decline begins. 3. The stage of exhaustion is characterized by the depletion of "adaptive energy", which leads to disorganization of activity and neuro-emotional breakdown. The signs of this stage are as follows: weakening of physical and volitional activity, dulling of mental processes (thinking, perception, memory, attention), inhibition in decision-making, causeless irritation, etc. State of uncertainty The state of uncertainty in a successful performance is the result of the athlete's assessment of the future competitive situation. If the athlete is confident in a successful performance at the competition, then the planned result is usually achieved. The state of uncertainty (low confidence) negatively affects future activity, the planned result is not achieved. State of frustration The state of frustration is a human condition expressed in characteristic features of experience and behavior, caused by objectively insurmountable difficulties that arise on the way to achieving the goal (N.D. Levitiv, 1967). A similar state occurs quite often in sports, when a physical, social, imagined obstacle interferes with an action aimed at achieving a goal or interrupts it. M. Selye called frustration “the stress of a shattered hope.” The state of frustration is considered not only as a negative phenomenon. In the behavior of many people, it also has a constructive role, contributing to the achievement of a goal. Due to its influence on the human psyche, in the motivational sphere of the individual, achievement motives often acquire a dominant value. The constructive effect of frustration on a person is manifested in the following. There is an intensification of efforts on the way to achieving a goal. For many people, the more complex the obstacles that arise, the more actively the mobilization of internal reserves to overcome them occurs. There may be a replacement of the means of achieving the goal and a revision of previous actions, a reassessment of the entire situation, a replacement of the goal. At a low level (threshold) of resistance (tolerance) to frustration, its destructive effect on the personality may appear, which consists in the following: impairment of fine coordination; cognitive limitation, due to which the subject does not see alternative ways or another goal; emotional disturbance with partial loss of control over oneself and the situation. With increasing frustration, generalization of aggression occurs, the vagueness and elusiveness of its source increases, impulsiveness and disorderly actions appear. Aggressive actions associated with frustration are more often observed in ill-mannered people, unrestrained, rude, psychopathic. Depressive reactions to frustration are more common in people of a neurotic nature, insecure in themselves, anxious and distrustful. The state of frustration in sports occurs after an unsuccessful action by an athlete, in which the motive remains unsatisfied. This condition occurs when an athlete expects success in an activity, but does not achieve it. Frustration can lead to the following forms of behavior in the athlete: The extra-intentional form is characterized by irritability, increased sensitivity, annoyance, bitterness, stubbornness, and the desire to achieve the set goal; The intra-intentional form is characterized by anxiety, self-blame for failures; The impunitive form is characterized by the fact that the situation that has arisen is viewed by the athlete as insignificant for him, correctable in the future, and the athlete does not focus on it. "Horting Encyclopedia" Eduard Yeromenko © 2014
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