Relationship of Psychological Skills in Athletic Club and School Life to Athletic Abilities and Resilience

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship of psychological skills in athletic club and school life to athletic abilities and resilience of high school athletic club students.
In study 1, 131 male athletic club students were asked to answer an athletic situational skills scale and a life skills scale (Ueno and Nakagomi, 1998) to evaluate their psychological skills in both their athletic club and school life. Athletic club coaches were asked to evaluate the athletic abilities of the students by using “TIPS” (technique, intelligence and insight, personality, and speed) which is the criteria of Amsterdam Football Club Ajax. From the results of study 1, the students who scored high points for interpersonal skills in school life scored higher for personality than those who scored low points for those skills. The students who scored low points for intrapersonal skills in both athletic club and school life had a tendency to score lower for technique and speed than any other students. But there was no relationship between intelligence and insight and psychological skills in both athletic club and school life.
In study 2, 110 athletic club students were asked to answer the athletic situational skills scale, the life skills scale, and an adolescent resilience scale developed by Oshio et al. (2002). The adolescent resilience scale has three subscales such as novelty seeking, emotional regulation, and positive future orientation. From the results of study 2, the students who scored high points for both interpersonal skills and intrapersonal skills in school life scored higher for all subscales than those who scored low points for those skills. On the other hand, there was little relationship between interpersonal skills in athletic club and emotional regulation, and between intrapersonal skills in athletic club and positive future orientation.
Support was found for a relationship between psychological skills in school life and athletic abilities as well as a relationship between psychological skills in athletic club and resilience. However, both relationships were only found in some of the athletic abilities and subscales of resilience.