In this research, in order to clarify the factors leading to athletes’ strengthening of their Sense of Coherence (SOC), the objective was to explore how Olympic athletes deal with difficulties.
The Olympic wrestling group was made up of 3 men (31.3±0.9 years old) who had Olympic wrestling experiance. The comparison group was made up of 7 males and 3 females (19.5±1.2 years old) who belong to a university wrestling team and are non-Olympic athletes. A quantitative survey using a SOC questionnaires and a qualitative survey using a semi structured interview technique were used to clarify factors leading to a strengthening of SOC. In the quantitative survey, the Olympic athletes’ SOC score was 68.0 (±7.8) points on average and the non-Olympic athletes’ average was 53.3 (±8.6) points.
In the qualitative study, the main distinction is that the Olympic group had an improved sense of manageability [Self-solving] [Utilization of Resources] which is an element of SOC. The Non-Olympians showed that [regret] which is also an element of SOC, possibly decreased their sense of a meaningful experiance.
In order to properly deal with times where athletes are in difficult situations, it is necessary to provide a consistent experience relating to competition and guidance, with a viewpoint that emphasizes athletes’ decision making, while setting up an environment where people and physical resources can always be mobilized.
