Psychosocial Situations Encountered By Athletes: Opinions of Orienteering Coaches

Abstract

It is not surprising that athletes face many psychological strains in the competitive sports environment. The orienteering athlete, on the other hand, demonstrates making conscious decisions while interpreting the complexity of the map and recognizing the features of his/her environment, and in doing so, faces a psychological burden. In this context, the aim of this study is to reveal the opinions of orienteering coaches about the psychological difficulties experienced by their athletes in the competitive sports environment and what methods of solution to this situation. In the research, phenomenological research design, one of the qualitative research methods, and homogeneous sampling, one of the purposeful sampling types, were used. The research group consists of 3rd level orienteering coaches (n: 6, 4 women, 2 men). A semi-structured interview form was used to obtain data in the study. Content analysis method was used when analyzing data. As a result of the analysis, it was seen that a structure with two themes was formed: "Psychological Strains Encountered by Athletes" and "Solution Suggestions for Psychological Difficulties Encountered by Athletes". The codes formed under the themes and categories create concepts such as athletes before and during the competition, stress, anxiety, focus, excitement, fear, low motivation, high expectation, lack of self-confidence and focus. The opinions of the coaches regarding the solution suggestions are; Concepts such as entering a psychological regime, breathing stretches, positive inner speech of the athlete, visual and auditory checking during the competition, visualization work, increasing motivation and visually analyzing the terrain are seen. As a result, the coaches stated that the athletes encountered many psychological negativities during the competition and that they tried to improve the athlete by introducing a psychological regime to solve these problems.

Keywords

• Orienteering
• Psychological strain
• Competitive sports environment
• Sports
• Trainer

Sporcuların Karşılaştıkları Psikososyal Durumlar: Oryantiring Antrenörlerinin Görüşleri

Öz

Sporcuların, rekabetçi spor ortamında birçok psikolojik zorlanmalar ile karşı karşıya kalması şaşırtıcı değildir. Oryantiring sporcusu ise haritanın karmaşıklığını yorumlarken ve çevresindeki özellikleri tanırken devam eden bilinçli kararlar vermeyi ortaya koymaktadır ve bunları yaparken de psikolojik yük ile karşı karşıya kalmaktadır. Bu bağlamda bu çalışmanın amacı oryantiring antrenörlerinin rekabetçi spor ortamında sporcularının yaşamış oldukları psikolojik zorlanmaların neler olduğunu bu duruma ne gibi çözüm yöntemlerine ilişkin görüşlerini ortaya koymaktır. Araştırmada nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden fenomenolojik araştırma deseni ve amaçlı örnekleme türlerinden homojen örnekleme kullanılmıştır. Araştırma grubunu 3. kademe oryantiring antrenörü (n:6, 4 kadın, 2 erkek) oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmada verileri elde edebilmek için yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme formu kullanılmıştır. Veri analizi yapılırken içerik analizi yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Analiz sonucunda, ‘’Sporcunun Karşılaştığı Psikolojik Zorlanmalar’’ ve “Sporcunun Karşılaştığı Psikolojik Zorlanmalara Çözüm Önerileri’’ olmak üzere iki temalı bir yapının oluştuğu görülmüştür. Tema ve kategorilerin altında oluşan kodlar ise, yarışma öncesi ve yarışma anında sporcular, stres, kaygı, odaklanma, heyecan, korku, motivasyon düşüklüğü, yüksek beklenti, öz güven eksikliği, odaklanma gibi kavramlar oluşturmaktadır. Antrenörlerin çözüm önerilerine ilişkin görüşleri ise; psikolojik rejime girmek, nefes eğersizleri, sporcunun olumlu içsel konuşması, yarışma esnasında görsel ve işitsel chek yapmak, imgeleme çalışması, motivasyonu artırmak ve araziyi görsel olarak analiz etmek, gibi kavramlar görülmektedir. Sonuç olarak, antrenörler sporcularının yarışma öncesi ve yarışma anında birçok psikolojik olumsuzluklarla karşılaştıklarını bunlara çözüm için ise sporcuyu psikolojik rejime sokarak performansını yükseltmeye çalıştıklarını ifade etmişlerdir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Oryantiring
• Psikolojik zorlanma
• Rekabetçi spor ortamı
• Spor
• Antrenör

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