Effect of Outdoor Recreation Activity on Stress Level and Mental Toughness on Taekwondo Athletes in the Competition Period. Summary of the Doctoral Thesis
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Date
2023
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Latvian Academy of Sport Education
Abstract
Contact with nature may influence our thoughts, feelings, and actions to function more effectively. People are inspired by nature, and nature and natural systems are used as a resource to create new products or solutions (Kim, Kim, Pegard, Oh, Kagan, Fleischer, and Loo, 2012). Research has demonstrated that various contact forms with nature benefit us differently (Bowler, Buyung-Ali, Knight, and Pullin, 2010; Capaldi, Dopko, and Zelenski, 2014; Grinde, and Patil, 2009). However, some researchers (Collado, Staats, and Sorrel, 2016; Von Lindern, Bauer, Frick, Hunziker, and Hartig, 2013) have shown that some people reported more significant restoration effects of being in nature than others. This evidence suggests that contact with nature may be affected by other factors associated with natural environments (e.g., a sense of being away from daily routine). Research on the cognitive impacts of contact with nature is on attentional processes. Ohly, White, Wheeler, Bethel, Ukoumunne, Nikolaou, and Garside (2016) have argued that it is unclear which precise attentional processes explain the observed therapeutic effects. Regarding the potential cognitive functions, there needs to be more clarity about whether other mental products are used. Atchley, Strayer, and Atchley (2012) mentioned that it is not clear that positive creativity effects are due to exposure to the natural environment or other factors associated with such an environment. The ability to express emotions and apply professional skills in stressful situations makes a difference between strong and weak athletes. Kallus and Kellmann (2000) stated that stress, coping with it, and recovery determine the athlete's state, which determines the athlete’s reaction to subsequent stressors and influences performance. Not only is the intensity of the stress an essential factor, but the duration, distribution over time, and the nature of the stress play important roles. According to Gucciardi, Daniel, Sandy Gordo, James, and Dimmock (2009), if the athlete's physical, technical, and tactical training is at the same level, these mental factors play a crucial role in victory or loss. By increasing their mental toughness, athletes with good physical qualities and the skills necessary for their sport can increase their chance of achieving stable success in competitions. In scientific literature, mental toughness is one of sports psychology's most widely used but least understood terms. Some sports psychologists associate an athlete's mental toughness during competitions with psychic regulation – an athlete's ability to relax and regulate both the effects of mental stress and one's own psycho-emotional state and behavior (Weinberg, Joanne Butt, and Culp, 2011). As an Olympic sport, Taekwondo is a combat sport involving scientific and technological aspects. Countries seek information from the different variables involved in the sport process to achieve the best international results. Present-day taekwondo follows a philosophy like its ancient predecessor's (Park, and Gerrard, 2000), with psychological, physical, and spiritual aspects often incorporated into training (Lee, 2010). Practitioners expect to display respect for themselves and others, humility, perseverance, self-control, and honesty to better refer to the guiding principles of martial art (Park et al., 2000). The research focusing on taekwondo's impact on psychological health, suggests it is associated with several positive outcomes. These include increased cognitive and affective self-regulation and prosocial behavior in children (Lakes, and Hoyt, 2004) and reduced aggressive behavior in youth and teenager’s population (Harwood, Lavidor, and Rassovsky, 2017). Studies have also shown improvements in mood (Yang, Ko, and Roh, 2018) and enhanced strategies for coping with and managing stress (Petrovic, 2017) in taekwondo athletes. However, taekwondo has not been widely examined in psychological research. Gas Discharge Visualization (GDV) based on the Kirlian effect is a scientific method to assess individual stress (Korotkov,2017). The measurement through GDV is performed by stimulation of electrons at the fingertips. It is the flow of electrons from a conducting object under the influence of a high-frequency (1024 Hz) electromagnetic pulse of high intensity, which creates photon radiation (glow) in the gas air (Hacker, 2005). This glow results from ionizing gaseous molecules in the surrounding air through the discharged electrons from the fingertips. A chargedcoupled device (CCD) camera's glow is captured (Korotkov, Williams , and Wisneski, 2004). The GDV image is obtained from ten fingers of both hands in two ways, with and without a filter. A filter is a thin plastic film placed between the finger and the dielectric plate during the measuerment. The filter removes the effects of sweating on sympathetic and psychosomatic responses and gives the physiological state (Korotkov, Shelkov , Shevtsov , Mohov , Paoletti, Mirosnichenko, 2012). Comparison of these images with and without filter forms an Activation Coefficient, a quantitative assessment of a person's stress level based on the evaluation of autonomic balance (Korotkov, 2002). The data findings of GDV measures suggest that GDV can be used to measure the activity of autonomic response. Moss, 2012 points out that the relationship between nature and adolescents in recent years got a great deal of attention and shows that adolescents have a declining relationship with nature. On the other hand, the time they spend indoor increses. Many studies have examined the detrimental effects of adolescents' increased engagement with technology (Von Marees, and Petermann, 2012). However, some studies try to understand why adolescents spend time on cell phones and playing computer games. Cell phones keep them primarily indoors when they might be engaging in other activities in natural environments. Some research in this area was in laboratory settings, with images and videos of unusual backgrounds presented to participants and self-report questionnaires used to evaluate their preferences and measure their affective responses (Valtchanov, and Ellard, 2010). Besides, researchers have documented the beneficial effects of mental toughness on sports performance. Still, Truelove’s research (2014) mentioned that only 5-10% of athletes' training time is for developing essential psychological skills such as mental toughness. Also, psychological variables have been one of the crucial facilitators in terms of sports performance. Mental toughness has been considered very important. The other reason to study the mental toughness of taekwondo athletes is the absence of studies. When the results are not successful regarding the competition and performance, many athletes and their coaches plan to work more on the physical or technical fitness routine. They neglect the psychological aspect as less critical. Athletes in heavy physical training and competition may be limited to non-training stress in taekwondo and many sports. Adding psychological, social, or non-athletic physical stress may result in an allostatic load over the adaptation threshold, leading to physical maladaptation and an accumulation of stress and fatigue (Polman, and Houlahan, 2004). Therefore, for optimum stress recovery and adaptation and ultimately improved performance, taekwondo athletes must train specifically to adapt selected capacities relevant to event performance and minimize the impact of non-specific psychosocial stressors with appropriate recovery; the athlete can train at the required intensity and or complete the load at the next training session for optimal competition performance. Taekwondo is an indoor sport, and athletes prefer to do all kinds of training inside the club, for example, if there is cardio training, they like to do it on the treadmill inside the club but not go outdoors for jogging or walking and after training they go home and play computer games or spend their time on cell phones. Cell phones keep them primarily indoors when they might be engaging in other activities in natural environments. Stress, coping with it, and recovery determine the athlete's state, which determines their reaction to subsequent stressors and influences performance. Increased stress demands and insufficient recovery lead to the athlete experiencing more stress. If recovery demands cannot be met, the athlete will be stressed beyond the point of failure and may need to find other ways of coping with the stress. Imbalances between stress and recovery can lead to short-term and longterm reductions in the athletes’ performance. If recovery is not adequate and increased stress may result in overtraining syndrome. The overtraining syndrome results from insufficient recovery, excessive high-intensity training, increases in training load, and non-training stressors. Overtraining can increase susceptibility to injury and illness, increase negative mood states, and decrease performance. Based on the above, the doctoral thesis topic, "Effect of outdoor recreation activity on stress level and mental toughness on taekwondo athletes in the competition period," was studied.
Description
The Doctoral Thesis was developed at Latvian Academy of Sport Education from 2019 – 2023. Defence: at the public session of the Promotion Council of Health and Sports Sciences on 15 June 2023 at 13.00 in the room 205., LASE (Brivibas gatve 333, Riga).
Keywords
Summary of the Doctoral Thesis, martial arts, taekwondo, training, walking, sports psychology, stress, psychohygiene
Citation
Boobani, B. 2023. Effect of Outdoor Recreation Activity on Stress Level and Mental Toughness on Taekwondo Athletes in the Competition Period: Summary of the Doctoral Thesis: Sub-Sector – Sports pedagogy. Rīga: Latvian Academy of Sport Education. https://doi.org/10.25143/prom-rsu-lspa_2023-03_dts