Acceso usuarios
Murcia, España
Introduction:the systematic analysis of the relationships between relevant psychological varia-bles for sports performance and injuries is essential to contribute to their prevention in specificsports.Material and methods:a descriptive-correlational and cross-sectional study was carried out inthefirst category women's national softball championship in Cuba. 88 athletes participated withan average chronological age of 22.91 (SD=6.13) and a sports experience of 10.83 years(SD=4.92). A specific questionnaire, the Competitive Sport Anxiety Inventory and the Psychologi-cal Inventory of Sport Execution was applied. Descriptive statistics and Kendall's Tau_b nonpara-metric correlation coefficient was used for data analysis.Results:A high injury load was verified with a low perception of the role of psychological factorsin its etiology, as well as a notable occurrence of new injuries with negative emotional repercus-sions. Negative correlations of self-confidence, negative coping control, visual-imaginative con-trol, positive coping control, and attitude control with history of injuries were obtained. Thehigh anxiety showed significant relationships with previous injuries and new injuries during theanalyzed competition.Conclusions:thefindings are especially congruent with previous results in elite softball players,although new and greater relationships between variables were determined. All this means thatstimulating psychological skills to control anxiety in competition could contribute to the preven-tion of injuries. However, longitudinal analyzes are required to confirm the predictive role ofthese variables before proposing psychological interventions in this regard.
