THE IMPORTANCE OF SOURCES OF SPORT CONFIDENCE: A COMPARITIVE STUDY BETWEEN ELITE AND NON ELITE

Abstract

The present study examined the sources of sport confidence deemed important by fifty elite (N=25) and amateur (N=25) team sport athletes. Elite and amateur athletes aged between 18 and 30 (22.56 ± 2.54) completed the Source of Sport Confidence Questionnaire (SSCQ; Vealey et al., 1998) an hour before a normal training session. A one way ANOVA test analysed the variance between elite and amateur athletes found four significant differences in the nine subscales; mastery (elite, 26.08 ± 3.29/ non elite, 24.00 ± 3.42), support (elite, 35.44 ± 4.77/ non elite 31.16 ± 5.92), coach’s leadership (elite, 25.92 ± 3.90/ non elite, 21.84 ± 5.43) and physical self presentation (elite, 13.00 ± 3.76/ non elite 10.64 ± 3.59) were viewed of significantly higher importance for elite athletes than amateur athletes. This discovery indicates elite and amateur athletes have different derivation of sporting confidence. Descriptive results indicated both elite and amateur athletes viewed support, demonstration of ability and mental and physical preparation as the respective top three sources of sport confidence. These results indicated the importance of sources of sport confidence for both populations in the study. Implications in results suggest coaches should increase their awareness of the differences between elite and amateur derivation of confidence when implementing interventions. The areas for future research were provided.