The effects of strength, speed and endurance characteristics of soccer players on their mental toughness

The aim of the study is to determine the effect of strength, speed and endurance characteristics on mental endurance in soccer players. In this study, a quasi-experimental design with pre-test post-test control group, one of the quantitative research methods, was used. The sample of the study consisted of 23 soccer players over the age of 18 in the MAKU Spor in the 2022-2023 season in the regional amateur league in Turkey as the experimental group and 23 people who do not regularly do sports as the control group. Sport Mental Toughness Questionnaire-SMTQ-14 which was developed by Sheard et al. (2009) and whose Turkish validity and reliability study was conducted by Altıntaş and Koruç (2016), was used to determine the mental toughness levels of the participants participating in the study. YOYO-1 intermittent recovery test was used to determine the aerobic endurance level of the soccer players participating in the study. Sprint performance was measured by 10 m and 30 m sprint test protocol and with a precision of 0.01 sec by means of photocell systems. Strength performance was measured with a vertical jump test on an electronic jumping mat with a precision of 0.1 cm. Back and lift dynamometer was used to determine leg strength performance. The data were analyzed with SPSS 27.0 program. Normality tests were performed with Shapiro-Wilk test and since the data were not normally distributed, Spearman Correlation analysis, which is a nonparametric analysis method, was used to examine the relationships between variables and Wilcoxon and Mann Whitney U tests were used to compare the scores obtained from the scale (p>0.05). When the results of the correlation analysis were examined; when the relationship coefficients between the values obtained from the pre-test and post-test difference and the pre-test and post-test score difference obtained from the scale were examined, there was no significant relationship between the total score, confidence and continuity sub-dimensions and motoric characteristics. However, there was a positive and moderately significant relationship between the control sub-dimension and vertical jump. Again, there were negative and moderate relationship coefficients between the control sub-dimension and the peak and average anaerobic power characteristics (p<0.05). While there was a significant positive correlation between the subjects' age and training age and the confidence sub-dimension of mental toughness, there was no significant correlation between general mental toughness and other sub-dimensions (p<0.05). There was no statistically significant relationship between the number of matches played and the total score and other sub-dimensions of the scale (p<0.05).