The investigation of the effects of 8-week psychological skills training on mental resilience and psychological toughness in young football players

The sports environment often allows athletes to encounter a variety of negative events such as setbacks, failures, conflicts, and increasing responsibilities. Therefore, in order for athletes to achieve success or recover quickly, they need to maintain their mental resilience as high as possible in the face of such negative events and situations. Additionally, mental resilience should not only be regarded as a skill necessary in negative situations. It is a well-accepted fact that in today's sports environment, psychological adequacy is as important as physical adequacy for achieving high performance. The insufficient number of studies conducted in Turkey regarding mental resilience in sports forms the basis of the problem this research is based on. In light of this data, the problem of this research is framed as the question: "Does psychological skills training have an effect on mental resilience and psychological toughness in young footballers?" The research was conducted using experimental research methods from quantitative research methodologies, specifically employing a quasi-experimental design. In this study, the data collection tools used were the "Mental Resilience Inventory in Sports" and the "Short Psychological Resilience Scale." The population of the research consists of teams competing in the U15 football league in Turkey, while the sample comprises players from the U15 Elite Team of a professional club competing in TFF 2nd League (N:20) and players from the U15 Elite Team of a professional club competing in TFF 3rd League (N:20) located in Izmir. While the experimental group underwent an 8-week psychological skills training program consisting of 16 sessions alongside their ongoing physical training programs, the control group did not receive any intervention and continued only with their physical training programs. According to the analysis of the data obtained from the study, a significant positive difference was found in the mental resilience and psychological toughness of the young footballers in the experimental group after the 8-week, 16-session psychological skills training compared to the baseline, while no changes were observed in the control group where no intervention was conducted.