The power of imaging to predict adult athletes' fear of faith, challenge and threat perceptions

The sportive performance area is built on the phenomenon of competition by its nature. Sportive competition, on the other hand, requires success and struggle in order to be successful. It is regarded as a known fact that athletes are expected to exhibit superior performance in sportive combat environments. In an effort to respond to this expectation, athletes tend to feel pressure, stress, fear, anxiety from time to time and perceive situations as threats in competitive competitive environments. On the other hand, today, it is seen that the emphasis on the importance of increasing the physical, technical and tactical skills of athletes, as well as mental skills and competencies, is concentrated. In the literature of sports psychology, it is observed that different contents of the mental structure are examined and examined in this context, and there has been an increase in research on the use of different psychological skills to manage adverse situations. In the light of this information, it is thought that imagination, which is the most appropriate form of stimulation used to increase sportive performance, the fear of failure during sportive activity, understanding the perception of struggle and threat, can be an explanatory pioneer in increasing performance in both basic education groups and elite sports. In this study, it is aimed to reveal the predictive power of imagination, which is thought to have a determining role on sportive performance, on athletes' perceptions of struggle with fear of failure and threat. In addition to the relationships between research variables, another aim of the study is to examine the relationships between descriptive variables and research variables. The study group included 309 adult athletes (155 men, 154 women) who performed in football, taekwondo, ice hockey, kickboxing, volleyball and archery branches, and the data included the Performance Failure Assessment Inventory, Struggle and Threat Scale in Sports, Imagination Inventory in Sports and Personal Information. Collected through the form. In the analyzes, descriptive statistics, t-test for independent groups, Anova test, Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis were used. Findings, no statistically significant difference was found between the imagination level total scores and sub-dimensions of adult athletes and gender. A positive significant relationship was found between the imagination levels, total scores and sub-dimensions of adult athletes and age. A positive and significant relationship was found between the imagination levels, total scores and sub-dimensions of adult athletes and years of experience. There were statistically significant differences between the imagination level total scores and sub-dimensions of adult athletes and whether the athletes are national or not. Statistically significant differences were found between the imagination level total scores and sub-dimensions of adult athletes and sports branches. A statistically negative and moderately significant correlation was found between adult athletes' Fear of Performance Failure total scores and sub-dimensions and their ages. A statistically negative and strong significant relationship was found between adult athletes' fear of performance failure and years of experience. Statistically significant differences were found between the total scores and sub-dimensions of adult athletes in Performance Failure and sports branches. There was no statistically significant difference between adult athletes' perception of threat and struggle, their total scores and sub-dimensions, and their gender. Negative and moderately significant relationships were found between age and threat perception sub-dimension. A statistically negative and moderately significant correlation was found between the Threat and Struggle total scores and years of experience. A statistically significant difference was found between perceptions of threat and struggle and whether they were national or not. Statistically significant differences were found between the Threat and Struggle total scores of adult athletes and sports branches. A statistically negative and significant relationship has emerged between visualization and performance failure in sports. A statistically negative and significant relationship was found between the total score of imagination in sports and the total score of threat and struggle in sports. A statistically positive significant relationship was found between performance failure and threat sub-dimension. Finally, while the level of imagination is a negative determinant of fear of performance failure and perception of threat, it has been revealed that it is a positive determinant of the perception of struggle. In line with the findings of the research; The increase in the imagination level of adult athletes decreases the fear of performance failure and threat perception.