Investigation of psychological skill levels of kick boxing athletes according to various variables

The aim of the study is to determine whether the psychological skill levels of kickboxing athletes differ significantly according to the variables of gender, age, education level, national athlete status and sport age. Scanning (Survey) model was used in the study. The study group of the research consisted of 219 athletes, 69 of whom were female and 150 of whom were male, between the ages of 18-45, who participated in competitions in the senior category of kickboxing in İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Samsun and Balıkesir. The data of the study were collected with the "Scale for the Evaluation of Athletes' Psychological Skills" developed by Smith et al. (1995) and adapted into Turkish by Erhan et al. (2005) and the "Personal Information Form" developed by the researcher. The analysis of the data was carried out with "IBM SPSS 25" program. Levene, Mann Whitney U, Post Hoc Bonferroni, Shapiro Wilk, Independent sample T test, Kruskal Wallis and ANOVA tests were used to analyze the data. When the results of the research are analyzed, psychological skill levels of kickboxing athletes show significant difference according to gender variable. According to the age variable, it was determined that the total scores of the psychological skill level of the older age group athletes were higher than the athletes in the lower age group. There were no statistically significant differences between the sub-dimensions of Goal Setting and Mental Preparation, Ability to Perform Well Under Pressure, Relief from Worries and the total scale scores according to the age variable. When the educational status variable was examined, a statistically significant difference was found between athletes with primary school graduates and athletes with master's degrees. In the analysis of the sport age variable, statistically significant differences were observed between the Ability to Cope with Difficulties, Concentration, Confidence and Achievement Motivation sub-dimensions and scale total scores. Statistically significant differences were found between Concentration, Confidence and Achievement Motivation, Goal Setting and Mental Preparation dimensions and total scores of the Scale for Assessing Athletes' Psychological Skills according to the status of being a national athlete. It was concluded that the scores of national athletes were higher than the scores of non-national athletes.