Examination of imagination, motivation and anxiety levels of athletes engaged in combat sports

The research was carried out to determine the imagery, motivation and trait anxiety levels of the athletes engaged in combat sports. The sample of the study consisted of a total of 299 athletes, 45.4% male and 54.6% female, who were engaged in combat sports in different provinces of Turkey in 2020-2021. As a data collection tool in the research; Personal information form, Sports Imagery Inventories, Sports Motivation Scale and Trait Anxiety Scale were used. In the analysis of the data, besides descriptive statistics, t-test for independent groups, one-way analysis of variance (Anova), Tukey Test and Pearson correlation coefficient analysis were used. In the study, it was seen that the athletes dealing with combat sports achieved high averages in the dimensions of motivational special imagery and motivational general mastery imagery. In addition, the imagery styles of the athletes in the research sample were compared in terms of gender, nationality status and branch variables, and no statistically significant difference was found in the comparison. When the combat athletes in the research sample were examined in terms of motivation sources, it was determined that the levels of motivation by identification, intrinsic motivation, assimilation and introjection were high. Statistically significant differences were found in the comparisons regarding gender, nationality status, branch variable and motivation sources. In another result obtained from the research, it was determined that the trait anxiety of the athletes engaged in combat sports was at a moderate level. Statistically significant differences were found in the comparison of trait anxiety levels of combat athletes in terms of gender, nationality status and branch variables. In addition, significant relationships were found between the ages, trait anxiety levels, imagery styles and motivation sources of combat athletes in the study.