Determination and comparison of mental toughness levels of senior handball players

Handball, with its historical roots, is an exciting team sport that has a large fan base, especially in Europe. Modern handball emerged in Germany and Denmark in the late 19th century and quickly spread to other European countries. Especially Germany and Scandinavian countries have played leading roles in the development of handball and contributed to the increase in the popularity of this sport. Today, handball has become a sport that has a large international audience and takes part in major organizations such as the Olympic Games. Handball in Turkey began to attract more attention, especially from the mid-20th century. First introduced as a military sport, handball also gained popularity among civilian clubs over time. With the establishment of handball leagues in Turkey, this sport has been able to reach wider audiences. In the last 5 years, there has been intense competition between the clubs competing in handball leagues in Turkey and the championship fights have been watched with great excitement. Handball has great importance in Turkey at the level of both men's and women's national teams. National teams have made significant contributions to the development of Turkish handball and achieved success in international tournaments. Turkey has a respected position in Europe and the world with both men's and women's national handball teams. Outdoor handball is an important factor that enables this sport to reach wider audiences. Outdoor handball, which is widely played especially in school and neighborhood matches, has increased the popularity of the sport among young people and allowed the discovery of talented athletes. Mental toughness plays an important role in the success of handball players. The competitive nature of this sport tests players' ability to cope with stress, their ability to focus, and their motivation. Determining and comparing the mental endurance levels of high-level handball players is important to optimize the athletes' performance and improve their careers. This thesis aims to provide analysis of the mental toughness levels of handball players by focusing on the history of handball, the development of handball in Turkey, the situation of national teams and the importance of mental toughness. The results of the thesis will provide a valuable guide for handball coaches and sports psychologists to improve the psychological preparation and performance of athletes. In this research, it is aimed to examine the determination and comparison of the mental endurance levels of high-level handball players and to obtain scientific data that may provide preliminary information for future studies. In this study, where the mental endurance levels of athletes were examined, the "Screening Model", which is one of the descriptive study models frequently used in the literature, was used. In the researches carried out according to this model, the researchers primarily develop hypotheses within the findings they want to reach, and at the other stage, the characteristics of the participants that are the subject of the research (age, educational level, experience, etc.) they are examining. In this study, the performances of handball players on various psychological and behavioral variables were examined according to different demographic and career characteristics. The research data were used to obtain the participants' control, commitment, struggle, dispersion and mental endurance scores in sports through certain scales. In the analysis of the data obtained from the scales, normality test, parametric tests (independent groups t-test, one-way ANOVA) and correlation analyses were applied. Skewness and kurtosis values were calculated to evaluate the conformity of the scores obtained from the scales to the normal distribution. The fact that the skewness and kurtosis values are between +3 and -3 shows that a normal distribution is achieved. In this context, parametric methods were used in the analyses because the skewness and kurtosis values of the Control, Commitment, Struggle, Dispersion and Mental Endurance scales in Sports were within the normal distribution limits. The analysis of the data was carried out with the SPSS 27.0 program and the 95% confidence level was taken as the basis for the analyses. Frequency (n) and percentage (%) were calculated for categorical variables, and mean (X), standard deviation (ss), minimum and maximum values were calculated for numerical variables.