Fútbol juvenil y gestión de la ansiedad juvenil

Resumen

The aim of this project is to test the following hypothesis: ANXIETY MANAGEMENT and orientation of different ATTENTIONAL STYLES could be positive factors in order to achieve high efficiency and good performances in young football players, especially in youth soccer and in sport in general. The survey has been administered to a group of 200 YOUNG FOOTBALLERS, taking part in F.I.G.C. (Italian Football Federation) Champions, UNDER 15 category, distinguished as follow: Under 15 Serie A and B Nationals, Under 15 Lega Pro Nationals, Under 15 Regionals, Under 15 Provincials. There are two more groups taken into account: the first one consists of 200 NO SPORTING teenagers, the second one of 200 INDIVIDUAL SPORTS teenager players. Two tests have been administered to the 600 teenagers: TAIS – Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style (Nideffer,1976), in the abbreviated form consisting of 12 items, which describe the daily life situations and with the aim to measure the attentional and interpersonal features considered important in order to predict a performance; and POMS (Profile of mood states), created by Douglas M. McNair, from Boston University school of Medicine in collaboration with Maurice Lorr and Leo F. Dropplemann, for the purpose of measuring mood changes in stressed people. We used the Italian version of the POMS (Farnè, Sebellico, Grugnoli, Corallo, 1991), consisting of 58 adjectives and attributions to score on a scale of 0 to 4, according to the intensity of feeling that particular mood. From the data collected, about “attentional styles” management, we found out that the under 15 footballers are able to direct efficiently their attentional focus, better than the individual sport and no sport groups. Actually, they focus on searching the most relevant information that facilitate the right motor feedback, in order to create the right conditions for a good performance. From the analysis of mood states connected to anxiety, we found out that the young football players, compared to the under 15 coming from individual sport and no sport groups, show less anxiety and tension, less aggressiveness and psychophysical fatigue, more positive energy and strength. All these factors contribute to create the right conditions for a good performance.