ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicStress in sports: Advances in Psychological InterventionView all 4 articles
Readiness for Competition Across Sports and Gender: A Psychological Skills Intervention Study
Provisionally accepted
- Universitatea Transilvania din Brasov, Facultatea de Educatie fizica si sporturi montane, Brasov, Romania
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Introduction: Psychological readiness is essential for athletic performance, particularly under competitive pressure. While physical training remains critical, growing evidence supports the role of psychological interventions in enhancing motivation and managing pre-competition anxiety. This study, grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT), evaluated the effects of a structured 4-week psychological program on athletes' motivation and anxiety levels. Methods: A total of 512 athletes (210 individual-sport, 302 team-sport; 280 female, 232 male) completed the Sport Motivation Scale-II (SMS-II) and the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) before and after a 4-week intervention. The program included goal setting, visualization, mindfulness, and team cohesion sessions, delivered by certified sport psychologists and applied by coaches. Data were analyzed using mixed ANOVAs, t-tests, Bonferroni correction, and effect size estimates (Cohen's d, η²). Results: Post-intervention results showed substantial improvement increases in intrinsic, integrated, and identified motivation, alongside decreases in introjected and external regulation, and amotivation (p < .001). Athletes also experienced significant reductions in cognitive and somatic anxiety and increased self-confidence. These effects were large (d > 0.8) and consistent across gender and sport types, though no interaction effects continued to show a reliable effect after correction . Conclusion: A brief psychological intervention can significantly improve motivational regulation and competitive readiness across diverse athlete groups. These findings highlight the value of integrating mental skills training into routine sport preparation and support the implementation of scalable, evidence-based psychological programs.
Keywords: Sport motivation, readiness for competition, Mental skills training, competitive anxiety, psychological intervention
Received: 08 Sep 2025; Accepted: 29 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Alecu and Onea. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Stefan Alecu, alecu.stefan@unitbv.ro
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