Mental training in the opinion of the Polish national karate kyokushin team

Paweł Piepiora; Justyna Bagińska; Katarzyna  Jaśkowska; Kazimierz Witkowski

2022, Volume 18

Mental training in the opinion of the Polish national karate kyokushin team

Paweł Piepiora¹, Justyna Bagińska², Katarzyna Jaśkowska¹, Kazimierz Witkowski¹

¹Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, Wroclaw University of Health and Sport Sciences, Wrocław, Poland
²Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Business in Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland

Author for correspondence: Paweł Piepiora; Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, Wroclaw University of Health and Sport Sciences, Wrocław, Poland; email: pawel.piepiora@awf.wroc.pl

Paweł Piepiora: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6525-3936

Justyna Bagińska: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5540-3665

Kazimierz Witkowski: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1503-9904

Full text

Abstract

Background and Study Aim: The widely understood mental training was adopted as the background of the work as it has a sound grounding in numerous scientific papers as well as in the experience of trainers and coaches. The aim of the paper was to verify the opinions of kyokushin karatekas on mental training.

Material and Methods: The Polish representation of juniors and seniors in karate kyokushin (n = 48) from the 2021/2022 season took part in the study. The average training experience in the entire sample of respondents was 12.7 years. Three people are kata competitors and 45 people are kumite competitors. A diagnostic survey method was used, and for this purpose the authors’ own questionnaire was used.

Results: The investigated athletes pay a significant role to mental preparation: they cooperate with sports psychologists and mental trainers; some of them also carry out their own mental training. Standard methods of mental preparation as well as meditation and wakefulness are used by the surveyed karatekas. These methods help to reduce the level of stress, which some of them experience before the competition day, while others experience stress on the day of the competition. The training level of their opponents does not affect their stress level.

Conclusions: For the studied athletes, mental training is very important. Karatekas cooperate with specialists, and also independently undertake mental exercises from the karate culture array. Practising mental training by karatekas reduces their stress level. Most of them experience stress only on the competition day, and this stress is related only to the starting situation.

Key words: sports psychology, self-defence, meditation, combat sports, stress, training experience, wakefulness

Cite this article as:

AMA:

Piepiora P, Bagińska J, Jaśkowska K et al. Mental training in the opinion of the Polish national karate kyokushin team . ARCH BUDO. 2022;18:103-109

APA:

Piepiora, P., Bagińska, J., Jaśkowska, K.., & Witkowski, K. (2022). Mental training in the opinion of the Polish national karate kyokushin team . ARCH BUDO, 18, 103-109

Chicago:

Piepiora, Paweł, Bagińska Justyna, Jaśkowska Katarzyna , Witkowski Kazimierz. 2022. "Mental training in the opinion of the Polish national karate kyokushin team ". ARCH BUDO 18: 103-109

Harvard:

Piepiora, P., Bagińska, J., Jaśkowska, K.., and Witkowski, K. (2022). Mental training in the opinion of the Polish national karate kyokushin team . ARCH BUDO, 18, pp.103-109

MLA:

Piepiora, Paweł et al. "Mental training in the opinion of the Polish national karate kyokushin team ." ARCH BUDO, vol. 18, 2022, pp. 103-109

Vancouver:

Piepiora P, Bagińska J, Jaśkowska K et al. Mental training in the opinion of the Polish national karate kyokushin team . ARCH BUDO 2022; 18: 103-109