PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGH PERFORMANCE PADDLE PLAYERS

In the present research work are presented the amin results obtained with 18 high performance paddle players within a international level. The goals of the work were: a) To describe the psychological skills of the sample selected through the Psychological Skills Related with Sport Questionnaire (C.P.R.D., according with its Spanish name). b) To analyze potential differences according to gender in the sample selected; c) To establish comparisons with samples of people involved in different sports. Results support the adequacy of the CPRD for assessing psychological characteristics related to sport outcomes among high-performance paddel players. It is noteworthy that there were not statistically significant differences according to gender category, as well as there were important differences between the present sample scores and barems reported for general sport samples (Gimeno, 1999) for scales of Stress Control, Influence of Assessment over Performance and Motivation, with a trend to significance for the scale of Mental Ability. Increase in the sample size, or performing studies with younger people and players with lower levels of performance, are some of the main suggestions for further studies in this sport.