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European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science ISSN: 2501 - 1235 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1235 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu Volume 3 │ Issue 12 │ 2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1146898 GOAL COMMITMENT AND PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE AMONG CYCLING ATHLETES Bahadır Altay1, Gülsüm Baştuğ1, İbrahim İhsan Arıkan2i Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, 1 Faculty pf Sport Sciences, Muğla, Turkey Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, 2 Institution of Social Sciences, Muğla, Turkey Abstract: Cycling sport is one of the sports that require physical and psychological resilience. It is thought that athletes should show physical and psychological resilience to reach specific target, find solution for unexpected, sudden problems, be patient and be determined in this sport that requires physical and psychological resilience that is done under extreme conditions. It is important to examine goal commitment and psychological resilience of cycling athletes for performance improvement, success motivation and contribution to the studies in this field. Purpose: This study aimed to examine goal commitment and psychological resilience of elite cycling athletes. 94 elite bicycle athletes participating in national and international races between the ages of 18 and 27 participated voluntarily. Resilience Scale for Adults, developed by Friborg et al. (2003), was used to determine psychological resilience of athletes. Goal Commitment Scale, developed by Hollenbeck, Williams and Klein (1989) and adapted to Turkish by Şenel and Yıldız 6 , was used to determine goal commitment. Scale reliability coefficient was found to be 0.913. In conclusion, no significant differences were found between sex and psychological resilience and goal commitment. But, significant differences were found between sports ages and subscales of self-perception, perception of future, and structural type of Resilience Scale for Adults. Significant difference was found between sports ages and goal commitment. As sports age increase, so did goal commitment. There was no significant correlation between goal commitment and Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 618 ”ahadır “ltay, G(ls(m ”aştuğ, İbrahim İhsan “rıkan GOAL COMMITMENT AND PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE AMONG CYCLING ATHLETES psychological resilience. Goal commitment and psychological resilience training is recommended for different sports branches requiring physical and psychological resilience. Keywords: cycling athletes, goal commitment, psychological resilience 1. Introduction Road cycling is a team sport that places high mental and physical demands on performers and teams (Kress and Statler, 2007). This is especially important because cycling success involves preserving and apportioning out energy as it is needed during a race (Taylor and Kress, 2006). The cycling is mainly an individual sport and therefore, its focus is on the mastery of psychological skills aiming to increase arousal, motivation, confidence and focus, managing emotions, decreasing anxiety, pain, fear and regulating recovery (Miller and Hill, 1999; Taylor and Kress, 2006). Cycling is defined as a sport that requires a special resilience. A cyclist covers a distance of nearly 30.000-35.000 km each year during trainings and special and official races. In the last 21st day of Tour de France, elite cyclists ride a distance of 3500 km. in total (Avan, 2013). It requires specific skills such as cycling, good exit, horseback riding, crossing curved heights, staying at high leg speed, speed adjustment. The prior sport experience of the athlete, combined with his/her individual stage of physical, mental and emotional development, is much more important than chronological age in determining what the athlete is ready for (www.cyclingcanada, 2017). The outdoor sport activities, and in particular endurance sports, are strongly influenced by the variation of meteorological parameters. In effect the evaluation of bio-climatological conditions and of thermal comfort in endurance sports, particularly in road cycling, has a fundamental importance not only for a proper planning of the training program and the nutritional plan, but also for a better evaluation of the race strategy (Old et al. 1995). Goal is defined as achieving certain proficiency during a certain process while goal commitment is the determination in reaching that accepted goal (Locke et al., 1981; Locke and Latham, 2002). A goal is a target, objective, standard, destination, aim or end towards which people direct their efforts (Carron et al. 2005). According to Locke and Latham (1990), individual task performance is affected by goals because having goals leads individuals to do what is necessary to produce such performance. There are three main direct goal mechanisms: effort, persistence and direction; which are mainly motivational (Locke 1996). Studies done demonstrate that athletes of all ages set goals to enhance their performances and goal-setting is a significant strategy to increase performance (Horn, 2008). As a result, goals are classified into 3 categories: outcome goals, performance goals and process European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 3 │ Issue 12 │ 2017 619 ”ahadır “ltay, G(ls(m ”aştuğ, İbrahim İhsan “rıkan GOAL COMMITMENT AND PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE AMONG CYCLING ATHLETES goals. Outcome goals mainly focus on competition while performance goals basically target at not surpassing opponents’ performance but achieving a new performance by going beyond one’s previous performance ”urton, Naylor and Holliday ; Weinberg and Gold, 2011). Psychological resilience is considered as a psychological strength to overcome obstacles in case of negativity, obscurity or change when experienced by a person Luthans, et al. 6 . Psychological resilience is one’s capacity not to lose hope when he/she experiences any kind of negative events and to find meaning in life (Deveson, 2003). It is known that an individual with high psychological resilience protects his/her psychological and physical health by assessing stressing situations as an adaptive process and using effective coping strategies Işık 6. Among those athletes with high psychological resilience are seen twelve characteristics: self-belief, wish/motivation, coping with pressure and anxiety, focus on performance, focus on life style and pain/hardship. In a study, the highest scores came from having an unshakable self-belief in one’s capacity to achieve competition goals by recovering thanks to increased determination in success following performance obstacles and having a solid belief that one possesses unique qualifications and skills that make him/her better than opponents (Jones, Hanton and Connaughton, 2002). Studies report that psychological resilience is one of the intrinsic protective factors that constitute selfefficacy (Bartone and Hystad, 2010; Maddi, 2005). It is thought that cyclists -being engaged with cycling sport that requires physical and psychological resilience under difficult environmental conditions- are supposed to demonstrate physical and psychological resilience in order to find solutions to sudden and unexpected problems, to be determined and patient and to achieve the goal set. Investigating goal commitment and psychological resilience among cyclists is important in improving performance, increasing success motivation and contributing to the relevant studies in this field. In light of background above mentioned; this study aimed at assessing goal commitment and psychological resilience among cyclists. For viewing / downloading the full article, please access the following link: https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejep/article/view/1372 European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 3 │ Issue 12 │ 2017 620