Comparison of the Effects of a Training Period with Sports Vision, Specialized, and Combined Approaches on Certain Skill Components and Mood in Young Iraqi Volleyball Players under Psychological Pressure

Abstract

Objective:  The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of a training period with sports vision, specialized, and combined approaches on skill components and mood in young Iraqi volleyball players under psychological pressure. 
Materials and Methods: This semi-experimental study was conducted in the field using a pre-test/post-test design. A total of 42 participants who met the inclusion criteria were purposefully selected and randomly assigned to three groups (14 participants each): sports vision training, traditional training, and combined training. To assess the accuracy of volleyball serving and spiking, a test adapted from Garione et al. (2023) was employed. Mood was measured using the 32-item Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS). Trait anxiety was assessed using the Illinois SCAT questionnaire (Martens, 1997), and state anxiety was measured using the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) (Martens et al., 1990). To induce psychological pressure during the post-test, a combined monitoring and comparison method was used (Esmaeili et al., 2019). Data analysis was performed using covariance analysis and Bonferroni post hoc tests.
Findings: The results showed that under psychological pressure, the traditional/specialized group had the lowest serving accuracy, while no statistically significant differences were observed between the sports vision and combined groups (p ≥ 0.05). The combined training group exhibited the highest spiking accuracy under psychological pressure, with statistically significant differences among all three groups (p ≤ 0.05). Regarding positive mood components, no statistically significant differences were found between the sports vision and combined training groups (p ≥ 0.05), but statistically significant differences were observed between the sports vision and traditional groups as well as between the combined and traditional groups (p ≤ 0.05). In negative mood components, statistically significant differences were only observed between the combined and traditional groups (p ≤ 0.05).
Conclusion: The direct and indirect effects of sports vision training can assist coaches and athletes in diversifying training programs and may be utilized as a method and tool in real competition scenarios, which are often accompanied by psychological pressure. Additionally, the low cost and feasibility of implementing sports vision programs in various settings can be advantageous for coaches and athletes.