O desenvolvimento da Força Mental no Padel Perceções e experiências de uma atleta de nível mundial

Abstract

The present dissertation aimed to determine the fundamental factors of the development of mental toughness in a world class Padel player. The methodology used in this study was an semi structured interview, based on the Personal Construct Psychology (PCP, Kelly, 1955) and structured in four stages of athlete career according to the literature on talent and mental toughness development (Bloom, 1985; Connaughton, Wadey, Hanton & Jones, 2008; Côté, 1999): 1) Early years; 2) Middle years; 3) Professional years and 4) Maintenance years. The interview guide was based on the "Bioecological model of development of mental toughness", adapted from Krebs (2009). There was also a pre-interview to understand the prespective of the athlete about the development and concept of Mental Toughness, and to colect some informations about her past in sports. The content of the interview was analyzed with inductive and deductive methods. The athlete started using coping strategies, that developed her Mental Toughness and that the work with a sport psychologist was very important. Moreover, her parents and coach support in the length of her carreer was almost all the time positive and motivational. It is important to say that the athlete had the ability to manage her academic life with competition in other countries, and that the sacrifices she did were determinant to the developed of her Mental Toughness. Interestingly the athlete said that not only the positive experiences, but also the negative ones, (e.g., setbacks, defeats, etc.) were very important to the development of her Mental Toughness and to become one of world's top athletes.