Research summary · Sport psychology
Psychological-skills training improves self-reported coping attributes in female wrestlers
Thirty-six professional female wrestlers aged 18–25 were randomised equally to eight weeks of psychological-skills training alongside routine wrestling or routine training alone. Questionnaires assessed self-control, perceived capacity for physical self-defence and mental-toughness dimensions before and after the programme.
- Publication year
- 2026
- First published online
- Publication type
- Randomized controlled pretest–posttest trial
- Journal
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Population / context
- Women's wrestling · Combat sport
What the publication reports
Changes favoured the intervention for self-reported inhibition and initiation, perceived self-defence capacity, and confidence, control and persistence. Several group-by-time effects were large. These are changes in athletes' perceptions and reported psychological tendencies; competitive wrestling results, technical success and actual self-defence proficiency were not tested.
Limits and interpretation
Only 18 athletes received the intervention, and there was no long-term follow-up or attention-matched psychological control. Self-report is vulnerable to expectations and social desirability. Added contact time may contribute to effects. The trial does not establish improved cognitive-task performance, match performance or clinical mental-health outcomes.
Read the source
Consult the original record for the full author list, methods, references, funding and competing-interest disclosures.
Effects of psychological skills training on self-control, perceived physical self-defense capacity, and mental toughness in elite female wrestlers: a randomized controlled trial
Original publication / indexed recordPMID: 42876484DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1956445Full text at the sourceReader discussion
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