Attention and emotional distress in junior athletes practicing judo and alpine skiing.

Background. This is an interesting topic and we aimed to approach it from the perspective of the Olympic judo team who has achieved very good results worldwide compared to the Romanian skiers who have poorer results due to the conditions of training (there are only 3-4 months with snow in Romania). The groups who were applied tests were athletes aged between 11 ± 5 and 15 ± 3 years. The athletes are members of the Romanian Olympic Judo Team and members of ski groups from sports clubs in: Gheorgheni (HR), Baia-Sprie (MM), Topliţa (HR), Sibiu (SB), Petroșani (HD). Aims. This study is part of a larger work where we aimed to analyze correlations between the psychological cognitive processes: emotional distress and attention. Methods. We applied the following tests: AM - concentration of attention, AD - distributive attention, AP - perception of attention, EMAS - emotional distress, PDE - anxiety. These initial tests were used as starting points in our research with the aim of increasing sports performance through the application of mental training techniques. Results. The nonparametric Mann-Whitney test (U) for unpaired samples was used to compare scores/ranks on cognitive tests applied to the two groups of athletes. Materiality was α = 0.05 (5%), α = 0.01 (1%) or α = 0.001. To detect the correlation between two continuous quantitative variables, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient (ρ) was used. Analysis of correlation coefficients was performed using Colton's rule. Conclusions. In the comparative analysis of cognitive test scores in the studied groups and regarding statistical significance, there were positive values for all correlations, apart from one exception in the ski group, where the EMAS test values were negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]