THE IMPORTANCE OF MENTAL LEVEL TRAINING IN SPORT.

Introduction. Psychological training is one of the factors that can make the difference between opponents in a sport competition. The paper aimed to identify the level of psychological abilities of the volleyball player and to compare the results between male and female players. Method. To determine the volleyball player's mental training level, a questionnaire has been applied, to measure the level of stress and other athletes' psychological abilities. Thus, the subjects of the research were 18 male volleyball players (aged 25) and 12 female volleyball player (aged 23) who played in the first national division. Results. The results showed medium psychological training for the female team, with low ability to face the opponents, medium training in concentration and confidence. The male team had better results for all components (release of tension, confidence and motivation). Statistical analysis was made through SPSS, version 21. Statistically significant differences were found between the results of male and female players (p<0.05). Conclusions. These results confirmed that the optimization of training and the increase in sport performance is done with emphasis on the psychological training, the male team winning the championship that season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]