Mental strategies of international level taekwondo athletes.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the mental skill used by top taekwondo athletes and to determine how well Orlick's "Wheel of Human Excellence" (1995) could be applied to these athletes. In-depth interviews were conducted with nine Canadian taekwondo athletes who had completed and won medals at the international level. The results indicated that Orlick's element of commitment, belief, full focus, positive images, mental readiness, distraction control and, constructive evaluation were common to all subjects. The presentation of rich quotes and experiences offer valuable insights and strategies for taekwondo athletes. A survey of the mental skills of Canadian taekwondo athletes was also completed by 29 athletes to determine the importance of each of the mental skills indentified in Orlick's model. All were ranked as important to success; means ranged between 8.14 and 9.70 on a Likert Scale of 10.