Katerina Kudlackova

Mental Toughness, Relaxation Activities, and Sleep in Sports: Study of the Relationship Between Mental Toughness, Relaxation, and Sleep in Athletes at Different Skill Levels Katerina Kudlackova

Mental toughness is a term commonly used to describe athletes? ability to perform well in tough situations. Coaches work with athletes on improving mental toughness because they believe it can help them to become better. However, some of them might believe that long hours of hard practice is all it takes to become mentally tough. Therefore, relaxation is often omitted in athlete?s schedule. This book portrays a study that was designed to clarify the relationship between mental toughness and relaxation activities as well as sleep. The main intent was to determine whether athletes who were more mentally tough engaged in more relaxation activities and sleep compared to athletes who were less mentally tough. In addition, the relationship was examined across athletes at different skill levels as it was hypothesized that athletes at higher skill level would (a) be more mentally tough, (b) engage more in relaxation activities, and (c) get more sleep than athletes at lower skill levels. The results confirmed some of the hypotheses and thus may indicate the importance of relaxation activities and sleep in sports.