Understanding Coaches’ Integration of Sport Psychology in Regional Athlete Development: A Qualitative Study on Mental Skills Practices, Barriers, and Training Needs
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26858/cpjok.v18i2.977Keywords:
Sport Psychology; Mental Skills; Regional Coaches; Psychological Skills Training; Athlete Development.Abstract
Mental skills are important in athlete development because athletes need confidence, focus, emotional control, motivation, and readiness to perform under pressure. However, in regional sport settings, sport psychology is not always delivered through formal programs or by sport psychology professionals. There is still limited understanding of how regional coaches integrate mental skills into their daily coaching practice, especially in the South Sulawesi context. This preliminary qualitative study aimed to explore how selected regional coaches in South Sulawesi understand and integrate sport psychology in athlete development, with specific attention to mental skills practices, barriers, and training needs. The study used a qualitative descriptive design involving five coaches from football, badminton, athletics, and boxing. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings show that the participating coaches viewed mental skills as an important part of performance readiness, especially in relation to confidence, focus, courage, emotional control, and motivation. The coaches had already used several mental skills practices, such as briefing before training, imagery before drills or competition, cue words during training, motivation, self-talk, and post-training reflection. However, these practices were mostly informal, simple, and based on coaching experience rather than a structured psychological skills training program. The main barriers included athlete fatigue, emotional reactions to correction, limited time, facility constraints, discipline issues, and communication challenges. This study suggests that sport psychology support for regional coaches should be practical, simple, field-based, and connected to existing coaching routines. The findings provide an early basis for developing coach-friendly mental skills training models in regional athlete development contexts.
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