Temperamental determinants of the sports level based on the example of female football players competing in the Ekstraliga

Abstract

Temperament is a factor which determines our all behaviours. Study showed that athletes who train, among other things, team sports games are characterised by lower emotional reactivity and perseverance and higher levels of endurance, briskness and activity compared to non-athletes. Therefore the aim of our study was characterising female football players and sports results of teams in which they competed in the Ekstraliga – the top level women’s football league in Poland. The study was carried out during the 2019/2020 season on a group of 61 female football players aged 18 to 29 years from four Ekstraliga’s teams: Górnik Łęczna (league champion for the lastthreeyears), GKS Katowice, TS MITECH Żywiec and Rolnik Biedrzychowice (a team which was relegated from the Ekstraliga in the analyzedseason). Data concerning theranking of the teams during the analysed season was sourced from information published on the website of the Polish Football Association (PZPN). To the psychological study was used the Formal Characteristics of Behaviour – Temperament Inventory (FCZ-KT) by Zawadzki and Strelau (1997). In statistiacal procedurę we used the ANOVA one-wayanalysis of variance and a post-hoc Tukey’s test. The analysis was performed in the Statistica 13.3 program. The analysis of the results showed that: the level of emotional reactivitydifferentiated the team of MITECH Żywiec and Rolnik Biedrzychowice, female players of GKS Katowice were characterised by a lower intensity of perseverance than players of MITECH Żywiec,and the level of activity was differentiated by the teams of Rolnik Biedrzychowice and MITECH Żywiec. Based on the results obtained, we assume that in the process of selecting and improving mental skills in women’s football, it is worth paying attention to the level of temperamental traits such as: emotional reactivity, persistence and activity, as they can have a significant impact on the results of sports teams. Moreover, despite the observed differences in the levels of the three temperament factors, no significant differences were found in the case of the Polish champion, Górnik Łęczna–which may contribute to further research.