PSYCHOLOGICAL CAUSES OF FATIGUE OF FOOTBALL PLAYERS

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to find out empirically and theoretically substantiate the psychological causes of football players’ fatigue. Methods. The ascertaining strategy of research and ranking of parameters has been applied. Valid and reliable psychodiagnostic methods have been used to measure parameters of professional maladjustment, self-assessment of psychophysiological state, differentiated assessment of performance, and the level of football players’ emotional burnout. Results. It was found that the high level of football player’s fatigue from the training-competitive cycle has been caused by a decrease in the efficiency of their psycho-functional systems: emotional changes (R=.920); a decrease in general activity (R=.810); a decrease in motivation to activity (R=.824); features of certain mental processes (R=.549); features of social interaction (R=.891). It has been shown that with a decrease in the indicators of the psychophysiological state, the feeling of fatigue increases: well-being (R=-.812); activity (R=-.840). As well as in relation to motivational factors of the appearance of fatigue: interest in sports (R=-.869); willingness to perform tasks (R=-.816). A statistically reliable inverse relationship has been established between all indicators of the psychophysiological state and predictors of fatigue: monotony, oversaturation, stress. It has been empirically established and explained that the drop in the level of football players’ performance, as a result of fatigue, can be caused by external negative influences: experiencing psycho-traumatic circumstances (R=.924); “being cornered” (R=.896); a desire to curtail professional activity: reduction of professional duties (R=.936); changes in team’s psychological climate: personal alienation (R=.924); changes in the emotional sphere: anxiety and depression (R=.882); inadequate selective emotional response (R=.867); emotional moral disorientation (R=.904); expansion of the sphere of emotional economy (R=.918); emotional deficit (R=.870); emotional alienation (R=.896). Discussion and conclusions. It has been summarized that football players with pronounced parameters of fatigue are much more often characterized by a deterioration in well-being, namely changes in the emotional sphere, a decrease in general activity and course of mental processes. At the same time, they are characterized by separate somatic vegetative disorders in sleep, peculiarities in social relations. In sports activities, they demonstrate reduced motivation and, accordingly, the lack of interest and motivation provokes a feeling of fatigue. It has been empirically found that the respondent football players with a pronounced feeling of fatigue demonstrate a high level of desire to stop their training and competition activities. These football players feel bored with monotonous, same-type activities and seek to change activity or diversify it.