文章基本信息

标题：Igniting the pressure acclimatization training debate: contradictory pilot-study evidence from Australian football.
本地全文：下载
作者：Beseler, Bradley ; Mesagno, Christopher ; Young, Warren 等
期刊名称：Journal of Sport Behavior
印刷版ISSN：0162-7341
出版年度：2016
期号：March
出版社：University of South Alabama
摘要：Australian football is the pre-eminent sport in Australia. Played between two teams of 22 players, with 18 players on the field at any given time, the main way to score is to punt the oval shaped ball through the two centre goal posts to score six points. Australian Football is a team sport that is played in an open skilled environment with closed skills (i.e., set shots for goal) within game play. A set shot is when a player has a shot at goal after taking a mark (i.e., catching a kicked ball) or receiving a free kick (i.e., penalty from an opposing player). One aspect of set shots in Australian Football that is different to other sports involving shots at goal (e.g., soccer, hockey and basketball) is the opposing player's role. The direct opponent becomes the "man on the mark", standing in the position where the mark or free kick was awarded and attempting to distract the kicker or block the ball's flight path. A set shot is similar to punting in American football; however, it is a more closed skill where the player can execute the task without being forced to rush the kick due to external pressure from defenders.

In the past two decades, Australian football has improved in nearly all aspects of the game. It is generally agreed that field kicking and handballing accuracy (i.e., passing), and defensive pressure have all improved and according to Gray and Jenkins (2010), data collected through global positioning systems technology and video analysis has shown Australian football is getting faster, yet according to Champion data Statistician Karl Jackson (personal communication, April 30, 2012); set shot goal kicking accuracy has declined over the last 12 years by 1.4 percent. One reason for the decline could be that set shots can lead to increased psychological pressure which is defined as "any factor or combination of factors that increases the importance of performing well on a particular occasion" (Baumeister, 1984). Choking under pressure (i.e., choking) is a term that is used to describe an inferior performance under increased levels of pressure. Mesagno and Hill (2013) defined choking as "an acute and considerable decrease in skill execution and performance when self-expected standards are normally achievable, which is the result of increased anxiety under perceived pressure" (p. 273). Not surprisingly, a number of studies have highlighted the problem of athletes performing poorly under pressure (Baumeister, 1984; Beilock & Carr, 2001; Gucciardi & Dimmock, 2008; Lewis & Linder, 1997; Mesagno & Mullane-Grant, 2010; Mesagno, Harvey, & Janelle, 2011; Oudejans, Kuijpers, Kooijman, & Bakker, 2011; Oudejans & Pijpers, 2009, 2010; Wilson, Wood, & Vine, 2009).