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Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to explore the perception of psychological preparation of Polish football players by the spectators possessing direct involvement with psychology and sports. Moreover, we tried to determine who was assigned the blame for the defeat. Material/Methods: The study involved164 psychology students from University of Gdansk and 201 students from Gdansk University of Physical Education and Sport, aged between 19 and 32 years. The participants completed EURO 2012 survey in October 2012. Results: The students of the sports-oriented university were more interested in football on a daily basis and showed greater interest in the EURO 2012 tournament. Significant intergroup differences pertained to the responsibility scores of the coach, players, and the team of physicians, physiotherapists, and psychologists, as well as to the scores ascribed to various potential psychological determinants of the failure of the Polish Team during the competition. Among others, documented significant correlations included relationships between the satisfaction gained from the tournament and the role of pressure exerted by spectators and media. Conclusions: In the students’ opinion EURO 2012 was a great commercial and promotional success, but also a huge disappointment with regards to the performance of the Polish National Team. Although our participants acknowledged psychological aspects as potential determinants of the lack of sport success, they did not perceive the role of a psychologist as important during preparation. This may suggest a necessity of promoting the need for cooperation between athletes and specialists of various disciplines.

DOI

10.2478/bjha-2013-0003

Author ORCID Identifier

Daniel Krokosz https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2755-9512; Magdalena Jochimek https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9899-5031; Mariusz Lipowski https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8389-7006

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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