Sports Performance, Recovery, Injury and New Technologies Research Centre (SPRINT), Faculty of Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Performance Services, Australian Institute of Sport, Bruce, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2024 Jan;34(1):e14491. doi: 10.1111/sms.14491. Epub 2023 Sep 20.
Mental fatigue and mental recovery have gained scientific attention in relation to sporting performance, yet best practice assessment and management methods are lacking. A greater understanding of current knowledge and practices in high-performance sport are necessary.
To understand the contemporary knowledge, beliefs, monitoring processes, management strategies, perceived responsibility, sources of evidence, and challenges, when assessing the mental fatigue and mental recovery of athletes in high-performance sport.
A mixed-methods survey approach obtained information from 156 multi-disciplinary high-performance sport practitioners. Descriptive outputs were reported and potential differences between key concepts were detected using Wilcoxon-signed rank analysis. Thematic analysis interpreted open-text responses.
Only 11.5% and 5.1% of respondents indicated they were "very" knowledgeable about mental fatigue and mental recovery, respectively. Knowledge (p < 0.001) and confidence in application (p = 0.001) were significantly greater for mental fatigue than mental recovery. Nearly all respondents perceived mental fatigue and mental recovery impacted training and competition performance, with a greater negative impact during competition (p < 0.001). A limited number of respondents reported deliberate assessment (31.1%) or management (51.2%) of mental fatigue and mental recovery. A combination of sources of evidence were used to inform practice, with common challenges to implementation including staff knowledge, athlete-buy in, time-availability, and a lack of evidence. Practitioners reported that assessing and managing mental fatigue and mental recovery was multi-disciplinary in nature.
Practitioners reported that mental fatigue and mental recovery did impact performance, yet this was not reflected in the implementation of evidence-based assessment and management practices in high-performance sport.
精神疲劳和精神恢复在与运动表现相关的方面已经引起了科学界的关注，但最佳的评估和管理方法仍然缺乏。因此，我们需要更深入地了解在高水平运动中现有的知识和实践。
了解在高水平运动中评估运动员的精神疲劳和精神恢复时，当代的知识、信念、监测过程、管理策略、感知责任、证据来源和挑战。
采用混合方法调查方法，从 156 名多学科高水平运动从业者那里获取信息。报告描述性结果，并使用 Wilcoxon 符号秩检验分析检测关键概念之间的潜在差异。对开放式文本回复进行主题分析。
只有 11.5%和 5.1%的受访者表示他们对精神疲劳和精神恢复“非常”了解。与精神恢复相比，受访者对精神疲劳的知识（p<0.001）和应用信心（p=0.001）明显更高。几乎所有的受访者都认为精神疲劳和精神恢复会影响训练和比赛表现，在比赛期间的影响更大（p<0.001）。只有少数受访者报告了对精神疲劳和精神恢复的有意识评估（31.1%）或管理（51.2%）。用于指导实践的证据来源多种多样，实施过程中常见的挑战包括员工知识、运动员接受程度、时间可用性和缺乏证据。从业者报告说，评估和管理精神疲劳和精神恢复是多学科性质的。
从业者报告说精神疲劳和精神恢复确实会影响表现，但这并没有反映在高水平运动中基于证据的评估和管理实践的实施中。
