Estado mental flow e motivação no atletismo: dos velocistas aos ultramaratonistas

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the mental state flow and motivation in the runners sprinters and endurance of track and field. In the study 1 that it investigated the theory of Flow-feeling, the sample was composed of 25 athletes being 18 males, divided into groups according to specialty: 8 sprinters (VE) (20±3.3 years), 7 middle distance runners (MF) (25±8.4 years), 8 distance runners (FD) (31.3±12.3 years), and 2 ultramarathon runners (UM) (44±7.07 years). In the study 2, about motivation, they participated 31 runners (23 males), divided into groups according to specialty: 8 sprinters (20±3.3 years), 8 middle distance runners (24.2±8.1 years), 8 distance runners (31±12.1 years), and 7 ultramarathon runners (37.7±9.3 years). To investigate the theory Flow-feeling opted for the interview, open and semi-structured, guided by a script with 11 questions. The dimensions of challenge-skill balance and intense concentration on the task were the most mentioned by athletes, representing respectively 17.7 and 16.1% of total registration units. They individuals of the sample related to occurrence of challenge-skill balance dimension to the level of training and the chance of success in the competition. The occurrence of intense concentration on the task dimension demonstrated that sprinters use more to attention associative strategy. In contrast, endurance athletes use predominantly attention dissociative strategy. In the study 2, the intrinsic motivation and extrinsic, it was evaluated through the questionnaire Sport Motivation Scale (SMS) validated for Portuguese (BARA FILHO et al., 2010). The motivation of runners of different modalities was similar, with the exception of the subscale of extrinsic motivation identified, which was greater in ultramarathon runners when compared to middle distance runners (p = 0.029). In all groups the values of intrinsic motivation showed slightly higher extrinsic motivation, however, only in the group of runners distance was found statistical difference (p<0.000). No differences were found when comparing genders. Was concluded starting from the results of the studies 1 and 2 that there are differences among the occurrence of the dimensions of the flow in each modality, suggesting that the predominances of those characteristics of flowing are strongly related to the peculiarities of each proof. Already the motivation for the practice of run does not depend of the modality and of the athlete's gender. Besides, the intrinsic motivation tends to be larger than the extrinsic motivation.