To whom it may concern, I am currently completing a paper on the topic question of "Mental attitude has a greater impact on performance than skill level when at an elite level." (Sports) I am a firm believer of this, but I have to back up this hypothesis with facts. Which is where I am requesting your assistance. If you have any information that could be of assistance to me it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much for your time.

-- glenn clothier (glennclothier@hotmail.com), June 22, 2000

Answers

Your answer lies in your question........ Skill is a combination of 'correct': technique, tactics/decsion making, physical attributes, mental 'toughness' (for want of a better word). Elite performance comes when these four attributes are combined to produce elite skilled performance. Elite performance will very rarely if ever be attained if any one of these attributes is below par, including mental 'attitude'.

In short, understand skill then you will understand the place of mental attitude, and certainly don't try and place mental attitude outside the word 'skill'. Since skill is not defined in your question I would say that whoever set the question is mistaking skill for technical and tactical ability. In fact the word attitude is 'woolly'. Attitude to what? Training, performance, preparation, all three? If you were to hypothesise that mental toughness is the most importnat factor IN elite SKILLED performance then the work of Orlick and Mcafferey may be of use.

-- Andy Abraham (a.abraham@bell.ac.uk), June 27, 2000.