Psychological Exercises and their Effect on ReducingAnxiety through Physiological Indicators for Handball Players of the Youth Class

Abstract

The researchers aim to design psychological exercises in order to improve this psychological aspect and enhance the players' health condition altogether with their physical, technical and strategical state. This forms the main concern of specialists in order to create players with a sense of responsibility within a team, able to fulfill their duties as favorable as possible. The research population consists of the sport clubs that participated with the Iraqi Handball Championship for Youth 2016, including the clubs of Al Nasiriyah, Al Nasr, Balad, Al Qasim, Al Najaf, Al Simawa, and others. The samples are selected randomly by means of draw, resulting in the two sport clubs Al Najaf and Al Qasim. The total number of players is twelve from each club. Al Qasim represented the experimental group which adopted these psychological exercises as part of their training. Al Najaf, on the other hand, represented the control group which followed a preset training program assigned by their trainer. The researchers used the Biometer, designed by the researcher SuhadAbdAlkam (2007), to measure the activity of sweat glands and the decrease of the temperature of fingertips, as well as the Balace in order to measure the average of the heart rate and the blood pressure. The researchers applied certain psychological exercises on the research sample (the experimental group) for 8 week with 2 training units each, according to the method preset by trainer of the sport club itself. These exercises include physical relaxation and breathing techniques, and continue for 10 to 15 minutes, giving rests according to its difficulty level. The exercises are arranged from the easy to the less easy ones. The researchers presented the results of this experiment and analyzed and discussed them, and made their conclusions depending on these results