Comparison of Psychological Profile between the Successful and Less Successful Taekwondo Athletes

Sports success in taekwondo is influenced by various variables; including psychological Characteristics, nevertheless, a systematic research does not examine the role of these factors in various competitive levels. What is the difference between the psychological profile of successful and less successful Taekwondo athletes? the purpose of this study was to comparison of Psychological profile between successful and less successful taekwondo athletes. Present research method was causative-comparative, the population of this study included all Iranian taekwondo athletes that of this statistical population 70 successful (in Asian Games and World) and the 70 less successful (in competitions city) taekwondo was selected by purposive sampling and completed the questionnaires of Mental Skills (Bush & Salmela, 2001), Mental toughness (sheard et al, 2009), Competitive anxiety (Martenz, 1997) and Sport Motivation (Maltt et al, 2007). Data were analyzed through analysis of variance Mann-Whitney U tests The results showed that excluding the sport motivation variable, there is a significant difference between psychological profile of Taekwondo athletes in all mental Skills, mental toughness, and competitive anxiety variables, and this difference was observed to be in favor of successful Taekwondo athletes (p>0/05). Considering this results successful taekwondo athletes have a higher score in all above variables (Except sport motivation) than less successful taekwondo athletes so psychological intervention is needed for less successful taekwondo athletes.