Mental patterns of Iranian Football Players in League 1 in the field of team performance by Q methodology

The purpose of this study was to identify the mental patterns of the team performance process in Football players with a mixed approach (quantitative - qualitative) and using Q methodology. The course in this study included 18 people (6 sports management professors, 6 experienced coaches and 6 successful players with B.A. and M.A. degree of education who were selected purposefully). The statistical population of the study consisted of the players of the first league football teams of the country, 21 of them were selected purposefully. Based on interviews and reviewing the research literature, 36 Q's statements were extracted and presented in a 36-card questionnaire and one Q-type questionnaire for the players to determine their degree of agreement or opposition. Based on the results of Q-type exploratory factor analysis, participants' mentality was categorized into five factors: team motivation, team quality, team learning, team skills, and team decision. These patterns explain 62.28% of total variance. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended to the managers of the country's sports system that in order to evaluate the performance of the coaches and the sports teams, in addition to the current ranking in the end of the season, other goals of the performance process, such as the identified patterns of the research.