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Executive Summary
Book Title : SPORT PSYCHOMETRICS: Basics and
Instruments of Sports Psychometric
Author : Prof. James Tangkudung and Team.
Publisher : Raja Grafindo Persada
Published : July 2018
Pages : 554
In this era, sports are not merely activities to do in spare time. Sports has become part of the
profession. As part of the profession, sports are functioned for the purpose of accomplishing
achievement. The accomplished achievement becomes proof that sportsmen (athletes) have
succeeded to pursue their focused field. With achievement, athletes will not only get
"recognition" or legitimacy, but also gain economic benefits, popularity, and so on.
Achievements are targets in the sports arena. To achieve such achievements, it requires various
matters. Not only physical abilities or exercise skills, but also non-physical and non-technical
aspects, such as arousal, determination, emotion, attitude, responsibility, motivation, discipline,
self-confidence, and so forth. This is implied, for example, from the term "champion mentality"
that is often raised by commentators in one of the sports competition events to mention the
attitude, motivation, and passion owned by the winning team that is able to catch up with the
score, then managed to turn things around and succeeded victory.
The aspects beyond physical and technical abilities are important to be developed by the
athletes. For example, emotional aspects. Emotional aspects are important to take into account
because stability and instability of emotion can affect either good or bad performance of
athletes on the match. When in a stable emotional state, athletes will be able to excel in the
performance. Conversely, when an unstable emotional state, athletes will not perform in the
best abilities. This is because unstable emotions affect the physiological and psychological
aspects hence shall reduce the athlete’s performance during the match.
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Another aspect that needs to be concerned with is determination. A determination is one of the
key factors for the success of athletes. A determination is a mental attitude that is characterized
by a strong commitment to accomplish a certain goal, regardless of many obstacles get in the
way. Therefore, athletes who have determination will show hard work, discipline, and sincerity
both in training and competing. For example, a running athlete, badminton, Pencak Silat or
other sports - to become a successful sportsman - must be prepared to give himself up to
practice continuously and catalyze physically and mentally. If you want to be a successful
runner, he must practice with the good discipline to achieve the maximum speed above all of
the competitors that have ever achieved. When you want to become an excellent badminton
athlete, he must practice good serves and smash in the best way continuously until he finds the
best pattern he can use to "beat" the opponent. When he wants to become a strong martial arts
athlete, he must practice hard to have good kicks, punches, and stances to "duel" with
opponents. Athletes who have determination will be able to go through the process and it will
double their abilities in the midst of the limitations they have and in the end, it will have an
effect on their success during a race or a match.
Motivation is another aspect that needs to be taken into account. Motivation has an important
role in sports achievements. Technical, physical, and good tactics to compete will not have a
major impact on the athlete's achievements if not followed by motivation. If the sportsman has
a high motivation, so will the effort shall be high. If motivation is low, the effort shall be low as
well although supported by good technical, physical and tactic. Therefore, the athlete must be
able to keep his motivation at a high level both in the training process and also when in the
match. The motivation is indeed an unstable condition. Athletes’ motivation can be changed
every time. Therefore, it is necessary to make efforts to keep sports motivation at an optimal
level. It can be done by setting targets or goals, doing imagery training and so on.
The next aspect that needs to be considered and developed is concentration. Concentration is
the ability of the athlete to maintain the focus of his attention on the relevant match
environment. Athletes need to train and develop their concentration. Without having a good
concentration or ability to maintain focus, athletes will find it difficult to have a match or race,
and might even experience failure or defeat. In soccer matches, for example, losing
concentration from the back player guarding against opponent’s front player can impact on the
success of the opposing team scoring a score. Or in gymnastics, gymnasts who lack
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concentration, cannot be calm to perform because there are shouts in a harassing tone from a
group of people in the stands, will reduce the quality of the gymnast's appearance. Therefore,
concentration is very important to be owned by sportsmen so that when appearing in
competitions or matches, sportsmen can give the best performance
As stated in the beginning, to accomplish achievements, it is not enough for athletes to rely on
physical abilities or playing skills. Athletes must also have good psychic abilities or abilities. In
boxing, for example, it is not enough for boxer athletes to rely on the power of a punch to win a
match, but also must have determination, emotion, and a good mental attitude. In athletic sports
(such as running, jumping, or walking), the opportunity for sportsmen to achieve full
performance is influenced by many factors such as mental toughness, discipline to exercise,
stable emotions, high motivation, and so on. Therefore, the role of psychic aspects becomes an
important factor for sportsmen in the process of achieving achievement.
To develop and raise psychic aspects of sportsmen, it can be done by acknowledging their
psychological state or capacity first. To figure the condition, it can be done with psychometrics.
Psychometric is a field in psychology that related to the theory and techniques of measuring
intelligence and psychology or mental activity.
By associating to the development and maintenance of psychic aspects in athletes,
psychometrics aims to obtain objective and measurable data related to the psychic conditions
of sportsmen including both emotions, motivation, determination, personality, commitment,
excitement, attitude, quality of leadership, aggressiveness, confidence, goal setting, cooperation
ability, leadership, and so on through tests or a series of psychological tests. Techniques
performed in psychological tests can be in the form of filling out questionnaires to find out self-
confidence, attitude, and so on through the provision of tasks in certain content to understand
motivation, achievement of goals and so on; through a projection test to assess personality,
emotional state and so on; and through other techniques.
The results of psychological or psychometric measurements will be very helpful to obtain
empirical data about the psychological condition or mental condition of the athlete so it can be
planned and determined of what steps can be taken and developed so that athletes can develop
psychologically. Psychic development or mental condition will have an effect on the
achievements of sportsmen in the field of sports they are involved in.
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This book presents readers with a discussion about sports psychometrics. This book presents
various concepts as well as instruments related to sports psychometry, starting from
discussions about competition, reinforcement, sports communication, stress management
training, leadership, determination, movement, commitment, arousal, attitude, emotion,
tolerance, teamwork, motivation, intelligence, responsibility, self-talk, cohesiveness,
personality, anxiety, concentration in sports, attention, imagery, goal setting, discipline, self-
confidence, self-control, to aggressiveness.
In the topic of competition, it begins with the definition of competition, sports competition,
problems in the competition, expected results from the competition, benefits of competition,
psychometrics, the role of psychometrics in competition, mental coaching, mental coaching
strategies, psychological tests in sports, adapting psychological tests in sports, and competition
instruments.
In the topic of reinforcement, it begins with the definition of reinforcement, types of
reinforcement, the purpose of reinforcement, components of reinforcement, the principle of
using reinforcement, ways of providing reinforcement, reinforcement schedules, and
reinforcement instruments. Meanwhile, in the topic of sports communication, it begins with the
definition of communication, communication processes, communication objectives, types of
communication, communication process models, communication barriers, and sports
communication instruments.
In the topic about stress management exercises, it includes understanding the stress, sources
of stress, negative effects of stress, exercise on managing stress, mental training techniques for
stress management, and stress management training instruments. As for the topic of
leadership, it includes being a leader, effective leadership components, leadership styles, and
leadership instruments.
Meanwhile, In the topic of determination, it includes the definition of determination, high
determination, low determination, the types of determination, the factors forming the
determination, to the instrument of determination.
In the topic of movement, it includes the notion of movement, the purpose of learning
movement, the classification of movement skills, the function of learning movement, the
benefits of movement, the principle of learning movement, various basic movements, and
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movement instruments. Meanwhile, on the topic of goal setting, the material presented includes
the concept of goal setting, factors that influence goal setting, to the instrument for goal setting.
In the topic of commitment, it presents a definition of commitment, various types and forms of
commitment, factors to influence commitment, aspects of commitment, and instruments of
commitment. Meanwhile, in the topic about excitement or arousal, it presents the
understanding of arousal, the characteristics of athletes experiencing arousal, the basic theory
of arousal relations with the athlete's appearance, arousal measurement, factors that caused
arousal, and arousal instruments.
In the topic of attitudes, it includes a definition of attitudes, characteristic of attitudes, types of
attitudes, functions of attitudes, factors to form attitudes and change attitudes, understanding
attitudes, ways of developing attitudes, positive attitudes, and negative attitudes, and attitude
instruments. As for the topic of emotions, it presents an emotional understanding, emotional
theories, emotional growth and development, physiological changes in emotions, expression
and emotional perception, the influence of emotional intelligence on sports achievements, and
emotional instruments.
In the topic of tolerance, it includes the definition of tolerance, why we must have a spirit of
tolerance, ways of applying tolerance in daily life, the benefits of tolerance, types of tolerance,
values of tolerance in sports, and instruments of tolerance. Meanwhile, on the topic of
teamwork, it includes the definition of teamwork, the benefits of teamwork, characteristics and
factors of teamwork, types of teamwork, and instruments of teamwork.
In the topic of motivation, it includes the definition motivation, types of motivation, factors that
influence motivation, ways to growth motivation, motivational roles in sports, conceptual
definitions and operational definitions, and references of an instrument. As for the topic of
intelligence, it presents the understanding of intelligence and intelligence instruments. As for
the topic of responsibility, it presents the definition of responsibility, types of responsibilities,
characteristics and factors that influence responsibility, and instruments of attitude.
In the topic about self-talk, it presents the definition of self-talk, the function of self-talk, positive
self-talk, negative self-talk, the influence of self-talk on the performance of athletes, and self-
talk instruments. Meanwhile, on the topic of cohesiveness, it presents the understanding of
cohesiveness, operational definitions, and cohesiveness instrument variables.
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In the topic of personality, it presents the understanding of personality, forming the personality,
types of personality, factors that influence personality, and personality instruments. As for the
topic about anxiety, it includes an understanding of anxiety, the types of anxiety, the source of
anxiety, the correlation between anxiety and exercise, symptoms of anxiety, how to overcome
anxiety and anxiety instruments.
In the topic of concentration, it includes conceptual definitions of concentration, goals,
instruments, and types of concentration, instructions before concentration training, tips for
increasing concentration, types of exercises to increase concentration, models of exercise
concentration on sports, and instruments. As for the topic of attention, it includes basic
concepts, conceptual definitions, operational definitions, and attention instruments.
In the topic of imagery, it covers the definition of imagery, the components of mental imagery,
the process of occurring mental imagery, the benefits of imagery, conceptual definitions, and
instrument points and types of instruments. As for the topic of on discipline, it presents the
understanding of discipline, purpose of discipline, and disciplinary instruments. As for the topic
of self-confidence, the material presented includes an understanding of confidence, type and
benefits of confidence, research on confidence, and instruments of confidence.
In the topic about self-control, it includes self-control, aspects of self-control, characteristics of
self-control, factors that influence self-control, principles of self-control, benefits of self-control,
and self-control instruments. Meanwhile, on the topic of aggressiveness, it includes general
concepts, objectives, and instruments of aggressiveness.
This book can be applied as reading material for students and lecturers in the Faculty of Sports
Science, athletes, coaches, sports manager and those who pay attention to the progress of
athletes’/sportsmen's achievements. The presence of this book is important due to several
matters. First, there are not many books that have addressed the theme of sports
psychometrics. Not many books raising this issue would cause an impact on the lack of
availability of reading material about sports psychometric, even though knowledge of sports
psychometric needs to be known not only by athletes but also by trainers, sports coaches and
those who pay attention to efforts to advance sportsmen's achievements. The presence of this
book would answer the "thirst" for those who want to know about sports psychometric.
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Secondly, this book is important because it does not only contain various important concepts
about values that need to be developed by sportsmen or trainers and sports coaches but also
perfected with instruments. Therefore, aside from the whole concepts, this book is also
included with instruments that can be used for research related to sports psychometrics
whereas the results of these studies can be used to develop psychic aspects or mental
conditions of sportsmen to achieve desired achievements.
