The effect of combined exercises on taekwondo practitioners' motivational and impulsive self-talk

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of combined exercises on the motivational and impulsive self-talk of female taekwondo practitioners. It is well-known that an athlete's performance is influenced not only by their physical strength and athletic skills, but also by their mental strength.
This study utilized a quasi-experimental design with pretest and posttest measurements. The statistical population consisted of female taekwondo practitioners in Mashhad, and a total of 40 individuals were randomly assigned to two groups. The Theodorakis and Papaiano (2008) Automated Self-Speaking Questionnaire and the Barat et al. (2004) Impulsivity Questionnaire were used to collect data. The combined training group participated in 12 sessions of 90 minutes each, which included both physical and psychological exercises. The control group, on the other hand, only engaged in physical training. Data analysis was conducted using the Levene's test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and one-way analysis of covariance, with a significance level set at less than 0.05.
The results showed that combined exercises had a significant effect on the self-talk and impulsivity of taekwondo practitioners (p = 0.001). Comparing the average scores of the two groups in the post-test stage, it can be concluded that combined physical and psychological exercises increased self-talk and decreased impulsivity among taekwondo practitioners.
These findings suggest that taekwondo technical staff can incorporate combination exercises into their training sessions, considering the individual differences of the athletes. By doing so, they can address both the physical and psychological aspects of training.
Keywords: Physical and Psychological Exercises, Motivational Self-Talk, Impulsivity, Taekwondo Practitioners