Athlete's personal potential as a predictor of competitive performance

Background. At present, the question of finding additional resources to improve the performance of competitive activity of Russian athletes is quite acute. The personal potential of an athlete is one of the significant indicators ensuring high sports results. Objectives. To identify the components of personal potential predictive for the competitive performance. Study Participants. The study involved 243 athletes, men and women aged 18 to 40, participants of the I-st All-Russian Spartakiade of the strongest athletes in 2022 (M = 25.55; SD = 4.95; 31.3% of men). The sports included sambo, judo, boxing, fencing, track and field, and shooting. Methods. The author's questionnaire ‘Personal Potential’ was implemented in the study. The scales of the questionnaire allow for assessing the general level of personal potential and its five components: engagement, conscientiousness, positivity, internality, and independence. To assess the results of competitive activity, the results of performance (from the 1st to the 10th place) were taken into account. Results. Nonparametric analysis of variance revealed some differences among athletes of different sport disciplines in the general index of personal potential and its components ‘engagement’ and ‘positivity’, while no differences were observed in the components ‘conscientiousness’, ‘independence’, and ‘internality’. Multiple regression analysis allowed to identify personal potential components contributing to the performance of athletes depending on the type of sport. For sambo athletes the significant components are ‘engagement’, ‘conscientiousness’, and ‘independence’; for judoists, ‘engagement’ is a significant predictor only when taking into account the level of sportsmanship; for athletes engaged in boxing, ‘independence’ is significant only when taking into account the age factor; for track and field athletes ‘conscientiousness’ and ‘positivity’ are significant; for athletes engaged in shooting, ‘positivity’, ‘independence’ and ‘internality’ contribute to the result of competitive activity; for athletes — fencers — ‘positivity’ and ‘conscientiousness’. Conclusion. Personal potential and its components are manifested in all athletes differently depending on the sport. The developed diagnostic tool for the personal potential assessment can serve for predicting the performance of competitive activity and can be used in the programs of psychological support of athletes during preparation for major competitions.