Skiwoodgate

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@BCM thank you for your words. I have read a lot of literature on mental toughness, and have had to base my study around previous study in other sports due to the lack of literature in water skiing. Some of the particularly interesting studies to me are listed below. All of these I have been able to access through either google scholar or my library database. Jemmy, S., & Easvaradoss, V. (2018). Mental Toughness and Positivity as Predictors of Performance Strategies Used Among Competing Athletes. International Journal of Sports Sciences & Fitness, 8(2), 98-119. Chen, M. A., & Cheesman, D. J. (2013). Mental Toughness of Mixed Martial Arts Athletes at Different Levels of Competition. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 116(3), 905-917 Biglari, S., Sanatkaran, A., Bahari, S. M., & Montazeri, M. (2015). The Comparison of Team and Individual Male Athletes, Mental Toughness at Different Levels of Skills. International Journal of Basic Sciences and Applied Research, 4(2), 127-132. Slimani, M., Miarka, B., Briki, W., & Cheour, F. (2016, June 7). Comparison of Mental Toughness and Power Test Performances in High-Level Kickboxers by Competitive Success. Asian Journal of Sports Medicine, 7(2), e30840. Chen, M. A., & Cheesman, D. J. (2013). Mental Toughness of Mixed Martial Arts Athletes at Different Levels of Competition. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 116(3), 905-917.

@DW absolutely athletes may compete in other sports and water skiing may not be their primary. This is certainly a limitation that must be recognized in conclusions. I hope the survey research will discern mental toughness and competitive standard, alongside a couple of other things. The survey did ask a question about ones competitive standard in water skiing which will help me understand responses from the recreational to amateur participant.

Doing a great job getting responses with this survey, thank you everyone that has participated. I will keep it open until next weekend. If you haven't had a chance to fill it please take 5 minutes of your time and fill it in, I really appreciate it and it will help the veracity of conclusions the study comes to with more survey responses. Thanks! https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/X32CPX

I did actually consider thinking about asking a question about performance at certain events however I realized I think the data would be illegitimate. A major event for you, may not be a major event for me, how do we define the "major events" for someone? How do deem the level where performance is considered "good" or "bad"? Mental toughness is certainly going to effect placements at tournaments, its part of "the whole package" that the elite athletes exhibit. Although I am sure then even if I was to look at a series of specific case study interviews in the future, how one may perceive their mental toughness may not be how the public perceive it. I am sure I will finish this study with more questions than answers, but I'm fine with that!

Hello @Bruce_Butterfield I expect the response for someone skis for enjoyment to be significantly different from someone who is committed to completion, that is one of my hypotheses, and something that can be seen across sports in general. Confirming this hypotheses will merely be confirmatory to previous studies conducted across other sport. I did consider writing something about "fill in today, or fill in in your prime" but figured to leave it out as that would confuse demographic questions immensely which will be used to compare to SMTQ scores, and I also figured the "older" skiers, (John Battleday messaged me saying exactly this) would fill the SMTQ out as if they were in their prime. This is certainly a limitation, one that I have considered but figured not to worry too much about as I think trying to address it would ultimately introduce more error into the data. The idea that this survey will answer "mental toughness" is not something I am looking for, as such. What even is mental toughness exactly? You look at literature and there are many definitions. The questions used in my questionnaire have been taken from the SMTQ (Sheard, Golby & Van Wersh, 2009) which is a well respected mental toughness questionnaire that has been used through a lot of literature. Of course there are plenty of other MT questionnaires also, all of which use certain and different sub scales of mental toughness to give an overall picture of mental toughness. I do hope however to be able to see some significant relationships with the data and someones "competitive standard", for example. This is an exploratory study in the large part, I hope it will at least be good enough to open the door for further research in the area. Case study wise I totally agree, and those athletes were some that I were alluding to in my previous post. We certainly have a number of names in our sport that one could clearly see are "mentally tough" and have that edge over the rest of the pack, and mental toughness is certainly a part of any athletes success. Thank you for your constructive response.

Although maybe we are mentally tougher than we think, sticking with the sport rather than throwing the ski in the shed and taking up golf? haha. I think it is interesting, I certainly think I could distinguish a bunch of the more mentally tough pros over some of the lesser, although I am really quite interested in seeing what I will find with peoples mental toughness at different competitive levels and how it effects performance and participation habits. I can guess that water skiers are pretty committed to what they do, despite their competitive level. I can guess that there will be quite a number that will get frustrated when they ski bad (I've spent way too much time in the boat at ski school, I don't need a survey to confirm this). I can guess water skiers don't give up particularly easily. Lets see, this will be interesting! Thank you all for your participation, I really appreciate it and if you can share it with your friends and ski pals I wish PB's on everybody this upcoming season!

Hey, let me address your points. Its not about a subconscious desire to claim that water skiers are better than non water-skiers, as non-waterskier are not going eligible to participate in the study. The study is into water skiers and I hope I will be able to distinguish both overall mental toughness and sub scales of mental toughness with the level one participates, amongst a number of other things. I will certainly be looking at differences in results from males and females, but "one being more mentally tough than the other" is not the purpose of the study at all. Although people may lean towards trying to "give a mentally tough" answer in the survey, it's very difficult for one to claim to be more mentally tough than another when the survey responses are anonymous. As with all studies, there are certainly limitations but the truth is to a large extent I have no idea what I am going to find here. It is a largely exploratory study and a masters level thesis that will hopefully be publishable and at least be a baseline into further study with sport psychology and water skiing. There is currently next to no current published literature in any sport psychology field out there in our sport, and very very limited physiological studies in our sport. Something that I am interested in changing. Appreciate your thoughts.

I most certainly will! Thank you!

31 people have replied off BOS already, thank you people! Every response will help me immensely and it will only take you 5-10 minutes to complete!

Hello Ballers! My name is Michael Woodgate, and I am an Exercise Science and Sport Management graduate student at the University of Louisiana Monroe. The purpose of this post is to give you the opportunity to participate in a research study designed to examine mental toughness in water skiers. To participate, you only need to click on the link below and complete the short survey totaling 30 items that will take no more than 10 minutes to complete. Data collected during this study will contribute to research and an increased understanding of the affect mental toughness has on the performance and participation characteristics of water skiers. The results of this study may be used in a peer-reviewed publication and/or presentation at a professional conference. If you are interested in participating, please click the link below. You can discontinue the survey at any time. The first page of the survey includes the informed consent and gives more detail about the study. Once you have read the informed consent, you can click the “ ok” stating that you have read, understand and agree to give consent, and click onto the next page to participate. If after reading the informed consent, you decide not to participate in the study, just exit this original link. https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/X32CPX3 Your participation in this short survey will really help me with my research in water skiing. There is a severe lack of current literature in our sport and I hope to be able to publish some good quality studies in the near future!

Hanifah even goes on the offensive slamming injured athletes, Jaret for not "cutting off" Ryan, Daniel for having passport issues, Ryan for being slow to the podium ... Smearing anyone and blaming anything possible to detract from the actual conversation about the site being terrible. That tells me all I need to know.

It certainly does Joel!

We will be starting 7:30am CST both Saturday and Sunday

Personally I love it. I think it looks fantastic. That fancy black cool-feel vinyl stuff is absolutely amazing. We had the inside of a x23 (I think it was) covered in it at Bennetts and I jumped in it in the middle of summer when it was just shy of 100f out and the seats were actually cool. Its really really weird, and really really cool!

haha I didn't even realise they made a mess of girls slalom too!

Im 6'3 and 190 and the 67 is great for me. I rode a 66.5 s2 previously.

Last season I ruptured my Achilles wearing a reflex binding that DID release. It shall be putting it back on my foot this week and getting out on the water. Accidents happen and I am still a firm believer that the Reflex system is the best one out there. If you want to make sure you don't get hurt, don't do any sport!

@Ryota Im sure we'll be able to hook you up. Joey always got lots of good stuff up in there!

Thats what I skied in when it was cool last spring pal. They're great, so so flexible and a really good fit. Hope to see you in a couple of months! @Ryota

To avoid another injury

The last thing Slalom needs is something else to add a little more confusion and controversy in there...

Ryan Dodd has never had to go out there and beat a 240ft jump. Awesome job from him making all three jumps over 235. Freddy Krueger finishing the tournament in style with the biggest jump we have ever seen outside of the US 73.6m/241ft Awesome!

Open men final round less than 1 hour away! Lets see if Dodd can get one together and surpass Freddys huge 240!