Rajarshi Kar

For sports performance, physical skills, physical fitness and mental skills are the building blocks. These are the main requirements of the complete athlete that produce outstanding sports performances. At top level of sport, where many athletes have equal physical ability, the difference between a great performance and a good performance or between winning and losing is often related to mental rather than physical abilities. Many different psychological skills training (PST) programs have been developed to teach athletes skills and techniques such as arousal control, imagery, goal setting, and confidence. In fact, a growing body of empirical literature demonstrates the effectiveness of PST programs. Weinberg and Gould (2007) advocate the use of oral interviews and various written psychological inventories when designing individualized PST programs to optimize the effectiveness of the program. Martens (1987) requested that sport psychology professionals remain open to different scientific paradigms and research strategies. Smith (1988) also suggested that case studies and single-subject designs might provide insights important to the study of sporting behaviour and the effectiveness of interventions. Case studies and single-subject designs allow researchers to investigate the internal experiences of participants. These designs are particularly useful when determining the effectiveness of psychological skills training due to the need for individualization. Previous studies have used single-subject designs to study the effectiveness of psychological interventions and their relationship to performance with notable success (Goudas et.al., 2007; Mellalieu et.al 2006). The purpose of the study was to find out the effects of mental training on track & field performance and mental skills. Abstract: