Global practitioner assessment and management of mental fatigue and mental recovery in high-performance sport : A need for evidence-based best-practice guidelines
Journal article
Russell, S., Johnston, R. D., Stanimirovic, R. and Halson, S. L.. (2023). Global practitioner assessment and management of mental fatigue and mental recovery in high-performance sport : A need for evidence-based best-practice guidelines. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. 34(1), pp. 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.14491
Authors | Russell, S., Johnston, R. D., Stanimirovic, R. and Halson, S. L. |
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Abstract | Background: Mental fatigue and mental recovery have gained scientific attention in relation to sporting performance, yet best practice assessment and management methods are lacking. A greater understanding of current knowledge and practices in high-performance sport are necessary. Objective: To understand the contemporary knowledge, beliefs, monitoring processes, management strategies, perceived responsibility, sources of evidence, and challenges, when assessing the mental fatigue and mental recovery of athletes in high-performance sport. Methods: A mixed-methods survey approach obtained information from 156 multi-disciplinary high-performance sport practitioners. Descriptive outputs were reported and potential differences between key concepts were detected using Wilcoxon-signed rank analysis. Thematic analysis interpreted open-text responses. Results: Only 11.5% and 5.1% of respondents indicated they were “very” knowledgeable about mental fatigue and mental recovery, respectively. Knowledge (p < 0.001) and confidence in application (p = 0.001) were significantly greater for mental fatigue than mental recovery. Nearly all respondents perceived mental fatigue and mental recovery impacted training and competition performance, with a greater negative impact during competition (p < 0.001). A limited number of respondents reported deliberate assessment (31.1%) or management (51.2%) of mental fatigue and mental recovery. A combination of sources of evidence were used to inform practice, with common challenges to implementation including staff knowledge, athlete-buy in, time-availability, and a lack of evidence. Practitioners reported that assessing and managing mental fatigue and mental recovery was multi-disciplinary in nature. Conclusion: Practitioners reported that mental fatigue and mental recovery did impact performance, yet this was not reflected in the implementation of evidence-based assessment and management practices in high-performance sport. |
Keywords | athlete management; cognition; cognitive load; fatigue; high-performance; human performance |
Year | 2023 |
Journal | Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports |
Journal citation | 34 (1), pp. 1-15 |
Publisher | John Wiley & Sons Ltd |
ISSN | 1600-0838 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.14491 |
PubMed ID | 37728880 |
Scopus EID | 2-s2.0-85171592392 |
Web address (URL) | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sms.14491 |
Open access | Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access |
Research or scholarly | Research |
Page range | 1-15 |
Funder | Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) |
Queensland Academy of Sport | |
Publisher's version | License File Access Level Open |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
Online | 20 Sep 2023 |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 21 Aug 2023 |
Deposited | 10 Nov 2023 |
Additional information | © 2023 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science In Sports published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. |
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. |
https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/8zyx0/global-practitioner-assessment-and-management-of-mental-fatigue-and-mental-recovery-in-high-performance-sport-a-need-for-evidence-based-best-practice-guidelines
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Publisher's version
OA_Russell_2023_Global_practitioner_assessment_and_management_of.pdf | |
License: CC BY-NC 4.0 | |
File access level: Open |
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