Physical and psychological factors in predicting olympic wrestling performance

Abstract

This study was undertaken to analyse differences in physical, psychological and anthropometric markers related to success in olympic wrestling. Thirty seven male Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestlers were assigned to two groups according to their competitive level: Elite (n = 18) and Amateur (n = 19). All the subjects underwent an anthropometric assessment, a complete physical fitness test battery (maximal dynamic and isometric strength, muscle power output, crank-arm wingate test, running speed and hamstring extensibility) as well as a psychological characteristics assessment associated with sport performance through the Psychological Performance Inventory. The elite wrestlers were older, had more training experience, a fat free mass, maximal dynamic and isometric strength, muscle power, mean and peak power during wingate testing and significantly higher self- perceptions of self-control, attitude control and the total average of the sum of all the scales. These results suggest that the optimisation of neuromuscular and anaerobic metabolism and several psychological performance markers are conditional and thus predictive of success in wrestling.