oa The Effects of A 6-Month Intervention on Student-Athletes' Reactive Stress Tolerance

This study examined whether the reactive stress tolerance of male adolescent student athletes of a high-performance sport academy improved after a 24- week intervention which included Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) and imagery. Participants (N=36) responded to a psychomotor test measuring reactive stress tolerance, in which they were presented with visual/coloured stimuli and acoustic signals. The presentation speed of the stimuli adapted to the respondents’ performance level. After the completion of this test, the participants engaged in an intervention designed to learn progressive muscle relaxation and imagery skills through an eight-week education phase, an eight-week practice phase and another eight-week implementation phase. In the implementation phase, progressive muscle relaxation and imagery sessions were expected to become part of the participants’ comprehensive training in sport in an organised manner. At the end of the intervention period, the student-athletes were requested to take the reactive stress tolerance test again. Results showed that student-athletes' reactive stress tolerance was significantly improved (t(35)=2.825, p=0.008) in the post-intervention test (M=0.1742, SD=0.0714) compared to the pre-intervention test (M=0.2049, SD=0.0947). It was concluded that progressive muscle relaxation and imagery have a positive effect on the adolescent student-athletes' reactive stress tolerance.