engleski

Motivational differences in reduction of body mass in wrestling

Rapid reduction of body mass (“making weight”) is a serious scientific problem in wrestling. Body mass reduction at an early age, severe dehydrations and prohibited methods are only a part of this issue. In a series of interviews in 2013, Pettersson set a hypothesis that weight reduction results in a mental advantage. This hypothesis caused numerous controversies and required verification. The aim of this research is to identify the differences between various groups (different in terms of the amount of reduced body mass) in relation to dimensions of intrinsic motivation, as well as to confirm the hypothesis that there are significant differences in the dimensions of intrinsic motivation between the various groups. The sample of examinees was composed of a group of 61 wrestlers (21.6±4.0 years) divided into three subsamples according to the percentage of reduced body mass in relation to the overall body weight. The sample of variables consisted of 4 dimensions of intrinsic motivation in the IMI questionnaire, McAuley et al. (1989). All the variables were elaborated by means of descriptive statistics, whereas the differences in motivation were tested using the Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA test. All groups of wrestlers equally enjoy wrestling, feel uniformly competent and they all feel the identical type of pressure in terms of competitions. Wrestlers who reduce the highest amount of body mass statistically demonstrated significant differences only in the dimension of effort/importance (H=6.97 ; p=0.03). It is an interesting fact that group 3 did not feel any added pressure that could deflect the wrestlers from severe body mass reductions. This study partially supports the hypothesis that “making weight” results in mental advantage.

wrestling, body mass reduction, intrinsic motivation

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