Abstract

From a series of studies of the 1981 participants in the Australian Junior Swimming Champioships, a model of the mental health attributes of elite junior swimmers has been developed. The elite swimmers tend to be higher in emotional stability and self-esteem, lower in need for power and dominance, higher in self-knowledge and finally, lower in need for affiliation and dependence on others. From extensive interviewing of (N=87) children, positive elements of attraction focus heavily on affiliation and positive interpersonal relations (competing to swim) while the negative elements focus on the sheer drudgery and external control of training procedures (swimming to compete). From this research an applied inventory of positive and negative elements of swimming is presented, and emphasis is placed on the need for coaches to apply the inventory to evaluate their own swimming-programs. Verf.-Referat