Autonomous modulations and self-confidence of high performance athletes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the correlation of the self-confidence inventory (SCI) with heart rate variability (HRV) in Olympic slalom canoeist. The subjects consisted of 34 high performance slalom canoeing athletes with more than 3 yrs of international competitive experience. Their mean age was 20.11 ± 4.82 yrs. The Kolmogorov Smirnov test was applied for normality. The Pearson correlation test was used to determine the correlation between variables with the alpha level set at P < 0.05. The results indicate significant correlations for the following variables, self-confidence in physical skills and training (SPST) with index corresponds to the square root of the mean of the successive squared differences, between consecutive R-R intervals (rMSSD) r=0.40 (P=0.018) and SPST with high frequency domain (HF) r=0.39 (P=0.02). These findings are in agreement with the association of HRV of athletes who present a vagal predominance before the beginning of the training and the canoeing was related to HRV indicators of parasympathetic domain during rest. This analysis should help in promoting success in canoeing athletes.