O estresse no MMA: As estratégias de enfrentamento podem melhorar o desempenho dos lutadores?

Abstract

Introduction: One of the biggest sporting phenomena today, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), held in Brazil in 2013, had a turnover of between R$5 and R$15 million, with extensive coverage in the international media. Despite this high production of events, studies with MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) athletes are still rare, particularly concerning psychological aspects. Objective: To analyze coping strategies, stress levels, and training characteristics of MMA athletes in Paraná, Brazil. Methods: We studied 50 MMA male athletes aged 25.0±4.8 years. The instruments used were an identification form, the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory and the Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for Athletes (RESTQ-76 Sport). For the data analysis, we used descriptive statistics, the Shapiro-Wilk test, the Mann- -Whitney "U" test, the Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient; a level of significance p<0.05 was adopted. Results: Athletes whose main source of income is MMA had higher "general stress" (p=0.023) and "social stress" (p=0.043). Conclusion: We conclude that when the sport is the main athletes’ source of income, the stress of the fighters is high. The higher the volume of training, the more the athlete seeks to set goals and the greater his or her ability to confront adversity. Moreover, the variety of coping strategies used by the fighters improves their state of recovery (physical and psychological capacities) during competitions.