Effects of Psychological Skills Training on Brain Quotient and Perceived Performance of High School Rapid-Fire Pistol Athletes

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Review of the manuscript entitled: Effects of Psychological Skills Training on Brain Quotient and  Perceived Performance of High School Rapid Fire Pistol Athletes  The manuscript submitted is appropriate to the subject matter and scientific rigor. The authors raised a very current issue at work, which is not only interesting from a scientific but also a practical point of view. Some remarks improving the quality of future research. and suggested changes and comments to the submitted manuscript in order to improve the quality of the planned research and future publications below:

1.      Would you please add the DOI or other electronic access in all your references standardize.

2.      The authors refer to publications not yet published. I believe that in addition, reference should be made to current publications already published and reviewed.

3.      In chapter: Material and methods 2.1. Study Participants   należy add liczbę osób biorących udział w badaniu (Line 177)

4.      Is it possible to conclude on such a small group (4 people) "crease in the perceived athletic performance of high school rapid fire pistol athletes." I think only in this group (4 people) not all high school rapid fire pistol athletes.. The study would need to be continued with a larger group. And there is no comparison group that would not participate in this training (Line 299)

5.      I think the słowo „athletes” should be replaced with słowem „ high school  players shooting with rapid pistol” (Line 321)

6.      In line 368 authors  write: „the individual performance level of the subjects was not considered” Did the authors mean physical fitness? Would you please explain it

7.      After treatment or after training? Would you please explain it (Line 379-380) The word treatment is associated with the word treatment for me.

Remaining comments in the article in the attachment.

Best Regards,

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Reviewer 1

1. Would you please add the DOI or other electronic access in all your references standardize. → Based on your comment, all references have been re-formatted as many as possible.
2. The authors refer to publications not yet published. I believe that in addition, reference should be made to current publications already published and reviewed. → Based on your comment, all references have been verified again. All the references have been published. These were simple mistakes.
3. In chapter: Material and methods 2.1. Study Participants   należy add liczbę osób biorących udział w badaniu (Line 177) → Unfortunately, this review comment could not be recognized (not in English).
4. Is it possible to conclude on such a small group (4 people) "crease in the perceived athletic performance of high school rapid fire pistol athletes." I think only in this group (4 people) not all high school rapid fire pistol athletes. The study would need to be continued with a larger group. And there is no comparison group that would not participate in this training (Line 299) → We totally understand your concern. The research limitation you mentioned has been added in the section of 6. Limitations as follows:

The results of this study, derived from only four high school rapid fire pistol athletes, have a research limitation of generalization. Since this study has revealed practical limitations in conducting large sample sizes with the psychological skills training program, future studies should recruit larger research sample size. Alternatively, more in-depth analysis should be made possible through qualitative research methods or comparative studies various groups. Through these research efforts, more effective psychological skills training program could be implemented for rapid fire pistol athletes.

5. I think the słowo „athletes” should be replaced with słowem „ high school players shooting with rapid pistol” (Line 321) → Revised.
6. In line 368 authors write: „the individual performance level of the subjects was not considered” Did the authors mean physical fitness? Would you please explain it. → Revised into physical capacity
7. After treatment or after training? Would you please explain it (Line 379-380) The word treatment is associated with the word treatment for me? → We totally understand your concern. The sentence you mentioned has been revised at the end of the paragraph as follows:

Therefore, follow-up studies should analyze more detailed performance changes and psychological status of rapid fire pistol athletes through periodic monitoring at the same time as conducting the psychological skills training program.

• Remaining comments in the article in the attachment. → Based on your comments in the attachment, the manuscript has been modified. I appreciate your review comments sincerely.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Thanks for providing me with the opportunity to review this interesting manuscript. However, some concerns should be addressed before its publication:

- It is missed the age range of participants, and the number of female and male athletes.

 

- This phrase is too general "The results of this study will provide important basic data for 23 developing and applying more scientific and systematic psychological skills training programs op-24 timized for individuals based on the psychological characteristics of athletes in the future."

- Lines 35-38. here are some articles that talk about emotional management that may help to understand the phenomenon from a multivariate approach which may help the intervention:

González-García, H., & Martinent, G. (2020). Perceived anger profiles in table tennis players: Relationship with Burnout and coping. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 50, 101743. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101743

- In the introduction, previous studies that created similar interventions to this one are missed.

- A design section is needed in the methods

- In methods, it is needed the gender of athletes

- The appendix is needed with the programme activities.

Author Response

Reviewer 2

1. It is missed the age range of participants, and the number of female and male athletes. → Revised
2. This phrase is too general "The results of this study will provide important basic data for 23 developing and applying more scientific and systematic psychological skills training programs optimized for individuals based on the psychological characteristics of athletes in the future." → We agree with your comment. The sentence has been modified in the section of the Abstract.
3. Lines 35-38. here are some articles that talk about emotional management that may help to understand the phenomenon from a multivariate approach which may help the intervention: → Based on your comment, the following references that you mentioned have been added at the first paragraph of the Introduction.

González-García, H., Martinent, G., & Pelegrín, A. (2020). Sport emotions profiles: Relationships with burnout and coping skills among competitive athletes. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 15(1), 9–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747954119884039

González-García, H., & Martinent, G. (2020). Perceived anger profiles in table tennis players: Relationship with Burnout and coping. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 50, 101743. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101743

4. In the introduction, previous studies that created similar interventions to this one are missed. → Previous studies investigating psychological management of competitive athletes have been described at the last two paragraph of the Introduction.
5. A design section is needed in the methods. → 2. Study design has been added.
6. In methods, it is needed the gender of athletes. → Revised
7. The appendix is needed with the program activities. → The detailed program activities of this study has been reported at the Table 2.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

All comments were adressed by authors.