J Sport Sci Med
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The study used semi-structured interviews to explore the views of three high performance kickboxers regarding the contribution of psychology to the development and maintenance of expert performance within kickboxing. The results provide a useful insight into the experiences of high performance kickboxers, identifying those mental skills and psychological attributes that are perceived to contribute to success. Participants identified seven mental skills that they believed to be linked to success in kickboxing; 1) effective use of self-talk, 2) relaxation, 3) heightened concentration, 4) self-regulation of arousal, 5) goal setting, 6) coping with being hit, and 7) imagery. ⋯ Seven mental skills and three psychological attributes were collectively identified by participants, which they perceived as being linked to success. The need to integrate mental skills training into physical training was identified. This is necessary to optimise training effectiveness, and as such should be a key objective of applied sport psychologists.