The effect of decision training on cognitive, psychological flexibility and accuracy of attacking skill on volleyball players

The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of decision training on cognitive, psychological flexibility, and accuracy in the attacking skill of volleyball players. This study was a pre-test and post-test design along with a control group. 36 volleyball players from Neishabour with at least 3 years of training in this sport and actively competing at various levels were selected through purposive sampling. The players were randomly divided into three equal groups: decision training, behavioral training, and control. The practice protocol included 12 sessions, with 2 sessions designated for pre-test and post-test. In the intervention sessions, players executed 36 attempts based on the training instructions for each group. To assess cognitive and psychological flexibility, the Cognitive Flexibility Questionnaire (Dennis et al, 2010) and the Psychological Flexibility Questionnaire by Lis Johles (2020) were used, respectively. For assessing the accuracy of the attacking skill, a researcher-made spike skill test was employed. In the inferential data analysis, after ensuring adherence to the assumptions of parametric statistics, a mixed ANOVA 2×3 was conducted using SPSS version 26, with charts drawn using GraphPad version 9. The results indicated that decision training led to an improvement in cognitive and psychological flexibility, and accuracy in the attacking skill. The accuracy of the attacking skill using decision training also showed a significant improvement in the decision training group. Therefore, it is recommended to use decision training in order to improve cognitive and psychological skills along with motor skills.