The relationship between emotional intelligence, reaction time, aerobic capacity and performance in female track and field athletes at the Universities of Tehran.

BACKGROUND: In order to be successful in sport, athletes need a high level of physical skills as well as cognitive abilities.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this studywas to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence, reaction time, aerobic capacity and performance (recorded time) in female track & field athletes at the Universities of Tehran.

METHODS: Data was collected from 100 female athletes participating in sprints.The emotional intelligence in athletes was measured by the Bar-On questionnaire, the reaction time was assessed by the psychomotor vigilance task, and maximal aerobic capacity was predicted by step test. Pearson correlation calculations were conducted to investigate the potential relationships between emotional intelligence total score, reaction time, and estimated VO2max, with recorded time of the students.

RESULTS: Average age of female athletes was 20.59 years (±1.55) and mean height of them was 163.63 cm (±6.03).The mean emotional intelligence in athletes was 302.05 (±20.18), the mean reaction time was 431.14 ms (±114.88), and mean maximal aerobic capacity was predicted as 62.82 ml/ kg.min (±0.6). The findings revealed that there is no significant correlation between emotional intelligence and recorded time or athletic performance (p > 0.05).There were significant correlations between some components of emotional intelligence (empathy, interpersonal relations, and independence) and athletes' recorded time. Reaction time and aerobic capacity were significantly correlated with athletes' performance (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: Increased aerobic capacity and decreased response time (reaction time) resulted in better performance (shorter recorded time) in female student athletes.