Profile of Mood States and Performance in Division 1 Swimmers

Abstract

By John Schuessler, Exercise Sciences; Carlie Perretta, Health Science Physiological Science; Pakawadee Sopapong, Exercise science

Advisor: Dan Carl

Presentation ID: AM_B28

Abstract: The Profile of Mood States (POMS) test is a questionnaire meant to evaluate the mood of a subject over a specified amount of time. The questions are all assessments of emotions, rated on a scale of 1-5, one being not at all and 5 being extremely. These can then be broken up into 6 different categories to be scored (anger, confusion, depression, fatigue, tension, and vigor). Recently, there has not been a study over the course of a specific team's season correlating their performance to their POMS results. We desire to use this test to determine if mood states and mental health affect performance in Division 1 collegiate swimmers in reference to time of season, type of training, eligibility level, etc. Doing so, we will be using the University of Cincinnati Division 1 swim team as our population. Every other week, we will be administering the POMS test to the swim team and calculating the results over the entirety of their 2018-2019 season. Each swimmer will be given a code as their name to prevent bias and to maintain confidentiality. At the end of the season we will be able to match their performances with their code and calculate our findings. We anticipate that the swimmers with a lower mood score will perform worse in the pool.