Emotional response and its relationship to free throw accuracy from a stationary position in basketball for female students

Abstract

. To reach good athletic levels, players and individual athletes must regularly engage in continuous and strenuous training in the type of activity they choose. The player interacts with their athletic environment, influencing and being influenced by it. This interaction is not limited to simply responding to the various sporting situations he goes through in training and competitions, but the player often gains experience and perceptions about himself and others through this interaction, through his continuous awareness of his physical, skill and tactical abilities as part of his general self-awareness. Emotional response is one of the important psychological factors that can be observed through an individual's behavior in responding to emotional situations during skill performance. Basketball is a team sport that has always attracted the attention of many fans of this game due to its distinctive skill, outstanding technical performance, and its need for high capabilities. "Athletes who are well-prepared psychologically and morally, as well as in other aspects, are able to better control their emotions in critical and sudden circumstances." "The process of development and creativity comes through good mastery of the basic skills in the game and performing them under all conditions, especially the free throw from a stationary position, due to its importance in achieving victory. Hence lies the importance of research into knowing the relationship between emotional response and the free throw from a stationary position." Through the researcher's field experience and continuous observation of training processes, it became clear that psychological preparation processes did not have a comprehensive dimension in the memory of trainers and those working in the field of training. This means that these aspects have not received sufficient importance alongside physical, technical, and tactical preparation in order to control the negative emotions that the player faces during competition, which are reflected in the player's performance level. And on the team's overall results in the league standings, as well as on the general level of the game's skills. Thus, the research problem is manifested in the weakness and speed of performance of basic skills and their performance among male and female players, especially in the early stages of colleges and departments of physical education. One of the main objectives was to identify the level of emotional response among female students in the Physical Education Department. The main hypothesis was that there is a statistically significant correlation between emotional response and the accuracy of the free throw from a stationary position in basketball. Emotional response means: "An individual's response to their environment is closely related to the intensity of the behavior." The research sample consisted of fourth-year female students from the Department of Physical Education at the University of Kufa. The study took place in the sports hall of the Department of Physical Education at the University of Kufa, from May 1, 2024, to January 9, 2025. The researcher used the descriptive method with a correlational approach because it is one of the most suitable methods for the nature of the research problem. The most important conclusion is the existence of a statistically significant correlation between emotional response and shooting accuracy in basketball. The most important recommendation was to emphasize the importance of players participating in local competitions aimed at improving their emotional responses.