The article, “Monitoring the athlete training response: subjective self-reported measures
trump commonly used objective measures: a systematic review”, was written by Saw, Main, and
Gastin. The purpose of this experiment was to measure an athlete’s well-being using 56 original
studies from various academic data bases. The data bases that measure this include MEDLINE,
PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus, and PubMed. Additionally, the article discusses the athletes’ well-
being by performance, physiological and biochemical indicators and some subjective measures.
The study compares measures of mood disturbance, perceived stress, and symptoms of
stress to monitor the athletes’ well-being. Profile of Mood States or PMOS, is a common way to
measure the psychological stress, like tension, depression, anger, and fatigue (Curran,
Andrykowski, and Studts, 1995). Another one is the Recovery Stress Questionnaire for Athletes,
or RESTQ-S. This measures stress and recovery. These are general stress, emotional stress, lack
of energy, and injury (Davis, Orzeck, and Keelan, 2020). Finally, there’s the Daily Analyses of
Life Demands of Athletes, or DALDA. This measures an athlete’s current well-being to normal
(Saw et al., 2015). Additionally, measures were taken at rest and during exercise. Then, each
measurement was evaluated for their response to acute and chronic training load (Saw et al.,
2015). At the end, the writers concluded that subjective and objective measures of athlete well-
being didn’t normally correlate. In its place, subjective measurements conquered objective
measures in reflecting acute and chronic training loads. However, the researchers argued that the
results could have been over-estimated because of a publication bias when there wasn’t a change
in subjective or objective markers (Saw et al., 2015). Therefore, the subjective measures were
restricted in order to make sure self-report measures were reported with validity and reliability in
order to improve the credibility of the findings and allow comparison between studies (Saw et
al., 2015). The study did provide additional support on how subjective measures may stand alone
and how it can be used to monitor changes in an athlete’s wellbeing in response to training.
Monitoring an athlete’s well-being is vital to a coach, trainer or medical professional in detecting
negative health outcomes that can hurt an athlete’s performance.
In order to do this you have to focus on t the underlying causes that can lead to overtraining
instead of just focusing on the competition itself. Hughes and Leavey did an article that argued,
physical and mental demands elite athletes face can increase their susceptibility to certain mental
health problems and risk-taking behaviors. One sport that has a lot of mental aspects is golf, its
easy to get into your own head because every aspect from the swing to the ball placement can
take a toll on you. It is extremely important to continue to monitor athletes’ well-being because
overtraining syndrome cannot easily be identified compared to acute overload (Meeusen, Duclos,
Foster, Fry, Gleeson, Nieman, Raglin, Rietjens, Steinacker and Urhausen, 2013). Based on the
results, subjective measures showed changes in an athlete’s well-being, which provided a
practical method to monitor (Saw et al., 2015). These can help coaches and staff monitor better
and employ self-report measures with this added knowledge. These findings should advocate for
better athlete monitoring and incorporate subjective measures into current training practices.
1 Corinthians 6:19 it states, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy
Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a
price. So glorify God in your body.” This is a great verse in relation to taking care of yourself.
You need to be mentally fit and physical fit to be healthy all around. A temple needs to be strong
and up kept inside and out, so the same goes for your body. Physically and mentally fit will lead
to a more plentiful, and happy life.
Brancaccio P, Maffulli N, Limongelli FM. Creatine kinase monitoring in sport medicine.
Br Med Bull 2007;81–82:209–30. Curran, S. L., Andrykowski, M. A., & Studts, J. L. (1995).
Short form of the profile of mood states (POMS-SF): Psychometric information. Psychological
Assessment, 7(1), 80-83. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.7.1.80
Davis, H., Orzeck, T. and Keelan, P., 2020. Psychometric Item Evaluations Of The
Recovery- Stress Questionnaire For Athletes.
Hughes L, Leavey G. Setting the bar: athletes and vulnerability to mental illness. Br J
Psychiatry. 2012; 200(2): 95–6.
Meeusen R, Duclos M, Foster C, et al. Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the
overtraining syndrome: joint consensus statement of the European College of Sport Science
(ECSS) and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).Eur J Sport Sci 2013; 13:1–24.
Saw AE, Main LC, Gastin PB. Monitoring the athlete training response: subjective self-
reported measures trump commonly used objective measures: a systematic review. British
Journal of Sports Medicine2016;50:281-291.
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
