1. Introduction

Getting in the right state of mood was seen by numerous as a critical piece of mental readiness for athletes. Inability to do as such is frequently displayed by competitors as an attribution to clarify competition results. According to previous researchers, a mood can be partitioned into two section; positive and negative [1]. Vigor is the component of the positive mood and the other tension, depression, anger, fatigue and confusion is the component of negative mood. Positive mood is named as alertness and energize feeling while negative mood is classified to feeling of worthlessness and hopelessness.

Pre-competition mood states have been known as main psychological factors which may be influential on the performance of athletes and their results. Numerous researchers have talked about the impact of environmental and psychological situations on the athletes’ moods through scientific and experimental theories [2]. Researchers have normally applied temporal patterns for assessing the mood state of athletes prior, during or after the competitions. Past study stated that the use of mood has got more points of interest towards hockey players in relation to their positional play which will help them to accomplished high level performance in games [3]. Results contains more extensive sizes of general wellbeing, personal satisfaction, relationship remainder and ideal execution and urges hockey players to build trust, to expand the ability of the group to work under pressure. In conclusion, mood was positively related with performance and since most of the hockey players in relation to their positional play were at medium level of mood, they must focus on development of their mood. Based on this motion and research, mood also affected hockey players in every game.

Past study found performance of athletes is influenced by mood during the competition [4]. As supported by Morgan’s mental health model of performance, the so called iceberg profile proposed that ideal performance states were characterized by low level of negative mood and high levels of positive mood [5-7]. In literature, there is no study that particularly investigates the mood level among Malaysia hockey players. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine whether mood states differ between winning and losing team during the final Razak Cup hockey competition 2016.

2. Methodology

Forty players ranging from 19 to 28 years of age (M = 23.70, SD= 3.08), with 2 to 4 years of experience participated in this study. They were purposively selected from (Terengganu and PDRM) team or finalist of the Razak Cup hockey competition 2016.

The Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS; Terry, Lane, & Keohane, 1999; Terry, Lane, & Fogarty, 2003) was used in this study. This scale consists of 24-item questionnaire of simple mood descriptors [8, 9]. The BRUMS has six subscales, with each of the subscales comprising four mood descriptors. The subscales were anger, confusion, depression, fatigue, tension, and vigour and Cronbach Alpha was 0.88 in this study.

2.1. Procedure

This study was a descriptive research study where it involves determining the views of a group through administering a questionnaire. For this study, the survey was conducted 2 hours before the Razak Cup final hockey competition 2016.

3. Results

A preliminary analysis was conducted and the data was normally distributed in this study. An independent sample t-test was conducted to compare the anger level of hockey players between the winning and losing team. There was significant difference in anger for PDRM team (M = 15.35, SD = 2.23) and Terengganu team (M = 8.20, SD = 1.15; t (38) = 12.74, p < .01, two-tailed). There was significant difference in confusion for PDRM team (M = 15.65, SD = 1.39) and Terengganu team (M = 9.30, SD = 1.42; t (38) = 14.32, p < .01, two-tailed). The results also showed that there was significant difference in depression for PDRM team (M = 16.35, SD = 1.57) and Terengganu team (M = 9.75, SD = 1.45; t (38) = 13.85, p < .01, two-tailed).

Table 1. Differences of Mood between Winning and Losing Team during the Final of Razak Cup Hockey Competition 2016

There was significant difference in fatigue for PDRM team (M = 15.75, SD = 1.25) and Terengganu team (M = 9.70, SD = 1.42; t (38) = 14.31, p < .01, two-tailed). There was significant difference in tension for PDRM team (M = 16.45, SD = 1.91) and Terengganu team (M = 9.15, SD = 1.93; t (38) = 12.05, p < .01, two-tailed). Finally, an independent sample t-test showed that there was significant difference in vigour for PDRM team (M = 12.20, SD = .89) and Terengganu team (M = 19.70, SD = .80; t (38) = -27.93, p < .01, two-tailed).

4. Conclusions

The findings of this study indicated that there was significant difference of mood between the winning and losing team during the Razak Cup final hockey competition 2016. As pointed by Lane and Terry (2005) that except vigour which was known as a positive mood, the other five main factors were considered negative psychological mood in athletes. Hence, the present study results showed that the mean score of positive mood of Terengganu (winning team) was higher than PDRM (losing team). That additional to their better performance they showed a more positive mood helping them to win the game. Result also showed that there were different level of negative mood (i.e., anger, confusion, depression, fatigue, and tension) between the winning and losing team hockey players during final competition. The present findings supported the previous study when vigour score is facilitated in positive performance [1]. As agreed by Feltz, Short and Sullivan (2008), athletes who have higher vigour entering into a competition are more likely to be successful [10]. The present results indicated that the positive mood can predict positive performance and vice versa.

In particular, this study showed that there were different levels of negative mood between winning and losing team during the final competition. The mean score negative mood of PDRM team was higher than Terengganu team. Previous researchers also stated that any challenge would appear more difficult in negative moods, such as anger, confusion, depression, tension, and fatigue, as opposed to positive moods, such as vigour. These difficult challenges make the athlete unable to perform well in the competition with the negative mood [11]. Previous researchers also pointed that athletes with high pre-competitive fatigue will lose the competition [12]. This is indicative of the high fatigue score by PDRM team who had lost the final competition. It was evident that the negative mood can predict negative performance of athletes. For example, the previous study results showed that depression and tension were significantly correlated with overall mood disturbance during the basketball competition [13].

Finally, the findings of this study prove that mood state differs between the winning and losing team of hockey players during the final competition. The positive mood gives positive prediction in athletes’ performance, as stated by Lane and Terry (2005) where ideal performance states were characterized by high levels of vigour and low levels of tension, depression, anger, fatigue and confusion [1]. So, in order to get better result of performance, athletes must be able to control their mood in a positive manner. Additionally, as suggested by the previous study, psychological skills training like imagery approach can be considered by coaches or sport psychologist in order to improve mood of the athletes [14]. However, the various demographic characteristics like playing experience and position of play seems important for future research in order to obtain an accurate opinion regarding factors that influences the mood state of players in the area of hockey play.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank coaches and players for the support and cooperation in completing this study.