MOOD STATE RELATIONSHIPS AND SOCCER TEAM PERFORMANCE

Morgan's well-known iceberg profile, characterized by Profile of Mood States (POMS) scores above the population norm on vigor and below the norm on tension, depression, anger, fatigue, and confusion, is said to indicate a successful athlete. Preperformance POMS scores of team members might therefore give a prior indication of the actual team performance. Nine female soccer players from the same team participated in the study. The players completed the POMS before, immediately after, and 2 hours after each game during a season. The outcome of the games greatly affected the players' mood states. Tension, depression, anger, and confusion scores were lower (ps < .01), and vigor was higher (p < .01) when the team won. Prior to the games, only minor differences in POMS scores were detected, regardless of the actual outcome. Taken together, the results do not support the notion that POMS scores could be helpful in predicting team performance.