Reactive Stress Tolerance and Personality Characteristics of Hungarian Elite Fencers

The present study aimed to investigate traits that could contribute to fencers' success. In what aspects does an elite fencer differ from talented fencers and non fencers? What are the characteristics or abilities that make a champion? We did not venture to provide a detailed answer to this question, but to find out whether a particular ability can partially answer this question. This ability is related to decision making. For the description of the decision process, we preferred the human information processing model, as opposed to the simplified 'Input Decision Making Output Feedback Input) circle model. The human information processing model is depicted in Figure 1, as adapted from Wickens, Hollands, Banbury, and Parasuraman (2016) Accordingly, the input arrives as a stimulus observed by sensory organs, and via perception, these pieces of information are identified, interpreted, hence meaning is attached to them. The next stage of this process is when the interpreted input arrives to the working memory, which is in constant connection with long term memory, after which the output of these two units and the already interpreted stimuli enter the next stage, response selection, or the decision making phase. The final stage of the process is response execution, which represents the actual execution of the formulated action.During a fencing situation for instance, a new stimulus might emerge from the existing environment, and also from environmental factors arising as a result of the formerly executed action (e.g. opponent thwarts the plan) Understandably, in this type of situations, a competitor's response to stress plays a crucial role. In this study, we will solely focus on competitive stress, defined by Mellalieu, Hanton, and Fletcher (2009) as an "ongoing transaction between an individual and the environmental demands associated primarily and directly with competitive performance" (p. 4) Out of the environmental factors/ demands, we emphasize the stress generated by processing the ever changing stimuli varying in their nature (visual, auditory, audio visual) and its role in the decision making process.Several studies have been conducted revealing various aspects of sport performance and psychology that can be linked to the stages represented in the information processing model. Some of these focused on the perceptual skills of athletes, their ability to retrieve and recognize meaningful information (Dogan, 2009; Williams, 2000) which can be identified as the perception phase of the model. Others have examined outside of sport stressors, organizational stressors, stress and training associations (Hanton, Fletcher, Coughlan, 2005; Rushall, 1990) or various psychological skills and states of athletes (Cox, Zhan, YiJun, 1996; Doron Martinent, 2015) and the differences of functional asymmetry of brain hemispheres (Porozov et al. 2011) There are several comparative research studies regarding fencers' reaction time (response execution stage; Gutierrez Davila, Rojas, Antonio, Navarro, 2013; Poliszczuk, Poliszczuk, Dabrowska Perzyna, Johne, 2013).Although decision making at speed (response selection and execution stages) is a vital part of success in fencing, reaction time by itself does not distinguish between fencers. As discussed by Czajkowski, it is not enough to be able to execute a given stroke fast, as during a bout, a fencer must decide "when and how to apply a given action" (Czajkowski, 2009a, p. 241) as the "selection of the right stroke is probably the most basic tactical ability of a fencer" (Czajkowski, 2009b, p. 371).Hence, timing is essential in decision making, especially in a combat situation. Nevertheless, oftentimes fencers already know before the actual hit what action they want to execute, they have a plan, yet it frequently happens that they have to postpone the execution as the combat situation has changed, the right moment has passed, or the opponent acts/reacts different than anticipated.