Research on stress in kendo

[Nebulagleam]

Hello!
I am a Psychology student in Vilnius University as well as a sempai in Vilnius University Kendo Club. This year is a final year in my bachelors and I've chosen to do a research on links between perceived self - efficacy and stress amongst kendo practitioners.
Currently I am preparing a stress assessment questionaire for kendo practitioners.
The aim of this questionnaire is to determine situations which are most stressful and most frequent in kendo practices, gradings and competitions.
So I am asking you, fellow kendokas, to help me with this. I know this questionnaire is quite long, but you would aid me greatly if you answered all questions with honesty. :) The questionnaire can be found at http://www.surveys-engine.com/survey-50-4c93693db1c8c.html (the password is Kendotest).

I will gladly welcome any thoughts and comments on this :glasses:
Needless to say: this questionnaire is anonymous, so your confidentiality is guaranteed.

Martynas Pravilonis

[stealth_monkey]

Hope your study goes well

[Timeline]

Glad to help.

For me, one of the stresses I have surrounding Kendo is not feeling that I have enough time to train. That makes me feel that I have to cram a lot in to one training session.

The survey is just the right length, I hope you get lot's of takers.

[Nebulagleam]

Thank you for your encourgment, guys. It would be very helpful if you could tell your kendo friends about this research. The more data i gather the better questionnaire i`ll be able to make. :).

Timeline, that`s a very good point about the time ;). Probably i`ll put this statement in my final version.

[Tort-Speed]

At first, for about 5 questions, where I had never experienced a particular thing, I marked both parts at "1" - later tried to go back to remove the mark for Intensity but was unable to do so. One thing, for those of us doing Kendo in Japan, the environment may be quite different; also, in my dojo it is all ji-keiko and opponents tend to be minimum nanadan.

[Nebulagleam]

Oh i thought that this might happen. And i cant change that in this questionnaire software. I even got such answers in paper version. However this is no big problem. If you marked both "intensity" and "frequency" 1 the situation will be interpreted as never encountered.
Also about country/dojo differences - i think it is not a bad thing. In contrary, i think, it will be interesting to see how peceived self efficacy and experienced stress changes acording to kendoka's level, nationality or sex. It might grow some day into multicultural study :).

[Nebulagleam]

Bringing this up again!

Once again i need your help, dear kendo colleagues. I have prepared the final version of my kendo questionnaire and i need to gather as much data as i can to finish my bachelors work.
Here it is:
http://www.surveys-engine.com/survey-50-4dd153ddb4416.html
PASWORD: kendotest

It takes about 15 minutes to complete this questionnaire but it means a lot to me. So i would greatly appreciate everyones help in this :). Also it would be great if you could share this questionnaire with every kendo friend you know :).

Thank you,
Martynas

[Bokushingu]

I took it but, some of the questions are too abstract & doesn't take dynamics into consideration.

For example, one of the questions ask about creating an opportunity by making your opponent react. I feel there are factors: rank, experience kamae, etc... I can probably make a beginner react 100% of the time, but not a san dan.

[Nebulagleam]

Thank you for your help and feedback.

Yes, some questions conserning self efficacy are a bit abstract and broader. The thing is i tried to keep as less items as possible, because even now i find a questionnaire a bit too long, and gathering data a bit difficult. It seems that a lot of people start but does not end it.
Anyway, thanks to everybody who have already completed it :). Please, distribute it through out your friends, because it is vital for me to gather as much responses as possible.

[Nebulagleam]

Found some technical errors in questionnaire. Certain questions in 2nd and 3rd part were compulsory although i asked to complete those parts only those who has participated in competition or gradings atleast twice. So anyone who havent finished this survey for these problems i am sorry. You can finish it now :). Everyone, thank you for help.

[b8amack]

I got as far as question 2 "I’m unable to perform basic exercises and moves (e.g.: correct swing and cut" and realized the only truly acceptable answer there is "always". For everyone. Anyone else answer the same? Didn't finish, though. Too abstract.

[Cailin Coilleac]

I'm going through the questionaire right now. I feel that all the questions about money could've been reworded to "resources". Because I don't lack money, but I do lack time quite often...

[turboyoshi]

I got as far as question 2 "I’m unable to perform basic exercises and moves (e.g.: correct swing and cut" and realized the only truly acceptable answer there is "always". For everyone. Anyone else answer the same?

I thought about that but I decided that would be taking too literally what was merely just inexpertly worded. I assumed the average speaker's intent for such a question would imply a more casual definition of correct to include reasonably correct for your level of training. I got the impression that english isn't the researcher's first language, so I thought I shouldn't use a rigorously strict interpretation.

[Nebulagleam]

I would like to thank everyone who helped me and filled my questionnaire, also those who commented and gave me valuable feedback. I managed to finish my final thesis and get a great mark for it. The research was very interesting for university academic people, I hope, for those who participated as well :). As I got a lot of requests for results of the research I will try to write a little article about it and will provide a link here.
Once again thank you for your time and help.

Martynas