Background: In recent years sports psychologists, coaches and athletes have paid a greater focus of attention to mental wellbeing and psychological skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate which psychological skills are important to two levels of skills among Darts players, namely; elite and beginner. Method: The sample consisted of 24 elite and 24 beginner Darts throwers. In order to gain insight into Darts throwing, beginner Darts players attended a national-championshipsimulated competition. Both elite and beginner players also completed the Ottawa Mental Skill Questionnaire. Results: Independent t-test results showed that there was a significant difference just in basic psychiatric skills between the beginner and elite Darts throwers (p<0.05). Nevertheless, there is no statistically significant difference in Ottawa's mental skills, psychosomatic skills and cognitive skills between beginner and elite Darts throwers (p>0.05). Conclusion: Results revealed differences between elite and beginner Darts players in foundation mental skills and commitment and mental practice subscales. Furthermore, results showed that for the commitment skill, elite and beginner Darts throwers were at the highest and lowest level respectively.

Introduction. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of unstable resistance training with blood flow restriction (URT with BFR) on short-term memory, strength and dynamic balance in older adults. Material and Methods. A total of 27 male older adults (age= 62 ± 1.5 years) were randomly divided into two experimental groups: URT with BFR, URT without BFR, and a control group. The training program for the experimental groups consisted of bodyweight Scott exercise (three sessions a week for four weeks). The first two weeks included three sets, each set consisted of 15 repetitions at 60-second intervals. The second two weeks included four sets, with each set consisting of 15 repetitions and the use of weight constituting 5% of each person’s body weight (mean = 3.5 ± 1.5kg). To restrict blood flow, an 8-cm wide elastic band was used at 72 ± 9 mm Hg arterial pressure. All subjects performed Wechsler memory, 30-sec chair stand test, and timed up and go test (TUG) before and after the intervention. Data analysis was carried out using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and Bonferroni post hoc test. Results. The results showed that URT with BFR was significantly superior to other groups in the variables of strength (p = 0.001), dynamic balance (p = 0.0001) and short-term memory (p = 0.04). Conclusions. These findings suggest that URT with BFR can be a useful training method for older adults.