The most important mental abilities and their relationship to intercepting the ball and various defensive movements among basketball players

Abstract

Mental abilities are one of the important abilities in the field of sports sciences, which can be measured and developed through a set of tests specific to each ability. These abilities provide the athlete with accurate and rapid information during matches and are the first step towards achievement. The more unclear, incomplete, or confusing the information is, the degree of response to it in this case will be less than expected. Mental abilities depend on the player’s readiness for continuous training in order to reach the level that meets ambition and achieve victory. The importance of the research came in identifying the most important mental abilities, intercepting the ball, and various defensive movements among basketball players, and knowing the relationship between them, identifying the relationship between the most important mental abilities, intercepting the ball, and various defensive movements among basketball players. The researchers used the descriptive approach with the survey method to measure the most important mental abilities, intercepting the ball, and defensive movements among basketball players, and using the correlation method to know the relationship between the variables. The research community was determined by the young basketball players in the Solidarity Club, numbering (17) players for the 2025-2026 sports season. The exploratory experiment sample consisted of (5) players who were randomly selected, and the main experiment sample from (12) players were randomly selected (by lottery). The most important conclusions are the existence of a strong, direct correlation between the most important mental abilities, intercepting the ball, and various defensive movements among young basketball players. The most important recommendations are to benefit from the test of the most important mental abilities, which researchers applied to reveal the most important mental abilities among basketball players.