Self-compassion is widely used as a powerful source of regulating and controlling the emotional behaviors of athletes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of virtual training of the Self-Compassion program on the self-confidence of young elite freestyle wrestlers. The present study was a semi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design. Participants included 30 young elite freestyle wrestlers who were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to two groups of 15: experimental (mean age: 19.21±16.12) and control (mean age: 20.22±23.15). Participants completed the Sports Self-Confidence Questionnaire by Willey et al. (1988). The experimental group performed various video, audio, and written exercises for 6 weeks, and the control group did not receive any intervention. The data were analyzed using SPSS software and univariate analysis of covariance at a significance level of 0.05. The results showed that by controlling for the pre-test score, there was a significant difference between the self-confidence scores of the two experimental and control groups (P=0.05). The findings indicate that virtual shaft training can be an effective tool for improving the self-confidence of young elite freestyle wrestlers. Sports coaches can benefit from implementing this program to increase the performance of their athletes.
