METAPHORICAL PERCEPTIONS OF HEARING IMPAIRED FEMALE NATIONAL VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS TOWARDS THE CONCEPT OF VOLLEYBALL

Abstract

Physical activity and sports for all people are a natural necessity for a healthy life, but it is a greater necessity and responsibility for disabled individuals. The volleyball branch, which is common in our country, especially in the list of preferences for girls, gains momentum with the successes achieved at the level of national teams and is one of the branches preferred for hearing impaired individuals. Therefore, the aim of this research is to determine the perceptions of hearing impaired female volleyball players about the concept of volleyball through metaphors. 20 female athletes in the hearing-impaired national team camp participated in the research. Phenomenology design, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the research. A personal information form was applied to the athletes while collecting the data of the research. The data obtained to determine the perceptions of the hearing impaired national female volleyball players about the concept of volleyball through metaphors were obtained by completing the sentence “volleyball is like/similar to …………., because …………”. The collected qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis method. These metaphors produced were collected in 3 different categories. It was determined that the hearing impaired national female volleyball players developed metaphors in the categories of emotion, achievement and struggle, respectively.