Anxiety in Sport

1. Anxiety
• Anxiety is a negative aspect of stress and includes
irrational thoughts and fear of failure

3. Anxiety
“ When an athlete’s performance suffers in an important event,
it is often because of too much worry about the
outcome……being solely concerned with winning causes an
increase in anxiety.”
T. Orlick, Psyching for Sport
Mental training for athletes,
1986
Causes = expectations, audience teammates
evaluation (evaluation apprehension)

4. Two components of Anxiety
Cognitive anxiety = “Thoughts” “Psychological”
Thoughts, nervousness, apprehension or worry that a
performer has about their lack of ability to complete a
task.
Somatic Anxiety = “physiological”
Physiological responses to a situation where the
performer feels they may not cope – increased hr,
sweaty palms, muscle tension.

5. Cognitive responses to anxiety Somatic responses to anxiety
• Loss of concentration
• Feelings on apprehension
• inability to cope
• Attentional narrowing
• Fear of failure
These are PYSCHOLOGICAL responses
• Sweating
• Increased muscle tension
•Feelings of nausea
• Increased heart rate
• Increased breathing rate
These are PHYSIOLOGICAL responses

6. Symptoms of Anxiety
Cognitive State Anxiety =
worry, negativity, nervousness
Somatic State Anxiety =
perception of physiological changes
Increased heart
rate, palms
sweating
Athlete
perceives
this as
negative
Associates
this with not
preparing
well
Poor
concentration’
fear, bad
decisions
Reduced
performance
Anxiety and
arousal
increases
Increased
cognitive
state anxiety
Further
increase in
mistakes

7. Three further types
Researchers have distinguished

8. State Anxiety (A-state) = anxiety felt in a particular situation.
• A temporary emotional reaction of someone in a situation that
they experience as threatening.
E.G.
A basketball player’s level of state anxiety would change during
the match.
Prior to tip off – elevated level (nerves)
During match – lower level
Final seconds faced with 3 free throws –
extremely high level.

9. Trait anxiety (A-trait) = an enduring personality trait, giving a
tendency to view all situations as threatening.
Anxiety as a personality trait is a tendency to react to situations
in an anxious way.
E.G.
Two rugby players with equal skill are put under pressure
to kick a last minute goal.
They have different state anxiety reactions to the situation
because of their personalities – their level of trait anxiety.
1) Laid back (low trait anxiety), doesn’t perceive kick as
overally threatening, doesn’t experience any more
state anxiety than expected.
2) High trait anxiety, finds all situations threatening.

10. Competitive Anxiety
• Form of anxiety is specific to sport
• Threats include:
• Not playing well
• Letting team down
• Meeting training demands before the event
• Personal relationships
• Injury
• Marten’s – the tendency to see competitive situations
as threatening

11. • There is a direct relationship between a person’s level of trait
and state anxiety.
• Those who score high on measures of trait anxiety experience
more state anxiety in highly competitive and evaluative
situations.
• Through experience, an athlete with high trait anxiety can
learn to cope with a particular situation and lower their state
anxiety.
• Knowledge of a person’s level of trait anxiety will enable a
prediction to be made about how they will react to
competitions, being assessed and in threatening conditions.

12. MEASUREMENT OF STRESS
QUESTIONNAIRES
• Marten’s Sport Competitive Anxiety Test (SCAT - 1977)
• measures emotional and physiological responses to stress in
the competitive situation
• Speilberger’s State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI - 1970)
• measures emotional and physiological responses to stress in
general and specific situations
• Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI – 1990)