1. Psychology for sport performance: State & Trait Anxiety
BTEC National
Miss McLaren

2. Objectives Identify the two types of anxiety
Describe anxiety, its causes and it’s effects on sports performance.

3. What need to be included
2 Know the relationship between stress, anxiety, arousal and sports performance
Anxiety:
definition; types (state and trait anxiety);
cause (negative effect of stress);
symptoms (cognitive, somatic and behavioural);
effects on sports performance (negative mental state, loss of self-confidence and decreased expectations of success, fear of failure)

4. Anxiety
Anxiety is a negative emotional state that is either characterised by, or associated with feelings of nervousness, apprehension or worry.
Two types of anxiety:
State Anxiety:
Is a temporary, ever-changing mood state that is an emotional response to any situation considered threatening. For example, at the start of a show-jumping event, the rider may have higher levels of state anxiety that settle down once the event begins. State anxiety can get higher again when a jump is coming up that if they clear it will result in them winning.
Trait Anxiety:
Is an aspect of personality and part of an individual’s pattern of behaviour. People with a high level of trait anxiety are likely to become worried in a variety of situations, even non-threatening situation
Two types of State Anxiety:
Cognitive state anxiety – the amount you worry.
Somatic state anxiety – relates to your perception of physiological changes that happen in a particular situation.

5. Symptoms of Anxiety Cognitive anxiety symptoms:
Concentration problems – performance drops because
the number of mistakes they make increases.
Fear and Bad decision-making
Somatic Anxiety symptoms:
Increased heart rate
Sweating
If the athlete perceives these changes to be good e.g. an athlete could be concerned because they sense an increased heart rate of they have gone into a game less prepared than normal. However they could perceive them as negative and they could get complete muscle tension that prevents the athlete from moving.

6. Negative Effects of Anxiety on sports performance
Anxiety is seen as a negative mental state that is the negative aspects of stress.
For example: In sports that need lots of concentration e.g. potting a ball in snooker, anxiety will decrease your performance as your concentration is reduced and your attention to detail is impaired.
For example: In gross motor skills e.g. kicking a ball, anxiety has the negative effect due to poor co-ordination as your concentration is not as good or freezing.

7. Positive Effects of Anxiety on sports performance
Anxiety does has some benefits to sports performance:
Increased blood flow, Breathing rate and respiratory rate.
These are physiological beneficial as they provide a rich supply of oxygenated blood to the working muscles.

8. Negative Mental State
Constantly worrying about and event can make you think that you are not good enough to succeed resulting in decreased self-confidence. This can make you feel like you are less likely to win (decreased expectations of success).
Heightened cognitive anxiety, means there
is an increase in nervousness.
Once you start worrying about losing, you focus on it which means the likelihood of it happening increases.

9. Task:
P3 describe stress and anxiety, their causes, symptoms and effect on sports performance
Describe:
Distress & Eustress
How stress is caused?
What are the symptom of Stress?
What are the potential positive and negative of stress on sports performance?
state and trait anxiety
Describe the causes
What are the symptoms of anxeity (cognitive and somatic)
Effects on sports performance (negative mental state, loss of self-confidence and decreased expectations of success, fear of failure)
Tip: Use examples from different types of sport e.g. rugby, snooker, cricket etc.