Issues Relating to Anxiety and Performance - Research Proposal Example

Intervention for impacts of anxiety on performance in soccer Name Institution Introduction It is common to find excuses when a player or players do not perform well in games. Often people will mention the new coach or manager, injuries, environment and other possible reasons for the low level performance. While these factors cannot be ignored as the reasons for poor performance, they often are not the major influences. Other intrinsic factors have an upper hand in determining the performance of an athlete, especially in soccer. Such factors include self confidence, self belief and confidence in team mates among others. All these impact on the psychological well being of the players and when an athlete deliberates on such aspect, he or she develops some level of anxiety. Anxiety is understood as the burden of uncertainty on the way to cope with some level of stress (bridges &knight, 2005). It comes about when a person feels or identifies his or her inadequacy to overcome stress or when stress is deemed overwhelming. Anxiety manifests itself through anger, fear, trembling sweating and being off balance mentally such that one is unable to concentrate. These manifestations of anxiety create arousal by their involvement with autonomic nervous system (Landers, 1980). According to Landers (1980), therefore, an athlete experiences anxiety when he or she approaches or perceives stress emanating from low confidence in oneself, team, previous encounters with opponents or even the significance of the game ahead. When anxiety produces negative effects such as pressure, fear, excitement or exhilaration, it is referred to as cognitive anxiety. Such is usually cause by negative self evaluation or negative expectation about winning or success; it is the fear emanating from anticipated failure consequences (Humara, 1999). Anxiety may also have a physiological component and in this case it is called somatic anxiety. However this kind of anxiety is as a result of psychological stress that comes in cognitive anxiety. Psychological issues relating to anxiety and performance Anxiety and athlete’s arousal All the physical activities that represent arousal are controlled by the mind as it provides the motivation revealed by the position in the continuum between sleep and extreme excitement upon which arousal is measured. It has been pointed out that precompetitive period, time before an athlete gets into a game, is the period that has the highest level of stress. It is also at this time that a soccer player experience differing emotions that produce precompetitive effect. In other words this precompetitive effect is the anxiety. In Soccer, the anxiety is even higher than in most of the sports because apart from the competitor’s strengths, the game usually attracts thousands of spectators. The fright of being in front of all these people adds leads to reflection of one’s self belief evaluation of the team mates and possibilities of the outcomes of the game. Thinking that one’s team is weak, or the other team is stronger exacerbates anxiety. The way one thinks about the perception of the majority of the spectators also contributes to building up of anxiety. This type of anxiety affects the nervous activities and manifesting itself in physical ways such as trembling or even sweating. Consequently the arousal of the athlete is affected. This is because once anxiety has impacts on autonomic nervous system, the activation of the player is interfered with as mental effort and attention is directed at overcoming the physical expression of inner anxiety (Humara, 1999). Anxiety and performance Athletes who are successful often interpret the arousal as facilitative and this boosts their performance. A research conducted in line with anxiety’s effect on performance revealed that intensity levels of anxiety are higher in athletes who interpret their anxiety as debilitative but not the case for those who interpreted their anxiety as facilitative (Landers, 1980). Affirming this observation Gould (1984) pointed out that the most significant predictor of cognitive anxiety is the duration of experience. Those athletes who have many years of experience usually have reduced level of cognitive anxiety. It means those who have been participating in sport for a long time have acquired the ability to interpret their anxiety in a more facilitative way. In view of these observations and findings, it is therefore true that interpretation of anxiety is dependent on the experience or evaluation of past performances, perception of how an athlete is prepared and the goals that have been set. The degree of self confidence that a person posses differs significantly among those who have been in the game for a long time, the elite and those who are new to the game, the novice. The main quality that enable performance among experienced athletes is reduced anxiety; a phenomenon that is attributed to self confidence (Humara, 1999). Although a number of studies have observed the impact of self confidence in reducing anxiety and the consequent impact of this reduction, the interaction self confidence and somatic anxiety would provide a better understanding about the ultimate performance of the athlete. As pointed earlier, somatic anxiety is physiological in nature and often seems to be the expression of the cognitive anxiety. Athletes aged 15-35 years who participated in soccer and other games were investigated on effect of self confidence, cognitive and somatic anxiety on their performance. It was found out that those with high self confidence, low cognitive and somatic anxiety view their anxiety levels as facilitative of their performance in their games (Humara, 1999). With regard to gender, it has been found out that most females have comparative lower self confidence but higher somatic anxiety than males. However, the scores in each of the variable are also dependent on the experience one has had. In terms of age, adolescents had higher levels of anxiety than most of the athletes in other ages regardless of their experience or gender. Some people believe that this is because of the perception of the ability of the competitor winning yet winning a game means a lot to an adolescent than to people in other ages. Anxiety therefore exerts various effects on the performance of an athlete. Such effects differ with sport, age, gender and experience. The anxiety is dependent on self confidence, and ability to control somatic anxiety. Getting rid of somatic anxiety seem to be more important because once a person is able to control what anxiety causes the muscles to do such as trembling, it becomes possible to gain self confidence and suppress the cognitive anxiety. It is therefore that sport or team psychologist to incorporate cognitive- behavioral aspects in the exercises especially those before the competition begins (Hardy et al, 1996). This is more so for soccer since players can be managed and directed to doing the exercises as a team. It is evident by now that practice exercise is of great importance. This is because as one exercises his or her body, he or she fights out the somatic anxiety which consequently support self confidence and ultimately reduce cognitive anxiety. It has also been said that anxiety is highest at the beginning of the game. It is therefore important t incorporate an effective warm up that will not only flex ones limbs but also increase his or her contact with the ball and reassure one of his or her abilities in the game. Warm up should feature jogging with various activities such as high knees, butt kicking and quick accelerations. Dribbling should also be part of warm up so that one gives the body the touch of what is awaiting him or her in the game. However, the most important is incorporating some cognitive behavioral aspect in this warm up exercise to even involve the mind. Instruction for the practical intervention –warm up The warm up session should kick off some three to four hours before the main game and should start by repetitive running of short distance, say fifteen yards from the goal line. This should be done without ball and should also include backpedaling, butt kicking, high knees and trunk rotations as well as quick accelerations. After this, players should pick balls and dribble it the way they feel comfortable. Light passes with team mates may also increase ball touch and prepare the feet, chest and head. An individual should receive the ball with one foot and use the other to pass it but also ensuring using the other body parts such as head. Keep away drills should also be exercised where a player assumed, in a group of around three or four, to be the opponent and the others strive to keep the ball away from the opponent. The vigorous warm up should be ended after an half an hour or an hour leaving about an hour or two for the players to relax before the game starts. It is during this period that the cognitive behavioral aspect should be considered. This session can take place back in the changing rooms where individual player should have time to have interpretation of his or her activation or arousal. Relaxation has been found to be effective for this reflection session. A designed mnemonic device created by Butler (1996) can help to reduce anxiety during this relaxation mode. The device is referred to as the PRESSURE which incorporates all the important phases of cognitive –behavioral intervention as an addition to the practical exercise. PRESSURE stands for prepare, relax, externalize, stay positive, unite, reevaluate and extend (Humara, 1999). It is after this, the players will be ready to get into the pitch. Justification for this warm up This warm up is a short period of exercise that has numerous advantages to the athlete. In addition to the reduction of muscles injuries, increase in power, skill, agility and performance, this warm up features a very important component that prepare the players mentally as they focus on the game at hand. It means that even though the warm up may feature commonly known activities, incorporation of behavioral aspects enables suppression of anxiety that any athlete could be experiencing. The cognitive-behavioral session of the warm up is viewed as mental and imagery rehearsal of game which is beneficial to improvement of performance of a soccer player. It avails familiarity of the tasks as well as positive feedback on the performance imagined by the player (Hardy et al, 1996). Cognitive –behavioral aspect incorporation in the warm up has been proven to be effective not only in soccer but even in other sports. According to Lohr and Scogin (1998), athlete who has been in imagery intervention reduces anxiety which lead to better performance. It has also been found out by researchers that motivational arousal imagery may be used to reduce cognitive anxiety (Vadoz, Hall, & Moritz, 1997). Inducing the imagery ability in athletes also acts to increase the level of self confidence. Conclusion From the ensuing discussion it is evident that some levels of anxiety are destructive and they lower the performance of an athlete, not only in soccer but even in other sports. It has been found out that the major cause of anxiety is negative evaluation of one’s ability to defeat the opponent and a belief that the opponent is more competitive. It means that reduced self confidence increases cognitive anxiety which ultimately affect the performance. The cognitive anxiety is associated with somatic anxiety which is manifested physiologically in ways such as trembling. It becomes imperative therefore for individual and the team at large to participate in warm up which flexes muscles, introduces the body to vigorous activities of the game such as running, dribbling and jumping. The warm up should also include cognitive-behavioral aspect session which functions to reduce the anxiety the more. Resources sheet Book and research report Hardy, L., Jones, G., & Gould, D. (1996).  Understanding Psychological Preparation for Sport:  Theory and Practice of Elite Performers. Chichester: JohnWiley & Sons Inc. This is a book that discusses numerous issues related to psychological preparation for sports, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The authors explore the practical exercise of the athletes, theories surrounding them and even outcomes of the preparations. With adequate information, the following issues have been addressed in detail, motivation, self confidence, activation, arousal, stress and anxiety as well as concentration. Humara, M. (1999). The Relationship between Anxiety and Performance:  A Cognitive-Behavioral Perspective. From http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol1Iss2/CognitivePDF.pdf This a research report that investigated the relationship that anxiety has with performance in sports. The research explores a wide range of issues regarding the topic and also provides treatment to cognitive anxiety which is behavioural based. The report is written in a language that is easy to understand and provides views of several studies conducted in this area. Websites Sports Fitness Advisor. The soccer warm up. From: http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/soccer-warm-up.html This is a website that deals with scientifically backed fitness and advice in sport for better performance. The website provides guidelines on conducting various activities. It is written in an easy to read way and step to step instructions. SoccerAthletics.com. how to train like a pro so you can develop a winning soccer performance. From: http://soccerathletics.com/soccer-warmup-exercises/ This is another website that has instructions of soccer. The website is enriched with videos that demonstrate the discussion. When looking for information related to improving soccer performance, this website is a useful resource References Bridges, A & Knight, B. (2005). The Role of Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety in Athletic Performance. Retrieved from http://psych.hanover.edu/research/Thesis05/BridgesKnight.pdf Butler, R (1996).  Sport Psychology in Action. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann  Gould, D. (1984). Antecedents, temporal changes and relationships among the CSAI-2 sub components.  Journal of Sport Psychology, 6, 289-304 Hardy, L., Jones, G., & Gould, D. (1996).  Understanding Psychological Preparation for Sport:  Theory and Practice of Elite Performers. Chichester: JohnWiley & Sons Inc. Humara, M. (1999). The Relationship Between Anxiety and Performance:  A Cognitive-Behavioural Perspective. Retrieved from http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol1Iss2/CognitivePDF.pdf Landers, M. (1980). The arousal ­performance relationship . Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 51, 77­90 Lohr, B. A. & Scogin,F. (1998). The effects of self administered visual -motor behavioural rehearsal on sport performance.  Journal of Sport Behavior, 21, 206-218. Vadocz, A., Hall, R., & Moritz, E. (1997).  The relationship between competitive anxiety and imagery use.  Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 9, 241-253. Read More