Pre competitive anxiety

Pre competitive anxiety is a state of arousal that is unpleasant or negative and occurs prior to competition.

Symptoms of Pre competitive anxiety
Muscle tension,
Butterflies,
Desire to urinate,
Cotton mouth
Self focused thoughts
Self defeating and negative thoughts

Sources of Pre competitive anxiety

1. It results form an imbalance between perceived capabilities and the demands of the sport environment.
2. Fear of failure
3. Feeling inadequacy (poor conditioning, UN prepared)
4. Loss of control
5. Guilt (concerns about hurting an opponent)

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Recommendations for athletes.

1. become more aware of your optimal level at arousal.

Think of the times when you felt ready going into a competition and it worked for you
2. Focus on things that are within your control.
Payer should think about the performance but not worrying about factors that are beyond our control.
3. Use performance cues to develop or retrain your arousal level.
Practicing mental routines and practicing them until they become automatic.



Psychological manifestations of pre start states
Pre start states are influenced by various factors both inside and outside of athletics’ personality. The different pre start states are
A) Competitive readiness
b) Pre starts fever.
c) Pre starts apathy.
Optimal emotional stimulation is accompanied by positive emotions that aid performance. The positive pre start state is the competitive readiness and negative pre start state is pre start fever and pre start apathy.

This figure shows that as the competition approaches the arousal level increases and it reaches an optimum level where good results can be expected. This state is the competitive readiness state. The next state called the pre start fever. A few sports persons may still give good performance in this state. If the arousal further increases the psychic state falls deep into pit called pre start apathy. The psychological characteristics manifestations in sports are shown here.


Diagram













pre start state
Psychological characteristics
Optimal competitive readiness • optimal activity
• Looking forward to competition
• Positive emotion
• Self confidence
• Optimum concentration able to improve performance
Pre start fever •
high nervousness
• Inability to concentrate
• Forgetfulness
• Emotional Instability
• Unmotivated haste
• Fear of opponents
Pre start apathy. •
Diminished perception
• Disturbed thought and concentration.
• Mental sluggishness
• Aversion to competition.