Analysis of pre-competitive anxiety of Brazilian young swimmers

Abstract

This study analyzed the level of state-anxiety of swimming athletes based on sex, category, competitive specialty, competitive level and competitive experience. Participants were 178 male (n = 105) and female (n = 73) swimmers with mean age of 15.51 ± 1.9 years at regional, national and international levels. The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CASI-2) was used as instrument. Data analysis was conducted using the independent Student's t-test, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman correlation. The results showed higher levels of self-confidence in males (p = 0.02) and higher levels of cognitive anxiety in females (p = 0.019). Among the competitive specialties, there were differences between levels of cognitive anxiety (p = 0.045) and self-confidence (p = 0.041) of swimmers. Differences were also observed in levels of cognitive anxiety (p = 0.049), somatic anxiety (p = 0.001) and selfconfidence (p = 0.047) between swimming competition levels. It was concluded that male swimmers are more self-confident and less anxious than female swimmers and there are different levels of selfconfidence and types of anxiety for different competitive specialties and ranking of competitions.

Ansiedade pré-competitiva e desempenho esportivo em jovens nadadores

“…Vasconcelos e Raposo (2007) identificaram em atletas de atletismo diferenças entre os níveis de autoconfiança, ansiedade somática e ansiedade cognitiva em função do tipo de modalidade e provas. Ao analisar especificamente a natação, Silva et al (2019) verificaram que os velocistas são atletas mais ansiosos, ansiedade cognitiva, e os fundistas são os mais autoconfiantes, o que por si só, já representa em uma diferença em relação as provas.…”

“…Uma teoria que suporta a afirmativa acima, a teoria do U invertido, tenta explicar essa relação, já que acredita que exista um nível ideal de ativação para um bom desempenho esportivo (Samulski, 2009), ou seja, quando esses níveis não estão dentro do padrão ideal o rendimento pode ser prejudicado. Silva et al (2019) analisaram a ansiedade pré-competitiva de 251 jovens nadadores em relação ao sexo, categoria, especialidade, nível e experiência esportiva. Os resultados apontaram que os meninos são mais autoconfiantes e as meninas apresentaram maiores níveis de ansiedade cognitiva.…”

Competitive Anxiety Level of International and National Kurash Athletes before and during Competition

“…For this reason, in the field of sports psychology, when an athlete goes into the competition, the study of the problem of optimizing the psychological state during ongoing competitions has not lost its scientific significance and relevance. It is important to note that this problem has received a low level of investigation, as noted in recent scientific studies of modern sports anxiety (competitive anxiety), but that the state of panic in competition (arousal) positively and directly affects the achievement of high-level results [3][4].…”