Level of State Anxiety among Youth Football Players According Different Playing Positions

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine and describe the level of state anxiety among football players according diff erent playing positions. The research group consisted 61 male youth football players (goalkeepers, defenders, midfi elders and (forwards) attackers) of age ranged from 16 to 19, from Fanzeres Academy -city of Porto Portugal-The subjects were randomly selected and were categorized by their playing positions. The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) was used to collect data, sport-specifi c state anxiety scale, the CSAI-2 was developed to Portuguese version. Descriptive statistics, kruskal-wallis Test and spearman's correlation analysis were used to calculate data. The results showed that there was above moderate level of state anxiety among youth football players and no signifi cant diff erence in state anxiety among youth football players according playing positions. It is essential that coaches and sport psychologists develop strategies to identify the state anxiety of youth football players in order to enhance their performance.

Relations of the Weekly External Training Load Indicators and Running Performances in Professional Soccer Matches

“…The physical demands of elite soccer matches have increased substantially over the previous decade (Bradley et al, 2016). With regards to the different tactical roles, these demands vary according to the different playing positions (Di Salvo, Gregson, Atkinson, Tordoff, & Drust, 2009;Mallo, Mena, Nevado, & Paredes, 2015;Modric, Versic, Sekulic, & Liposek, 2019;Mouloud, 2019). Previous studies have provided detailed information about the position-specific running performances (Sarmento et al, 2014).…”

Can psychological characteristics, football experience, and player status predict state anxiety before important matches in Danish elite‐level female football players?

“…7 When looking into player status and positional differences of being a goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, or striker, a study in youth male Portuguese football found no significant differences in state anxiety and different playing positions. 9 Regarding player status and being starter vs being a nonstarter, a study in female national collegiate football players found that less or no playing time during the game was associated with lower self-confidence among non-starting players. However, the authors did not find cognitive and somatic state anxiety differences between starters and non-starters at pre-game.…”

“…6 Other factors such as age and player status (starter vs. non-starter) also seem to be associated with lower state anxiety, 5,8 while playing positional differences (goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, and striker) do not seem to be associated with state anxiety. 9 However, given the few studies on this topic in women's elite football, the association between psychological characteristics, age, football experience (both senior and youth national team experience), and player status (positional differences and starter vs. non-starters), and how these variables can predict state anxiety before important matches needs to be further investigated in order for us to provide knowledge to coaches and sport psychologist on how to support players in critical moments of the game. Hence, studying the psychological characteristics of female football players is extremely important and can provide insights into the specific nature of women's football.…”

“…Similarly, a study with female football players in different zones of India found moderate levels of anxiety and a weak negative correlation between pre‐competitive anxiety and performance 7 . When looking into player status and positional differences of being a goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, or striker, a study in youth male Portuguese football found no significant differences in state anxiety and different playing positions 9 . Regarding player status and being starter vs being a non‐starter, a study in female national collegiate football players found that less or no playing time during the game was associated with lower self‐confidence among non‐starting players.…”

“…4 Also, other factors such as football players' experience/player status, positional differences, and age seem to affect performance as these factors have shown to influence anxiety levels. [5][6][7][8][9] Hence, it should be investigated whether certain psychological characteristics are important for experiencing anxiety connected to performance. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the association between psychological characteristics and football experience/player status in elite female football players, and to investigate which of these variables can predict state anxiety before important matches.…”