Option B.3 - Mental Preparation for Sports

Arousal

Alertness or state of reediness of the body for an action. How motivated/ interested/ excited an athlete is before an event

Drive Theory

Arousal and performance is linear. As arousal increase performance increases.

Inverted U- Hypothesis

At optimal levels performance levels will be at their highest, when arousal levels are too high or too low performance levels are lower. Higher arousal = higher performance to a certain point

Catastrophe Theory

Performance is affected by arousal. High levels of cognitive anxiety and high arousal levels = drastic drop in performance

Emotions in sports

Many emotions can be had while playing sports like depression, anxiety and pleasure.

Moods

Negative moods make us remember bad things while positive moods make us remember good things

Anxiety

A negative emotion of apprehension and stress which includes irrational thoughts, fear of failure, self doubt and worry

Cognitive anxiety

Thoughts and perceptions of worry/ doubt

Somatic anxiety

Perceptions of our bodily state (increased heart rate, sweat)

Trait Anxiety

A persons personality makes people worry about things, mostly non-dangerous things

State Anxiety

Temporary negative emotion of apprehensiveness experienced in threatening situations. Usually drops once competition begins

Measurement of Anxiety

SCAT test, competitive state anxiety inventory

SCAT test

For trait anxiety. scoring of sport specific situations gives an indication of that persons level of state anxiety

Competitive State Anxiety Inventory 2

For state anxiety. Measures three components- cognitive, somatic and self-efficacy. Given out before competition. Gives a baseline level of anxiety and then compares it to pre-competition levels

Stress process in sport

An imbalance between the demand and response capability, under conditions where failure to meet that demand has important consequences. Stress can cause anxiety as well as fear sadness anger and depression.

Stages of stress

Causes of stress, stress response, stress experience and actual behavior