Four Types Of Arousal And Anxiety

Arousal and Anxiety

Arousal can be defined as the level of excitement a sportsman would feel before a particular event while anxiety can be defined as the level of nervousness a sportsman would feel before a situation. Anxiety mainly takes place when a sportsman’s nervous system starts working at a higher rate and to explain this further, there are four types of anxiety: State Anxiety, Trait Anxiety, Somatic Anxiety and Cognitive Anxiety. State anxiety takes place from a situation that has already been occurred and it’ll change for different situations. For example, when a footballer takes a penalty kick, this type of anxiety takes place because it is a specific situation and making the wrong decision may affect the footballer in a negative

This happens to me mostly when I’m on the block waiting for the whistle to be blown. My heart beats faster because I’m anxious that I won’t be able to dive in faster than the rest of my opponents. Another scientific effect is that the sportsman would feel dizzy at times because if the sportsman suffers from a lot of anxiety, it is likely that his/her brain wouldn’t get enough of oxygen or blood into the brain system. This may often result in fainting and the sportsman wouldn’t be able to perform at all and this clearly affects the performance level. When a sportsman’s level of conscious rises more than usual, the body would generate heat from the inside of the body which would eventually result in sweating, mainly on the hands and face. If a sportsman ever says that he/she has sweaty palms, it is quite normal however the sportsman would feel slightly uncomfortable because of this and over-thinking may have a negative impact on the level of sports performance. I remember how my palms started to sweat a

This theory basically shows us how there is a linear relationship between performance and arousal, when arousal increases, the performance level would also increase. Even though I have mentioned in the above paragraph that anxiety would decrease the level of performance from my point of view, the drive theory proves me wrong as the sportsman’s level of arousal increases, the performance would be better. And many Psychologists have found out that an after effect of arousal and anxiety would result in “better performance in situations where you are not being evaluated”. There are some benefits of arousal and anxiety in sports and these factors may immensely increase the level of performance. It has been found out that arousal is crucially important for sports performance however very high levels of arousal may create a negative impact because the sportsman is less likely to show the correct technique or skill when he/she is performing. If the sportsman shows a poor level of performance it may be due to the fact his/her level of arousal is low and this could be resulting in some sort of distraction. But, the sportsman could also show a poor level of performance because their level of arousal is way too high and this would make it hard for the sportsman to concentrate. Having higher levels of arousal for a sportsman would result in a