Effect Of Emotion On Sports Performance

Physiological effect of emotion on sports performance

3.1 Cortisol and overtraining - the negative emotional cycle

Participation in sports can also contribute in physiological effect to the body that further causes emotional response which affects sports performance. Cortisol, also known as a glucocorticoid functions so that it increases the amount of energy available to the body. For example, when waking up in the morning, the level of cortisol temporarily increases which makes us feel more energetic and helps us to get out of bed. The same can happen with sports. During an effective training session or a race day, the cortisol’s key function is to enable the use of stored carbohydrates and fats, but also to convert proteins into glucose

Through sports this is possible, since often the person participates in sports in a team or goes for a jog with a friend. Therefore they will be part of a group. This can be described using the social identity theory which was proposed by British social psychologists Henri Tajfel and John Turner in 1979. It is also linked with social well-being. According to this theory, people will behave in a certain way that increases their ability to feel good about themselves due to a membership in a specific group (Posten). This will not only increase their self-efficacy, but also increase confidence and self-esteem by increasing their sports performance. This group can be, just to name a few, a sports team or a fan club. Having the same colored shirt as your teammates and playing in the same matches with your teammates describe well the social purpose of sports: the feeling of association since a group of people organized themselves and have a team effort towards a common goal and affiliation since the sports people are linked to a sporting community. When people are at a healthy level socially, they will more likely perform better at any sport since they have something to feel pride on (Ewert). Without the sense of belonging, the individual will feel lonely and anxious due to the isolation from a group. The performance will not negatively affect self-esteem since the if performance is at a good level, self-esteem increases, and if the individual fails to perform well, the self-esteem will most likely remain the same, since the highly motivated individual or a team is afraid of poor performance. However, the level of performance tells the person what should be done in order to improve and perform even better. Therefore the feedback will motivate the individual even more to succeed next