Anxiety 1 Lesson Summary

Anxiety is a negative emotional state with feelings of nervousness, worry & apprehension. There are 4 main types of anxiety: Cognitive, Somatic, Trait & State. Cognitive anxiety is psychological - it is negative concerns and thoughts about expectations and performance. e.g. "I can't do this". Somatic anxiety is negative perceptions of physiological responses - feeling too tense, sweating too much etc. Cognitive anxiety has a negative impact on performance in sport - as cognitive anxiety increases, performance decreases; whereas somatic anxiety has an inverted-U relationship with performance - some somatic anxiety means performance increases but as it increases further, performance suffers. Cognitive anxiety increases days before the competition and can fluctuate during a performance based on how well the performer is playing. Somatic anxiety increases in the hours before a competition then decreases once the competition starts. Trait anxiety is a natural level of anxiety that a performer has and remains stable. State anxiety is how anxious a performer is in a certain situation.