International Journal of Sport Studies. Vol.

, 3 (7), 700-706, 2013

Available online at http: www.ijssjournal.com
ISSN 2251-7502 2013 VictorQuest Publications

The relationship between competitive anxiety and performance

level of female students of Yazd Medicine University in tenth
athletic Olympiad in 2011
1

Bita Eskandari *, Somayeh Dehghani , Mahdi Omidzadeh Monfared , Seyedeh Salimeh

Moosavi4, Seyedeh Masomeh Hosseini Fard5, Zahra Tahmasebi1, Mehdi Soleimani6
1- Department of physical education, khorasgan (Esfahan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, khorasgan,
Iran
2- Department of physical education, Marvdasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, Iran
3- Bourojerd branch, Islamic Azad University, Bourojerd, Iran
4- Sama technical and vocational training college, Islamic Azad University, Yasuj Branch, yasuj, Iran
5- Department of physical education, Islamic Azad University, Yasuj science & research branch,
Yasuj, Iran
6- Ph.D Student in sport physiology, exercise physiology research center, Baghiatollah university of
Medical Science, Tehran, Iran
*Corresponding author, Email:eskandari.bita65@yahoo.com
Abstract
The aim of implementation of this research is to discuss the relation between competitive
anxiety and performance level of female students of Yazd Medicine University in tenth athletic
Olympiad in 2011. the Subjects of our study are 40 female students of Individual sports
(shooting, badminton, table tennis, track and field, karate) who participated in athletic
Olympiad.The tools for data collection in this research were SCAT questionnaire. SCAT is a
good predictor for state anxiety before competition. To analyze the results, variance analysis
test (ANOVA), Pearson coefficient of correlation and the software SPSS 16.0 were used.
Results of current study show that minimum and maximum average of competitive anxiety
were for Karate ( . ) and table tennis ( .
. ), respectively. Total average of
competitive anxiety in individual sports was
.
.
but it wasnt meaningful (or
significant). Average of competitive anxiety of native and non-native athletes was
.
. and . , respectively, but the difference between these two groups wasnt
significant. Also, the difference between students who stayed in a dormitory ( . . ) and
those who dont ( . . ) wasnt significant. Results of pearson correlation coefficient
show that level of correlation between competitive anxiety and performance of athletes of
Karate (PV=0.00,r=0.98), table tennis(PV=0.039,r=0.961), and track and field(PV=0.03,r=0.54)
was significant. According to our results, there is relation between level of performance and
competitive anxiety, so it is necessary for instructors to examine the competitive anxiety and
try to decrease it and improve the performance of the athletes.
Key words: competitive anxiety, level of performance, female athletes, Individualsports

Introduction
In todays worlddifferent sciences have found a particular position in sport and instructors and
coaches are using scientific results to improve athletic performance. Specialists believe that three
anatomic (body), physiologic (energy) and control (mental) systems form the performance of human.
Sport psychology which has an important role in sport is related to direct understanding of control
system and tries to enable athletes to realize their potentials completely (kamani, 2009). In sport

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activities, particularly championship, each team tries to remove factors that prevent victory and
reinforce factors that facilitate victory. One of the factors that are important is the anxiety of the
athletes. Anxiety is a negative emotional state with feelings of anger, sadness and anxiety that is
associated with physical activity or arousal Anxiety in sport shows the feelings of the athletes that
results from the thought that there may be a problem and so the activity will lead to a failure (Atarody,
2011). Shpielberger (1972) defines the anxiety as an increasing level of excitation that is independent
of nervous system and is along with perception of negative and movement effects and in fact is some
sort of excitation that is along with feelings and subjective perception. Paskuall (1989) describe the
properties of anxiety as follows: anxiety is an energy that isnt observable directly, but its effects on
behavior are observed. Anxiety is a physical, sensational, rational, cultural and spiritual experience.
Today, in societies that have ambitious expectations from Athletes, competition has a specific
importance. In this sort of societies, competition creates lots of request in competitive athletes and
often the result of the competitions is determined according to difference in the perception and skill of
the participants. This would create a high level of stress in participants and this stress is generally a
consequence of competitive anxiety (keshavarzy, 2010). The more important the competition is, the
more the stresses the competition will be more prone to anxiety (Molanorozy, 2010).A professional
and skillful playermay also have anxiety, although he has confidence in his technique and experience.
Anxiety is generally a consequence of a threat to the values and if its severity is low, it shows itself as
a fear that facilitates the tasks. But if it is intensified it affects the performance Capability. In the event
of personal or social activities is of paramount importance, it is more likely to develop anxiety (Glin,
2003).Competitive anxiety is kind of anxiety that occurs in competitive situations of sport. So
competitive anxiety is a particular form of anxiety that occurs as a function of competitive situations.
Competitive anxiety can be categorized as a quality or mood (Glin, 2003). Competitive anxiety is
generally a result of a sensational and mental pattern of incompetencythat is combined with severe
excitation of autonomic nervous system. Severity and duration of anxiety is in accordance with the
level of stimulant of stress and duration of mental risk that the athlete faces(daemi, 2002). Also, effect
of anxiety before the competition on mental status and skill of the athletes is a fundamental factor in
measurement of performance of athletes. An athlete may have all physical requirements to success,
and may have obtained the technical and tactical instructions and may have required physical fitness,
But unable to overcome the competitive pressures in Sports. The ability to control anxiety and
creation of calmness can give a significant power to athlete such that he is prepared to encounter the
opponent. In this regard, (Lotfi, 2011) in a research about relation between anxiety of coaches and
performance of Futsalplayers reported that there is a significant relation between anxiety of coaches
and performance of athletes and there is a negative and significant relation between anxiety of
athletes and their performance.
Sardarpour (2009), in which the research between cognitive and somatic anxiety, there is a significant
negative correlation with athletic performance. Mahmoudnejad (1987) also reported in a research that
there is not a significant correlation between competitive anxiety and performance of Wushusanshou
workers disciplines. The results of this study, a significant negative correlation between competitive
anxiety and show competitive performance Talo's style. Most of the results of researches athletes that
are more skillful have less anxiety (Sedarati, 2006). Studies have shown that type of the sport, nature
of the sport (individual or group) and the gender of the athletes is effective in occurrence of this type
of anxiety. Smith (2004) showed that the level of anxiety in athletes of Individual and groupcourses
are different. Abolghasmi (2006) expressed that the competitive anxiety in Individual athletesis more.
According to the particular importance of championship competitions and needs to rectify the
anxiogenic factors and performance levels during official tournaments and high levels of competition
and also since there are a few researches aboutwomen; implementation of this study seems needful
so that obtained results can be useful in improvement of championship competitions.It is important to
note here that the importance of increasing the performance as the main aim of championship
competitions show the importance of the subject of our study, because it seems that in order to
improve the athletic performance studying the factors affecting the performance is very important.
One of these factors is mental factors that can have significant effect on the performance of athlete.
Finally we hope that results of this study can be useful for instructors and people who work in the field
of sport. The aim of implementation of this research is to discuss the relation between competitive
anxiety and performance level of female students of Yazd Medicine University in tenth athletic
Olympiad in 139 in Iran.

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Material and Method

Participants:
The statistical universe of this research is all of the students of medicine university of Yazd who
participated in athletic Olympiad From whom 40 female student of Individual courses (archery,
badminton, table tennis, track and field, karate) were selected as research subjects.
Tools and methods of data collection:
The tools for data collection in this research was SCAT questionnaire that was organized bymatzoand
researches show a high correlation between these two(r=0.64) and confirms the fact that SCAT is a
reliable anticipator for competitive anxiety (Marc, 2001). In this connection (Robert, 1980) in a study to
examine the relationship between the characteristics of competitive anxiety, state anxiety and golf
courses in the study concluded that the correlation between SCAT and state anxiety, SCAT is a good
predictor for state anxiety before competition. The reliability of this test has been proved by several
studies and researchers have reported good reliability for this test. So since this questionnaire is
standard, the researcher didnt need to check its reliability. This questionnaire has 15 questions and
the range of points is from 10(low anxiety) to 30 (high anxiety). 45 minutes before competition,
researcher gives the questionnaires to athletes in each group randomly. After being filled by athletes,
questionnaires are collected and prepared for statistical analysis. Regarding the performance, through
interviews with the coaches of each team's record before and after each final, before the match
between the input record (the record in practice), and as the race's final record was recorded in a
questionnaire. And ultimately become the global standard for statistical analysis was prepared by Z
score.
Statistical methods:
The results of the analysis, the software SPSS 16 was used for the analysis of variance (ANOVA),
Pearson significant level (p 0.05) were used in the analysis results.
Results
Table 1: The distribution of population based on sport activities
Percent of those inindividualsportsmedical universityinthe tenthSportsOlympiad
Sport group
Sport activities history
Less than a
for sixmonths
One totwo years.
month
Shooting
16
84
Badminton
100
Karate
50
50
Table Tennis
53
47
Track and Field
16
45
39
As the above table shows that the majority of the participant had six months of exercise.
Table 2: Comparison of mean anxiety level competitive sports, individual sports medical
university in the tenth Olympiad
Row
Title
Average Standard
Degrees of
The
Significant
deviation
freedom
F-statistic
1
Shooting
22.25
4.13
4
0.874
0.489
2
Badminton
23.75
3.20
3
Karate
24
4.24
4
Table Tennis
19.50
4.51
5
Track and Field 19.43
6.77
6
Total
20.69
5.77
According toTable 2, Competitive Anxietyofkaratemaximumspeedsprintsout24.4 24andtable tennis,
with the lowestaverageof51.4 50.19.Competitiveanxietyinsportas well asindividualstrands77.5
69.20., But this difference is not statistically significant (P <0.05).

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Table 3: Determine the level of competitive anxiety among

Athletes in terms of accommodation
Residence Average Standard deviation
Significant
Native
20.6
6.05
0.9
Non-native 21
3.60
Table (3) Native athletes with competitive anxiety 20.6 6.05 and non-Aboriginal athletes with
competitive anxiety 3.60 21 this difference is not statistically significant (P <0.05).
Table 4: Determine the level of competitive anxiety in athletes by Location
Residence
Average
Standard deviation
Significant
dormitory
21.2
5.6
0.7
Non20.5
5.9
residential
Table (4) anxiety levels of competitive anxiety competitive athletes dormitory with 5.6 21.2 and nonresidential athletes with competitive anxiety 5.9 20.5. This difference is statistically significant (P
<0.05).
Table 5: the relationship between competitive anxiety and performance
in the field of sports
Title
Performance
Competitive r
P.V
Anxiety r
Shooting
0.585
0.342
0.13
Badminton
0.57
0.325
0.43
Karate
0.98
96.04
0.00
Table Tennis
0.961
92.16
0.039
Track and Field
0.54
29.16
0.03
Table 5: Correlation coefficient between competitive anxiety and performance level karate athletes
(r=0.98, PV=0.00), table tennis (r=0.961, PV0=0.039), and Athletics (r=0.54, PV=0.03) is significant.

Discussion and conclusion

One of the most Current subjects in sport psychology is about personality and performance of
athletes. Some of the researchers believe that certain personality properties can change or develop
during athletic activities. Performance is one of the parameters affected by situational and personal
factors (Dolatabadi, 1987). Many of the athletes may have the best performance in exercises but in
the competition feel some kind of Failure. One of the reasons for emphasizing on mental aspects of
athletes is that most of the athletes have satisfactory physical fitness and good levels of skill, and the
only difference is mental preparation (Hatfyld, 1993). One of the factors that decrease the mental
readiness of athletes is competitive anxiety that athletes may have before competitions (Mir Manssori,
1994).Researches emphasize on the relation between anxiety and performance and have shown that
anxiety have a negative effect on athletes (Maessomi, 2008; Mossavi, 2011), expressed in his
researches that one of the factors that is related to performance is anxiety that occurs in athletic situations, and paying attention to sport psychology and parameters related to performance of
athletes can have useful results. Competitive anxiety affects the performance of the athletes and the
more the competitive anxiety, the less performance of the athletes will be (Mir manssori,1994).
Anxiety as one of the mental factors affecting the athletic performance can resolve many
psychological problems about performance of athletes (Daemi, 2002). If we look closely at the
theoretical level of sports contests and competitions, Although we see many athletes have a high
level of fitness, ability and skills necessary to execute, due to competitive state anxiety are notable to
provide all of its potential (Noorimofrad,1996).Competitive anxiety is a problem that many athletes the
physiological consequences of competitive anxiety can be observed the prevalence of mental
disorders (stress, ambivalence, feelings of insecurity, poor decision making) and behavioral problems
(insomnia, restlessness, isolation). Decrease of level of performance particularly during the
competition can be due to competitive anxiety(Sanatkaran,2007). It is believed that if it is shown that
anxiety can change the athletic performance, with intervention Anxiety variable can be expected to

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improve the performance of the race conditions (Sajjadi, 2009). As a result, recognizing the level of
competitive anxiety and changes that occur in performance can play significant roles in athletic plans,
improve the knowledge of the coaches and decrease the anxiety which improves performance.
Athletes in individual fields due to the specific nature of these fields, such as the absence of conflict,
lack of accompanying, and no division of tasks and responsibilities, more competitive grappling with
anxiety.
Generally, results of our study about 40 students were in agreement with researches of (Craft, 2003;
Hanton, 2002; Radochoski, 2011; Abolqasemi, 2006; Mahmodnezhad, 2008; Sardarpour, 2009;
Lotfi, 2011). The negative (adverse) relation between anxiety and performance means that by
excessive anxiety, difference between input record and performance in the competition increases and
affects performance and shows a significant downfall. As regards there is a significant relation
between performance and competitive anxiety in Themajority ofindividualdisciplines(karate, table
tennis and athletics) we conclude that in addition to physical fitness exercises there should be
instruction courses about mental preparation and controlling the competitive anxiety.Maybe the best
conclusion about the reason of competitive anxiety is presented by the researcher Loee. He says: it
seems that there are two reasons for anxiety: 1) The situation is very important for the athlete. Such
as High-level competitions, continental, global and Olympic games.2) Athlete feels negative and
significant differences in their ability Torun power and athletic performance. In fact, very few know its
potential for success (Ghangi, 2009). Also (Abolqasemi, 2006) concluded that these results in a study
as the relationship betweenrole ambiguity, role conflict and competitive anxiety in sport performance
and academic achievement of student-athletes there was a significant negative relationship between
competitive anxiety and athletic performance. Radochoski (2011) in a research concluded that there
is a meaningful relation between competitive anxiety and performance in condition of competitive
tension or stress. Kaur (2010) by comparison of competitive anxiety in successful and unsuccessful
men, who played hockey, concluded that successful athletes could manage their anxiety in an
intermediate level while the unsuccessful athlete fails to do the competition. Hanton (2008) in a
research by the name of experience in sport and its relation with competitive anxiety showed that
exercise has been recognized as an important factor in creation of knowledge about controlling the
anxiety. They also showed that intensityof cognitiveanxietyand physical anxiety increases by
approaching the time of contest and self-confidence decreases and they obtained a negative
significant relation between anxiety and performance. Craft (2003) concluded that there is a weak
relation between recognitory anxiety, physical anxiety, self-confidence and performance, while selfconfidence has a vigorous and compatible relation with performance. On the other hand, (Krane,
1989) in a research examined the relation between competitive anxiety and performance. Results of
the study about recognitory and physical reasons of anxiety showed that the worst performance is
when athlete has a high level of anxiety. But when the level of anxiety is low, performance will be
better. Finally it is necessary to find methods to control the competitive anxiety. So instruction of
coaches to know the level and reasons of anxiety will be a good approach in controlling the anxiety.
Moreover, since the anxiety before a race is one of the most important issues in sport
psychology,Anxiety assessment tools is recommended standardization for Iranian athletesCompetitive
anxiety is deeply related to physical skills in condition of competition and increased level of anxiety
inathletes will decrease their performance. The authorities and coaches should investigate
competitive anxiety among athletes to take action to reduce it.
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