Anxiety

[runnersweb]

Sports Psychology: Information to help athletes deal with anxiety in
training and competition:
By Michelle Cleere, Sports Psychology Consultant
Note:
Michelle has a sports psychology Q and A on the Runner's Web. Submit
your questions to Michelle at: mailto:SportsM...@aol.com and we
will post her answers on the Runner's Web.
By Michelle Cleere, Sport & Exercise Psychology Consultant
Anxiety is something all athletes deal with at some level. What's
important to know about anxiety is, where it comes from, its effects
and what to do about it.
Defining anxiety
Anxiety is a negative emotional state characterized by apprehension,
worry and nervousness. Anxiety appears cognitively through worry and
apprehension and it appears somatically through physiological changes
in your body; increased heart rate, increased respiration, etc.
Anxiety-state versus trait
State anxiety is a temporary, changing emotional state of subjective,
consciously perceived feelings of tension and apprehension. State
anxiety is relative to the event and the elements contained within an
event. Trait anxiety is a behavioral disposition where a person
perceives the circumstances to be threatening that are objectively not
threatening and then responds with disproportionate state anxiety.
There is a direct correlation between state and trait anxiety.
Research has shown that those who score high on trait anxiety also
experience more state anxiety; although there are exceptions. A highly
trait anxious athlete might be experienced in a particular situation
and for that reason not perceive it as a threat or experience the
corresponding state anxious symptoms. Similarly, high trait anxious
athletes can learn coping skills to reduce the state anxiety they feel
as will be talked about later in this article.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20070403_SM_Anxiety.html