Competitive Anxiety Differences Between Handball Players of Different Quality : Master's Thesis

Istraživanje je provedeno s ciljem utvrđivanja razlike između igrača različite kvalitete u utakmicama različite važnosti. Uzrok ispitanika se sastojao od 53 rukometaša iz 2 različita hrvatska kluba. Prije ligaške utakmice popunili su upitnik natjecateljske anksioznosti (Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2, - skraćena verzija). Upitnik mjeri tri dimenzije: samopouzdanje, kognitivnu anksioznost i somatsku anksioznost. Postavljene su hipoteze po kojima bi igrači više lige trebali biti samopouzdaniji i manje anksiozni. Rezultati nisu potvrdili takvi hipotezu već nasuprot, igrači više lige su bili značajno manje samopouzdani (F=4.27, p=0.04) i više anksiozni ali ne statistički značajno. Razlog tome je važnost utakmice, igrači više lige igrali su važnu utakmicu. Važnost utakmice se pokazala kao puno važniji faktor od razine natjecanja, dobi ili iskustva. Ali treba imati na umu i činjenicu da je određena doza prednatjecateljske anksioznosti poželjna kako igrači ne bi bili letargični na utakmici. Kako nije dobar ni jedan ekstrem po pitanju prednatjecateljske anksioznosti i kako je poznato što je poželjno psihološko stanje prije same utakmice treneri i stručno osoblje trebali bi putem kratkih upitnika kontrolirati stanje svojih sportaša.We made a research with goal to see diferences between different quality players in different majority games. Cause of subject were 53 examinees from 2 different Croatian handball teams. Before the match they filled up the competitive anxiety inventory (Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2, short version). Inventory measures 3 dimensions: Selfconfidence, cognitive anxiety and somatic anxiety. There was hypothesis that players in higher leauge should have more self confidence and less anxiety. But results showed that those players actually were less self confident F=4.27, p=0.04) and had more anxiety problems. They were playing very important match and that was the cause of that. It was showed that the importance of the match was much bigger factor then the age, experience or level of competition. There should be remembered that there is fact that the dose of anxiety is desirable so players have no letarhgic behaviour on match. Any extreme behaviour is no desirable when there is question of precompetition anxiety and through inventory before the match, coach and stuff should control players behaviour. Key words: psycholgy, team sport, selfconfidenc