The Effect of Anxiety on Athletic Performance

Choking in sporting events happen on a daily basis. There are many different causes that could lead to the choking performance during the game, anxiety and stress being two of them. The amount of anxiety and stress that a player is feeling during his/her game can have an affect on the way that this player performs. The purpose of the present study is to examine the effect that anxiety has on athletic performance. Participants (n=25) solicited from the Dominican University of California men’s soccer team will be given a survey one hour before one practice and one hour before a game. Participants will be asked 5 questions that measure anxiety and perceived stress at that moment. These question will be measure on a 1-5 scale basis; (1) \u27never\u27, (2) \u27almost never\u27, (3) \u27sometimes\u27, (4) \u27fairly often\u27, and (5) \u27very often\u27. After these surveys are completed, the teams practice and game will be evaluated and recorded focusing on each player’s individual performance. This study furthers current research to extend findings on how anxiety and stress can affect athletic performance. It is hypothesized that 1) the nonstarters will have more anxiety than the starters, 2) the anxiety of a player will be lower in practice than in a game and 3) when the anxiety is high, the performance of the player will lower. Data collection for this study will take place in March/April of 2015