Personel and pre-competition anxiety peculiarities of track-and-field adolescent athletes

Pre-competition anxiety in sports is rather common not only among professional athletes, but also among adolescents who are active in sports, compete a lot and experience physical, emotional and social changes in their lives. The aim of the study was to evaluate track-and-fi eld adolescent athletes’ (12—18 years old) personal anxiety level and pre-competition anxiety. The hypothesis of the thesis was based on the assumption that adolescent track-and-fi eld athletes’ personal anxiety level and pre-competition anxiety components (somatic, emotional and cognitive) differ depending on gender. Personal anxiety level was determined using J. Taylor’s test. V. A. Alekseev’s pre-competition anxiety test showed dominant competition state anxiety component among adolescent athletes. Examination of the results and setting the personal anxiety level for the track-and-fi eld adolescent athletes studied showed no gender differences (p > 0.05). The fi ndings of the results among track-and-fi eld athletes’ pre-competition anxiety components (somatic, emotional and cognitive) suggest dependable differences between adolescent girls and boys (p < 0.05). The test results also showed that cognitive anxiety was most common in both groups, i.e. boys and girls. The comparison of the results (those of both methods studied individually for every athlete) of the personal anxiety level and pre-competition anxiety tests from the perspective of gender suggested that the differences between gender do exist (p < 0.05).[...]Lietuvos kūno kultūros akademijaLietuvos kūno kultūros akademija, s.laskiene@lkka.l