The effects of anxiety on performance in soccer and cricket

This study was designed to investigate the effects that anxiety has on cricket and soccer performance and to determine if any such effects would vary according to the attentional demands of the sport. The Sport Competition Anxiety Test (Martens, 1977) was administered to subjects to assess their trait anxiety levels, and a proportion of these subjects were involved in field and experimental research. The field research involved measuring actual performance in the two sports of cricket and soccer, while the experiment consisted of golf putting under high and low anxiety conditions. The field research produced contrasting results as low trait anxiety soccer players performed significantly better than medium and high trait anxiety players, while for cricket, medium and high trait anxiety cricketers performed better than low trait anxiety cricketers. In the golf putting experiment medium and high trait anxiety individuals improved in putting performance in the high anxiety condition compared to the low anxiety condition. It was concluded that the contrasting attentional demands of the sports and the effects that anxiety has on attentional focus are areas which need further investigation if a full understanding of anxiety and its effects on performance are to be achieved. The implications of the results for coaches and players are discussed