Abstract:Introduction: Pre-competitive anxiety (PCA) is psychological state of athlete’s mind that is not pleasant or may be negative and it starts from day prior to competition. These negative thoughts occur so frequently in response to stress of competition and can affect their on-field performance.
Objective: The aim of this study is to measure pre-competition anxiety (PCA) level in inter-university women football team of East and West zone of India.
Methodology: Study design: Present study was a cross-sectional study. Sample size: 51(East zone), 50 (West zone). Sex: Female. Number of teams: 3(East zone), 3 (West zone).
Protocol: After initially directly contacting athletes, provide SCAT questionnaire to them and asked to athlete complete it before start of competition and returned back to researcher. Score of questionnaire was calculated and teams were ranked according to their performance in the tournament. Statistics: Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS v21.0 software. Pearson coefficient of correlation test was used to measure the correlation between PCA and performance.
Results: All teams had moderate level of anxiety (SCAT score lies in range from 13 to 27). There was a weak negative correlation between PCA and performance (p< 0.01). Conclusion: The present study supports that as the PCA level decreases the performance increases amongst national level inter-university football teams. However the relationship was weak.