COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PRE-COMPETITIVE ANXIETY LEVEL BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE INTERCOLLEGIATE BASEBALL PLAYERS OF GOA

Suman Pandey Mahadevan; Prajakta Halankar

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PRE-COMPETITIVE ANXIETY LEVEL BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE INTERCOLLEGIATE BASEBALL PLAYERS OF GOA

Mahadevan S.^1*, Halankar P.²

DOI:

^1* Suman Pandey Mahadevan, Faculty, Department of Physical Education, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, , India.

² Prajakta Halankar, Student, Department of Physical Education, Savitribai Phule Pune University, , Pune, India.

Competitive state anxiety that occurs prior to the competitive situation is referred to as Pre CompetitiveAnxiety.The purpose of this descriptive comparative study was to find out the PreCompetitiveAnxiety level between male and female intercollegiate baseball players of Goa. For which 200 sample were selected. The sample for the study had been selectedbased upon non probability based purposive sampling techniqueout of which 100 male and 100 female intercollegiate baseball players who had participated in intercollegiate baseball tournament organised by goa university in the year 2019-20, the age of the player is 18-25years,and the one who had 2 yearsplaying experience in intercollegiate baseball tournament. The data was collected with the help of Sports Competitive Anxiety Test (SCAT) standardized by Martens (1977) in the form of paper pencil test. The test contains 10 items, 10 of which measures symptoms associated with anxiety of the players.In which the score is normalised on the 3-point scale (Rarely1, Sometimes2 and Often3) wherein(0-17)being the low competitive anxiety and (24-40) being thehighCompetitive Anxiety. Further the data was analysed, the calculated mean value of comparing Pre CompetitiveAnxietyamong male and female intercollegiate baseball players was 33.32 and 35.11. Further for analysing data independent sample T test was computed.The calculated t value is 2.994,the result shows the calculated t value has a significant difference at 0.05 level of significance (p=.003) hence this study can be concluded that there is a significant difference in Pre CompetitiveAnxiety of male and female intercollegiate baseball players of goa. The study conclude that men baseball players had less anxiety than that of women interuniversity baseball players of goa.

Keywords: Pre CompetitiveAnxiety, Male and Female, Baseball Players.

Corresponding Author	How to Cite this Article	To Browse
Suman Pandey Mahadevan, Faculty, Department of Physical Education, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, , India. Email:	Suman Pandey Mahadevan, Prajakta Halankar, COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PRE-COMPETITIVE ANXIETY LEVEL BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE INTERCOLLEGIATE BASEBALL PLAYERS OF GOA. IJEMS. 2021;10(02):1-5. Available From https://ijems.net/index.php/ijem/article/view/196

Introduction

There are two types of anxiety, namelystate anxiety and trait anxiety (Cox R. H. 2002 in Jamilah, Sarina & Abdul. 2013). Anxiety according to Cox R. H. (2002), involves anxiety, depression, fear and increases the level of physiological arousal, which results from rapid emotional stimulation in certain situations. Stressful anxiety consists of somatic and cognitive anxiety (Cox R. H. 2002; Jarvis 2002; Anshel 2013). Somatic anxiety is associated with biological symptoms such as nausea, tension, shortness of breath, muscle tension, sweaty palms, increment of heart rate and dry throat (Cox R. H. 2002; Le Unes and Nation 2002). Anxiety in sport is a big problem for many athletes. The justification is, the better you become, the higher the level of competition, the more anxiety you experience. Anxiety can have an adverse effect on an athlete's performance. No matter how much talent or skill he has, he won't do his best if he lives in fear before every event (Athan, A. N. & Sampson, U. I. 2013). The impact of significant stress on sports performance depends on how you interpret your world. In today's world, almost every concern about human effort is considered to be affected by anxiety.The still evolving field of sport psychology pulls from the research and knowledge of several other areas of psychology, including social psychology and psychophysiology, to help coaches and athletes understand the elements of themselves and those around them pertaining to sport, performance, and exercise.Participation in sport has been one of the most significant forms of humanexpression.

For centuries, men and women sought to display their power through feats ofspeed and strength. Ancient athletes would undergo months of strict training in order toprepare for the early athletic games (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).(Weinberg and Gould, 1996) described anxiety as a condition characterized by stress, nervousness, worries, with activation or arousal of the body. One of the most important problems in modern sports psychology is the pre-competitive anxiety. Before any competition, when player start to think and worry whether he will perform well or not. Pre-competitive anxiety plays an important role in competitive sports, the players are under high psychological pressures to struggle with negative consequences and experience fear before, during and

after events as also studied by various workers: (Lizuka, 2005, Levy et al., 2011, Balaguer et al., 2012, Kumar 2016, 2016, 2016. According to Moran (2004). pre-competitive anxiety, a cause in sport performance in which a player has unpleasant, negative feelings before their competition and fear of failure and lack of confidence. In pre-competitive anxiety, the player sincerity is to be self-focused, self-defeating and negative.Sport psychology is a science that utilizes the techniquesand principles of psychology specifically in physical activity settings (Cox, 1998)

Anxiety refers to a sort of nervous and fear emotion formed by frustration of self-esteem and self-confidenceor increasing of the sense of failure and guilty, which is resulted by the threat from being unable to achieve goals or to overcome obstacles (Akbar et al., 2011). Anxiety can have a devastating effect on the performance of an athlete. No matter how much talent or skill one may have, he will never perform at his or her best if he or she lives in fear before every event.The problem of pre-competitive anxiety is one of the most pressing problems in modern sports psychology. It has been recognized for many years that psychological factors, in particular anxiety, play an important role in competition and in competitive sports, every athlete experience fear before, during and after events (Iizuka, 2005).

Anxiety could make even the world most successful athlete feel nervous. According to (Moran, 2004), factors such as fear of failure and lack of confidence induce feeling of anxiety in athletes. Anxiety is like worry; it is an unpleasant emotion that most athletes feel at sometimes when they are faced with challenges.Due to the fact that during competition athletes mental state greatly affects their performance, which finally influence the result of final competition. Anxiety in sports is considered as an important issue for many athletes. It refers to a sort of nervous and fear which occurs prior to the competition, or increasing of the sense of failure and guilty, which is resulted by the threat from being unable to achieve goals or to overcome obstacles at the right time. It is important to investigate about Pre CompetitiveAnxietyof sports players to help the coaches to tackle it. Therefore, this study aimed to examine to find out Pre CompetitiveAnxietylevel of male and female intercollegiate baseball players of goa.

Materials and Method

Subjects :For this descriptive comparative study, Allthe Male and Female Intercollegiate baseball players age between 18 to 25 years who had participated in intercollegiate baseball tournament organised by Goa University in the year 2019-20and who had baseballintercollegiate playing experience for last 2 yearswas considered as a population for this studyfrom which 200 sample was selected,100male and 100 female baseball players based upon the non-probability based purposive sampling technique as a sample of the study.

Variable and Tools

For measuring the level of anxiety following tools were used.

Sports Competitive Anxiety Test (SCAT) standardized by Martens (1977).The competitive anxiety test contains 15 items, 10 of which measures symptoms associated with anxiety of the players. The five items that are not scored are included in the inventory to reduce the likelihood of an internal response set bias. The standard instructions of the sports competitive anxiety test ask respondents to indicate how they “usually feel before, competitions.

Scoring:

On 3-point scale (Rarely=1, Sometimes=2 and Often=3) respondents indicated the frequency with which they generally experienced the 10 anxiety related symptoms. The scores for the 10 items are summed to provide an overall measure of Pre-Competitive Anxiety, with a high composite score reflecting greater tendency to experience pre-competitive anxiety. The scored items are respectively (2,3,5,8,9,12,14 and15). Whereas the 2 statements (6 and 11) have negative scoring.

Interpretations of results:

Enclosed as Annexure 01

Procedure

To determine if gender has an influence on Pre Competitive Anxiety or not, researcher has selected Sports Competitive Anxiety Questionnaireby Martens (1977). For that researcher had contacted the assistant director of physical education and sports of goa university, who is the organiser of the baseball intercollegiate competition and took his permission.When the permission

was obtained, then the researcher took permission of respective college directors, after that the researcher took data of 200 players that is men and women on their competition day, just before 15 minutes starting of the competition, age of the sample was ranging between 18-25 years and was selected using purposive sampling technique. The subjects were briefed about the significance, purpose and the nature of the study. After their consentthe researcher administered the assessment tool to measure their Pre CompetitiveAnxietyand the details were recorded. Researcher took 3 days for data collection.Once the data is collected the researcher used descriptive statistics to analyse the data. And in order to determine the difference of Pre CompetitiveAnxietyamong male and female interuniversity baseball players Independent sample ‘t’ test was computed.

Results

Table no. 1: Descriptive Statistics of PreCompetitive Anxiety

Enclosed as Annexure 02

FromTableno. 1 when Sports Competitive Anxiety questionnaire was administered on male interuniversitybaseball players ofgoa, the mean and standard deviation of their performance was33.32 and 3.856 respectively.Similarly,when same questionnaire was administered on female intercollegiate baseball players ofgoa andthe mean and standard deviation of their performance is 35.11 and 4.568 respectively.

Table no.2: Independent sample t test of Pre CompetitiveAnxiety of male and female intercollegiate baseball players of goa.

Enclosed as Annexure 03

From the above Table no. 2 in case of Independent sample ‘t’ test, we need to test equality of variances between two groups. For which Levene’s test for equality of variances was calculated. The calculated ‘F’ value for anxiety is 1.198 and significant value is .275 The significance value is more than 0.05hence the equal variances are assumed.

For comparing Pre CompetitiveAnxietyamong male and female intercollegiate baseball players ofgoa, the mean difference was calculated. The calculated mean difference is 1.790 and calculated ‘t’ value

is 2.994 for the degree of freedom 198 calculated ‘t’ value shows significant difference at 0.05 level of significance (P=.003). Hence the result states that there is a significant difference of Pre CompetitiveAnxietybetween male and female intercollegiate baseball players of Goa.

Discussion

The present study the researchers interested to studythe Pre CompetitiveAnxietyof male and female intercollegiate baseball players of goa. At the end of the research it was found that there is a significant difference in pre-competitive anxiety level between male and female intercollegiate baseball players of goa.The study conclude that men baseball players had less anxiety then that of women interuniversity baseball players of goa.

Many research findings revealed the same, the similar study by Mr. Paresh Trivedi (2013) (Research Scholar, Singhania University, Rajasthan)Dr. Vipul H. Upidhaya (Research Scholar, Singhania University, Rajasthan) “A comparative study of sports competitive anxiety between male and female weightlifters of Gujarat” they were found significant result. Mr. Amit K. Gamit (2013) (Research Scholar CMJ University).” A Comparative Study of Sports Competitive Anxiety Between Male and Female Cricket Players of Gujarat, he also found significant result.

Conclusion

The finding of this study states that there is significant difference in level of Pre CompetitiveAnxiety betweenmale andfemale Intercollegiate baseballplayers of Goa. And it also states that men had less anxiety than that of intercollegiate women baseball players of goa.

Annexure(s)

Annexure 01

Annexure 02

Annexure 03

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Manuscript Received	Review Round 1	Review Round 2	Review Round 3	Accepted
2021-02-17	2021-02-17	2021-03-17	2021-03-30	2021-04-20
Conflict of Interest	Funding	Ethical Approval	Plagiarism X-checker	Note
NIL	NO	YES	9

Research Article

Sports Psychlogy

International Journal of Research Padagogy and Technology in Education and Movement Sciences