Page 31 - Vol 7 No 3 July September 2017

PESY: Print ISSN 2231-1394, Online ISSN 2278-795X Vol. 7 No 3

COMPARISON OF SPORT COMPETITION ANXIETY OF UNIVERSITY
HOCKEY (WOMEN) PLAYERS

Lt (Dr) Harjit Kaur, Assistant Director, Department of Physical Education, The Maharaja
Sayajirao University of Baroda, Baroda, Gujarat

ABSTRACT
National level tournament of hockey at Vadodara provided an opportunity of availability
of teams of different regions under similar competition situation. Being the national game and due
to the opportunity presented by the competition, Hockey was chosen for the study of competitive
anxiety amongst players of different teams. Any competition is known to result in anxiety of
various levels prior to and during the competition. Level of competition anxiety amongst players
was taken up for study to find out if it was team specific. For the purpose of study, four teams
participating in the All India Inter-University Hockey (Women) Tournament were selected at
random. The players were approached a day prior to the competition. The Sport Competitive
Anxiety Test (SCAT) was administered and the response obtained from the teams. The collected
data was compiled and the scores were used for statistical analysis.
Key Words: Competition anxiety, anxiety, SCAT, competition, team, data, hockey,sport, player,
study

INTRODUCTION
Anxiety is a psychological phenomenon. Individuals experience different levels of anxiety
under similar situations. Anxiety may be a result of the uncertainty of the outcome of a
competition, fear of failure, or merely the doubt of not reaching the desired or set target. Since
anxiety is an internal state, the levels exhibited by individuals vary. Moreover, requisite training to
overcome anxiety or to convert the negative impacts to positive outcomes may be learned by the
players. A range of psychometric tests or sport anxiety questionnaires have been used by sports
psychologists to understand and measure this condition. Marten (1990) developed anxiety traits
(A-trait) questionnaires that were tailored specially to sport known as the Sport Competition
Anxiety Test (SCAT). Marten (1990) recognised that any measure of sport anxiety must take into
consideration; cognitive anxiety (negative thoughts, worry) and somatic anxiety (physiological
response). This paper tries to explore the anxiety level of players prior to the competitions for
women hockey players participating in the All India Inter-University Hockey (Women)
Tournament.
Objectives of the Study
(i) To study the competition anxiety levels of players of four teams chosen at random
from the All India Inter-University Hockey (Women) Tournament
(ii) To measure the SCAT scores of the players
(iii) To compare the SCAT scores of different team players
(iv) To study the effect of region on the competition anxiety.
Hypothesis
There is no difference in the means of the competition anxiety scores of players
representing different teams.
Research (Alternative) Hypothesis
There will be a significant difference in the competition anxiety levels of the players
representing at least one university team

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