The effect of pre-competition anxiety levels on acute pain thresholds of senior female wrestlers
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https://doi.org/10.70736/ijoess.602Keywords:
Anxiety levels, female wrestlers, pain thresholds, pre-competitionAbstract
It is important to analyze the possible effects of athletes' anxiety on their pain thresholds before a national competition such as the Turkish Grand Women's Wrestling Championship. The hypothesis of our study is to investigate the effect of anxiety on pain tolerance by determining pre-competition anxiety and pain levels in a sport with intense physical and psychological pressure such as wrestling. The study was conducted on 30 volunteer female wrestlers who were either graduates or students of sports sciences faculties participating in the championship. Participants were selected from different weight classes and different experience levels. Body composition data of the participants were determined using bioelectrical impedance with Tanita 418 BC device. Anxiety Rating Scale (ARS) was given to the participants to measure their anxiety about the competition. In the analysis of the data, percentage (%), frequency, mean and simple linear regression analysis were used to determine the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable. The age of the participants was reported as 20.32±2.21 years. The mean anxiety score of the participants was 34.35±5.62. According to the results of the study, total anxiety score had no effect on the participants' occiput right and left occipital pain thresholds (p>0.05). As a result of the study, it is thought that other factors that may affect the pain threshold besides anxiety were not included in the model and may be due to individual differences. In addition, in sports with high physical and mental endurance such as taekwondo and wrestling, managing athletes' anxiety levels can be seen as a critical strategy to increase success. The importance of anxiety management and stress reduction techniques to be developed by sports psychologists to manage athletes' pre-competition anxiety emerges. Creating personalized psychological support strategies by taking into account the individual differences of athletes can reduce the negative effects of anxiety on performance.
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