Abstract
Despite many sports athletes feeling anxious before a match, there are limited studies focusing on how sports players cope with anxiety from the training period to the match. This study aimed to clarify how top-level national college players cope with anxiety from the training period to the day of the match. Two top-level college Kendo players in Japan were chosen as participants (hereafter Participant 1 and 2) based on the demonstration of their abilities in past matches. The Sporting Characteristic Anxiety Scale and the Sporting State Anxiety Scale were used to track the changes in the players’ anxiety in specific sport situations. The participants were also asked to fill in a practice diary to analyze the behavior and thoughts associated with the changes in anxiety. The results demonstrated that Participant 1 easily felt anxiety and that her state of anxiety increased 10 days before the match and remained high until the match. Participant 2 did not feel anxiety throughout the study period. However, despite this difference, both players demonstrated their abilities equally in matches held during the study period. In this regard, the participants’ practice diaries revealed that Participant 1 prepared for the match more carefully than Participant 2 by focusing on aspects in which she lacked during practice. This motivated her and contributed to her performance. These findings suggest the importance of utilizing anxiety, rather than reducing it, for a positive effect on performance.
