Anxiety levels in different sport modalities

The aim of this paper is to study anxiety levels in different sport modalities. For this purpose, an overall sample of 74 sportmen with ages ranging from 15 to 25 years is studied in detail. Sportmen of this sample are involved in different sport modalities such as Football (Soccer), Handball, Athletism (Throwers) and Martial Arts (Judo & Karate). For studying the influence of anxiety in different sports, several assessment instruments were used: The Inventory of Situations and Responses of Anxiety - ISRA, and the Sport Competition Anxiety Test - SCAT. Results show that there are significant differences between the above mentioned sport modalities regarding trait anxiety, cognitive, physiological and motor anxiety, different specific traits, and competitive anxiety. In this sense, Martial Arts sportmen present the highest scores in almost all the variables studied, meanwhile Handball sportmen show the lowest scores. Differences among sport modalities as well as their implications for sport practicing are discussed in detail.