Cognition and perception, Sport and Exercise

Stress and anxiety in sport

Jan Graydon looks beyond the yips and the jitters.

18 August 2002

To any sportsperson the debilitative effects of high anxiety are only too familiar, and can range in severity from butterflies in the stomach to a full-blown panic attack. Over the years many hypotheses, theories and explanations have been advanced to try to describe and understand the relationship between stress, anxiety and performance in sport. In this article I assess the research and the comments of participants in sport themselves.

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