P: ISSN No. 2321-290X RNI No.  UPBIL/2013/55327 VOL.- IX , ISSUE- X June  - 2022
E: ISSN No. 2349-980X Shrinkhla Ek Shodhparak Vaicharik Patrika
An Analyses of Sports Competition Anxiety Between Intercollegiate and all India Inter University Female Handball Players
Paper Id :  16338   Submission Date :  2022-06-03   Acceptance Date :  2022-06-19   Publication Date :  2022-06-25
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Jaswinder Singh
Assistant Professor
Physical Education
Government Ranbir College
Sangrur,Punjab, India
Abstract
The study aimed to investigate to find out the significant difference of sports competition anxiety level between the intercollegiate female handball players and All India Inter University female handball players. The data was collected on 40 female players, 20 players who participated in Intercollegiate and 20 who participated in All India Inter University. In this study Sports Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT Martens et al., 1990) was used to measure sports Competition anxiety. The data collected in different items was treated as under Mean, SD of each items was computed for 40 female handball players. Analysis of the data in this study was used t- test. On the basis of the analysis of the data, the results revealed that anxiety level showed significant difference for the two independent groups. Intercollegiate female handball players had higher levels of sports competition anxiety (M =21.25, SD =2.61) as compared to the All India Inter University female handball players (M =16.7, SD =2.70), t value = 5.282 (p < 0.001). The result is significant at p < .05.
Keywords Competition Anxiety, Intercollegiate, All-India Inter University.
Introduction
Competition is a social process that occurs when reward are given to people on the basis of how their performance compare with the performance of other doing the same task or participating on the same event (Coakley, 1994). Success and failure are both parts of sports as well as life. A sports man knows that there will be times when he will win matches, there will also be times when he will lose them. A sportsperson knows how to handle defeat and thus, treats success and failure equally. Besides this, another importance of sports for children or for adults is that it teaches them how to handle competition. In order to facilitate peak performance by athletes, sport psychologists must consider the three different facts of anxiety: cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and self-confidence. The word anxiety refers to the study of human behavior, and sports anxiety denotes a sub category of psychology that deals with the anxiety of athletes and teams engaged in competitive sports. Sports anxiety is that branch of psychology which is intimately concerned with human anxiety on the play field, both under practice and competitive situation, with a view to bring about qualitative improvement in performance and maintain the same even during the stresses of competition. Anxiety is a negative emotional state in which feeling of nervousness, worry, and apprehension is associated with activation or arousal of the body.(Robert S Weinberg & Daniel Gould, 2007) Competitive anxiety is something that nearly every athlete faces some time in his or her career. When the demands of training or competition exceed and athlete perceived ability, their stress level elevates. Anxiety is the inevitable outcome. Psychologists generally differentiate between two types: 1. Trait anxiety relates to an aspect of personality in which nervousness is a stable personality trait in an individual. 2. State anxiety on the other hand refers to temporary feelings of anxiety in a particular situation. Symptoms of competitive anxiety are individual to each athlete, but they can generally be recognized on three levels: 3. Cognitive symptoms relate to thought processes, including fear, indecision, poor concentration, loss of confidence, and defeatist self-talk. 4. Somatic (physical) symptoms include muscular tension, clammy hands and feet, increased heart rate, sweating, and butterflies in the stomach. 5. Behavioural symptoms relate to patterns of observable activities, including inhibited posture, fingernail biting, avoidance of eye contact, and uncharacteristic displays of introversion or extroversion.
Objective of study
The objectives of the present study are as under: 1. To examine the level of sports competition anxiety in intercollegiate female handball players. 2. To examine the level of sports competition anxiety in All India Inter University female handball players. 3. To find out the level of sports competition anxiety between intercollegiate and All India Inter University female handball players.
Review of Literature

Ioan Sabin Sopa (2021)This study focused on analyzing the anxiety level of a volleyball team. The research sample was the mini volleyball representative of ACS Alpha Sport Team, composed of 15 volleyball players of female gender (n=15), with age between 8-11 years old (10.07±2.04 years old) experience of 1-2 years.It was structured on two evaluations, one in September 2019 – the initial evaluation of anxiety level, and one in February 2020 that analyzed the final level of anxiety of the team. It was observed that the final anxiety level (average 17.33) was lower than the initial one (23.33). The conclusions of the investigation highlighted that anxiety represents a serious problem in sport competition and that if we train our team with mental coaching and psychological evaluation, we can prevent the rise of the anxiety level and also improve sportive results.

Laura Swettenham et.al (2020) The purpose of this study was to examine stress and coping in both competition and practice in tennis and to further investigate gender difference using Think Aloud protocol (TA) in real-time. 16 (8 males and 8 females) competitive tennis players took part. A within groups design was implemented, and participants verbalised their thoughts between points of a championship tie-break during a practice and a competition condition. Data were transcribed verbatim, analysed for stressors and coping responses using deductive analysis. A CSAI-2R questionnaire was used to assess anxiety levels prior to practice and competition. CSAI-2R results showed cognitive anxiety significantly increased from practice to competition. Males verbalised significantly more performance stress in competition and physical stress in practice. Females verbalised external stress and utilise problem-focused responses more in competition than practice. Problem-focused coping was utilised most for males andfemales in both conditions. Conclusion: Through the use of a novel data collection method (TA) this study provides context-specific findings within tennis, which support previous research in stress and coping where gender differences occur only for the type of stressor appraised.

Marco Correia & A. Rosado (2019)This study aimed to investigate athletes' sport anxiety regarding differences in gender and sport played. An application of structural equation modeling was made, with 601 Portuguese athletes. From them 172 (28.6%) were female and 429 (71.4%) were male. They competed in a variety of individual (e.g., athletics, climbing, orienteering, surfing, swimming, tennis; 42.6%) and team sports (e.g., basketball, handball, rugby, soccer, volleyball; 57.4%). Participants' age ranged from 12 to 47 years (M = 17.44 years; SD = 4.99). After testing the measurement invariance of the first and second-order models, across gender and type of sport (individual vs. team), latent mean comparisons were investigated and Cohen's d (1988) statistic was computed to obtain the corresponding effect sizes (Kline, 2016). Significant differences were detected between male and female athletes and between individual and team sports. Female and individual sports athletes presented higher levels of general sports anxiety. The results of this research provided evidence that anxiety is appraised differently by athletes based on their gender and type of sport.

A. Khan &Biruk A.Sorate (2016)“A Comparative Study of Sports Competition Anxiety within Jimma University Male Players of different Sports” The purpose of the study was to analyze and compare the Sports Competition Anxiety between Jimma university players. For the purpose of this study 50 players (Football, Basketball, Table Tennis, Athletics and Gymnastics) were selected from Jimma University, Ethiopia as the subject. All these players were going to represent Jimma University in 9th Ethiopian Governmental Higher Institutions Sports Festival in 2016. For this study sports competition anxiety test (SCAT, Martens et al., 1990) questionnaire was used to measure sports competition anxiety. Descriptive Statistic (Mean, Standard Deviation), Independent t-test was applied to analyze and compare the degree of Sports Competitive Anxiety between Jimma university male players. The level of Significance was set at 0.05. Results indicated that there are significant differences found within Jimma University male players (Football, Basketball, Table Tennis, Athletics and Gymnastics) in their Sports Competition Anxiety.

Najmuddin Khan &Kehkashan Aziz(2015) “Conducted a study with the aim to compare the sports competitive anxiety and sports achievement motivation between basketball players and all India intervarsity track runners”. Forty six male subjects (23 basketball players and 23 all India intervarsity track runners) were recruited as subjects for the study. Their age ranged from 18 to 25 years. For the acquisition of psychological data of the participants of sports achievement motivation questionnaire developed by Kamlesh (1990) and for sports competitive anxiety questionnaire developed by Martin (1984) was used. The data of basketball players were acquired from the north zone intervarsity competition held at bareilly, data of track runners were acquired from All India Intervarsity Athletic meet held at Mangalore. The‘t’ test was used to analyze data. Results indicated that no significant difference was found between basketball players and all India intervarsity track runners in their sports competition anxiety and sports achievement motivation.

Dr. Dabir. R &Qureshi (2015) “Studied a comparative study of anxiety test between college level table tennis and volleyball players”.The purpose of this study was to compare the sports competition anxiety test between college level Table Tennis and Volleyball players. For the purpose of the study, thirty (30) players each of Volleyball and Table Tennis were randomly selected irrespective of gender as subjects for this study. The subject’s age ranged between 19 to 27 years. For this study sports competition anxiety test (SCAT, Martens et al., 1990) questionnaire was used to measure sports competition anxiety. SCAT questionnaire was distributed between the subjects 30minutes before the competition. The hypothesis selected for this study was that there would be no significant difference between Table Tennis and Volleyball players. For analysis of the data independent ‘t’ test was used. The level of significance was set at 0.05. The mean score of Table Tennis players was 19.50 and Volleyball player was 22.50. The calculated ‘t’ value was 3.95 which showed that significant difference was found between Table Tennis players and Volleyball players (calculated‘t’ 3.95 >tabulated‘t’ 1.675).

Methodology
After the collection of data appropriate statistical tools were employed for describing the results and also their interpretation.The ten test items which were taken for scoring purpose were 2,3,5,6,8,9,11,12,14,15, the remaining items which was not scored out were, 1,4,7,10,13. Descriptive Statistic, Mean, Standard Deviation and Independent t-test was applied to compare the degree of Sports competitive Anxiety between Intercollegiate and All India Inter University handball female players. The level of Significance was set at 0.05. Scores obtained for each statement was added up which represent an individual's total score on Sports Competition Anxiety (SCAT Score). Then the SCAT score was analyzed.
Sampling
Themainpurposes of the present study was to analyze the composition anxiety between high and low level competitions, particularly handball female players are considered for the study.  For this purpose researcher reviewed nearly 20 studies related to the topic.  A sample of female handball players from various colleges under Punjabi University, Patiala has been taken. The data was collected on 40 female players, 20 players who participated in Intercollegiate and 20 who participated in All India Inter University, with varying levels of their participation and performance.
Tools Used For collection of data of the present study following tools were used, reliability and validity have been time and again established and re-established was chosen and applied. In this study Sports Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT Martens et al., 1990) was used to measure sports Competition anxiety. Sports Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT) by Martens et. at, 1990 consists of total 15 statements. Based on expert opinion and by personal understanding the Sports Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT) by Martens et al., 1990 was used. Before administering the test, the procedure of the questionnaire and the purpose of the test were briefly explained to all the subjects for better understanding and to increase the motivation level. SCAT had fifteen items out which five were spurious questions which was added to the questionnaire to diminish response bias towards actual test items these five questions were not scored. The subjects were instructed to respond to each item according to how he generally felt at the time of competition. Every player had three possible responses i.e. a) Hardly ever. b) Sometimes. c) Often.
Analysis

Keeping in view the purpose of the present study, the data obtained by best available methods, The data obtained by using various parameters in the investigation were recorded, statistically analyze and graphically presented in this chapter according to the purpose of the project. The tabular and figurative data followed by discussion, results and conclusions are also given.  After administration of the test on handball players the raw data as shown in table were collected. The raw data were analyses by using standard statistical techniques to find out the significance difference between the two variables. For better understanding the data has been presented in tabular form. The discussions and analysis will reveal the results in the following table:

Groups

N

Mean

SD

T-Value

P-Value

Intercollege

Participants

 

20

 

21.25

 

2.61

 

 

     5.282  

 

 

<0.001

All India Inter University

Participants

 

20

 

16.7

 

2.70






Result and Discussion

Graphical Representation of Significant Defferance of Sports Anxiety Level Between Intercollegate and all India Inter University Participate Female Handball Players:

Findings On the basis of the analysis of data the investigator found the following findings: The results revealed that anxiety level showed significant difference for the two independent groups. Intercollegiate female handball players had higher levels of sports competition anxiety (M =21.25, SD =2.61) as compared to the All India Inter University female handball players (M =16.7, SD =2.70), t value = 5.282 (p < 0.001). The result is significant at p < .05.
Conclusion
The present study is conducted to find out the significant difference of sports competition anxiety level between the intercollegiate female handball players and All India Inter University female handball players. The data was collected on 40 female players, 20 players who participated in Intercollegiate and 20 who participated in All India Inter University. In this study Sports Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT Martens et al., 1990) was used to measure sports Competition anxiety. SCAT had fifteen items out which five were spurious questions which was added to the questionnaire to diminish response bias towards actual test items these five questions were not scored. The data collected in different items was treated as under Mean, SD of each items was computed for 40 female handball players (20 intercollegiate & 20 All India Inter University participated players). Analysis of the data in this study was used t- test. On the basis of the analysis of the data, the results revealed that anxiety level showed significant difference for the two independent groups. Intercollegiate female handball players had higher levels of sports competition anxiety (M =21.25, SD =2.61) as compared to the All India Inter University female handball players (M =16.7, SD =2.70), t value = 5.282(p < 0.001). The result is significant at p < .05.
Suggestions for the future Study Based on the analysis and conclusions of the study, then it can be stated suggestions as follows:
A. For coaches: To achieve better results in the competitions a coach must have knowledge about the mental state of their players. Sports anxiety plays very important role in the sports performances. As this study shows that there is a higher level of sports competition anxiety in intercollegiate female handball players then the All India Inter- University female handball players. So, coaches must use effective training methods for the intercollegiate players to lower their anxiety level during competitions and give better performance.
B. For athletes: The present study shows that the intercollegiate female handball players have high level of sports competition anxiety which can affect their performance. They must work on it with the help of their coaches and psychologists so, that the better performance can be achieved. Handball is a sport which fun, healthy, and can nurture togetherness. Besides that, handball can be a profession, a hobby, or achievement. In attaining the achievement, the society is expected to support and participate in all activities related to the handball.
References
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