Relationships between multidimensional competitive state anxiety and cognitive and motor subcomponents of performance

This study examined the relationship between multidimensional competitive state anxiety and cognitive (i.e. digit span) and motor (i.e. perceptuo-motor speed) subcomponents of performance in an experimental group of hockey players during the period leading up to an important hockey match, and also in a control group of hockey players before a routine training session. Using a 'time-to-event' experimental paradigm, an increase in somatic anxiety 20 min before the hockey match was accompanied by improved perceptuo-motor speed performance. Stepwise multiple regression analyses showed that somatic anxiety was negatively related to digit span performance, whilst somatic anxiety and self-confidence were positively related to perceptuo-motor speed performance. These findings suggest that somatic anxiety may be an important source of performance variance.