The Mediating Role of Jacobson Relaxation Techniques in the Relationship Between Anxiety and Performance of Female Handball Players

Abstract

"One of the most discussed relationships in sport psychology is the relationship between competitive anxiety and sport performance. The issues addressed in this paper refer to the affective state of female competitive players and its link to the effectiveness/achievement of their long-term game. Objectives: The current work aimed to study how a high degree of anxiety affects the playing efficiency of the SCM Gloria Buzău handball team and to what extent the level of anxiety and, implicitly, of performance, can be modified in a beneficial way, by using the Jacobson technique. Methods and means. To carry out this study, the SAS-2 questionnaire, a multidimensional instrument that measures cognitive and somatic characteristics related to anxiety, was applied in the context of practicing performance sports. To analyse the data obtained, the SPSS Statistics V.20 analysis software was used, thus performing a multiple regression analysis, with anxiety as a predictor and efficiency as a criterion. In order to capture the effect of the Johnson method on the athletes’ performance, a two-way mixed ANOVA analysis of the 2x2 type was used. Results. Following this analysis, the following aspects can be noted: efficiency and anxiety correlate strongly, in the opposite direction, with a negative correlation coefficient between the two variables, r = -0.902. This correlation has high statistical significance (sig<0.001). We observed that there is a strong, positive correlation between the level of control of emotions acquired as a result of therapy and the level of performance in the game, r=0.96, the result being statistically significant, sig<0.001. Conclusions. The hypothesis on how a certain relaxation technique, applied in a consistent manner over a sufficient period of time, leads to an improvement in the quality of the athletes’ game was confirmed. Thus, following Jacobson relaxation techniques applied on female handball players, an increase in performance level was observed in both anxious and low-anxious individuals. Keywords: anxiety, performance, handball, Jacobson method "