The relationship between mental skills and anxiety interpretation on female volleyball athletes

摘要

@@ Introduction: The relationship between mental skills and anxiety direction in sport is a vital topic of investigation for sport psychology and has been explored in depth over the last 2 decades. Jones (1991) , Jones and Swain (1992) introduced the concept of anxiety direction into the sport psychology literature. Also, they suggested the importance of considering interpretations of arousal symptoms direction (positive-facilitative or negative-debilitative). Several studies (Jones & Hanton, 1996; Jones & Swain, 1992; Jones et al. , 1993; Perry & Williams, 1998) have concluded that those athletes who interpret their anxiety symptoms as facilitating are more likely to perform better then athletes who interpret anxiety symptoms to be debilitating. Because the interpretation of anxiety symptoms influences performance, it seems important to identify the specific psychological skills that may help athletes to interpret their anxiety as facilitative.