Competition anxiety in archers: Souza 2023 study

This is a master's thesis from the University of São Paulo on competitive anxiety in Brazilian archers. In a first phase eight national team archers completed the SCAT questionnaire weekly over the four weeks before the Brazilian championship; in the second, 40 male archers, the same eight plus 32 other competitors, completed it on the open practice day and on the first day of competition, and also gave saliva samples for cortisol and immunoglobulin A.

Compared with the practice day, both SCAT and cortisol were higher on competition day (p < 0.001, with Cohen's d of 1.20 for each). In the eight followed for longer, SCAT on competition day was higher than four, three and two weeks before. On competition day, according to the charts, score was negatively related to SCAT (r = -0.7) and to cortisol (r = -0.5), while SCAT and cortisol rose together (r = 0.7); on the practice day the same links were weaker (-0.4, -0.4 and 0.5). Among the eight, those whose anxiety had risen most in the preceding weeks scored fewer points in competition (r = -0.7).

The SCAT is a 15-item questionnaire with three response options and a score from 10 to 30; it was completed 30 minutes before the session. Saliva was collected on waking at 7.15, after 15 minutes sitting on the bed, on both the practice day and the first competition day, 24 hours apart, and analysed with commercial ELISA kits. On the practice day the archers shot the same number of arrows as in the qualification round. All were men with at least five years of experience; the thesis describes the recurve qualification format but does not state the bow type explicitly or the date of the championship. The analyses are paired t-tests, a repeated-measures ANOVA in the eight, and Pearson correlations on 37 athletes.

The text contradicts itself in several places. For immunoglobulin A the results report a significant difference (p < 0.01, d = 0.50), while the conclusions and abstract say it did not change. The conclusions describe a gradual rise in cortisol over the weeks before competition, but cortisol was measured on two days only. The results text describes the SCAT-cortisol link as negative when the chart shows it as positive (0.7 and 0.5), and mixes up the panels; this record uses the values in the charts. The ANOVA degrees of freedom (1 and 46, 1 and 43) do not fit eight athletes.

There are also limits of method. The SCAT was designed to measure competitive trait anxiety, a person's usual tendency, and is used here as a measure of the state of the moment. Cortisol collected on waking is affected by the awakening response, and the unit on the charts (micrograms per decilitre, with values between 10 and 30) is not plausible for saliva. The author acknowledges that the sample is male only and that saliva flow, hydration, diet and sleep were not controlled. Since these are correlations, the link between anxiety and score does not show which influences which. It is a thesis, not a peer-reviewed article.

The firmest finding is also the most predictable: on competition day the archers reported more anxiety and had more cortisol than the day before, having shot the same number of arrows. More interesting, but less secure, is the link with score: in competition the more anxious archers with more cortisol tended to score fewer points, and among the eight national team archers it also mattered how much their anxiety had risen in the preceding weeks.

For coaches, the thesis suggests that a short questionnaire filled in regularly before a major event can track rising tension. It does not show that working on anxiety raises scores, and the contradictions in the text call for caution with the individual figures.