AUTHOR=Castillo-Rodriguez Alfonso , Hernández-Mendo Antonio , Alvero-Cruz José Ramón , Onetti-Onetti Wanesa , Fernández-García José Carlos 

TITLE=Level of Precompetitive Anxiety and Self-Confidence in High Level Padel Players

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.890828

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.890828

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>The objectives of the present study were firstly to evaluate precompetitive anxiety and self-confidence (SC) in padel players according to their playing level; and secondly, to study the factors that influence the levels of precompetitive anxiety and SC. One hundred padel players, all of whom were federated men (age: <italic>M</italic> = 27.6, SD = 7.5 years; weight: <italic>M</italic> = 73.4, SD = 9.8 kg; height: <italic>M</italic> = 175.6, SD = 7.5 cm) participated in the research. The CSAI-2 (<italic>Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2</italic>) questionnaire was used and a one-way ANOVA and a two- and three-ways MANOVA were conducted. The results show that the players from a better category had higher scores in SC and lower scores in somatic anxiety (SA) (η<italic><sup>2</sup></italic> = 0.10 and η<italic><sup>2</sup></italic> = 0.12, respectively). Moreover, the factors of category, body mass index (BMI) and experience, predicted 82% of the variance explained by the SC of the player. As a conclusion, this study has made it possible to ascertain that the playing category, understood as the level of the padel players, determines the levels of anxiety and SC and represents a key factor for the prediction of sports performance.</p>