Arousal, Anxiety and Relaxation

What arousal is

Arousal is the state of readiness, alertness and activation — mental and physical — that a performer is in before and during an activity. It is not the same as anxiety, and it is not automatically a bad thing.

Arousal has a physical side (heart rate, breathing, muscle tension, adrenaline) and a mental side (alertness, focus, intensity). Before a race your heart is already faster and your mind is already switched on. That is arousal doing its job.

• Low arousal: calm, relaxed, switched off, little urgency
• Moderate arousal: alert, focused, ready to perform
• High arousal: excited, tense, over-stimulated, sometimes panicky

The Inverted-U theory (Yerkes–Dodson law)

The Inverted-U theory says that as arousal increases, performance improves — but only up to a point. Beyond that point performance falls away again. Plot arousal on the x-axis and performance on the y-axis and you get an upside-down U.

You must be able to draw it (a curve rising to a peak at moderate arousal, then falling) and explain it (why each part of the curve happens). The peak is the optimal level of arousal, where the performer produces their best performance.

Optimal arousal is different for different skills

The optimal level of arousal is not the same for every skill. It sits lower for fine skills and higher for gross skills.

Fine skills use small muscle groups and need precision, accuracy and control — think a golf putt or a table tennis serve. Tension in the hands or arms ruins them, so a performer needs to be calm and low-aroused to hit the target.

Gross skills use large muscle groups and need power, strength or endurance — think a rugby tackle or lifting in weight training for fitness. These skills need the performer to be energised and high-aroused so the muscles are recruited forcefully.

Underarousal and overarousal in practice

Underarousal means arousal is below the optimum. The performer is flat, slow to react and easily distracted, and their effort drops. In a basketball game an underaroused player is a step behind the play, late to close down a shooter and misses easy passes.

Overarousal means arousal is above the optimum. The performer becomes tense, attention narrows so they stop seeing teammates or options, decisions become rushed and technique tightens. In a tennis match an overaroused player over-hits easy shots and double-faults on serve.

Being able to say why performance drops — not just that it does — is what turns a name-the-effect answer into an explain answer.

• Underaroused: slow reactions, low effort, poor concentration, careless errors
• Overaroused: muscle tension, narrowed attention, rushed decisions, timing and coordination errors
• Both sit away from the peak of the Inverted-U, so both lower performance

The two types of anxiety: cognitive and somatic

Anxiety is a feeling of worry, unease or tension about an activity, usually because the outcome matters to the performer. Cambridge names and describes two types — you must name them and describe each, not just say 'nerves'.

Cognitive anxiety is the mental side: worrying, negative thoughts, fear of failure, loss of concentration, being unable to stop thinking about the result. A netball shooter whose mind is full of 'what if I miss?' is cognitively anxious.

Somatic anxiety is the physical side: the body's response to the worry. Increased heart rate, faster breathing, sweating, shaking hands, tense muscles, feeling sick or having 'butterflies' in the stomach.

Causes of anxiety in physical activities

Cambridge wants the causes explained, meaning cause plus why it produces anxiety. Work through the performer's situation: what is at stake, who is watching, and what they think will happen if it goes wrong.

• Pressure of the occasion — the bigger or more important the event, the more there is to lose, so the performer worries about the outcome
• Fear of failure — fear of letting the team or coach down, or of being blamed for a defeat
• Fear of injury — worrying about being hurt, especially in contact activities such as rugby or judo
• Being watched or judged — performing in front of an audience, selectors or a camera increases self-consciousness
• Expectation of others — parents, coaches or teammates expecting a high standard creates pressure
• Unfamiliar surroundings or opposition — an away venue, an unknown opponent or a new level of competition
• Previous bad experience — a past injury, defeat or mistake in a similar situation

Relaxation techniques and how they control arousal

Relaxation techniques are used to bring arousal back down towards the optimum and to reduce anxiety. Cambridge names three to describe: mental rehearsal, visualisation and deep breathing.

Mental rehearsal means going through the skill or the performance in your head — running the sequence of movements in order before you do it. Visualisation means picturing a successful performance in detail, seeing yourself performing well and imagining how it feels. Deep breathing means slow, controlled breaths, usually from the diaphragm, taking a long breath in and letting it out slowly.

These techniques control arousal in three ways the syllabus names: increased concentration (the mind is occupied with the task instead of the worry), controlled breathing (breathing rate and rhythm are slowed, which calms the performer and steadies technique) and reduced heart rate (the physical signs of somatic anxiety drop, so muscles are less tense).

One technique on its own is rarely enough. Performers combine techniques — for example deep breathing to lower heart rate, then visualisation to rebuild confidence, then a simple goal to focus on — because arousal and both types of anxiety need tackling at the same time.