Describe arousal, anxiety and stress including their causes. Explain effects on performance.
Describe arousal, anxiety and stress including their causes. (P3) Explain effects on performance. (M2) Arousal Arousal is the amount of mental energy or preparedness a person has prior to performance. Being aroused has different effects on the body and mind being aroused will make you fell mentally excites, have an increased pulse, blood pressure and temperature. Sweating is likely to occur as having butterfly's in your stomach your focus will increase as you set yourself into the zone you are playing in. There are different levels of arousal under aroused, optimum arousal and over arousal. Being under aroused gives you a slow RT your attention span and concentration goes broad and you have slow reaction and stimuli. Being over aroused will lead to being highly excited, having a decrease in motor control leading to poor execution of skills. Attention span becomes narrow giving tunnel vision and making poor decisions. Optimum arousal makes the athlete physically and mentally prepares for action, making them make good decision and execute skills accurately the athlete will also have a quick RT. Optimum levels of arousal are affected by how difficult or intellectual a sport is, how much cognitive energy it requires, and how much endurance and persistence the sport/task needs. For example, the arousal levels in a Rugby team training session are likely to be higher
Discuss how modern technology aids an athlete's preparation for competition
Discuss how modern technology aids an athlete's preparation for competition Modern technology has become increasingly involved and important in preparing an athlete for competition. New machines and facilities are constantly being developed in order to make sure that athletes have the best possible advantage over other athletes. This can be in terms of using state of the art gym equipment, training at the most advanced facilities, having access to hypoxic tents and other such equipment or resources that allow coaches and athletes to analyse their own performance. It can be argued that modern technology has both positive and negative consequences for sport and athletes. One of the ways in which athletes have benefited from modern technology is by the specific feedback they can now have regarding their performance. For example, underwater cameras have been developed for swimming, which allows the swimmers' every stroke to be watched and analysed from under the water, and from this feedback can be given by the coach and swimmer themselves about how to improve and make their stroke even more effective. However, it can be argued that these cameras shouldn't be used as they can be dangerous; in the 2004 Olympics, Sarah Price badly hurt her leg due to getting it caught on an underwater camera during warm up. Furthermore, there are also issues with grants given. Many small swimming