Towards the issue of anxiety and team cohesion in sport

Abstract

The article discusses team cohesion in professional sport and its relation to pre-competition anxiety. Team cohesion is defined as dynamic process associated with tendency of group members to stay together, feel united in the process of goal achievement and experience satisfaction because of belonging to a group. Anxiety is in turn defined as a state producing high physical or mental stress ahead of a significant event, which will determine professional future for an athlete. Specifically, sport competitions are considered.
The main objective of our study is the relationship between the anxiety preceding a competition and the perceived cohesion of one’s team. Investigation of this relationship can contribute to the systematization of psychological interventions so that both team cohesion and anxiety are addressed. The article also presents research design that allows combining qualitative and quantitative methods in explorative studies.
The discovered relationship between anxiety and cohesion can be considered as first step towards operationalization of the "mental toughness" concept. This phenomenon contains not only a set of coping skills, but also supportive and solidary communication in the team. Therefore, cohesion can be combined with coping skills within the framework of training sports-specific reliability and readiness for effective performance under stress.