This answer comes from Abbey Champion and answers the question How do anxiety and arousal differ in terms of their effect on athletic performance? 4 Marks from the 2014 HSC PDHPE Exam Paper
Anxiety and arousal differ in their effect on athletic performance. Anxiety negatively impacts performance as the individual has a heightened heart rate, is lacking concentration and is in a panicked state. This causes the athlete to fumble the ball or break on a centre pass in netball. On the other hand, when an athlete is at optimal arousal, it positively influences their performance. They are not over-aroused in an exhilarated and anxious state, nor are they under-aroused feeling drowsy and too relaxed. Rather, they are attentive and ready to perform as seen when an athlete can read the play and accurately time their passes. Therefore, anxiety negatively impacts the performance of an athlete whereas, when optimally aroused, an athletes performance is improved.
