What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is the subjective feeling of apprehension and heightened psychological arousal often associated with fears, worries and doubt. (Levitt)
There are two forms of anxiety, these are cognitive and somatic anxiety.  Cognitive anxiety involves the thoughts and feelings about doubt and worries, this is the way they perceive themselves as having a lack of ability, it is psychological.  Somatic anxiety is physiological including muscle tension, sweating, shaking, increased heart rate, if they perceive they have a lack of ability.
Also there are two stabilities of anxiety, these are state anxiety and trait anxiety.  State anxiety (A-State) is the emotional response to a particular situation.  It is characterised by feelings of nervousness and apprehension, this is usually temporary.  Trait anxiety (A-Trait) is an inbuilt part of the personality.  It is a tendency to be fearful of unfamiliar situations and a tendency to perceive competitive situations as threatening, they usually respond to these situations with apprehension and tension.

How does an athletes trait anxiety affect their state anxiety?
If an athlete has high levels of trait anxiety, they are likely to develop high levels of state anxiety when in a competitive environment/situation.  On the other hand, if an athlete has a low level of anxiety they are unlikely to develop a high level of state anxiety in a competitive situation.

Implications of high trait/state anxiety
If the sports performer has high trait anxiety they are likely to produce high levels of state anxiety and the demands of a competitive sport would be stressful.  Having high state anxiety can be caused by specific stressors, even in people with low trait anxiety, this can be reduced to a reasonable level by using stress reduction techniques.

Factors provoking anxiety in athletics
In athletics having high trait anxiety can lead the athlete to have a fear of pressure in the event.  For example, this could occur when you need to get a certain time to qualify for another competition.  Also, having high trait anxiety can also lead to a fear of failure, for example if you are in an important race and you are against somebody of the similar ability as you.  Furthermore, it can also lead to a fear of underperforming, for example if you are going for a new personal best.

Symptoms of anxiety
There are cognitive and somatic anxiety.
A cognitive response is worry.  Also another symptom is that attentional changes occur, which could influence the Information Processing System.  If the sports performer experiences symptoms of worry they will not attain their Peak Flow System.  Cognitive symptoms (psychological) include worry, feeling overwhelmed, confusion, inability to make a decision, lack of concentration and not feeling in control.
A somatic response is muscular tension.  Also if the performer experiences high levels of stress, it makes them more likely to find movement impaired.  This means the performer is outside the Peak Flow State, causing the level of performance to decrease.  Somatic symptoms (physiological) include muscle tension, sweating, shaking and increased heart rate. 

Effects of anxiety on sports performance

Somatic anxiety- The graph shows that somatic anxiety starts quite low then increases as the closer the performer gets to the start of the event/competition.  Once the event has started somatic anxiety starts the decrease quite steeply.
Cognitive anxiety- The graph shows that cognitive anxiety starts quite high, then gradually increases as the performer gets closer to the start of the event.  As the event starts cognitive anxiety decreases, then it will either increase or decrease further depending on the athletes performance.

Positive effects of anxiety on sports performance
Firstly, somatic anxiety has similar effect to arousal because as somatic anxiety increases so does performance but only until an optimum point.  However after this point performance levels will start to decrease.  Also, the body needs to be active, blood flow needs to increase to allow blood to be delivered to the working muscles, and breathing rate increases to allow more oxygen to enter the body, these will be beneficial to their performance.
Negative effects of anxiety on sports performance
Firstly, for skills which require concentration such as target sports like golf, anxiety can lead to a decrease in performance levels due to a decrease in attention and concentration.  Also, if performers believe that the positive effects are occurring due to them not being able to meet the demands of the environment then they start to worry, leading to a decrease in their performance levels.

Peak Flow experience

Peak Flow experience occurs when high somatic arousal coincides with low cognitive anxiety.  An athlete who has low cognitive anxiety but high somatic arousal will experience feelings such as excitement and happiness.  However, those that have high cognitive anxiety but low somatic arousal will become bored and fatigue.  Performers in between these, which have high levels of both cognitive and somatic will be anxious and angry, those who are the opposite to this are lethargic.

Factors to facilitate peak flow experience

Concentration- Optimum arousal has been achieved while cognitive anxiety has remained low allowing for cue-utilisation to occur, so they are able to concentrate on the correct environment cue for the best performance.

Attention style- Optimal arousal and controlled anxiety levels help the athlete to match their attention style to the demands of the situation.

Anxiety- The performer will learn what their preferred zone of optimal functioning is by controlling cognitive anxiety.

Confidence- The athlete has developed trait confidence and high self-efficacy expectations.