The experience of competitive anxiety or “athlete nervousness”: a phenomenological understanding

This study problematizes the traditional concept of anxiety in sport psychology, highlighting its technical character according to M. Heidegger. We examine how the sciences tend to stabilize this concept by defining it as a set of propositions to observe, measure, predict, and control athletes’ behavior - deeming this approach as the sole legitimate means of accessing reality in the scientific field. In contrast, we propose a phenomenological perspective to assess competitive anxiety, describing forms of manifestation of this phenomenon, developing phenomenological considerations on anxiety as an affective tonality, and understanding it as a constitutive dimension of sporting practice that follows, enables, and opens the field of competition to athletes.

Keywords:
sport psychology; existential phenomenology; performance; athletes.