The influence of prior experience and gender on changes in somatic, cognitive, and self-confidence anxiety levels during ski technique learning

Abstract

The aim of this research was to determine changes in anxiety among students when learning alpine skiing technique with regard to prior knowledge and gender and the level of anxiety on performance evaluation. 130 kinesiology students (74 male and 56 female students) participated in the research. In this study, anxiety was self-assessed using a questionnaire, and it was represented by three levels of anxiety: a) somatic anxiety level, b) cognitive anxiety level and c) self-confidence anxiety level. The respondents were divided into two groups depending on their previous experience in skiing: beginners and advanced, and there were equal numbers of men and women in both groups. Adoption and improvement of alpine skiing techniques was carried out over 10 days. Anxiety was assessed at three control points: a) immediately before learning the skiing technique, b) after 4 days (or on the morning of the fifth day) and c) after 7 days (or on the morning of the eighth day). The t-test F(1,126) was used to examine the difference in the total score between the beginners and the advanced students. The recorded level of anxiety in terms of the somatic anxiety level was higher among the beginners than in the advanced group, although the somatic anxiety level decreased during the learning of skiing technique in both groups. The same applies to the cognitive anxiety level. The self-confidence anxiety level remained consistently significantly higher among the advanced participants compared to the beginners. Girls are statistically significantly more anxious when looking at the total score and the cognitive and self-confidence anxiety level, but such statistically significant differences were not recorded in the case of the somatic anxiety level. When it comes to the connection between the aforementioned anxieties and the overall grade, lower anxiety correlates with better grades in all cases.