Differences in Anxiety Levels between Shooters practicing Mindfulness vs Shooters not practicing Mindfulness: A Comparative Study

Authors:

Divvay Tomar, Dr. Siddharth Soni

Pages: 35-43

Abstract:

This comparative study aims to investigate the anxiety levels between shooters who practice mindfulness and those who do not. A sample of 20 shooters was chosen, where each group had 10 athletes in it. A mixed-method design was chosen as it helped in integrating quantitative assessments with qualitative assessments to obtain a rich understanding of anxiety levels. To measure levels of anxiety, Competitive State Anxiety Inventory – II, developed by Martens et al., in 1990 was used as the primary quantitative measure to check levels of cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and self-confidence levels. Qualitative assessments were carried out through interviews and thematic analysis was identified, which related to Physiological Responses, Body Language, Emotional Regulation and Resilience. Quantitative results were analysed through the Mann-Whitney U Test, which revealed statistical significant differences between Cognitive Anxiety (p = .002), Somatic Anxiety (p = .002) and Levels of Self-Confidence (p = .001). Athletes who practiced Mindfulness showed significantly reduced levels of cognitive anxiety and somatic state anxiety, though they did show significantly higher levels of self-confidence. Qualitative analysis showed that Mindfulness practicing shooters had reduced levels of anxiety in competition, a relaxed and assertive body posture, a sense of control over their match and were more resilient than shooters who did not practice mindfulness. The study concluded that mindfulness techniques played a role in reducing anxiety levels of shooters. Having a small sample size and a lack of control over external/extraneous variables, some limitations were noted and mentioned in the study. Alongside, a lack of inclusion of physiological measures was also one of the limitations that was noted. More of the limitations are discussed in the following article.