Abstract
The objective of this study is to examine the sensitivity to and changes in heart
rate variability (HRV) in stressful situations before judo competitions and to observe
the differences among judo athletes according to their competitive standards in both
official and unofficial competitions. 24 (10 male and 14 female) national- and international-standard
athletes were evaluated. Each participant answered the Revised Competitive State Anxiety
Inventory (CSAI-2R) and their HRV was recorded both during an official and unofficial
competition. The MANOVA showed significant main effects of the athlete’s standard
and the type of competition in CSAI-2R, in HRV time domain, in HRV frequency domain
and in HRV nonlinear analysis (p<0.05). International-standard judo athletes have
lower somatic anxiety, cognitive anxiety, heart rate and low-high frequency ratio
than national-standard athletes (p<0.05). International-standard athletes have a higher
confidence, mean RR interval, standard deviation of RR, square root of the mean squared
difference of successive RR intervals, number of consecutive RR that differ by more
than 5 ms, short-term variability, long-term variability, long-range scaling exponents
and short-range scaling exponent than national-standard judo athletes. In conclusion,
international-standard athletes show less pre-competitive anxiety than the national-standard
athletes and HRV analysis is sensitive to changes in pre-competitive anxiety.
Key words
judo - pre-competitive anxiety - HRV analysis - competition performance