The purpose of this article is to discuss the influence of personality on sports performance. First, the article will define excitement, stress, and anxiety. Secondly, the article will discuss the inverted U hypothesis and arousal levels in football. Third, the article will discuss two different types of stress and how the importance of the event influences the athletic performance of soccer players. Fourth, the article will examine several types of anxiety and how anxiety influences the athletic performance of soccer players. Fifth, the article will examine how exercise can improve stress and anxiety. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay. First, arousal can be defined as how alert, enthusiastic, or motivated an individual is in a particular situation. It is also a combination of physiological and psychological components. Stress can be defined as a certain amount of pressure that an individual feels unable to cope with and which often constitutes a negative experience. Anxiety can be defined as an emotional state that is often negative and generally related to the emotions of nervousness, worry and/or apprehension. Second, arousal levels play a positive or negative role in an individual's athletic performance. If an individual's arousal levels are too high or too low, it will affect their performance during sporting activities. There are three levels of arousal that are part of the inverted U hypothesis. The three different levels of arousal include low arousal, optimal arousal, and high arousal. The inverted U hypothesis shows the association between an individual's level of arousal and their performance. The inverted U hypothesis states that performance peaks when an individual is optimally aroused. For example, if the inverted U hypothesis focused on soccer, arousal levels would differ for each individual based on the position in which they play. According to TOGSoccer, if a player were to play a defensive position, he should maintain an optimal and constant level of excitement. If the level of arousal is too high, the individual might begin to make mistakes or lose position. If the arousal level is too low, their reaction time may be slower. However, if a player were to play a wing position, he would have to change his excitement level during the course of the game. The player's excitement level should be high when the ball comes into play and the need to use his power explosiveness and speed. Failure to modify the player's arousal level in the wing position could result in muscle strain or cramping and/or performing the skill too early. It is evident that arousal levels influence an individual's athletic performance in soccer. However, the level of awareness of an individual depends a lot on the position played in football. Third, there are two different types of stress, namely acute stress and chronic stress. Acute stress can be defined as pressure that only exists for a brief period of time and chronic stress can be defined as pressure that is ongoing and most likely has built up over a period of time. If a person feels too stressed, it can be difficult for them to perform at one hundred percent, it can negatively affect their motivation and can also cause them to lose the enjoyment of the sport. An individual may feel stressed due to too much pressure placed on them by their family, peers and/or coach or the individual no longer enjoysparticipate in sport, which therefore leads to a lack of motivation. There is a type of stress known as situational stress and an example of this would be the importance of an event. The significance of the event would be acute stress. The stress or pressure of a particular event would only be temporary and could apply during the period leading up to the event or throughout the event. Significance of event stress will definitely influence how an individual performs in different sports. For example, there is an event in a football match known as a penalty shootout, which is when it comes to a one-on-one with the goalkeeper and another player, this puts a lot of pressure and stress on both players. For this example, additional stress creates a negative emotional state for an individual, such as stress or anxiety. The state of stress and/or anxiety develops as the importance of each kick in the penalty shootout increases and errors are more likely to be made. This theory was supported by research conducted in 2000 which showed that the high importance of an event leads to stress and anxiety. Figure 1, the figure shows that the probability of successfully scoring a goal in a shootout decreased as the number of kicks increased. The significance of the event is a major factor for individuals participating in soccer, along with the added stress of family, peers, and/or a coach to perform at a high performance level. Stress influences sports performance and most stresses that influence sports performance are acute stress. Fourth, there are two different components of anxiety, state anxiety and trait anxiety. State anxiety refers to temporary changes in an individual's mood and trait anxiety is part of an individual's personality but is also referred to as the individual's recognition of a threat, even if it is not dangerous, however, the body and mind always react to it. like a threat. Using the previous example of a football penalty shootout, anxiety definitely negatively influences a player's sporting performance. Researchers Horikawa and Yagi conducted an experiment on penalty kicks in football. The results of this experiment demonstrated that there is a difference between an individual with high trait anxiety and an individual with low trait anxiety during penalty shootouts. As shown in Table 1, an individual with high trait anxiety had higher state anxiety compared to an individual with low trait anxiety as the number of goals achieved decreased. Researchers found that an individual's state anxiety was more likely to be influenced by the combination of trait anxiety and situational stress and that an individual with both trait anxiety and state anxiety Higher states negatively influenced goal performance in penalty shootouts. This research demonstrates that anxiety, whether a trait or a state, will influence the athletic performance of an individual participating in football, particularly in a high pressure/stress situation such as shooting. aim. Fifth, it is abundantly clear that excitement, stress, and anxiety all negatively influence athletic performance in soccer. However, can exercising individually or participating in a team sport improve an individual's stress or anxiety levels? Exercise releases endorphins, a neurotransmitter that makes an individual feel good after exercising. Physical exercise can have many benefits for anxiety and stress,.-2019102418096