Objective: In the present study we aimed to examine the relationship between competitive anxiety, autonomic nervous system activity represented by Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and respiration, and performance in novice archers. We also interested in whether neuroticism may be a factor with a potential to moderate the link among anxiety, autonomic activity and archers' performance. Methods: The sample included 39 novice archers ranging in age from 18 to 27. Participants first completed to anxiety and neuroticism measures. Then, participants' HRV and respiration activity was measured for 4 minutes. Afterwards, participants shot 10 arrows from 18 m to an 80 cm diameter target while their HRV and respiration was measured. Shooting accuracy was determined in terms of radial distance (error) from the center of the target. To determine an overall performance score, the median value of the 10 arrows was calculated for each participant. Spearman correlation analyses together with linear regression were used to analyze obtained data set. Results: Overall, results indicated an association between respiration and anxiety. Moreover, results provided preliminary evidence that neuroticism may be a factor having potential to moderate the relationship between anxiety and autonomic activity before and during an archery competition. Discussion: Results of the present study suggested that determination of archers' performance should be based upon both physiological and psychological factors.

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In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether positive emotional stimuli may affect high and low neuroticism individuals’ maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) level of the biceps brachii muscle, which is considered a motor representation of approach behavior. The sample consisted of 36 right-handed individuals (12 females) ranging in age from 18 to 27 (M= 23.516 [2.120]). Participants completed items from the Big Five Factor Personality Inventory concerning Neuroticism. After completing the psychometric test, we exposed participants to the high valance low arousal pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) via Biotrace+ software during the execution of arm flexions. Participants made 2 MVC attempts for each experimental condition lasting 6 seconds and rested 3 minutes between MVC attempts to eliminate the effect of fatigue. Results of Pearson correlation analysis revealed that the percent change of MVC was positively associated with neuroticism (r= .368, p< .05). The results also showed that the percent change of MVC of the high neuroticism group was significantly greater than the percent change of the low neuroticism group [t(36)= -2.449, p= .020]. Results provided some support for our hypothesis. Hence the data demonstrated that positive emotional stimuli decreased the MVC of the biceps brachii muscle in individuals with low neuroticism. On the contrary, MVC levels of high neuroticism individuals remained almost stable in response to positive emotional stimuli.

Tok, S, Dal, N, Zekioğlu, A, Çatıkkaş, F, Balıkçı, İ, and Doğan, E. Autonomic cardiac activity among novice archers during baseline, shooting and recovery. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2018-In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether heart rate variability (HRV) of novice archers may vary during baseline, shooting, and recovery periods. In addition, we aimed to explore whether HRV may have different patterns between successful and less successful archers and man and woman archers. The sample consisted of 39 (12 woman) novice archers ranging in age from 21 to 27. Baseline HRV activity was measured in the first stage of the experiment. Then, participants shot 10 arrows, from 18 m to an 80 cm diameter target, whereas their HRV was measured. Lastly, HRV recovery response was measured immediately after shooting. HRV was represented as low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF), and LF/HF ratio. When considering the entire sample, repeated measures of analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that only HF power differed among baseline, shooting, and recovery periods [F(2, 76) = 6.90, p = 0.002, ω = 0.15]. When the data partitioned, based on the median split of the shooting scores, repeated measures of ANOVA demonstrated that none of the HRV components differed in the less successful group from baseline to recovery. However, in the successful group, both LF [F(1.47, 30.98) = 4.75, p = 0.024, ω = 0.18] and HF [F(1.54, 32.37) = 6.61, p = 0.007, ω = 0.24] power significantly differed among baseline, shooting, and recovery. No differences were found between man and woman archers in terms of HRV indices. The results of the present study indicated that physical activities requiring the use of perceptual motor skills, in addition to physical qualities, may lead to different HRV responses. Moreover, coaches aiming to develop archers' shooting accuracy may take into account LF power measured during an arrow shooting session.