“…These results contradict the initial hypothesis that older athletes have lower levels of somatic and cognitive anxiety and high self-confidence, due to their greater experience in competition and, thus, demonstrate to deal better with the state of pre-competitive anxiety. In this sense, it is believed that these results can be explained, as athletes of this age group have greater demands (Nascimento Junior, Gaion, Nakashima & Vieira 2010;Schwebel, Smith & Smoll, 2016), with higher training loads in search of good performance, which can result in increased injuries, symptoms of fatigue, stress, affect self-esteem and anxiety (Merkel, 2013;Silva, Enumo & Afonso, 2016;Santos et al, 2014;Weinberg & Gould, 2016).…”