Salivary alpha-amylase, salivary cortisol, and anxiety during a youth taekwondo championship

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the stress-related responses and the coach's capability to match perceived efforts of youth athletes during a taekwondo championship.Using a cross-sectional study design, salivary cortisol (sC) and alpha-amylase (sAA) were measured in 6 males and 3 females young (11.0 ± 0.9 years) athletes at awakening, 5 minutes before, and 1 minute and 30 minutes after official combats. State anxiety was recorded 60 minutes before the first competition, whereas coach's and athletes’ ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were obtained at the end of the combats. Time-matched (awakening and pre-competition) salivary samples and trait anxiety were collected 7-day postcompetition during a resting day.No effect for match outcome emerged. No difference emerged between athletes and coach RPEs. Higher (P = .03) state anxiety (41.6 ± 10.9 points) was shown than trait anxiety (34.8 ± 7.1 points). Time-matched sAA were similar. Peak sAA observed at the end of the combat (114.2 ± 108.1 U/mL) was higher (P < .01) than the other samples (range: 20.6–48.1 U/mL), whereas sC increased (P < .05) from awakening (8.0 ± 1.5 nmol/L), with peak levels observed at 30 minutes into the recovery phase (19.3 ± 4.3 nmol/L). Furthermore, pre-competition sC (16.5 ± 4.5 nmol/L) values were higher (P < .01) with respect to time-matched samples during the resting day (4.6 ± 1.0 nmol/L). The 3 athletes engaged in consecutive matches showed a tendency toward increasing sAA and sC.Taekwondo combats pose a high stress on young athletes, eliciting a fast reactivity of the sympathetic-adreno-medullary system relative to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical system. Understanding the athlete's efforts during combats, coaches are recommended to apply effective recovery strategies between matches.

Anxiety and Emotional Intelligence: Comparisons Between Combat Sports, Gender and Levels Using the Trait Meta-Mood Scale and the Inventory of Situations and Anxiety Response

“…One of the major difficulties confronting the researcher of combat sports in anxiety studies is the assessment of situational anxiety response or state anxiety. This assessment has been showed using behavioral (Tiric-Campara et al, 2012), physiological (Capranica et al, 2017), and/or with self-report techniques (Cerin and Barnett, 2011;Coswig et al, 2018). A variety of self-report procedures in combat sports has been used with a practical degree of success.…”

Motivation, Anxiety, and Emotional Intelligence Are Associated with the Practice of Contact and Non-Contact Sports: An Explanatory Model

“…For example, sports people who exhibit more successful sport performance usually demonstrate less anxiety during competition [8][9][10]. Further studies have demonstrated that strategies targeting working memory, perfectionism, or psychological skills can relieve anxiety [11,12]. It has also been demonstrated that athletes who possess self-determined motivations towards the practice of their sport present lower levels of state anxiety when confronted with negative situations [13].…”

Salivary alpha-amylase and tooth pulp evoked potentials in paroxysmal trigeminal neuralgia patients

“…Although these results relate to nerves unaffected with TN, they possibly reflect stress due to anticipation of painful procedure, because TN patients live in fear of receiving next attack of pain. According to Capranica et al 35 , increases in sAA indicate psychological arousal due to anticipation of the upcoming event. Pain modulatory networks in the brain play an active role in controlling nociceptive responses so that pain perception is influenced by our state of arousal, attention and expectation 36 .…”