Correlation of Aggressiveness and Anxiety in Fighteeng Sports

Introduction: in fighting sports there are many opened issues related withlevels of aggression and anxiety. Material and methods: Our study is performed with healthy young athletes: kick boxers, karate fighters, and boxers. Examined group consisted of 55 members (45 male) with average age of 20.2±3.8 years. In analysis of level of aggression Questionnaire A-87 is used. Its purpose is assessment of aggressive behaviour in provoked situa-tions, or measurement of impulsive aggression. Questionnaire A-87 consists of 15 items of different situations with five possible responses. Results and Discussion: The possible responses or reactions are the five most frequent forms of aggressive responses: a) verbal manifest aggression (VM); b) physical manifest aggression (PHM); c) indirect aggression (IND); d) verbal latent aggression (VL), and e) physical latent aggression (PHL). In the analysis of anxiety is used Beck Anxiety Inventory, BAI. Average training period was 7.8±3.6 years. Even 37 athletes during sporting carriers were injured, and most of examiners (precisely 13) experienced 3 injuries. Average value of BAIwas 12.7±8.7. Average value of total aggression was 152.2±40.9; highest levelswere observed in VM (33.9) and VL (30.1). Significant positive correlations of all components of aggression with level of anxiety is observed (p 0.05), most prominent IND (r=0.4263; p=0.0012), and VL (r=0.4163; p=0.0016), andalso total aggression (r=0.4822; p=0.0002). Slightly significant positive correlation of total aggression with age of examiners is also observed (r=0.2668, p=0.0489). Positive correlation VM (r=0.4928; p=0.0001), PHL (r=0.2761; p=0.0413), and total aggression (r=0.347; p=0.0094) is observed with num-ber of injuries of examined athletes. Also, positive correlation (r=0.2927, p=0.0301) is observed with level of anxiety and number of injuries. Higher level of aggression and anxiety might change attitude of some sports authori-ties (especially coaches), and additional psychological training of fight sportsmight be necessary. Conclusion: Assessment of basically levels of aggressionand anxiety of athletes might be valuable not only in sport activities, but in overall aspects of life.