High level basketball players and the experience of pre-competitive emotions

Emotion is defined as a complex set of subjective reasons which can influence sports performance positive or negatively. This study aims at understanding and analyzing the emotions experienced by players before competition. To this end, 48 male basketball players summoned for the Brazilian National Young (N+30) and Adult (N=18) were asked an open semi-structured question: "Write how you feel before competition". The qualitative analysis has reduced the discourses in nine categories. Pre-competitive emotions are reflections of the cognitive process on the performance expectation and are dependent on experience. The more important and uncertain the sport result is the more athletes tend to experience emotions involving uneasiness and anxiety.