The article was authored by Kanae Haneishi, Andrew Fry, and other researchers in 2007. In the study, the authors purposed to candidly explore the cortisol responses, particularly from regular season games and typical training sessions. The researchers closely monitored salivary cortisol concentrations and competitive sport anxieties before and after one training session and regular season game. Glucocorticoid cortisol is an integral hormone in the human body, and its main function is to promote energy, mediate stress response, and re-establish homeostasis, among others. The study lend credence to the paucity of studies especially in the psychology of soccer and more particularly, delved in exploring soccer stress among women and the physiological demands of non-starters and starters during practice sessions and actual game time.
Soccer is increasingly becoming a popular game to both men and women, alike. Many high schools and college levels in the United States have invested in promoting football talents and skills especially amongst women, in recent times. Nevertheless, there exists a lacuna in research, particularly with regards to the physiology of the game. As such, there is somewhat limited and incomprehensive research on the various physiological needs and demands of starters as well as seasoned players during training and actual game sessions. For this reason, the authors of this article delved in on interrogating stress in soccer, in their quest to further disseminate scientific studies on the game, and also add to the limited knowledge and research on the female population in soccer.
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The article categorically notes that the glucocorticoid cortisol is commonly employed both as a chronic and acute indicator of training and generally game stress. After a rigorous and intense training session, the circulation of cortisol levels increases rapidly. As such, existing research has prevalently reported the sharp increase in cortisol concentrations particularly before and during exercise sessions and sporting competitions (Mullington, 2014) . The article categorically documents the increase in cortisol responses before engagement in soccer competition as an anticipatory response. The article proceeds to assert that the increase is seemingly higher amongst winners, as compared to losers.
The authors of the article also aver that with regards to sex-specific responses, no significant difference in the concentration of cortisol hormones between males and females exists. Additionally, the authors found that cortisol hormone is an even more appropriate hormonal parameter of female stress, as compared to androgens. This is majorly because it is not significantly influenced by factors such as the menstrual cycle (Haneishi, Fry, Moore, Schilling, & Fry, 2007) .
In the article, the authors affirmed that in order to comprehend the stress experienced by female soccer athletes more effectively, it is instructive to consider both the physiological and psychological factors associated with soccer. As such, the authors agree that the stress response that is associated with game play is significantly higher compared with during practice. This inference is supported by other woks, and other researchers agree that true competition triggers and induces greater hormonal responses, in comparison to laboratory exercises. The authors further advocate for the utilization of inventories of physiological and psychological stress. These include the Sport Anxiety Scale and Competitive Sport Anxiety Inventory-2 which assess psycho-physiological stress by monitoring heart rate and hormone concentration.
The most fundamental purposes of conducting the study, apart from succinctly contrasting the psycho-physiological stress responses in both training and competitive games, also included determining the differences in the responses between seasoned and starting female soccer players. Also, the study aimed at examining the various relationships between psychological and physiological stress indicators. In the article, it was hypothesized that the psychological and physical stress during gameplay would be considerably higher as compared to during training sessions. It was also hypothesized that the stress responses would be similar during practice sessions, although they would be relatively greater amongst starters as compared to nonstarters during an actual game (Haneishi, Fry, Moore, Schilling, & Fry, 2007) .
In conducting their research, the authors used a host of experimental approaches and methods to draw their inferences. The study mainly utilized a collegiate female soccer team that competed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCCA, in the United States of America. As such, the researchers used an appropriate population, to conduct their study. The players, who were the primary participants in the study, were closely monitored during one game and typical practice session as well. In the study, measures of psychological and physiological stress were keenly assessed on four different occasions. The occasions included immediately before and after one regular practice session, as well as before and after one regular game that was just before the conference tournament. The researchers highly considered this particular season game because its outcome would have impacted the team’s overall postseason standing. Notably, the practice sessions involved sheer intensity, and it included a wide array of activities such as ball drills, warm-up and scrimmage that lasted for roughly to hours. During the practice day, the temperature was averagely 25 degrees Celsius, and the relative humidity was 35%. During the actual game day, the average temperature was 21 degrees Celsius, and the relative humidity was 30% (Haneishi, Fry, Moore, Schilling, & Fry, 2007) . The team lost by one point.
The players participated in a formal familiarization exercise for collection of salivary samples, three days before the initial or first collection of data. Condition, which encompassed practice and game, time before and after the respective sessions, and the subjects were the primary independent variables in the study. State somatic, cognitive anxiety, cortisol concentration, as well as state self-confidence values were the dependent variables in the study. The involved subjects were free of any disease and orthopedic injuries, and they provided both oral and written consent to willingly participate in the research, as stipulated by the institutional review committee (Haneishi, Fry, Moore, Schilling, & Fry, 2007) . The subjects also completed a health or medical history, as well as a menstrual history questionnaire.
All the administered questionnaires and instruments were valid, and seeking the subject’s consent was also another fundamental aspect that further exemplifies the professionalism and validity that the researchers upheld in conducting their research. Also, the researchers referenced previous researchers and developers that employed the surveys. For instance, the CSA1-2 that was completed every time the salivary samples were obtained or collected is a self-reported psychometric instrument or inventory of anxiety states that consists of twenty seven items. It is also composed of cognitive and somatic state anxiety sub-scales, as well as a self-confidence scale. It was incepted and first used by Martens and other associates in 1990 (Lundgvist & Hassmen, 2010) . The researchers also used SAS, another fundamental instrument, to ensure accurate and credible findings on psychological analyses. The Sports Anxiety Scale, SAS, was administered in the process of assessing the subjects’ body composition. It is a measure composed of twenty one items, and it has three scales that assess somatic trait anxiety, cognitive trait anxiety, as well as concentration disruption. The article referenced Schutz, Smith and Smoll as evidences or individuals that have since reported on the reliability and validity of the SAS measure, thus further affirming the authenticity and credibility of the researcher’s methods.
The findings or results of this research were not provided in an entirely transparent fashion, although they were adequately detailed and backed with statistical evidence to support the research question as well as the overall conclusions of the study. From the research, a notable interaction was found, particularly for cortisol responses (p<0.05). Thus, this manifested that both nonstarters and starters exhibited significant increases post-game (Pre-game =12.5+/-13.6, Postgame =28.8+-32.5). As such, the article documents increased postgame cortisol values for nonstarters and starters after the game, as compared to during the practice session. Additionally, the article also found that a main effect difference manifested greater cortisol concentrations amongst starters as compared to nonstarters (p<0.05).
The authors of the article under discussion had candid support of their various findings and conclusions. This is mainly due to their apparent use of vast references on the subject of sport psychology, as well as their distinct and clear use of well-detailed analysis and statistical data. The article’s main finding was the acute salivary cortisol response specifically of women soccer athletes after a typical training session and an actual competitive game. The article succinctly found that when contrasted with nonstarters or seasoned players, starters manifested significantly greater concentrations at every sample time. This inference can be supported by numerous studies conducted by many other researchers across the world. For example, research conducted by Benjamin Siart, Alfred Nimmerichter and Claudia Vidotto (2017) that sought to analyze the impact of salivary cortisol and testosterone levels amongst field athletes, categorically affirms the findings of the article under discussion. It also found that postgame cortisol response for the subjects or participants was relatively greater, compared to post-practice values (Haneishi, Fry, Moore, Schilling, & Fry, 2007) .
The article also referenced recent studies that have reported an upsurge or increase in cortisol, especially during sports and activities such as triathlon competition, women’s handball, wrestling matches, weightlifting, and many others. Nonetheless, the authors noted that in all the previous studies, no acute cortisol response superseded or was greater than in their present study. This is because soccer requires substantially higher anaerobic and aerobic abilities.
The article also inferred that there were no significant relationships or correlation between competitive state anxiety and salivary cortisol. However, the authors observed a relationship between cognitive anxiety and salivary cortisol levels before practice sessions, for starters (r=0.70). Generally, the article supported the notion that perceived psychological responses like heart rate, hormone response and many others affect the performance levels independently. The authors of the article in question also found no relationship between the various physical measures of anxiety such as blood pressure or heart rate, and psychological measures (CSAI-2, particularly when assessed before, during and after pegboard games or competitions.
The authors, in a detailed discussion that supports their findings, also concluded that the stresses associated with an actual game are relatively higher than typical training and practice sessions. The researchers found greater salivary cortisol responses particularly during actual competitive soccer events, in comparison to typical trainings in female collegiate athletes. Moreover, the authors inferred greater competitive anxieties during gameplay, as compared to trainings. However, the authors were unable to essentially establish a correlation between the various psychological and hormonal variables within the scope of the research. As such, they proposed the vitality of more studies to comprehend the psychological stresses for nonstarters and starters throughout an entire football season.
In conclusion, the article by Kanae Haneishi, Andrew Fry and others is a well-researched, detailed and comprehendible study that succinctly examines the cortisol levels and stress responses in training sessions and competitive games, particularly amongst female football athletes. The conclusions made by the authors of the article were supported and justified by numerous previous studies, as well as their own statistical and analytical data obtained in their study. The authors made inferences that were supported by data, and were clear with their inferences, sources of information and literature. Hence, the researchers of the article gave fundamental information, especially on the study of the correlation between cortisol and stress responses during involvement in games and exercise sessions, amongst female athletes.
References
Haneishi, K., Fry, A., Moore, C., Schilling, B., & Fry, M. (2007). Cortisol and Stress Responses During a Game And Practice in Female Collegiate Soccer Players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research , 585.
Lundgvist, C., & Hassmen, P. (2010). Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2). National Centre for Biotechnology Information , 727-736.
Mullington, J. (2014). Endocrine Function During Sleep and Sleep Deprivation. Science Direct .
Siart, B., Nimmerichter, A., Vidotto, C., & Wallner, B. (2017). Status, Stress and Performance in Track and Field Athletes. Scietific Reports Journals .
