The effects of the yoga training program as a complementary pre- exercise activity on sport anxiety and athletic mental energy

Background As young athletes face increasing psychological pressure, adopting effective psychological management techniques to boost their mental resilience is crucial. This study is designed to assess the effectiveness of a yoga training program as a complementary pre-exercise activity on sport anxiety and athletic mental energy in adolescent football players. Materials and methods In our quasi-experimental study, 134 school-age adolescent football players from two academies in Weinan (China) were selected by convenience sampling and randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The demographic characteristics form, Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS-2) and Athletic mental energy (AME) were used for data gathering. During the intervention phase, we conducted a 10-week yoga training program with four official instructors per 18 participants for 30 minutes before the start of a training session for the experimental group. During this time, no intervention was taken for the control group participants. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 26. Results The participants' mean (SD) age was 15.33 (2.14). At first, and before the intervention, the difference in the demographic characteristics, Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS-2), and Athletic mental energy (AME) scores in the two groups is not statistically significant (P > 0.05). However, the mean score of total sport anxiety and its worry and concentration disruption dimensions in the experimental group was significantly lower than the control group after intervention (P < 0.05). Also, the results showed that after the yoga training program, the experimental group's mean athletic mental energy score increased significantly compared to the control group (P < 0.05). Conclusion Integrating a yoga training program as a complementary pre-exercise activity alongside regular sports activities can significantly enhance athletes' mental readiness by managing sports anxiety and boosting their mental energy.