Tobar, D. A., & Morgan, W. P. (2003). Influence of overtraining on depressive mood in college swimmers. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 35(5), Supplement abstract 206.

College swimmers completed the POMS under baseline, overtraining, and tapering conditions. Trait anxiety was measured with Ss being divided into the bottom one-third as the low-anxiety group (M = 31; F = 19) and the top one-third as the high-anxiety group (M = 31; F = 19).

Depression and total mood increased during overtraining and decreased during taper. The high-anxiety group reported greater depression and total mood scores at all stages of training. When baseline scores for depression and total mood were used as covariates, differences between groups disappeared.

Implication. Low-anxious and high-anxious swimmers do not differ in mood state responses to overtraining.

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