This study examined relationships between intensity and direction dimensions of competitive state anxiety, situational variables and also relationships with soft tennis performance in a sample of famale(n=35) and male(n=35) athletes. All the subjects completed a Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2(CSAI-2), Situational variables 1-2 hours before performance. This inventory included the original intensity scale plus a direction scale in which subjects rated the degree to thick the experienced intensity of each symptom was either facilitative or debilitative to subsequent soft tennis. Analyses of variance indicated significant group differences on cognitive anxiety intensity, self-confidence intensity, somatic anxiety direction, self-confidence direction scores. Stepwise multiple regression analyses showed that significant predictor of performance the male was self-confidence direction. The final analysis involved calculating correlation coefficients among the CSAI-2 sub-component intensity and direction scores and also performance. These results provide the study that sports performer’s directional perceptions of their anxiety symptoms may provide further understanding of competitive state anxiety response, and benefit from this more detailed approach, as opposed to the rather limited intensity-alone perspective currently employed.