Abstract

The purpose of this study is threefold and consists in describing: 1) the perception of given psychological factors, physical factors and fetishism vy Ivory Coast athletes; 2) their internal language just before-during-straight after their best and worst performances; 3) their strategies for concentrating, motivating themselves, feeling at ease and relaxing. To this end individual interviews carried out on 45 athletes engaged in three different sports. Results show that these players consider physical factors more important that physchological ones. Furthermore, they believe that about half the athletes resort to fetishistic practice in order to prepare themselves for races. This study points out that these athletes show the same selftalk strategies before and after races both in their best and worst performances. Finally, they have various strategies for motivating themselves, concentratin, feeling at ease and relaxing, from physical training techniques to the use of imagination. Verf.-Referat