Abstract

The objective of the present study was primarily to gain more insight in both the psychological factors influencing the sensation of fatigue in different sprots and the multidimensionality of this sensation. A secondary objective was to discern variations in the sensation of fatigues according to the sport discipline. 224 Flemish competitive sportsmen from differing disciplines were asked to answer three Likert-type questionnaires. Factor analysis shows that the sensation of fatigue consists of an overall undifferentiated perception of fatigue but complementary is a perception of a mental, a behavioural and a physical fatigue component. Factor analysis also shows that fatigue is influenced by different feelings, cognitions and motivational elements which are present when a person engages in a performance task: stress and anxiety, achievement motivation, concentration, and espeically the subjective appraisal of their capacities with respect to appraisal of task-difficulty. Discriminant analysis shows that open skill sport athletes (e.g. volleyball) perceive their fatigue in an other way than closed skill sport athletes (e.g. long distance running). Verf.-Referat