STEFANELLO, Joice. Situations of stress in high performance beach volley: a case study with an olympic pair. []. , 7, 2, pp.232-244. ISSN 1645-0523.

Competitive stress is one of the most determining psychological factors to high performance sport, for, in that context, the athletes face all kinds of competitive pressure. This research, done with a brasilian beach volley Olympic pair, first on the national/international ranking (2003), intends to analyse the stress-generator situations for athletes in the 2004 World Tour, which preceded their participation on the Athens Olympic Games, how the athletes lived competitive stress and what stress-controlling techniques they used. The data were collected with a specific performance feedback instrument (adapted from Ravizza, 1991), in which  the athletes registered their every-game stressing situations, how they lived them and the controlling techniques used. Results show that situational elements were the most determinating and, among them, the game-related aspects were the most influent specific factors, being the difficulty/easyness of the match the main source of stress for the athletes. Thoughts and body emotions/sensations correspond to the main way through which athletes face stress; the cognitive techniques (self-information, concentration, imagination), the most used by the athletes.

: competitive stress; beach volley; high performance.

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