The purpose of this study was to analyse the retirement of elite football players in Portugal. Specifically, the quality of retirement and the resources available were evaluated. To develop an understanding of the process of the sporting retirement of elite football players we used data from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with ninety professional players from the portuguese football national team.  Most of the elite Portuguese footballers we investigated retired from sport between 36 and 40 years of age, their retirement had been involuntary and it had taken them less than a year to accept retirement. Most had only been educated to secondary level and had a strong athletic identity, no plans for their post-football career exist and relied on family as their main psychological support. None of the players had received support from a formal programme. Despite of the findings being consistent with previous research from other Southern European cultures, it seems that the athletic retirement of portuguese footballers has some particularities. Most portuguese footballers retired later and had longer playing careers than athletes in other countries. In addition, retirement was involuntary in most of cases, yet players reported that it took them a relatively short time to accept retirement.

The aim of this study was to explore the process of career termination of elite soccer players, comparing the quality and the resources to support career termination over the last three decades. To this end, was developed a questionnaire defined by four sections: (a) biographical data, (b) athletic career, (c) quality of career termination and (d) available resources at the moment of career termination. Ninety male former elite Portuguese soccer players participated in this study. The results highlighted a decrease in the length of athletic career as football players and an increase in the number of years as youth players over the last 30 years. The results also revealed that the quality of career termination was difficult. The analysis of resources for career termination revealed an increase in a high level of education over the years. Despite the evolution in the level athletes’ education in the last three decades, the athletic career termination remained difficult and it was reported that they did not plan their career termination. In line with previous studies, the results highlight that the lack of plans for career termination is one of the most important factors that constrain the quality of career transition.

Imagery é um processo cognitivo que pode desempenhar um papel importante no planeamento e execução de movimentos ou ações. Vários instrumentos têm sido desenvolvidos com o intuito de avaliar a habilidade de Imagery no desporto. No entanto, nenhum se focou na modalidade cinestésica, visual interna e visual externa. O objetivo deste estudo foi traduzir e validar preliminarmente para a população desportiva portuguesa o Movement Imagery Questionnaire-3, determinando as suas qualidades psicométricas iniciais através de uma análise fatorial exploratória do modelo que a suporta. A amostra foi constituída por 176 sujeitos (N = 176) (sexo masculino N = 134; sexo feminino N = 42) com uma média de idades de 20.08 anos (SD = 5.94), composta por atletas de futebol (N = 113), basquetebol (N = 43) e ténis (N = 20). Numa primeira fase verificou-se que os procedimentos de tradução e adaptação originaram uma versão Portuguesa do MIQ-3 semelhante à versão original. Numa segunda fase verificamos que as qualidades psicométricas comprovam a adequação da adaptação efetuada, demonstrando que a sua estrutura fatorial é igual à versão original (12 itens agrupados em 3 fatores, com 4 itens cada fator), apresentando índices bastante aceitáveis de validade e fiabilidade (alfa de Cronbach: 0.88 para MIQ-3, 0.79 para as três modalidades), concluindo que este questionário poderá ser utilizado para avaliar a capacidade de Imagery em atletas Portugueses.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to validate the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale in Exercise for fitness instructors. Methods: Data from 477 exercise professionals (319 males, 158 females) was collected. Results: CFA supported the adapted and validated six-factor model: [χ2(237) = 1096.796, χ2/df= 4.63; B-S p < .001, CFI = .930, TLI = .918, SRMR= .0366, RMSEA = .079 (CI90% = .069, .089)], assessing satisfaction and frustration of basic psychological needs in Portuguese exercise professionals. Moreover, the analysis revealed acceptable composite reliability, and construct validity of the adapted version. Results revealed nomological validity, as well as invariance between male and female. No differences were found across latent means, and magnitude effects were trivial between gender. Conclusion: These results support the use of the adapted scale in exercise professionals, showing measurement invariance between gender. This scale is able to measure how exercise professionals experience satisfaction and frustration of basic needs when prescribing exercise to individuals in fitness context.   Key-words: self-determination theory, exercise, basic needs, interpersonal behaviors, exercise instructors Objective: The aim of the present study was to validate the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale in Exercise for fitness instructors. Methods: Data from 477 exercise professionals (319 males, 158 females) was collected. Results: CFA supported the adapted and validated six-factor model: [χ2(237) = 1096.796, χ2/df= 4.63; B-S p < .001, CFI = .930, TLI = .918, SRMR= .0366, RMSEA = .079 (CI90% = .069, .089)], assessing satisfaction and frustration of basic psychological needs in Portuguese exercise professionals. Moreover, the analysis revealed acceptable composite reliability, and construct validity of the adapted version. Results revealed nomological validity, as well as invariance between male and female. No differences were found across latent means, and magnitude effects were trivial between gender. Conclusion: These results support the use of the adapted scale in exercise professionals, showing measurement invariance between gender. This scale is able to measure how exercise professionals experience satisfaction and frustration of basic needs when prescribing exercise to individuals in fitness context.   Key-words: self-determination theory, exercise, basic needs, interpersonal behaviors, exercise instructors

Aquatic activities have been recommended as frequent practices due to the physical properties of water with improvements in body composition of young. Objective: To study if there are differences in body composition and spirometric values in children who practice swimming complemented with water walking and those who only practice swimming. Methodology: 28 individuals (6 to 12 years) were divided into two groups: swimming group (SG: n=9) and swimming complemented with water walking group (SWWG: n=19) in three different moments with 6 weeks between them. For body composition a bio-impedance scale was used and an anthropometric tape for the waist circumference. For spirometric values: forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and even peak expiratory flow (PEF) a Cosmed Microquark spirometer was used. For statistical procedures the SPSS (20.0) program for descriptive statistics, the Shapiro Wilk test for testing the normality, inferential statistics (non-parametric Mann-Whitney tests, Friedman's Anova), and for the effect size the d-Cohen test. Results: Regarding the inter-group analysis (comparison between the SG and SWWG) we observed that there were significant differences in weight (p=0,004), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1: p=0,025) and peak expiratory flow (PEF: p=0,033). Concerning intra-group differences (improvements in the SG and SWWG), the SWWG showed significant improvements in weight muscle mass (p=0,029), fat mass (p=0,002), percentage of water (p=0,018),, body mass index (BMI:

The aim of this study was to analyse and compare movement visualization ability in federate and nonfederate Boccia athletes, and among federate Boccia medical sport groups. Forty-two Boccia athletes (Federate N = 24; Non-federate N = 18) at an average age of 35.8 (SD = 11.19) participated in this study. The Portuguese version of Movement Imagery Questionnaire -3 (MIQ-3), was used for this study. The participants were evaluated on the internal and external visual imagery. Statistics was carried out following the method of interference based on the magnitude of the effects. Results showed a great effect of expertise in imagery ability. The comparison between federate and non-federate Boccia athletes showed a great effect in the Internal Visual subscale and a moderate effect in the External Visual subscale. It was also observed differences between athletes from different medical-sports groups, revealing that the requirements of the sport linked to their action abilities provides them with different Imagery abilities. These results clearly influence the prescription of imagery training programs for different groups taking into account different medical-practice groups.

Introduction: Athletics is an important sport because it offers a determining basic preparation for other different sports (Sampaio, 2010). Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the motivations that led athletes to practice athletics and to know if the fact that lived in different country regions influences these motivations. The participants were 184 federated athletes from 5 different zones of Portugal (Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Leiria, Santarém and Setúbal). Methodology: To understand the motivations that lead athletes to practice athletics, the questionnaire EMI-2 (Exercise Motivation Inventory version 2 of Markland and Hardy (1993), translated for the Portuguese population by Alves and Lourenço (2003) was applied and were collected during the national championship. For statistical purposes we used descriptive statistics, arithmetic mean, standard deviation and inferential statistics, with the application of One-Way Anova and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Results: The results showed that the Psychological and Physical Condition motives were the most valued, while the Health and Body Related motives were the least valued by the athletes belonging to the different regions. As for the results of the means, only statistically significant differences were found in the physical fitness motives, more valued by athletes from the regions of Setúbal and Santarém and less valued from the athletes of Coimbra e Castelo Branco. Conclusions: The conclusions showed some uniformity in the

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