Abstract

This study analyses the motivational characteristics of top class tennis players and of wheelchair tennis players in competitions. Therefore we have taken as a theoretical reference the perspective of goals reached (Nicholls, 1989; Roberts, 1992) The relations between the motivational and a series of physiological variables such as the beliefs about the causes of success in sport, the satisfaction with results, the diversion of practising sport and the preference for tasks of different degrees of difficulty, are analysed. The results demonstrate, in contrast with former studies, that the focus on ego as much as the focus on the task at hand are associated with motivational adjustment patterns. Finally, significant differences in some of the variables studied between tennis players and wheelchair tennis players have been encountered. The possible implications that these can have on training are discussed in the work.