Background: Although athletes’ experiences of autonomy, competence, and relatedness play in key role in their motivation, performance-related outcomes, and wellness, there is no evidence to date on measures of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the Romanian sport context. Building upon self-determination theory, the objective of this research was to adapt the Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale and analyze its psychometric properties in the Romanian sport context. Methods: The participants were 642 professional athletes (354 males and 288 females; Mage = 22.81, SD = 5.78) who competed at the international and/or national level. Results: The results from confirmatory factor analyses psychometrically supported a six-factor correlated model, which was invariant across gender, age, and sport. Convergent validity was met by average variance extracted values between 0.60 and 0.74. Discriminant validity was underpinned by values from −0.72 to 0.72 for a heterotrait–monotrait ratio of correlations among the six factors. Reliability was endorsed by Cronbach’s alpha scores between 0.75 and 0.89, and between 0.76 and 0.89 for Raykov’s composite reliability coefficient. Criterion validity was supported by positive relationships of autonomy, competence, and relatedness satisfaction to autonomous motivation, and positive associations of autonomy, competence, and relatedness frustration with controlled motivation and amotivation. Conclusions: The Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale is shown to be a valid and reliable measure of need satisfaction and frustration in professional Romanian athletes.

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The aim of the study is to highlight the improvement of the coordination and speed skills of the children by using an operational training programme during the sports training lessons, based on the acquisition of the motor skills specific to the athletic events. This operational programme was applied for 4 months, three times a week, on a sample of 20 children aged 7-8 years. The evolution of the coordination and speed skills was assessed by the Touch-the-Plates Test, the Denisiuk test and the 20 m sprint test, carried out at the beginning and end of the experiment. The experimental research took place between at Bacau Athletics Hall, a 200m circular track room. In order to achieve the objectives we used game exercises, which aimed to learn the basic technical school elements of running, jumping and throwing, games of movement, relays, sports tracks. The conclusions highlight the improvement of coordination and speed.

By analysing all the data, we have come to the conclusion that static stretching is an effective treatment method for shortened muscle chains.