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Psychological aspects like anxiety, injuries’ effects, professional psychological support (PPS), psychological training (PT), or athlete-coach relationships could influence shooters’ performance. This study tried to determine which aspects were critical from the shooters’ perspective. Eight elite shooters were interviewed. After using qualitative methods, the following categories were obtained: importance of PT; anxiety and competition relationship; mental preparation; PPS; stress during training; injuries’ psychological effects and coach’s influence. PT is important for shooter’s performance, being PPS a key aspect. Moreover, anxiety levels are critical, raising during the pre-competitive period and oscillating during competition. Furthermore, shooters considered more effective the stress placed on training by the coach than by themselves. Accordingly, the coach plays a key role. Surprisingly, injuries did not affect shooters psychologically, nor in their competitive performance. We conclude that the combination of PPS, shooter competitive experience and the optimal coach’s work can promote a greater performance in Olympic shooting.

Athletic Identity may be defi ned as being the degree of importance, strength and exclusivity that is attached to the athlete's role which is maintained by him/herself and his/her context (Cieslak, 2004). In this study, using a confi rmatory factor analysis, the measure of Athletic Identity (AIMS-plus) was examined. A total of 650 athletes completed the AIMS-plus. The psychometric features of the original scale were replicated to the Portuguese population. Validity and reliability were positive. AIMS-plus and AIMS were high correlated suggesting that both scales derive from similar athletic identity concepts. These results suggest that AIMS-plus seems to be an acceptable psychometric instrument and a good measure to be explored in research and intervention for athletic identity. It's also recommended further studies of the psychometric characteristics. Keywords: Athletic identity, multidimensional, cross-cultural validation. ResumoIdentidade Atlética pode ser defi nida como o grau de importância, força e exclusividade vinculada ao papel de atleta que é mantida pelo contexto e pelo próprio (Cieslak, 2004). No presente estudo, através de uma análise factorial confi rmatória, foi examinada a medida de identidade atlética -AIMS-plus utilizando um total de 650 atletas. Replicaram-se as características psicométricas da escala original para a população portuguesa e verifi cou-se que a validade e fi delidade são adequadas. O AIMS-plus e o AIMS aparecem correlacionados de forma elevada e positiva o que confi rma a derivação comum do mesmo conceito de Identidade Atlética. Os resultados sugerem que o AIMS-plus apresenta capacidades psicométricas aceitáveis e uma boa medida a ser explorada pela investigação e a ser utilizada na intervenção com atletas. É recomendada a continuação da exploração das características psicométricas. Palavras-chave: Identidade atlética, multidimensional, validação transcultural.The process of athletes' identifi cation to sports role often infl uences one's personal experiences, interpersonal relationships and the consolidation of one's involvement in sports activity (Cornelius, 1995), quite often at the expense  Mailing address:

Purpose. the study aimed to investigate the defensive and offensive technical-tactical actions of elite young football goalkeepers. Methods. the goalkeepers who participated in our study (n = 3; mean age: 16.6 years) had 8 years of experience in the position, were Portuguese, and competed in the Portuguese National Championship U-17. thirty championship games were observed. the observational instruments used were constructed and validated for the investigation, and the technicaltactical actions were coded with the Lince® software. the data were processed through a descriptive analysis, by using the Microsoft Excel® computer program. Results. Defensive actions with most occurrences were goal defence (25.33 ± 8.14), deviation to punch (13.67 ± 12.5), with 2 hands (45.66 ± 21.38), and in zone 1 (50.33 ± 34.81). Offensive actions started more frequently with delayed pass (38.33 ± 28.01), for zone 1 (28.7 ± 20.60). the goalkeepers executed goal kick most frequently (17.33 ± 14.29), followed by short hand replacement (16.67 ± 12.06) and short pass (14.33 ± 10.02). the preferred pass zone was 9 (17.33 ± 10.26), and actions sought to initiate positional attack (86 ± 61.02). Conclusions. In the defensive process, the goalkeepers' actions are mostly focused on the objective of goal defence; in the offensive process, technical actions with the hands and feet are important in the participation in positional attack construction.