Background. The popularity of using virtual reality in various areas of life is growing steadily every year. The use of virtual reality in sports, including sports of the highest achievements, has both advantages and disadvantages that will be considered in this paper.

The Objective is to study main aspects of using virtual reality in sports, including the historical aspect of the method, the main current areas of using the method, the existing advantages and limitations of the method for using in sports practice, including sports of the highest achievements.

Results and conclusions of the study. It is shown using virtual reality technologies in sports has a whole range of advantages, including removing restrictions imposed by real sports: preventing sport injury; creating environmental conditions (weather, humidity, rivalry, etc.), lack of dependence on sport equipment, weather or location, and the ability to engage in hard-to-reach and expensive sports accordingly. However, there are a number of problems that make it difficult to use virtual reality in sports, in particular, using sport equipment and assessing skill transfer.

Background. Among the most important factors of success in sports there are self-regulation skills of that are formed through goal-attainment. In the context of achieving high sports results, the concept of achieving the goal of J. Nicholls deserves special attention (Nicholls, 1984). According to the research, the goals of athletes can predict their emotional state and the likelihood of anxiety in the upcoming competition.

The Objective is to reveal the connection between the state of pre-competitive anxiety and the goal-setting features as a way of self-regulation in curling athletes. In accordance with the researcher conclusions of the specifics of goal orientation, we assume that athletes with an ego goal orientation are characterized by a higher precompetitive anxiety compared to athletes with a task goal orientation.

Design. The article analyzes the types of target orientations and the state of anxiety in 56 curling athletes in the pre-competition period (m = 16, f = 40). The study used the following methods: Spielberger’s anxiety scale and R. Martens’ personal competitive anxiety scale with both methods in adaptation of Yu.Hanin, author’s questionnaire to establish the focus of the curler athletes’ goals.

Results. The assumption that athletes with an ego goal orientation are characterized by a higher precompetitive anxiety compared to athletes with a task goal orientation did not receive confirmation, which contradicts the results of studies performed by other specialists. The lack of connection between precompetitive anxiety and the orientation of the goals in athletes is probably determined by the specifics of curling as a team sport. It was established that men and women do not have significant differences in adherence to one or another orientation of goals (p> 0.05), however, significant gender differences were found in terms of personal and competitive anxiety (p≤0.01; p <0.05).

Conclusions. The performed work allowed us to identify new areas for further research, such as: the role of the coach in the target-setting for athletes; the study of factors that influenced the results.

Background. Sports activities set high demands on the personal qualities and abilities of athletes, which increases their emotional tension, and negatively affects their self-esteem, self-confidence and motivation. Studying manifestations of the personal emotional sphere of athletes allows choosing effective methods of psychological work to adjust their competitive states up to an optimal level.

The Objective of the research is to learn the specific features of the personal emotional sphere as a regulator of the functional state in young athletes.

Design. The paper analyzes the manifestations of personal emotional sphere of females aged 11-13 years involved in rhythmic gymnastics (N = 20). The results of the relationship and the ratio of the athletes’ personal parameters are presented.

Research Results. A direct significant relationship (p = 0.01) of the anxiety level in athletes with neuroticism, irritability, suspiciousness and sensitivity is revealed. A positive significant relationship (p = 0.01) of guilt and aggressiveness expressed mainly indirectly is established. The obtained features of the relationship of the studied characteristics of young athletes are generally consistent with the results of similar studies performed by other specialists.

Conclusion. The results can be viewed as manifestations of the adaptation mechanisms of young gymnasts in the tense conditions of sports activities, as well as fear of disapproval from a significant circle of people. The revealed emotional-personal characteristics of young sportswomen are probably due to psycho-physiological changes associated with adolescence and the specifics of sports activities. The results of the study generally raise additional questions and allow us to outline areas for further research on the problem under discussion. It is important to study the influence of the emotional state in athletes on the ability to fully recover from intensive physical burnout and follow sleep and rest schedule.

Professional functions of modern trainers have long expanded from a simple function of training athletes to compete to the performance of the numerous roles of leader, organizer, psychologist, which are based on the ability of a coach to improve their professional skills and personal qualities. 

With the increasing popularity of sports, the means and conditions of sports training, the requirements to the quality of work and mastery of the main subjects of sports are increasing. The demand for a coach as a key figure in the education of successful athletes rises. 

The paper analyzes the research of criteria and factors of sports coach efficiency; the features of reflexive processes as one of the most effective ways of coach’s professional development. 

The correlation analysis performed in the work showed a significant connection between professional success and the reflexivity of trainers, which in general is correspondent with the results of similar studies performed in a number of other research fields. In the work there was no confirmation of the regular viewpoint in psychological studies of the relationship between the success of activity and the personality’s internality, which induced a number of new assumptions about the nature of the interaction of successful coaches with their pupils, leadership style, and personality traits.

The results of the study as a whole cause additional questions about individual psychological characteristics of respondents and allow to identify further research.

Nowadays athletes in order to achieve high results and achievements should donate their own interests and private life because of spending much more time for countless flights, acclimatization, everyday workout and competition. So they are short of time to fully replenish their psychological and physiological resources, resulting in accumulation of negative human functional states. Without application of any external psychological interventions there is a high probability of occurrence and development of occupational deteriorations in athletes. The main objective of this theoretical research was to identify and analyze the specificity of occupational deteriorations which can develop in sport as a career. In the presented research paper we described the major occupational deteriorations such as burnout (Maslach et al, 2008), workaholism (Schaufeli et al., 2008), perfectionism (Xolmogorova, 2010), type A behaviour (Ryska et al., 1999) and procrastination (Milgram et al., 2000). 

Accumulation of negative human functional states can entail one or even more occupational deteriorations that will play important role in career termination from sport. Workaholism, burnout, perfectionism, type A Behaviour and procrastination has their own specific manifestations, which can also appear in postretirement from sport activity. The most popular approaches to occupational deteriorations, operationalization and specific features of their appearance and particular manifestations are emphasized, and also various consequences in athlete’s life are described. Thus, occupational deteriorations are one of the most topical and pressed forward issues, which need further development in the framework of conceptualization and inventory development in modern psychology.