Résumé
The present research retrospectively examined the dynamics of competitive anxiety and self-confidence, aswell as the relationships between these variables, in actual experiences of psychological momentum (PM).Using the video of one of their recent experiences of PM, male national level competitors of table tennis(Study 1) and of swimming (Study 2) expressed on a computer their moment-to-moment level of competitiveanxiety and self-confidence.The adjustment and the derivative functions of the time series of the collected datashowed that competitive anxiety and self-confidence decreased and increased, respectively. However, the patterns of these variations were generally more explosive in swimming than in table tennis. Consistent withthe assumption that the experience of momentum drives the fluctuations of competitive anxiety andself-confidence in opposite ways, correlation analyses revealed a strong negative relationship between thesevariables.These findings offer new insights into the dynamics of PM and its ecological embedment.