EN
Background. Self-efficacy is an individual’s belief in their skills and abilities to act in order to reach a chosen goal, irrespective of any obstacles. The motivation to act increases with the rise of self-efficacy. This is connected with sports results achieved by sportsmen. The authors emphasized that the choice of a coping strategy in difficult situations depended on many factors, e.g. personality traits, age, gender, or current physical and mental health. The objective of the paper was to analyse the influence of self-efficacy and locus of control on the choice made by players in terms of their coping strategy in difficult situations. Material and methods. A group of 12 players and 51 students was investigated. The measurement tools were: Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, Men at Work questionnaire, and Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale. Results and conclusions. The predominant coping strategy among the subjects was the task-oriented style. In both groups, a statistically significant correlation was achieved between self-efficacy and the task-oriented style. A moderate relationship between locus of control and self-efficacy was observed among players.