Humanities & Social Sciences 4 (2016 9) 1023-1034 ~ ~ ~ УДК 159.923 Studying of functions of Imagination in the Elite Sport: the Analysis of Structural and Functional Interrelations of Images and Representations with Personal Characteristics of Professional Athletes Mariia S. Sevost’ianova* Siberian Clinical Center of Federal Medical and Biological Agency 26 Kolomenskaia Str., Krasnoiarsk, 660037, Russia Received 09.12.2015, received in revised form 12.01.2016, accepted 29.03.2016 Article presents the results of empirical research of interrelations between images and representations used by athletes in training process and during preparation for competitions with actual state and key psychological characteristics. <...> Research approves a new author’s questionnaire “The individual card of visual representations of the athlete” created as a result of systematization of experience of using different techniques of visualization by more than 240 professional athletes – members of national teams of Russia. <...> Results of using this questionnaire show that application of this technique allows to refl ect the contents and changes of a set of images and representations in active repertoire of the athlete most fully. <...> Moreover, application of a new technique in total with the proved methods of diagnostics of psychological characteristics of athletes and methods of statistical data processing allowed us to allocate 3 complex psychological key factors of psychological readiness and successful psychological training for players of Russian national team on rugby (N=23): 1. «Management (active infl uence and control) of a situation»; 2. «Anticipation and the advancing overcoming»; 3. “Modeling of a situation and achievement of optimum fi ghting spirit”. <...> Keywords: psychological maintenance in sport, actual psychological state, imagery use, imagery types, imagery functions, factors of psychological readiness. <...> Introduction Nowadays, psychological and psychophysiological preparation is an essential and necessary element of training of of all 2014). © Siberian Federal University. <...> All rights reserved * Corresponding author E-mail address: SevostyanovaMS@yandex.ru # 1023 # athletes of national sports teams the Russian Federation (Samoylov, The main practical goal of a sports psychologist is to maximize the expression of all features and potential reserves of the athlete to achieve the highest sport result and kept it for a long time. <...> It is authentically confi rmed, that psychological preparation has to be systematic, Mariia S. Sevost’ianova. <...> Studying of functions of Imagination in the Elite <...>