To sustain long-term benefits of exercise, metacognitive-knowledge, selfregulation and goal-orientation is needed. Research had been focused on defining which type of correlation is traced by self-regulation and metacognitive-knowledge with goal-orientation in young athletic women and men. Data were derived from athletes who were chosen from four men’s club and four women’s club in Jahrom of all men’s and women’s clubs helping from cluster sampling. Then, metacognitive-knowledge, self-regulation, and goal-orientation were tested using Metacognition Applied to Physical Activity Scale, The Exercise Self-Regulation Questionnaire, and the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire. Regression, Pearson correlation, Exploratory and Confirmatory factor analysis, two-way analysis of variance, one-way analysis of variance and post hoc Scheffe revealed a simultaneous combination of linear and quadratic relationships between metacognitiveknowledge and self-regulation with goal-orientation that had a different patterns in adult male and female athletes, whilst metacognitive-knowledge had a both moderator and mediator role in relationship between self-regulation and goal-orientation. The study extended cognitive theory about goalorientation and offered directions for future research.

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