As mentioned earlier in this chapter, motivation is a primary psychological factor in the acquisition and effective performance of motor skills. Motivation can be defined as the intensity and direction of effort.
Motivation can be positively influenced through various methods, such as goal setting, reinforcement, and arousal regulation.
Motivation is important for any athlete. Deci defined this construct as a desire to be competent and self-determining. With intrinsic motivation, athletes are driven because of their love of the game and the inherent reward they derive from participation.
This motivation comes from within the athlete and is exhibited regardless of the existence of material reward or punishment. Intrinsically motivated athletes focus on the enjoyment or fun they experience in the activity and generally desire to learn and improve because of their love for the behavior itself.
In contrast, extrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from an external rather than internal source. Numerous examples of extrinsic motivation exist, such as:
It is important to note that athletes are rarely completely intrinsically or extrinsically motivated; rather, they exhibit varying degrees along this motivation continuum.
Within the general construct of motivation lies a more specifically targeted type called achievement motivation, which refers to a person’s efforts to master a task, achieve excellence, overcome obstacles, and engage in competition or social comparison.
All things being equal between two athletes, whoever is higher in achievement motivation will be the better athlete because he or she has a greater appetite for competition.
McClelland and colleagues theorized that all people have opposing personality traits within them:
The MAS relates to the capacity to experience pride in one’s accomplishments and is characterized by a desire to challenge oneself and evaluate one’s abilities. On the other hand, the MAF relates to the desire to protect one’s ego and self-esteem.
Coaches can benefit from understanding the concepts of positive and negative reinforcement and how they relate to athlete motivation.
On the other hand, punishment is designed to decrease the occurrence of undesirable behaviors, such as mistakes or lack of effort.
Understanding how to properly apply reinforcement and punishment can help coaches enhance athlete performance while maintaining motivation and confidence.
Nideffer formulated an important concept in sport psychology when he theorized that individuals tend to experience shifting categories of attentional styles during performance. These categories are characterized by two dimensions:
The first dimension refers to an introspective versus an externally oriented perspective, whereas the second dimension refers to an integrative (expansive) versus a highly selective orientation. These dimensions each occur on overlapping continuums, creating four quadrants of attentional focus:
Understanding attentional styles can improve coaching effectiveness. For example, a player who tends to become overloaded with external stimuli might be coached to focus on one important cue, such as an opponent’s footwork. Athletes who seem to get lost in their own head could practice describing out loud what they are feeling during a play. Without such coaching, these players would likely attend to inappropriate cues and react too slowly.
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