MotivationFARAH ATALLAH

SPORTS COACHING PEDAGOGY

What is Motivation?

Motivation is a psychological feature that arouses an organism to act towards a desired goal and elicits, controls, and sustains certain goal directed behaviours.

There are two forms of motivation – Intrinsic and Extrinsic

Intrinsic Motivation

This is motivation from within, a desire to perform well and succeed. One of the main intrinsically motivated motives are personal pride the thought of being able to better yourself and beat the challenges that you set yourself.

For Example : Someone who is intrinsically motivated doesn’t require much external motivation from fans, money and expectations of others. They are focused on their own inner goals that they want to achieve and their personal reasons for being in the sporting situation they are in at that moment.

With intrinsic motivation, goals become achievable.

Smart

Measurable

Agreed

Realistic

Time related

Exciting

Recorded

Extrinsic motivation comes from a source outside of the performer. The motivating factors are external, or outside, rewards such as money or grades. These rewards provide satisfaction and pleasure that the task itself may not provide.

Rewards include:

Tangible rewards: Physical rewards such as medals and money.

Intangible rewards: Praise, recognition and achievements.

Extrinsic Motivation

An extrinsically motivated person will work on a task even when they have little interest in it because of the anticipated satisfaction they will get from some reward

For example : When I do something, I have to explain why I do it. If I am being rewarded extrinsically for doing it, then I can explain to myself that I am doing it for the reward. In this way, rewards can decrease internal motivation as people work to gain the reward rather than, because they like doing the work or believe it is a good thing to do.

Motivation, Arousal and Performance

Motivation is related to the intensity and direction of behaviour. That is, the level of arousal and the way in which we behave that affects our motivation and hence performance.

Theories:

Hull’s Drive TheoryInverted U Law

Hull’s Drive TheoryInverted U Law

AROUSAL

PERFORMANCE

Optimal Arousal LevelPERFORMANCE

AROUSAL

LOWHIGH

HIGH

LOW

Motivation and Personality

Some people are more naturally driven to achieve set goals than others. These people like to push and challenge themselves.

It is thought that when it comes to motivation, there are two personality types:

- Need to Achieve (NACH)- Need to Avoid Failure (NAF)

Experiences

Bad or good experiences can affect ones motivation.

Successes are often attributed to internal causes whereas failure is often blamed on external factors such as equipment and officials! This is called a self-serving bias.

Repeated failures or disappointments often lead to the belief that failure is inevitable in certain situations, leading to feelings that the outcome is uncontrollable. This is known as learned helplessness.

Motives of Motivation

Goals

Performance

Persistence

Impression

Summary

Motivation is a crucial aspect of performance and understanding the elements of motivation will help any coach with his athlete or team.

The main objective is to use motivation to help improve performance.

Reference List

Viira, R., & Koka, A. (2012). Participation in afterschool sport: relationship to perceived need support, need satisfaction, and motivation in physical education. Kinesiology, 44(2), 199-208.

Chin, Ngiwn., Khoo, S., & Low, Wah-Yun. (2012). Self-determined and goal orientation in track and field. Journal of Human Kinetics, 33, 151-11.

Mclachlan, S., & Hagger, M. S. (2011). Do people differentiate between intrinsic and extrinsic goals for physical activity? Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 33(2), 273-288.

Gillet, N., Vallerand, R.J., Amoura, S., & Baldes, B. (2010). Influences of caches ‘autonomy support on athletes’ motivation and sport performance: A test of the hierarchical model of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Psychology of Sports & Exercise, 11(2), 115-162.