Motivation and Sports

Motivation is understood as the guiding force that initiates, guides and maintains the behaviour needed for sport participation and performance — yet keeping athletes motivated remains a genuinely challenging task. Researchers have studied how to raise or sustain motivation in depth, but much less on why people take part in exercise and sport in the first place.

Drawing the research together, four broad motives towards sport and exercise behaviour stand out:

1. Physical wellbeing — taking part to stay fit, healthy and physically capable.
2. Psychological wellbeing — taking part for mental health, enjoyment and a sense of balance.
3. Performance achievement — taking part to master skills and achieve results.
4. Status and Power — taking part for recognition and assertive achievement.

All four of these motives are essentially intrinsic in nature, which shows that participation in sport and exercise is largely intrinsically driven. People play mainly for internal reasons; extrinsic motives are added on wherever or whenever the intrinsic motive is reduced — for example, using rewards or recognition to keep an athlete engaged during a difficult phase.

Recognising which of these four motives drives a particular athlete helps a coach choose the right strategy from 9.2.2 rather than applying the same approach to everyone:

• Physical wellbeing is best sustained with fun-based training and visible, short-term progress markers — heavy competitive pressure too early can discourage this group.
• Psychological wellbeing responds to a positive, low-pressure climate and social support, since taking part is itself the reward.
• Performance achievement is best supported through goal-setting and honest, specific performance appraisals.
• Status and Power responds to incentives and public recognition, but the coach must still apply the "valance of reward" idea from 9.2.2 — the recognition must match what the individual actually values, or it fails to motivate. …