Sports Psychology For Dummies. Leif H. Smith

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The best athletes don’t play for financial security — they play for the love of the game.

      Along with fame and fortune, external motivators such as these only take you so far. You will not be motivated long-term if you are trying to please your parents, seek the approval of your coaches, or attend a certain college because others think it is a great school. Ultimately, motivation comes from within for the long haul. Other external factors can motivate you on a short-term basis, but research shows that this sort of motivation is short-lived. If you want to be your best in a certain sport, it ultimately has to come from within.

      

We work with athletes all of the time who have the ability to compete at a Division I level, many times at some of the top schools in the country. It is easy for these athletes to get caught up in this process and choose a school because it is famous and/or they hear from parents, coaches, and teammates that they should attend this school. All the while, the athlete may not even want to compete at the college level. Or, they might just want to compete at a smaller, Division III school and have more balance in their lives. We see athletes all of the time who are motivated to choose a school based on external factors and what others think. But it almost never works out. They end up miserable in their sport and school, not performing and sometimes sitting on the sidelines for all four years. Or they end up transferring, which is another significant stressor. Make sure you make the decision to play sports at the collegiate level, or any level, based on your own internal motivations rather than the motivations of those around you.

      Motivation alone can lead to success

      Although motivation is critical to long-term success, by itself it isn’t enough to make you successful. Numerous other attributes — including talent, fitness, discipline, knowledge, hard work, a support system, financial resources, and quality coaching — are important for success.

      Talk to any coach and you’ll hear about players who could have achieved so much more success if only they had been more motivated. At the same time, these same coaches can name players who are highly motivated but just aren’t talented enough to perform as well as they’d like.

Defining Motivation

      There are two types of motivation: internal and external. In this section, we explain the two types of motivation and tell you which type is best for your long-term success.

      Understanding the two types of motivation: Internal and external

      Internal motivation is associated with participating in sports for the joy and satisfaction of it. You play because you love the game and you love competing.

      The flip side of internal motivation is external motivation, where your participation in athletics is driven by outside rewards — for example, the praise you get from your parents, or a potential scholarship offer to a prestigious school. You may not enjoy the activity for its own sake — you’re more driven to compete by outside, external factors.

      

There is also a third type of motivation called amotivation, which is simply the lack of motivation to participate in sports at all. There’s nothing wrong with feeling amotivated. In fact, most athletes have, at one time or another, experienced periods when they lost all motivation to play. Usually, amotivation is associated with burnout and exhaustion. If you’ve tried to participate in certain sports and found that you simply don’t like them and lack motivation for them, you’re better off finding what does motivate you — another sport or a non-sport activity — and pursuing that instead.

      We cover internal and external motivation in greater detail in the following sections.

      Internal motivation

      Internal motivation is the type of motivation you need for sustained long-term success in athletics. It’s characterized by the following:

       Enjoyment of the sport

       Enjoyment of practice and training for the sport

       A love of mastering technical aspects of the sport

       Enjoyment of competition

       The ability to maintain motivation despite adverse conditions

      If you want to compete at higher levels — or if you want to be highly competitive at any level — you need to love the process of competing. It has to be inherently rewarding on some level, or you won’t be willing to put the time, energy, dedication, effort, and resources into it.

      There are times when you may lack motivation and enjoyment. This is normal and to be expected as part of sport participation. Nobody sustains their highest motivation levels all the time.

      Also, it is important to note that some athletes do love their sport, but have a harder time when it comes to competing at a high level. They simply are not motivated to compete — they enjoy the process of getting better more than competing at the highest levels. That is okay as well. If you do not enjoy competing, then simply enjoy practicing and getting better at your sport. If you are afraid of competing, however, that may be a different story and something you could work on with a good sports psychologist.

      

The top athletes in the world have high levels of internal motivation. They compete with themselves more than they compete with other athletes, and they want to be the best at what they do.

      External motivation

      External motivation is associated with outside rewards and benefits. Common characteristics of external motivation include the following:

       Participation in your sport for rewards, such as praise, fame, and trophies

       Peaks and valleys in motivation

       The need for greater or better rewards to sustain motivation

       The need for varied sources of external motivation in order to sustain motivation

External rewards can be motivating — there’s no doubt about it. In fact, many coaches and parents use external rewards as a focusing strategy and reward system for young athletes, and that strategy is perfectly okay as long as it’s not overused.

      If you’re engaging in sports for the sole reasons of getting a scholarship, to keep your parents happy, or for other outside rewards, such as stroking your ego or getting paid for an appearance as a college student-athlete, you’ll find that your motivation is difficult to maintain over the long haul. Don’t get trapped by external rewards — follow the path in your heart and listen to what your gut is telling you.

      

There is a place for external motivators, but they need to be used to supplement existing internal motivation and love of the sport. Otherwise, they lose their effectiveness.

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