Sports Psychology For Dummies. Leif H. Smith

Sports Psychology For Dummies

make your motivation wane.

Debunking Common Myths about Motivation

Motivation has been studied and discussed for decades, but myths about motivation persist. In this section, we fill you in on some of the most common of these myths and explain why they’re just not true. When you know what motivation is and isn’t, you’ll be better able to reach your full potential as an athlete, using motivation as a tool.

You can get your motivation from other people

There is only one type of “true” motivation and that’s the motivation that comes from within. Other people and experiences can motivate you in a variety of ways, but sustainable motivation will ultimately come from within. Self-motivation — your motivation and the choices you make that flow from that motivation — is completely up to you and within your control.

Many coaches and athletes look to sports psychologists to be outside motivators for teams — they see providing motivation as the primary responsibility of a sports psychologist. Many athletes believe that their coaches need to motivate them — and if they don’t feel motivated, they blame their poor performance on the coach. The reality is that no one is responsible for motivating an athlete except the athlete.

People and experiences can assist you in motivating yourself. But you’re responsible for your own motivation, and you have complete control over how motivated you are.

Fame and fortune are great motivators

Fame and fortune — what more could you want, right? These factors can definitely influence your motivation, but if motivation were as simple as fame and fortune, everyone would be motivated to be rich and famous and every rich and famous athlete would be motivated to perform their best all the time.

Think about yourself: Are you getting rich and famous playing your sport right now? Chances are, you aren’t. Even if you’re a pro athlete, you may not be making tons of money — for example, a typical rookie player in Major League Soccer may earn only $40,000 per year. If you’re still in school, you’re playing for free, and even if you’re a famous college athlete, when you first started out, nobody but your parents knew your name.

Fame and fortune can be motivating factors in sports (just as they are in other areas of life for most people), but they’re never enough to sustain you to achieve and work hard all year. You need an internal passion that takes over in order for your long-term motivation to last.

Think about the unhappy rich and famous athletes you’ve read about. Research indicates that there isn’t a huge difference in life satisfaction between people who make $50,000 a year and those who make over $1 million a year. When you achieve a certain level of money and fame, more money and more fame aren’t going to do anything more for you. 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

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