Motivation Motivation is what gives you the drive to do something or the drive to reach your personal aims or goals.

You are more likely to perform well in sport if you are motivated. If you are not motivated you are more likely to but on a poor performance. There are two types of motivation. These are: Intrinsic Extrinsic Intrinsic Intrinsic motivation is the drive within you to do well. This could be down to the fact that an individual enjoys the sport. This is what gives you the drive to go for long a long jog or spend an hour in the gym doing high intensity work because you personally want to improve your fitness levels to become a better performer in your chosen sport. Intrinsic motivation can be maintained or boosted by setting goals that are achievable. When setting yourself goals you must follow the rule of SMARTER: Specific If goals are not specific to your sport then your performance will not improve. Measurable You must be able to measure your results to see if you are improving. If this is done and you are improving then this will increase motivation. Adjustable You must be able to work around barriers such as injuries or your personal life. Realistic If goals are not realistic and achievable the performer will not reach the goals set which will lead to de-motivation. Time Related You must look to improve yourself over a certain period of time e.g. getting your two mile run down from 12 minutes to 10 minutes within a month. Exciting Training must be varied and arousing to you otherwise you will become bored, lose interest and become de-motivated. Recorded You must be able to recored the training you are doing and increase the intensity or time phase to improve fitness levels.

Extrinsic Extrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from external factors. Motivation can come from praise that a coach or parent gives you, or the way in which the coach prepares you for a performance. It can also come from factors such as fame or money. An athlete will be motivated to perform well for their team mates or supporters, or to prove a point to the media if they have been having a hard time. Extrinsic motivation can eventually disappear as there will be times when there are a lack of the listed things coming in their direction, and if they do not have a genuine passion for their sport they will not want to push themselves as hard as they can as they care about only what they can get out of it, not what they can give to the sport. If an athlete is not performing well then it is likely that their performance would be affected. It is not unusual that athletes will go through stages in their career where they are not as motivated as they should be. They may become demotivated for a number of reasons, such as: injuries, illness, a period of bad performances, pressure from family, friends, fans or team mates, defeats, fatigue, or an athlete may become tedious of their sport due to increased participation. Demotivation may last for varying amounts of time, from the duration of a match to a number of weeks.