Motivation in Sport – the Number One Source

A popular pondering of most team coaches is “How can I motivate my athletes?” There are many sources of motivation for your team. Unfortunately, you are not on the top of the list. In order to strengthen your athlete’s mental game, it’s important to understand the most influential factors. Let’s look at the number one source of motivation in sport

The strongest source of motivation lives within the athlete.

When an athlete has a burning desire for something, motivation is high and consistent. So “self-reinforcement” is the most powerful source of reinforcement and learning.

Internal control is stronger than external control. The athlete’s ability to reinforce him or herself is internal control. In essence, the athlete coaches herself a portion of the time. A coach cannot be everywhere all the time. So the ability of a player to self-motivate, to self-reinforce is key to performance improvement.

An internally controlled athlete who uses self-reinforcement is the most motivated athlete. The coach’s challenge is to teach their athletes how to coach and reinforce themselves.

Here are a few ideas:

• Have the athlete set a performance standard for a particular task.
• Have the athlete self-reinforce only when the standard is met or bettered.
• Help the athlete construct a menu of reinforcing self-talk.

Stay “Tooned” – I’ll reveal the second and third strongest sources of motivation in upcoming posts.

Note: This post is adapted with permission from The neural and psychological bases of baseball pitching. Rushall, B. S. (2009). Spring Valley, CA: Sports Science

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