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Introduction Success starts with one most powerful asset: ones brain. Strengthening this tool is paramount for success. As the premise states, “the role of the mind in sports performance is crucial for success…” It is important to acknowledge that successful athletic performance is a function of not only what the athlete does, but also what the athlete thinks. In turn, the ultimate athletic performance can only be realized when both the mind, through psychological training, and the body, through physiological and skills training, attain their fullest potential. Beggs (1990) asserts “when an athlete goes out on the field, for a contest, he does not leave his mind tucked away in a locker with his shoes, his watch and his hat…the best athletes use almost every faculty of their minds when they go into a contest” (p 56). There has been much speculation on how to define motivation. One version explains it as ‘an intervening process or an internal state of an organism that impels or drives it to action’ (Reber 1985, p454). Motivation is a broad subject and this report discusses the theory of achievement motivation. Achievement motivation is a person’s effort to succeed at a task, achieve excellence, persist in the face of failure, perform better than others and experience pride in accomplishments (Gill 1986, Murray 1938, citied in Gould and Weinberg 2000). These motives that allow an athlete to achieve may be classed as intrinsic, extrinsic or amotivated. Intrinsic motivation arises in a person involved in an activity due to interest or personal satisfaction. A person is extrinsically motivated to achieve a reward or benefit in the outcome of said event, such as a trophy, money or fame, where these are perceived as desirable assets. Kowal and Fortier (2000) stipulate that amotivation refers to lack of motivation with is no apparent intention to participate in an activity. An athlete able to enter and maintain the desired ‘intrinsic motivational’ state outlined by Gill, Murray, Gould, Weinberg may give a distinct advantage during an athletes mental preparation, which is often an undervalued factor in success. Experience and practice typically lead to improvement, ergo the more experienced an athlete the more technical their mental preparation may be. Followers of the tai-chi martial art form are noted for their attention to mental preparation, and anecdotal evidence suggest that at elite levels of any competition or activity, preparation and will become the deciding factor. A reasonable question is whether mental training is worth getting better at. Athletes spend a lot of time preparing for competition. Practices and fitness training are all about technical, tactical and physical preparation for competition. As a result, they become highly skilled in these areas. However, the ability to utilise this potential in competition depends largely on their mental skills, which unfortunately usually receive less attention and training. The purpose of this study is to identify what role motivation plays in improving athlete performances, through psychology examination of three sportspeople and understanding how they improve their performance. The role of motivation and the problems associated with motivational levels affecting their performance will be outline and discussed. Observing the mental training and motivational methods used by these athletes will help to illustrate the factors that help athletes to succeed. Method Participants The subjects chosen for this study are three sportspeople who are Rugby League players. The individuals are from the same age group although each competes at a different level. Subject 1: 17-year-old first grade representative who started playing at the age of ten due to a lack of interest in his previous sport, which was soccer. He plays every Saturday just to keep fit and healthy. Subject 2: 20-year-old first grade representative who started playing at the age of 14 at school. He competes at the reserve grade level and plays for the Cronulla Sharks.
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