Psychological Factors That Affect Performance

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Motivation: Motivation is a stimulus for a sportsperson to continue training and competing in their chosen sport. There are two types of motivation. One of them is intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation comes from within. It is your natural desire to achieve something and includes things such as doing things for a challenge and enjoyment. The other type of motivation is extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of us or somewhere else such as trophies, praise or awards. If motivation levels are high a person is more likely to train harder and not give up. If they train harder they will then perform better, never give up when in difficult situations and take on more challenges. If motivation levels are low a person is more likely to give up and not bother trying to perform as well as they should be. They may also leave professional teams which they are playing for or refuse to perform. If this happens they may leave their sports career and or give up for a lifetime if motivation levels are extremely low for a long amount of time. Furthermore, they will find it more difficult to recover from bad performances. Extrinsic motivation can be useful because then the sportsperson has a higher incentive to achieve higher levels of performance, as at the end of their performance they may achieve praise or trophies. This can then help the sportsperson to perform at their highest levels in every performance as they will be full of confidence and they then will be in form, making it harder for them to lose form and drop performance levels. Extrinsic motivation can be harmful because if the sportsperson is so used to hearing praise or earning trophies, awards or money they may then become extremely unhappy if it is taken away from them or they are no longer earning the praise that they think they deserve. This may then result in a drop in performance or
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