During the last two decades, advancements in technology have allowed music to grow into being an effective intervention to achieve a range of desirable psychological and performance effects among athletes. Lead researcher in the field of music in sport and exercise, Dr Costas Karageorghis has primarily explored the psychological, psychophysical, psychophysiological, and ergogenic effects of […]
Motivation to exercise is an extremely important area in psychological research. Gaining an understanding of why many people drop out of exercise, and why others are able to maintain involvement in exercise for sustained periods of time is an extremely important topic largely due to the UK and western world experiencing increased levels of cardiovascular […]
After witnessing a schoolgirl aged 12 with two prosthetic blades running in a High School Sports Day 100m event in front of the entire school without any leveling distance advantage, it has only furthered my own interest into the motivation in disabled sport. So! What possesses her to take on such a challenge? Being in […]
I was reading the book Bounce: How Champions are Made recently, and the author mentioned a Michael Jordan commercial for Nike from several years ago. Watching the commercial again, I realised how powerfully it demonstrates the importance of accepting failure and setbacks as we strive for greatness in whatever we do. In order to remain […]
Clubs are a vital part of sports such as Football and Hockey where a team is vital in order to train and compete, but training for individual sports, such as Running or Golf can be a lonely task. The obvious answer is to join a club, but for some a club is not available or […]
Advertisers are experts on human motivation and decision-making, using psychology to get us to buy their products or use their services. Take a look at these two commercials for mouthwash. Aside from any brand loyalty you might have, which of the two would be more likely to motivate you to start using mouthwash, if you […]
In elite sport, motivation is a key psychological trait that is needed to excel. Elite players need high levels of motivation to push themselves to their limits and to be able to deal with the pressures of training and playing constantly each week. The question that can be asked, is why are these players so […]
There are many types of motivation in sport all of which can play a major role in how we handle the pressures and stresses of competition. One theory of motivation that is extremely relevant to competitive sport and is often seen effecting sporting performances, is the theory of approach and avoidance motivation. Approach and avoidance […]
How we try to motivate our players is often misunderstood, in particular prior to playing in a game. Most coaches spend years searching for an epic, hair-stand-on-the-back-of-your-neck style speech like Al Pacino’s famous one in Any Given Sunday. These kind of forced speeches however never really live up to expectation because of one simple reason […]
Motivation is often thought of as simply having the energy and enthusiasm to carry out a behaviour, task, or activity such as exercising and practicing. However motivation goes much deeper than this and can play a huge part in how happy and successful we are in life and sport. There are many theories of motivation […]