Motivation and goal-setting in sport

Motivation plays a crucial if somewhat misunderstood role in exercise and sport. For example, a high degree of motivation is required to maintain involvement in physical activity programmes – a fact which explains why so many people drop out of exercise classes (I consider this problem in more detail in Chapter 8). Similarly, in sport, the role of motivation is crucial in the sense that athletic success depends significantly on the willingness of sports performers to exert mental as well as physical effort in pursuit of excellence (see also Chapter 6). In this regard, Jose´ Mourinho, manager of Real Madrid and one of the most successful coaches in world football, claimed that “motivation is the most important thing. Some of them can and they don’t want [to], some of them want and they can’t. We want players who can do it and at the same time want to do it” (cited in Honigsbaum, 2004, p. 18; italics mine). Delving deeper into this idea, Alex Ferguson (Manchester United), another extraordinarily successful coach, revealed that athletes’ motivation can be influenced by managers – once they understand how players differ from each other. Specifically, he said: footballers are all different human beings. Some are self-motivators, they need to be left alone … For some, you need causes, your country, them and us, your religion. And those causes can be created by the manager … at Manchester United, we have to be better than everyone else.