“The key to coaching is not what you do, but the way you do it. The intangibles, the motivational parts of the game are the most important facets of it” – Rick Pitino

Motivation is the foundation of all athletic effort and accomplishment.

Without your desire and determination to improve your performances, all of the other factors, like basketball mental toughness, confidence, intensity, focus, and emotions, are meaningless.

To become the best athlete you can be, you must be motivated to do what it takes to maximize your ability and achieve your goals.

Motivation, simply defined, is the ability to initiate and persist at a task.

To perform your best, you must want to begin the process of developing as an athlete and you must be willing to maintain your efforts until you have achieved your goals.

Motivation in basketball is so important because you must be willing to work hard in the face of fatigue, boredom, pain, and the desire to do other things.

Motivation will impact everything that influences your basketball performance: physical conditioning, technical and tactical training, mental preparation, and general lifestyle including sleep, diet, school or work, and relationships.

Basketball players are motivated by both external and internal factors.

Players with intrinsic motivation strive inwardly to competent and have self-determining in their quest to master a task.

External rewards are valuable and reinforcing, though they should never be the sole reason that an athlete participates in sport.

Here are three ways to make basketball training more enjoyable and to contribute to the development of intrinsic motivation:
1. Structure your practices to fully challenge you, and make sure to allow for successful experiences to increase perceived competence.
2. Make sure practices are interesting by frequently varying the content and sequence of drills and competitive situations. Dull routines or lack of variety detracts from intrinsic motivation.
3. Make sure that your goals are realistic and tied to performance rather than only to outcome. Achieving performance goals is a demonstration of competence that enhances intrinsic motivation for you.

While both internal and external factors it can help you to increase motivation.

Research on sports psychology for basketball has shown that helping to enhance intrinsic motivation is the best choice when it comes to long-term motivation.

This makes sense: an athlete who is generally motivated because the game is fun and likes seeing him or herself improve may be more likely to persist longer than an athlete who plays primarily to win games and get awards.

Keep in mind that wanting to win and beat others is fine, but when these extrinsic factors are the only motivators, coaches run the risk of the athlete losing motivation, and potentially leaving the sport.

As a coach, you can encourage intrinsic motivation by helping athletes see their improvements, giving positive feedback that is related to skill development, and by having the athletes talk about what they did well and what they have been learning

Also, researchers have assumed that external rewards simply make players less interested in the intrinsic joys of an activity.

It may cause some players to pursue an activity less because of the negative feelings they cause, such as performance anxiety. Avoiding an activity because of performance anxiety related to a reward is not the same as avoiding it simply because the reward undermines intrinsic motivation.

To be successful, your motivation must come from deep inside you.

It should be intrinsic. It should not need a coach or a competitor to motivate you. They may be a vehicle to help you but they are extrinsic motivators, not the source of your motivation.

Parents should not be living their life through you nor should you be trying to achieve something to please them, as that will not last.

This is about your desire.

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