What motivation is, and what pulls a person into a sport

Motivation is thought to be among the most important elements of learning, and yet it is also among the things hardest to measure. At least one sense of the word must precede the event in question. For a person to be governed by some motive, they must in every case think beyond what is called their action: they must think of the result of what they do. Only then can pleasure or pain or another event bring about some action of theirs. In every case, then, some event that can follow the action should be present in the person’s mind. The word has been used in many contexts: a criminologist has studied it as a source of social behavior, producers as what makes workers devote themselves to raising productivity, and playwrights as a tool for creating a drama realistically. Historically the question of why human behavior arises has come to be examined. At times it has also been seen as something more complicated, and a recent tendency is also being studied in that line. That motivation has become one of the most generally accepted concepts is because, for effective behavior to arise, a person must take an interest in a particular action. This is treated as still more important because effective learning takes place when an action is brought about by a stimulus. A general principle of arousal is indispensable not only to learning but also to an efficient performance of a motor skill. A sport leader and a coach, then, should spare no effort in making clear the elements of sport motivation and arousal that lead a learner to a particular task.

Types of motivation can be classified as inner and outer. Distinguishing an object expected to arise in the future from an object bound in a very close relation, like a present object or event, can in any case be very difficult, and is generally not necessary, so both are called by the same name, motivation. To distinguish the two, the former can be called an anticipated motive and the latter a present motive; inner and outer motives, classified in that way, also fall on one side or the other. An individual’s result can be set by several factors, among them ability the person has had from the start, and motivation, an effort that lets that ability be fully brought out. Motive in English is motive, and motivation is motivation; the word is said to come from the Latin movere, meaning ‘to cause to move.’ Motivation is a psychological process that draws out, urges on, and keeps going the voluntary actions a person performs toward a goal to be reached. Academically, three things are needed: arousal, direction, and persistence. Arousal is stimulating a person so that they can act voluntarily; direction is enabling a concrete action; persistence is enabling the action to continue. To say a person is motivated toward a matter means a state in which the person has a desire, a passion, an attitude, or an interest toward an action. Motivation should be judged a comparatively stable tendency that easily makes a state of arousal, and what motive a person has should be observed. The relation between behavior and arousal is complicated because it is affected by differences of motive in the person, factors of behavior, mental and physical ability, past experience, and the given situation.

That a person comes to take part in a particular sport is not only because the sport has reason enough to raise their interest, but also because, in the course of taking part, they can take in and develop a meaning of the sport itself. Motivation and arousal include an inner action; they are a process of testing one’s own limits concerning another’s performance. When athletes of modest talent and skill make up a fine team, and, on the other side, when athletes of excellent talent and skill make up a poor team, one sees that participation in a sport arises from an effort to guard competitiveness and self-confidence. The easiest way for a human being to show their own excellence is through a way of grasping their own body, and this is seen as acting as a motivational element that leads people to take part in a sport. For learning or training in a sport to take place, the athletes’ motivation to advance toward a goal the leader has set must be in place. Here motivation can be called an inner action that, in a particular environmental situation, tries to reach a goal or to achieve a satisfying emotional state. All athletes, then, should strive to reach a general or a concrete athletic goal, and leaders need an effort that gives them a stimulus and leads them to that goal; all athletes should have many elements, in a positive direction, tied to the sport setting. Arousal can be regarded as an inner factor that, by energy from inside, calls up activity and systematically integrates physical and psychological activity, and so has the function of turning a person toward the sport as a goal. A sport also offers a person talented in it a direct means of being recognized as excellent in the field of sport, even if they have not shown excellent skill in a field outside it.

The desire to take part in a sport generally begins in a sense of superiority that tries to surpass another person, or in a desire to confirm oneself through another. A sport is also offered as a means of expressing oneself, provides content concerning social acts of aggression, and offers a way of self-expression, or of control and of leading. When motivation is tied to a sport, in a sport that inevitably involves pain and that holds a homeostatic state trying to have the inner physiological stability needed to keep life, motives such as avoiding pain are included. Positive motives are also particular motives called up from outside; excitement or a sense of elation commonly experienced on the side of a sport can be named, and this can be seen as a very important motive that, as a person becomes intimate with the sport, leads to active participation and then to a habit. An intrinsic motive that has a close relation to a sport is a case in which the activity itself, not an outer reward, is the aim, and that can be called intrinsically motivated behavior. Motives involved include an activity motive of moving the body vigorously, a sensation motive of seeking a stimulus in order to leave boredom, and a curiosity motive of going through a new skill and seeking the complexity of a skill. A human being, a social animal, also tries behavior that would achieve a social motive strongly formed in relation with society. There are many social motives closely related to sport: an achievement motive that delays the satisfying of a need, sets a far-reaching goal, and wishes to succeed; an affiliation motive that wishes to form a friendly human relation through friendship or affection; an aggression or defense motive that appears instinctively in attack and defense inside competition; and social motives tightly bound to a sport, such as deciding a win and a loss, receiving praise and respect, and recognition, a team, or humiliation obtained as a result of superiority and of a match. Much research related to motivation and arousal has been carried out. Early experimental researchers held that human behavior is determined by instinct, and recently an explanation of arousal has been attempted from the side of an impulse tied to basic physiological satisfaction. Coming into the early twentieth century, behaviorists have been studying a theoretical system for understanding a person’s behavior, and parts such as the interest-raising side of a sport, the rewarding side of a sport, and the achievement side of a sport.

Raising interest, raising a sense of achievement, and studies named from 2018 and 2022

A sport is a kind of play, and part of it is motivated by the pleasure of the experience itself. The only practical difference between work and play, then, is a difference in the attitude of the person who takes it up. It is a biological need concerning the pleasure of moving. Interest in a sport, therefore, also rises in proportion to the development of skill and the maturing of the body. It is a fact that a sport clearly brings pleasure; otherwise play would not produce a universal interest. A sport is always open so that a person can enjoy the pleasure of muscular movement and of healthy breathing and circulation. The sense of happiness felt after a purposeful action in a sport is, psychologically, a deep comfort and a release of tension in physical energy, and a sport is practiced in proportion to the physical pleasure that can be obtained from it. Not only do the exercise of physical ability and the desire to do a sport stimulate such an attraction; taking part in a sport match also brings a sensory thrill of being physically and perceptually alive. A sport raises a high emotional state, and most of that state is pleasurable. A conflict between courage and fear, the pleasure of overcoming a difficulty, the pleasure of enduring adversity, the pleasure of bearing the pain of fatigue for the sake of success — all these heighten the atmosphere of feeling and lead the experience into a more intense and dramatic state. The emotional side of a sport brings comfort from a monotonous daily life, and brings a deep meaning of life and a vitality of living. That a person, in order to release various tensions received inside a competitive life, forgets themselves and becomes completely immersed in a sport is not only mentally sound; it also lets them lead a healthy mental life. A healthy personality is what a person has who not only enjoys play but also takes that play seriously; a person who, when they have no ability to play, is reluctant to do it, shows only an unstable and disordered side of personality. An important therapeutic value of a sport is that a competitor, forgetting themselves with respect to a cue or an action, comes into contact with the outer world. That is, because they must be absorbed in immediate perception and response, they cannot have a margin for themselves. The intensity and fullness of vitality that athletes feel when they are perfectly immersed in the sport they are practicing, and completely detached from the self, cannot be put into words, and can be understood only by a person who has had the experience. A motor act recognized by the performer themselves has a value of its own that cannot be conveyed in words — that is, that cannot be grasped by a person who is physically inactive.

Many athletes tend to place their zeal for complete concentration and for a maximum performance on victory in a sport, and to emphasize this excessively. The importance of a sport, however, lies in an effort, unrelated to winning or losing, to go beyond one’s own limits. An effort to do one’s best and to surpass oneself or another is a continuing impulse for the enhancement of the self, and in a sport such an impulse appears as achievement behavior that would run more quickly, jump farther, and obtain more points. This impulse is related to a pattern of reaching a maximum goal, and is a pursuit of excellence that would surpass a point of agreement with another person and look for an absolute form. Most of us only go through a formal course of exercise, and do not do a practical strength exercise or any exercise meant to strengthen the heart. It is similar to a baseball player who tries to take part actively in practice of a direct sensory skill needed for a match, but does not try voluntarily to do the lasting arm, leg, and waist exercise needed over a long period. In the relation between defeat and arousal, unless defeat happens too often, it plays a reinforcing role in arousal. In other words, a victory in an unimportant match dulls the peak sense of achievement and gradually brings a result that removes the desire for victory. By contrast, an appropriate defeat helps to make the joy of achievement still more intense. Only when, in a difficult time and a disappointing setting, a person can taste a sense of achievement according to a will to overcome, can it truly be said that there is a richness of life. In general a fine athlete does not pursue an easy victory. As a challenger they willingly challenge a fear of defeat or a danger. They know the uncertainty of victory, and if there were no uncertainty about victory the pleasure of the challenge would soon disappear. In general a defeat, inside the competition of a fine athlete, stirs a desire to win, so that they never take on a sense of defeat, and it becomes a rock of recovery. Unless they are excessively discouraged, they will rather enjoy still more fully the attraction of the sport.

When an athlete’s inner and outer levels of arousal reach a proper level, a desirable performance appears. When, however, they believe excessively in the level of their own performance, a result that lowers the quality of the performance is brought about. Having a high performance level can at times also come forward as an element that hinders in a sport. Frequent victory, excessive praise from others, a mass-media attitude that treats a person as a hero, and decorative behavior conscious of the mass media act as elements that hinder an athlete from carrying out a maximum effort. Most teams that have greatly succeeded acquire skill quickly after a defeat and carry out a still finer performance. An individual athlete’s expectation, level of aspiration, and the performance level they wish to achieve are governed by their own past experience. In general an ambitious athlete with a successful career, after going through some success, tries still more to raise their own level of aspiration. That is, in order to improve performance, they must have a higher level of aspiration. In a sport setting, a coach, the group in which the person is playing, a reward for a successful performance, and the records of other athletes in the same sport affect an individual athlete’s level of aspiration. A timid athlete who fears failure comes to have a low level of aspiration in order to avoid defeat, and an unrealistic athlete tends to set the level of aspiration either too high to be achieved or too low. An athlete who is tense and anxious because of a need has a stronger fear of failure than a strengthening of motivation concerning success, so for these people it is necessary to help them set a feasible level of aspiration and to awaken an attitude of tolerance concerning a temporary failure. Morale in a sport, the essay says, is obtained in the midst of suffering, enduring, and fighting together over a long period, for a victory or a fine record, or for honor.

The bibliography names, without unfolding findings beyond what the essay already uses, Choi Yeong-hui’s 2018 doctoral dissertation at Kyonggi University’s graduate school, in Gyeonggi, “A structural relationship of coach trust as perceived by female judo athletes, sport motivation, exercise passion, and intention to continue athlete life”; Lee Su-ji’s 2018 master’s thesis at Korea National University of Education’s graduate school, in North Chungcheong, “The mediating effect of ego-resilience in the relationship between university students’ sport participation motivation and university-life adjustment”; and Do Gyeong-min’s 2022 master’s thesis at Kyung Hee University’s Techno-MBA graduate school, in Seoul, “The relationship among disabled persons’ sport participation motivation, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction.” The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. Motivation is among the things thought to be the most important learning elements. However, motivation is also among the things hardest to measure. Of the meanings of the word motivation, at least one must precede such an event and come first. However, if someone is to be able to be governed by some motive, that person must in every case think beyond what is called their own action. In other words, they must think of the result of the action they themselves do. In this way the person can, for the first time, have pleasure or pain or another event bring about some action of that person. So in every case that person must have present in their head some event that can follow the action they do. The word motivation has been used in various contexts. A criminologist has studied it as a source of social behavior, producers as what makes workers devote themselves to a rise in productivity, and playwrights as a tool for creating a drama realistically. Historically it has come to an inquiry into the question of why human behavior arises. At times it has also been seen as something more complicated, and a recent tendency is also being studied in a context of this kind. That motivation is becoming one of the most generally accepted concepts is because, in order to bring about effective behavior, an individual must take an interest in a particular action. This is treated as still more important because, when an action by a stimulus is brought about, an effective learning activity takes place. In this way a general principle concerning arousal is indispensable not only to a learning activity but also to an efficient performance of a motor skill. Therefore a sport leader and a coach should spare no effort in making clear the elements of sport motivation and arousal that lead a learner to a particular task. Types of motivation can be classified as inner motivation and outer motivation. Distinguishing, with respect to an object bound in a very close relation, like a present object or event that can arise when a certain person is expecting another object or event, from an object that is expected as if it will arise in the future, can in any case be a very difficult matter, and because it is generally not necessary, they are all called by the same name, motivation. And in order to distinguish the two, the former can be called an anticipated motive, and the latter can be called a present motive. In that way, even when outer motivation or inner motivation is also classified like this, it comes to belong to one side or the other. An individual’s result is something that can be set by various factors, and those factors are ability that the individual has had from the start, and motivation, which can be called an effort that lets that ability be fully brought out, and the like. Motive in English is motive, and motivation is motivation. This word has the Latin movere as its etymology, and the meaning of this word is said to have been ‘to cause to move.’ Looking at a definition of motivation, it is a psychological process that draws out, urges, and causes to continue the voluntary actions performed toward a goal one wishes to reach. Looking at it academically, what needs three things — arousal, direction, and persistence — is precisely motivation, and arousal is stimulating so that the person can act voluntarily, direction is enabling the person to do a concrete action, and persistence is, as the meaning of the word is, enabling that action to continue. And the meaning of the statement that a certain person is motivated toward a certain matter is the meaning of a state in which, with respect to a certain action, the person has a desire, a passion, an attitude, or an interest. In fact, if one meets this without any theoretical background, it can be said to be a meaning that can feel emotional and anti-rational rather than rational and reasonable. Motivation should be judged a comparatively stable tendency that easily makes a state of arousal, and what motive that person has should be observed. That the relation between behavior and arousal is complicated is because, in the individual, it is receiving the influence of various factors such as differences of motive and factors of behavior, mental and physical ability, past experience, and the given situation. That an individual comes to take part in a particular sport is not only because the sport has sufficient reason to raise interest in them, but also because, in the course of taking part in such an activity themselves, they can take in a meaning as the sport itself and develop it. Motivation and arousal are something that includes an inner action, and it is a process of testing one’s own limits concerning another’s performance. When athletes who have talent and skill that are not excellent make up a fine team, and on the other side, in the opposite case, when one sees athletes who have excellent talent and skill make up a poor team, participation in a sport arises from an effort for the guarding of competitiveness and self-confidence. That a human being can most easily reveal their own excellence is by a method of grasping their own body, and this is seen as acting as a motivational element that causes people to take part in a sport. In this aspect, in order for learning or training of a sport to take place, the athletes’ motivation to advance toward a goal the leader has set must be in place. Here motivation can be called an inner action that, in a particular environmental situation, tries to achieve a goal or to achieve a satisfying emotional state. Therefore all athletes should strive in order to achieve a general or a concrete athletic goal, and leaders need an effort that gives them a stimulus and leads them so that that goal is reached, and all athletes should have many elements tied to the sport scene in a positive direction. Arousal can be regarded as an inner factor that has a function of turning toward a sport as a goal, by calling up activity by energy from inside and systematically integrating physical and psychological activity. Also, a sport sometimes provides to a person talented in sport a direct means by which, although they have not displayed excellent skill in a field outside sport, they can receive recognition of excellence in the field of sport. The desire to take part in a sport generally begins in a sense of superiority that tries to surpass another, or in a desire to confirm oneself by another person. Also, a sport is sometimes presented as a means of expressing oneself, provides content concerning social acts of aggression, and provides a method of self-expression or of control and of leading. If one takes up content that has associated motivation with a sport, in a sport that inevitably involves pain, holding a homeostatic state that tries to have the inner physiological stability needed to maintain life, motives such as avoiding pain are included. Not only that, a positive motive is a particular motive called up externally, and excitement or a sense of elation commonly experienced on the side of a sport can be named, and this can be seen as a very important motive that, by becoming intimate with the sport, comes to active participation and reaches habituation. An intrinsic motive that has a close relation with a sport can be called intrinsically motivated behavior in a case where the activity itself, not an outer reward, is the aim. As motives involved in this, an activity motive of moving the body vigorously, a sensation motive of seeking a stimulus in order to leave boredom, a curiosity motive of going through a new skill and seeking the complexity of a skill, and the like, are related. Also, a human being, a social animal, tries behavior that would achieve a social motive task strongly formed in a social relation with the self. There are many social motives that have much relation with a sport, such as an achievement motive that delays the satisfying of a need and sets a far-reaching goal while wishing to succeed, an affiliation motive that wishes to form a friendly human relation as friendship or affection, an active aggression or defense motive inside competition according to attack and defense that appear instinctively, or, in a sport, deciding a win and a loss, receiving praise and respect, and recognition obtained as a result of superiority and of a match, a team, humiliation, and the like. Much research related to motivation and arousal has been carried out, but early experimental researchers asserted that human behavior is determined by instinct, and recently an explanation concerning arousal has been attempted from the aspect of an impulse associated with basic physiological satisfaction. Coming into the early twentieth century, behaviorists have been studying in parts such as a theoretical system for understanding a person’s behavior, the interest-raising aspect of a sport, the rewarding aspect of a sport, and the achievement aspect of a sport. A sport is a kind of play, and part of it is motivated by the pleasure of the experience itself. Therefore the only practical difference between work and play is only a difference in the attitude of the individual who takes it up. It is a biological need concerning the pleasure of moving. Therefore interest concerning a sport also comes to rise proportionally as the development of skill and the maturing of the body become higher. It is a fact that a sport clearly brings pleasure, and if it were not so, play would not come to produce a universal interest. And a sport is always open so as to let a person enjoy the pleasure of muscular movement and of healthy breathing and circulation. The sense of happiness felt after a purposeful action of a sport is, psychologically, a deep comfort and a release of tension of physical energy, and a sport is practiced in proportion to the physical pleasure that can be obtained from the sport. Not only do the exercise of physical ability and the desire to do a sport stimulate an attraction of this kind; participation in a sport match also brings a sensory thrill that the individual is physically and perceptually alive. A sport raises a high emotional state, and most of the emotional state is pleasurable. A conflict between courage and fear, the pleasure of overcoming a difficulty, the pleasure of enduring adversity, the pleasure of bearing the pain of fatigue for the sake of success — all these heighten the atmosphere of emotion and lead the experience into a more intense and dramatic state. The emotional side of a sport brings comfort from a monotonous daily life, and brings a deep meaning of life and a vitality of living. That, in order to release various tensions received inside a competitive life, an individual forgets themselves and becomes completely immersed in a sport is not only mentally sound but also causes them to lead a healthy mental life. A healthy personality is what a person has who not only enjoys play but also thinks of that play seriously, and a person who, when they have no ability to play, is reluctant to do it, shows only an unstable and disordered side of personality. An important therapeutic value of a sport is that a competitor, forgetting themselves with respect to a cue or an action, comes into contact with the outer world. That is, because they must be absorbed in immediate perception and response, they cannot have a margin for themselves. The intensity and fullness concerning vitality that athletes feel when they are perfectly immersed in the sport they themselves are practicing and are completely detached from the self cannot be put into words, and can be understood only by a person who has had an experience concerning it. A motor act recognized by the performer themselves has a value of its own that cannot be conveyed in words — that is, that cannot be grasped by a person who is physically inactive. Many athletes tend to place their zeal for complete concentration and for a maximum performance on victory in a sport and to emphasize this excessively. However, the importance of a sport lies in an effort, unrelated to winning or losing, to go beyond one’s own limits. An effort to do one’s best and to surpass oneself or another is a continuing impulse for the enhancement of the self, and in a sport an impulse of this kind appears as achievement behavior that would run more quickly, jump farther, and obtain more points. This impulse is related to a pattern of reaching a maximum goal, and is a pursuit of excellence that would surpass a point of agreement with another person and look for an absolute form. Most of us only go through a formal course of exercise, and do not do a practical strength exercise or any exercise meant to strengthen the heart. It is similar to a baseball player trying to take part actively in practice of a direct sensory skill needed for a match, but not trying voluntarily to do the lasting arm, leg, and waist exercise needed over a long period. In the relation between defeat and arousal, unless defeat happens too often, it plays a reinforcing role in arousal. In other words, a victory in an unimportant match dulls the peak sense of achievement and gradually brings a result that removes the desire for victory. By contrast, an appropriate defeat helps to make the joy of achievement still more intense. Only when, in a difficult time and a disappointing environment, a sense of achievement according to a will to overcome can be tasted, can it truly be said that there is a richness of life. In general a fine athlete does not pursue an easy victory. As a challenger they willingly challenge a fear of defeat or a danger. They know the uncertainty of victory, and if there were no uncertainty about victory the pleasure of the challenge would soon disappear. In general a defeat, inside the competition of a fine athlete, stirs a desire to win, so that they never take on a sense of defeat, and it becomes a rock of recovery. Unless they are excessively discouraged, they will rather enjoy still more fully the attraction concerning the sport. When athletes’ inner and outer levels of arousal reach a proper level, a desirable performance appears. However, when they believe excessively in the level of their own performance, a result that lowers the quality of the performance is brought about. Having a high performance level sometimes also comes forward as an element that hinders in a sport. Things such as frequent victory, excessive praise from others, a mass-media attitude that treats a person as a hero, and decorative behavior conscious of the mass media come to act as elements that hinder an athlete from carrying out a maximum effort. Most teams that have greatly succeeded acquire skill quickly after a defeat and come to carry out a still finer performance. An individual athlete’s expectation, level of aspiration, and the performance level they wish to achieve are governed by their own past experience. In general an ambitious athlete with a successful career, after going through some success, tries still more to increase their own level of aspiration. That is, in order to improve performance, they must have a higher level of aspiration. In a sport scene, a coach, the group in which the person themselves is playing, a reward for a successful performance, the records of other athletes in the same sport, and the like come to affect an individual athlete’s level of aspiration. A timid athlete who fears failure comes to have a low level of aspiration in order to avoid defeat, and an unrealistic athlete tends to set the level of aspiration either too high to be able to achieve it or too low. An athlete who is tense and anxious because of a need has a stronger fear of failure than a strengthening of motivation concerning success, so for these people it is necessary to help them set a feasible level of aspiration and to awaken an attitude of tolerance concerning a temporary failure. Morale in a sport is obtained in the midst of suffering, enduring, and fighting together over a long period, for a victory or a fine record, or for honor. Bibliography. Choi Yeong-hui, “A structural relationship of coach trust as perceived by female judo athletes, sport motivation, exercise passion, and intention to continue athlete life,” a domestic doctoral dissertation, Kyonggi University graduate school, 2018, Gyeonggi. Lee Su-ji, “The mediating effect of ego-resilience in the relationship between university students’ sport participation motivation and university-life adjustment,” a domestic master’s thesis, Korea National University of Education graduate school, 2018, North Chungcheong. Do Gyeong-min, “The relationship among disabled persons’ sport participation motivation, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction,” a domestic master’s thesis, Kyung Hee University Techno-MBA graduate school, 2022, Seoul. Findings of those bibliography items, beyond what the essay already uses, are not unfolded.

Last updated: 14 November 2026