The Importance of Motivation and Ability in a Successful Competitive Performance

975 Words2 Pages

The Importance of Motivation and Ability in a Successful Competitive Performance

In this essay I will investigate whether motivation is more important

than ability in team games, racket sports and individual activities.

By looking at sources on the Internet, in text books and sports

papers; as well as adding graphic examples, I should hopefully be able

to answer this question.

Before I begin however, I must build up a series of definitions in

order to help explain the question. The Edexcel Advanced PE book

describes motivation as the 'Drive to Strive', while Kent describes it

as 'the internal state which tends to direct a person's behaviour

towards a goal'. The English Dictionary describes ability as 'A

natural or acquired skill or talent' or 'someone's natural aptitude or

acquired proficiency.' Therefore this question asks if, under

competitive pressure, a side or person with a lower level of skill or

talent than their opponent can win if their mental drive is higher.

There are many examples that argue this case. Firstly there are the

team games. In this instance it would seem that ability is more

important than motivation, with the best football teams finishing at

the top of their leagues, while the ones with less ability coming

last. Similarly in the Athens Olympics, the British coxless fours had

the best ability and won. However there are still many instances when

motivation has beaten ability. Again in Athens, the American 4 x 100m

relay team were beaten by the better motivation of the British team.

While in football, this year's FA Cup witnessed Burnley beating

Liverpool. Their motivation outdoing the ability of the Premiership

side.

Meanwhile in racquet sports upsets of ability are even more common.

This could be that in a team, there is more chance that someone will

be highly motivated and this, in turn, can motivate the rest of the

team. However, in racquet sports the person has to bring the

motivation from within and if the crowd is against them this can be

very difficult.

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