Peculiarities of Sport Athlete Motivation (13–17 year) in Different Branches of Sports

Abstract

Some conducted research (Gillet et al., 2010; Lorimer, 2011) reveals that athletes’ satisfaction and motivation have a large impact on their results. Hence, it is important to further explore how to create most beneficial conditions for the development of young athletes’ sport performance in different branches of sport seeking for the attainment of the highest results and long-term goals. The sample of the current research included 211 athletes (15,28 ± 1,63 years) divided into 5 groups according to the types of sport.

The questionnaire concerning motivation for sport was devised on the basis of the Sport Motivation Scale (Pelletier et al., 1995) that is applied in Lithuania (Grajauskas, 2008). The athletes were also asked to fill in the Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire compiled by Riemer and Chelladurai (1998).

It was determined that athletes with high intrinsic motivation for doing sport activities that give them satisfaction and pleasure tend to evaluate their participation in sport more favourably. The athletes of martial arts were least satisfied with their participation in sport; therefore, their activity bore no sense for them. This shows the highest level of amotivation. It is assumed that there is a connection between motivation and satisfaction with the participation in sport. High motivation and satisfaction have influence on good psychological climate.