Before delving deeper into situations you frequently encounter and the most effective psychological resources to cope with them, we will dedicate the following articles to clarifying some of the psychological variables affected in these situations, which you must understand clearly in order to manage or control them.

Multiple variables

In this first article, of several dedicated to the psychological variables that influence athletic performance, we're going to focus on motivation. I'm sure you've heard phrases like these from your parents, coaches, or even yourselves: "This kid isn't very motivated to train," "My son went to the Spanish Championships overly motivated," "I'm not at all motivated to go to the competition at my club this weekend," "I don't understand how my teammate can be so motivated to train every day"...

To understand this better, we can define motivation, colloquially speaking, as "wanting to or being interested in...". For example, a golfer might be very eager or interested in playing in a competition that is very important to them, or in other words, they might be highly motivated to play in that competition.

Motivation, like any other psychological variable that influences athletic performance in any discipline, is something that you yourselves, as athletes, can control, not waiting for the characteristics of an event or competition to cause an increase or decrease in it, influencing your performance positively or negatively and, therefore, the result obtained.

As a general rule, and due to your young age and the few negative experiences you have had to face related to the sport you practice, your level of motivation will be very high and thanks to this you keep working and training hard almost daily.

Basic and everyday motivation

Motivation has many facets, including basic motivation and everyday motivation. You should reflect on which of these two types of motivation has the greatest influence on you to dedicate a significant portion of your time to playing golf.

1. Basic motivation refers to your interest in achieving certain sporting goals or results and the benefits they will bring you.

2. On the other hand, daily motivation refers to the interest you have in golf itself and the enjoyment you get each time you dedicate a little bit of your time to this activity.

Also, given your young age, you need a higher level of daily motivation, as this is what will make you enjoy the sport you practice every day. To that end, and as a piece of advice, it's necessary to set performance goals in your training sessions—behaviors that depend on you, such as holding the pole in a specific way during the backswing, untwisting, gripping in a particular way… and then evaluate whether or not you achieved that goal and how you can improve it the next day, once training is over.

Encarna María Lozano Casero

Psychologist specializing in Physical Activity and Sport