ABSTRACT
In applied sport psychology, there are four mental areas that are considered to be central for athletes to be mentally prepared for athletic success: motivation, confidence, arousal, and concentration. A key part of that “sales pitch” is that, like the body, the mind is made up of “muscles” and that physical and mental muscles have much in common. They both can be weak if the muscles aren’t exercised regularly. Physical and mental muscles can be injured. This chapter explores the physiological changes that athletes experience in their sports participation. Motivation is the corner stone of athletic success. Research has determined that motivation plays a key role in performance in sports. For both reasons then, having a training partner is one of the simplest motivational strategies for athletes to employ. In the cases, athletes’ greatest competitors’ are those measures of performance. The techniques that have been described so far are helpful in increasing athletes’ short-term motivation.
