ABSTRACT
Motivation impacts everything that influences an athlete’s sporting performance: physical conditioning, technical and tactical training, mental preparation, and general lifestyle include sleep, diet, school or work, and relationships. Athletes will often see their performances improve with each competition, their skills develop and fitness increase. All of these are incredibly motivating and help the athlete stay engaged in their sport and working hard. Intrinsic motivation gives the athlete the knowledge they will enjoy what they are putting effort into and extrinsic motivation can give the athlete a visual and tangible goal to aim towards. Mental fatigue can impact any athlete, but it seems to have more of an impact the longer an athlete is competing in one go. Endurance athletes, who race for many hours and are often training long hours on top of a busy work or studying life, may see mental fatigue having a significant negative impact.
