Assessing Motivation Factors in Indian Athletes – A Pilot Study

Abstract

Objectives This pilot study aimed to assess the motivation of Indian male athletes across three distinct sports disciplines and to examine the relationship between motivation, career length, and career quality. Material and Methods The study involved 83 male athletes representing various levels of sports achievement: 27 in track and field, 22 in cricket, and 34 in judo. The Sport Motivation Scale II (SMS-II), comprising 18 items, was used to evaluate motivation along six components: Intrinsic Regulation, Integrated Regulation, Identified Regulation, Introjected Regulation, External Regulation, and Amotivation. Participants also provided information regarding their career quality (recreational to international level) and training duration. Data analysis was conducted using Excel 2007 and Statistica 6.0, applying Tukey’s test and Chi-square test with significance set at p < 0.05. Results Motivation profiles showed overall similar patterns across groups, with the most statistically significant difference observed in the External Regulation component. Only among judokas were significant positive relationships found between Total Motivation and both the length (R² = 0.36) and quality (RS = 0.53) of the sports career. Further analysis revealed low but statistically significant associations between specific components of motivation (e.g., Intrinsic, Introjected, and Identified Regulation) and career indicators in the judo group, with no such relationships identified in the track and field or cricket groups. Conclusion Motivational patterns among athletes in India appear to differ by sport, with judokas exhibiting stronger and more consistent correlations between motivation and career development. The results suggest that while established athletes benefit from structural stability, they tend to rely more on external forms of motivation. In contrast, the lack of significant associations in cricket and track and field may reflect uniform training demands and comparable levels of experience across participants. These pilot findings underscore the importance of sport-specific and contextual influences in shaping athlete motivation and point to the need for more comprehensive, large-scale research to further explore these dynamics.