The relationship between forms of motivation and mental skills in physical education and sport

Motivation and mental skills have an important place in learning and performance. The objective of this work is to study the relationship between different forms of motivation and mental skills in physical education and sport. 202 high school students including 100 boys (mean age = 17.2 ± 1.2 years) and 102 girls (mean age = 16.4 ± 1.3 years) participated in this study. In order to assess mental skills, we used the Ottawa Mental Skills Assessment Tool-3 test; and to assess different forms of motivation, we used the Scale of Motivation in Sports-28. The principal component analysis identified three components that represent 53% of total inertia. We named these components: intrinsic commitment, cognitive-emotional control and extrinsic commitment. At the end of this study, there is a strong relationship between different forms of motivation and mental skills in physical education and sport. There is a strong relationship between mental skills and different forms of motivation. These are strongly linked neuropsychological processes. More precisely, developing students' mental skills is developing their motivation. Therefore, the pedagogical interventions of teachers of physical and sports education must encourage the development of these neuropsychological skills, through a more suitable content that affects both the motor, cognitive and emotional aspects of the student. In perspective, there is a need to develop a test that assesses both mental skills and forms of motivation, the components of which will be intrinsic commitment, cognitive-emotional control and extrinsic commitment.