The Correlation of Effort and Motivation
As a player, it's inevitable.
You are playing against lesser competition.
You get bored. You lose focus. Your effort level drops.
You play down to your opponent's level.
You make mistakes you normally wouldn't.
You don't get to balls you normally would get to.
It happens as an individual. It happens as a team. It happens just because.
Why, all of a sudden, when you normally play at a high level, do you slack off?
Competitive nature is what drives any athlete, in any sport. This innate need to out-perform those around you, to better your own game, to prove to the world that you can lead your team to victory.
And yet there are times when it seems to fade...
I find that it is a part of human nature, at least for most people, to do the minimum necessary to complete the task at hand. Regardless of the task being within sport or daily life, exerting great effort to complete a seemingly mundane task seems like a waste of energy. But it is the extra effort you put into these mundane tasks that drives superior quality. Within volleyball it is the simple things, like communication, footwork, covering your hitters and blockers. These small, and often ignored tasks, can push a team over the top. A point here, a point there, how many times have you lost by a margin of 2 or 3 points on stupid mistakes?
And then there is the lack of focus. If something is deemed easy, concentration wanes and you may begin to goof-off, or get side-tracked. Your mind running off in another direction from where you should be focused. It is difficult, I admit, to focus on keeping within your own skills when the other side of the net is of an obviously lower caliber. But this focus will keep you within rhythm, within your technique, and will keep you playing a clean game.
On the lack of motivation? Without something to push us to greatness, what is there to motivate us to perform at our peak? A goal. An opponent. Something needs to drive us to reach the summit of performance. And yet not everybody is up to the task of motivating themselves.
It is the lucky few, the true competitors, that can drive themselves to the brink of insanity. Driving themselves almost insane from the need to be the best. But it is this drive that keeps an athlete focused at all times on the task at hand - winning.
And isn't winning the ultimate goal?