Wellington fun run club

  Kia Ora, This is Hiro. Today’s blog is Part 2 of Changes in Motivation Across Athletic Career Stages “What are you seeking through it?” If you missed Part 1, you can [ click here ] to read it first. #1: Pitfalls of Ego Orientation As discussed in Part 1, Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) has two orientations: Task orientation (more intrinsic) Ego orientation (more extrinsic) As athletes advance and improve, they often become addicted to winning and external praise. This “victory and praise” can over satisfy their needs, causing external motivation to dominate their sporting identity. Even if their motivation was initially intrinsic, elite and pro sports usually evaluate only winning . Athletes must continually prove their superiority. In elite careers, self-esteem, once built on personal growth and mastery, can become distorted by social recognition and material rewards. As a result, they may no longer enjoy the sport itself and begin to bel...

Kia Ora, This is Hiro. Today’s blog is Part 1 of Changes in Motivation Across Athletic Career Stages “What are you seeking through it?” We start sports for many reasons: for health, fun, as a core part of life, for social connections, for the satisfaction of beating others, for money, or for social recognition. When I was a child, I was obsessed with seeing my times improve every day. That directly fuelled my motivation. I was satisfied thinking,  “I can get faster, I can get better.” That was my first reason to start and become hooked on running. Many runners probably share similar experiences from the early days of their sporting lives. However, our motives and goals change across different phases of an athletic career. In this article, I’ll introduce the concept of career phases and explain where motivation comes from at each stage. Understanding these ideas can help you adapt your coaching style to athletes’ developmental stages or rethink your own running and training approa...

 Kia Ora koutou, This is Hiro. Today’s topic is “Coaching, Motivation, and Cultural Norms: Rethinking the Power of Words.” I’d like to talk about the power of a coach’s words and how these words can affect their athletes.   Contents -           Motivation -           Understanding the Coach and Understanding the Athlete -           Positive (Gain) vs. Negative (Loss) Framing of Motivation -           In Actual Coaching Practice -           Understanding the Athlete’s Cultural Background -           Norms and Motivation in Running Culture -           New Norms and Stress -           Practical Takeaways for Coaches -    ...

 Kia Ora koutou, This is Hiro. Welcome back to Part 2, where the topic is: “Are your decisions truly your own, or are they shaped by someone else’s vision?”  (If you have not read Part 1, that is from here.) In the previous section, I shared my personal experiences of how team norms and coaching environments shaped my decisions, often without me realising it. Now, let’s look at how we can analyse these influences more clearly. Using psychological tools like Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Multiple perspectives , we can begin to untangle which of our actions are truly self-driven and which are shaped by pressure, fear, or external expectations. The goal is not to reject team culture entirely, but to reclaim your reasons for running, training, and competing in a way that feels right for you. Where does your motivation come from? Gaining Multiple Perspectives To begin with, we need to view ourselves and our environments from multiple angles: What is the norm ...

 Kia Ora koutou, This is Hiro. Today’s topic is: “Are your decisions truly your own, or are they shaped by someone else’s vision?” We all engage with athletics and running in different ways. For many, it begins as a fun hobby, a way to enjoy exercise, and it's naturally integrated into daily life. But as we continue running by joining a club, training with teammates, or competing in races, our involvement is getting deeper, larger or changing. When athletes begin performing at high levels, they may gain opportunities to join more competitive teams or training environments. As we become part of these communities and receive more external evaluation, our decision-making will be separated into two types. One is led to positive behaviour by autonomy, and one is influenced to push us into emotional hardship by outside stimuli. In my own university athletics experience, I struggled mentally, yet I convinced myself that everything I was doing was the “right” decision. So why do ...

  Why Runners Say “I Haven’t Trained Much”: A Psychological Perspective Kia Ora koutou, This is Hiro. It’s been quite a while, around 2 and a half years, since the last update. Over the past year, I’ve accumulated some new insights from a slightly different perspective on athletics and coaching. I’d like to gradually share them with you. Today’s Topic: Why do runners say, “I haven’t trained much”? If you’re involved in the sports of athletics, you’ve probably heard this phrase many times, either from teammates or maybe even from your mouth: “I haven’t trained much lately.” This is something often said before or after a race. In this post, I’ll explore what kind of psychological state this phrase reflects and how we, as athletes, coaches, or teammates, can better understand and respond to it. How do you feel about your result today? 1. A Psychological Safety framing: Loss Aversion This is something most athletes can relate to. The athletics field often involves tra...