Motivation can be defined as a tendency for a certain activity, which leads towards a set goal. In the context of sporting achievements the motivation originates from the conscious desire to achieve a specific goal (to win, to be the best, to become a champion).
It is the foundation on which every athlete builds their efforts and accomplishments; without it, achieving goals is impossible. The same is true with developing an athlete’s physical abilities like speed, explosive and reactive power. They cannot and will not maximize their abilities nor achieve their goals without appropriate motivation.

To perform your best as an athlete, you must want and have a desire to begin the lengthy process of developing as an athlete and, more importantly, you must be willing to maintain and push your efforts further until you have achieved your set goals. Successful athletes with ambitious competitive goals and the desire to fulfill them are definitely distinguished by high motivation. This motivation drives athletes to follow committed and intense trainings and also to live an athletic life. Without a high level of self-discipline, psychological and physical energy, and especially without an inspiration achieving a surplus is almost an illusion, especially if we take an athlete's potential into account. If an athlete is not motivated enough, even a carefully planned out training regime and all the support in the world will not help them achieve their full potential and goals.
Here it is important to stress two things again:
- You can be highly motivated but without the right training regimes you will not be able to see your improvement or it will be insufficient;
- You will not see improvement by following the right training regimes if you are lacking in motivation, dedication and hard work.
All athletes that strive to develop their explosive and reactive power must understand that development of these two features is based on maximum straining in terms of maximal possible accelerations, or speed, and severity at the same time. Maximal intensity is the key (to do as much work in the shortest time period). That is why the suitable approach and motivation is of key importance.
It has been proven that an average person can consciously only activate max 70% of all available motor units (nerve and muscles fibers, powered by nerve). 70% the most! If they try really hard! Just imagine the strain this fact takes on athlete’s mental preparation! Obviously this does not apply to extreme situations, such as life endangerment, where human body gets activated maximally; however, athletes do not experience competitive circumstances this way. But with the right training and the appropriate approach and motivation an athlete can learn how to activate their body up to a certain level.

Factors that unconsciously affect our motivation:
Exercises for successful development of explosiveness and reaction power should be performed maximally explosive and powerful. This is only doable in an appropriate physical and psychological state, which means:
Previous relevant basic readiness – strength, flexibility, technical knowledge
Good body warm-up
Rested body
Activation of nervous system (NS)
Activation of NS is in high correlation with levels of one's motivation. High NS activation is a necessary condition for quality execution of such training regimes and for expected improvement of capacities discussed here. Why? Simply because, as mentioned before, maximal straining is one of the key factors which determine the effectiveness of an exercise for improvement of explosiveness and reaction power. This, however, can ONLY be achieved in a special psychological state, similar to euphoria.
Following from this we can conclude that it makes sense to implement trainings which are aimed at development of explosive and reactive power:
1. At suitable time slots - On basis of current scientific findings and on basis of individual experiences with athletes the most appropriate time should be between 4-8pm, also before noon, but most of the people are usually not in a suitable state for implementation of intense training units before 10am. However, certain individuals may have different training time preferences.
2. In suitable environments (if possible) – gyms, training halls, fitness suites, wherever someone feels comfortable.
3. Outdoors - in suitable weather conditions; for explosiveness training the weather should be warm, if it is very hot outside, training needs to be done in the shade, if it is too cold outside, athlete needs to be dressed accordingly.
4. In a suitable social environment – in the presence of those who strengthen athlete's motivation (coach, other athletes, preparations with athletes from other clubs or countries).
If an athlete trains alone he/she can ensure to perform the training regime with the sufficient motivation and with the right approach.
All of this has unconscious effect on one's motivation and consequently on the quality of the training.