The Effect of Intrinsic Motivation and Sport Commitment on the Performance of Iranian National Water Polo Team

Abstract:The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of intrinsic motivation and sport commitment on the performance of Iranian national water polo team. Statistical populations of this study included the whole men players invited to the camp of Iranian national water polo team (N=28). The statistical sample has been selected equal to the sampling group. After confirmation of virtual and contextual validity of intrinsic motivation questionnaires (McAuley et al) and sport commitment model scale (SCMS) by the experts, their reliability in a guide study and via Cronbach’s alpha coefficient were calculated respectively equal to ?=0.83 and ?=0.92 for the intrinsic motivation and sport commitment questionnaires. For analyzing the data, one-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey post hoc test were used in significance level of P?0.05. Results showed there was a significant difference between sport commitment values of successful, less successful and unsuccessful players and there was no significant difference between the intrinsic motivation values of successful, less successful and unsuccessful players. Also the results indicated there is a significant difference between the sport commitment of water polo players and high, middle and low sport records but there is no significant difference between the intrinsic motivation of water polo players and high, middle and low sport records. According to the study summary, it seems the players’ sport commitment as one of the individual characteristics effective on the team performance may have an important role in success and upraising the sport teams’ performance level.