Abstract - Study on the level of intrinsic motivation of Poland’s U-21 Kyokushin karate national team
Background. In knockdown kumite competition, the willingness to fight and the physical preparation of the competitors are of great importance, with the willingness to fight understood as the intrinsic motivation to confront.
Problem and aim. The aim of this article was to know the level of intrinsic motivation of Kyokushin karatekas.
Material and methods. 70 Polish U-21 karate representatives from Polish Kyokushin federations were studied: 6 kata competitors (3 women and 3 men), 64 kumite competitors (39 women and 25 men); with a competition seniority of 8-10 years. The Intrinsic Drive Questionnaire was used. Analyses were performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 29 package, with a significance level of α = 0.05.
Results. Five athletes showed an average level of intrinsic motivation whereas 65 showed a high level. Among the subjects, there were no statistically significant differences in levels of intrinsic motivation between: female karatekas and karatekas; female kumite competitors and kumite competitors; female kata competitors and kata competitors; female kata competitors and kumite competitors; kata competitors and kumite competitors.
Conclusions. Not all of the Polish U-21 Kyokushin karate representatives examined showed high levels of intrinsic motivation. But this does not translate into statistically significant differences between the subjects in their level of intrinsic motivation, indicating their homogeneity in high levels of intrinsic motivation.