A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SPORTS ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION AMONG FOOTBALL, HANDBALL, AND VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS OF LUCKNOW UNIVERSITY

This study undertakes a comparative exploration of sports achievement motivation among university-level male athletes participating in three major team sports: football, handball, and volleyball. Conducted at Kalicharan Postgraduate College under the University of Lucknow, the investigation encompassed a purposive sample of 90 athletes—comprising 30 individuals from each sporting discipline—within the age bracket of 18 to 25 years. The assessment of motivation was facilitated through the administration of the Sports Achievement Motivation Scale formulated by Dr. M.L. Kamlesh (1990), a psychometric instrument designed to quantitatively measure motivational tendencies within competitive sports settings. To evaluate intergroup differences in motivation levels, the study employed a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), complemented by the Least Significant Difference (LSD) post hoc procedure. The statistical threshold for significance was established at p < 0.05. Results revealed that variations in sports achievement motivation across the three athletic cohorts were not statistically significant, suggesting a comparable motivational disposition among football, handball, and volleyball players at the university level.