One of the greatest challenges coaches are tasked with is inspiring the team to find the motivation needed work hard every day. While it might not take much to fire up the team on game days, what about long practices, film study, and training hard in the weight room? Often the less glamorous aspects of sport competition are the toughest to get players excited about, making the idea of motivation a key challenge for coaches.
The old saying “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink” is very applicable to coaches. For example, it’s not difficult to stand in front of the team and give an emphatic “rah-rah” speech, but does that approach always motivate players? In fact, coaches can do all kinds of things to motivate players, including bringing in guest speakers and creating various team-bonding opportunities, yet still find it incredibly challenging to get players to “buy in” and increase their motivation. This task may be especially difficult for youth sport coaches who regularly battle things like video games, cell phones, and various other social media interests kids have while trying to get them to live a disciplined life, make healthy choices, and train without being told to do so.
Fortunately, the field of sport psychology offers ideas that can help coaches motivate players to succeed:
- People move to gain pleasure or avoid pain. The famous behavioral psychologist BF Skinner introduced operant conditioning, a theory that posits human behavior is a direct function of reinforcement. For example, in theory, if you are rewarded for doing something you are more likely to repeat the behavior (assuming the reward was something that you valued). Similarly, we stop doing things that are painful or that we don’t find worthwhile. The key, therefore, is taking time to understand your players individually, including what inspires them. For one kid it might be a chance at a future scholarship, while another teammate might be motivated to play hard for a chance to impress his peers and thereby build his self-esteem. The point is that we are all motivated by different factors, and coaches who take the time to learn these differences often excel at motivating players to succeed.
- Lead by example. If you want your players to make good decisions and work as hard as they can, then you must model those very same behaviors. There are no shortcuts here — kids are far more likely accept your direction when they see that it’s not lip service (so make sure to “walk the walk”).
- Listen – empower – motivate. There’s another good saying “your players don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Talk to your players, listen to what they say, and try to incorporate some of their ideas within the team, if possible. Listening is the single most influential skill when it comes to communication and persuasion, and the best part is that it is something we can all do by simply zipping up and tuning in (empowerment).
www.drstankovich.com
