Motivating Your Athletes Throughout the Season

Coach and Athletic Director, May, 2000 by Charlie Beyer

Not the least of the things you can do is show that you care and will go the extra mile for them

THE INSPIRATIONAL SALES-manship speech, the pre-game pep talk, and the one-for-the Gipper gambit are still being used to motivate young athletes.

When I first started coaching, I did not believe it took much to fire up my guys before a big competition. The real challenge lay in motivating them to give their all in every practice.

Over the years, I learned a few things about creating a positive attitude and a sharp focus at every practice.

Keep everyone involved.

Help your athlete connect with you and all their teammates. Much is made of players "knowing their roles." Let every athlete know exactly how he or she can contribute to the team. Ask yourself: "If this player left tomorrow, would anyone notice it?"

Every coach would like to believe that everyone on the team is contributing a particular skill or something special to the team, such as dependability, a sense of humor, or simply a willingness to give 100%.

While it is easy to establish the roles of the more gifted athletes, it is much more challenging to connect with the athletes who are less gifted or less socially engaging.

Anytime a coach can bring the more difficult athletes into the fold, he or she will achieve a far more meaningful satisfaction.

Teach commitment.

Many young athletes have never committed to anything in their lives. To obtain their commitment, you must do at least three things:

First, explain what commitment means and discuss it with the group. Example: "Commitment is a promise to focus completely at practice and to conduct yourself with honor outside of practice."

Second, ask for their commitment. This will often take the form of a contract with the athlete.

Third, be explicit in explaining the benefits of committing to the programs, such as:

By focusing on success in practice, you can help the athletes block out their day-to-day problems. Players will often find that the things that trouble them before practice will become easier to resolve or not even be worth bothering about.

Learning to commit to one thing will help them learn to commit to other things such as schoolwork, relationships, staying in shape, social causes, religious beliefs.

Struggling with teammates to maintain a commitment will strengthen their bonds. Everyone struggles with commitments, whether it is something mundane like "Do I want to go to practice today?" or more serious like, "Should I go to the beer bash the night before the game?"

Committed athletes learn to support each other the way they in turn receive support from others.

Give specific praise, and a lot of it.

I learned a trick some time ago that may help coaches deal with the matter of praise-making certain they are being generous with it.

Upon going to practice, put four paper clips and a marble into your pocket. Every time you make a favorable comment, move a clip to the left pocket.

When you make a negative comment, move the marble to the other (right) pocket.

The catch is that you cannot move the marble back to the right pocket until you have moved all the paper clips from the right pocket to the left pocket. You can repeat this process throughout the workout.

You can make your own version of this practice, and it doesn't have to be with marbles and paper clips or a four-to-one ratio. And you don't have to do it all season, just every once in a while or every few days.

It is a good way to get back into the habit of praising your athletes and showing them that you appreciate them.

Another point on praise: the more specific you are, the better. "Good job" and "nice hustle" are better than no praise at all, but being specific helps reinforce the behavior you want. It a1so tells the athletes that you are paying attention to them.

"Good job running out the throw" beats "good job." And "way to be tough setting that hard screen" beats "Way to be tough out there."

Teach them what you want and why you want it.

If an athlete isn't performing up to expectation, make sure you are communicating what you want in a way that is getting across.

Calling an athlete lazy or stupid can be considered a personal attack Yelling is an indication of a lack of control. It is no way to teach.

If you want to change the athletes' behavior, you must have to tell them what they are doing wrong, what effect it is having, and, most important, what you are trying to teach them.

For example, if a wrestler has a tendency to reach back when in the down position, you might say, "When you reach like that, your opponent can easily slip in a half nelson. Let's work on sitting out."

Or for the football player jumping offsides "When you focus on the quarterback's voice you're more likely to jump off sides. This not only penalizes us but can kill our momentum. Watch out for the snap."

This approach to teaching will strongly increase your chances of getting the behavior you want. While it takes a little longer to deliver such a message, you can end up saving time by not having to repeat yourself. If athletes are helped to understand the whys along with the whats, your message will sink in deeper.