Chapter 3
A Positive Approach to Coaching
Effectiveness and Performance
Enhancement
Ronald E. Smith
“Profound responsibilities come with teaching and coaching.
You can do so much good–or harm. It’s why I believe that next
to parenting, teaching and coaching are the two most
important professions in the world.”
John Wooden
Hall of Fame basketball coach
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Influence in a Sport Setting
What is influenced?
• Thoughts
• Emotions
• Motivational factors
• Behaviors
Who influences?
• Teammates
• Opponents
• Officials
• Coaches
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Psychology of Coaching
• Set of strategies designed to
increase a coaches ability to
influence the behavior of others
more effectively
• Helps to:
• Create a good learning situation
• Create a social environment
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The ABCs of Behavior Control
• Operant Conditioning:
•
•
•
•
The study of relations between three kinds of events
(A): Antecedents like environmental stimuli
(B): Behaviors in which the person engages
(C): Consequences immediately following B
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The ABCs of Behavior Control (cont.)
•
Relations between A, B, and C are “if, then”
elements called contingencies:
1. Relationship between antecedents and behaviors (A and
B)
2. Contingency between behavior and its consequences (B
and C)
• Behavior is strongly influenced by the
consequences it produces
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Antecedents
• Discriminative stimuli:
• Signals that guide behavior so that it
is “appropriate” and will lead to
positive consequences
• Stimulus control:
• When antecedents are influential in
governing a behavior; reaction is
automatic
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Response Consequences
• Positive reinforcement
• Negative reinforcement
• Extinction
• Punishment (aversive)
• Punishment (response cost)
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Response Consequences
• Positive reinforcement
• Presentation of a positive stimulus;
increases the likelihood that the behavior
will occur in the future under the same
conditions
• Negative reinforcement
• Remove an aversive stimuli to strengthen
the behavior that results in successful
escape or avoidance
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Response Consequences (cont.)
• Extinction
• Removal of a positive stimulus that has in the past followed
the behavior; remove the cause, change the effect
• Punishment (aversive)
• Present aversive stimuli that suppresses the
behavior
• Punishment (response cost)
• Remove something positive to reduce the
behavior
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Positive vs. Aversive Control
Behavior is strongly influenced by its
consequences
INCREASE BEHAVIOR
POSITIVE
CONTROL
Positive
Reinforcement
Negative
Reinforcement
Extinction
Punishment
DECREASE BEHAVIOR
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AVERSIVE
CONTROL
Aversive Control
• Attempts to eliminate unwanted
behaviors through punishment
and criticism
• Relies on fear
• Has some potentially serious
negative side effects
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Negative Side Effects of Punishment
• Fear of failure (associated with choking)
• Unpleasant environment (e.g., resentment, hostility)
• Cohesion built on hatred of coach
• Inappropriate modeling
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Aversive Control (cont.)
• Reasons why some coaches succeed with aversive
control:
• They also communicate caring for their players as people,
so that aversive feedback is not “taken personally”
• They have very talented athletes
• They recruit thick-skinned athletes less affected by aversive
feedback
• They are such skilled teachers and strategists that these
abilities overshadow their negative approach
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Response Cost Punishment
• Has two distinct advantages over aversive punishment
1. It is less likely to cause avoidance of the punisher or the punishing
situation because it doesn’t rely on fear
2. The punisher is not modeling abusive aggression, so there is less
opportunity for learning aggression through imitation
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The Positive Alternative
• Strengthens desired behaviors through
• Encouragement
• Positive reinforcement
• Technical instruction given within supportive
atmosphere
• Mistakes are not totally negative
• Fosters a positive learning environment and
relationships among coaches and athletes
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Positive Reinforcement
• Effective use of reinforcement:
• Find a reinforcer that works for a particular athlete
• Make the occurrence of reinforcement dependent on performance of
the desired behavior
• Make sure the athlete understands why the reinforcement is being
given
• Reinforcement contingencies:
• Relations between behaviors and their consequences
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Positive Reinforcement (cont.)
• Choosing effective reinforcers
– Not all reinforcers are created equal
– Use a variety
– Should be specific to the athlete
• Selecting and reinforcing target behaviors
– Focus on a skill
– Good to strengthen skills the athlete is just beginning to
master, “reward power”
• Shaping
– Start with the athlete’s current skill level and gradually
require a more skillful level of performance before
reinforcement is given
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Positive Reinforcement (cont.)
• Schedules of reinforcement:
• The pattern and frequency with which reinforcement is administered
• Continuous: given immediately after appropriate behavior
• Best for new skills
• Partial: some proportion of correct responses are reinforced, some
are not
• Stronger after the skills are learned
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Reinforcing Effort and Other Desirable
Behaviors
• Whenever possible, try to reinforce a desired behavior as soon
as it occurs
• Whether successful or not…
• Important to reinforce effort as much as results
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Reinforcement and Intrinsic Motivation
• Intrinsic Motivation:
• Motivated to perform an activity for its own
sake, “for the love of the game”
• Extrinsic Motivation:
• Perform activity only to obtain some external
reward
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Reinforcement and Intrinsic Motivation (cont.)
• Can extrinsic motivation undermine intrinsic
motivation?
• Sometimes, yes. A person may attribute his/her
performance to extrinsic reward
• However, extrinsic reinforcement unlikely to undermine
intrinsic motivation if it provides information to an athlete
about meeting a standard of excellence
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Positive Reinforcement and Mastery Motivational
Climate
• The positive approach fosters a mastery
(task)-oriented motivational climate
• Athletes feel successful and competent
• Reinforces effort, persistence, and improvement
• An ego-oriented motivational climate
• Athlete’s definitions of success are otherreferenced
• Reinforce outperforming others, punish
unsuccessful performance
• Motivational climate strongly effects
achievement goals, standards of success, and
behavior
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Performance Feedback
• Providing the athlete with “knowledge of
results”
• Performance has met or exceeded the coach’s
standards
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How Does Feedback Inform and Motivate?
• Corrects misconceptions
• Creates internal consequences such as
positive or negative feelings depending
on performance
• Encourages self-motivation
• Informs how doing compared to goals,
other norms, past performance
• Increased self-efficacy
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Instructional Benefits of Feedback
• Provides information about
– Specific behaviors that should be
performed
– Levels of skill proficiency
– The athlete’s current level of proficiency
in these activities.
• Effectively monitors progress
• Tells what correct, wrong, and how to
improve
• Corrective instruction should be
combined with encouragement and
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Implementing a Performance
Measurement and Feedback System
• Coach must identify specific and
measurable behaviors or consequences
(something that can be counted)
• Measure correct behaviors rather than
mistakes – reinforce improvement
• Provide performance feedback for
subgroups when appropriate
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