Psychology
A Coaches Role:
Managing the Motivation
Process of the Team frontier
By Dr. Rick Underwood, Head Coach for DuPont Manual High School girl’s soccer team. Underwood was an assistant soccer coach at Georgetown University and currently a
coaching instructor for the Kentucky Youth Soccer Association. Underwood has been an NSCAA member since 1993.
Introduction
Watch any team at any level play several games,
and you will see ups and downs in performance.
The same athletes playing under the same coach
performing at similar level of competition produce different outcomes from game to game.
There are many explanations for this frustrating
phenomenon, including lack of focus, diminished
intensity, selfish play, mental or physical fatigue.
All of these dynamics may play a part in the
performance of a team. In my 50 years of playing
and coaching, I would suggest that the key factor
in a subpar performance is motivation.
All coaches will say that one of their biggest
challenges is how to motive players to play
consistently at peak performance. The biggest
problem with this challenge is that a coach cannot motivate a player. Now, that doesn’t mean a
coach cannot encourage, inspire and influence
a player’s performance. But in the long run
players have to learn to motivate themselves.
On the other hand, a coach can do many things
that de-motivate players. The good news is that
we can learn to manage the motivation process
effectively.
Three Kinds of Motivation
There are basically three kinds of motivation: fear,
incentive, and internal (or attitudinal). Fear and
incentive motivation are externally administered
and generally have short-term effects. Anyone
who has ever coached has used both of these
types of motivation with some good outcomes.
Threatening players with extra running and
exercise is a classic technique that has its place
in our coaching toolbox. But too much of it can
begin to demotivate players. Incentives such as
a day off practice as a reward for outstanding
performance and special recognition also need
to be a part of our toolbox. But again, incentives
can turn into a part of what is expected and lose
their motivational effect.
When a coach helps a player develop internal
or attitudinal motivation, it has a long-term effect, and it becomes a vital tool in the player’s
toolbox of success strategies. Granted, many
factors have already affected a player’s abilities
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to be self-motivated. Some of those factors are
innate personality traits, physical attributes and
negative experiences the player has had. We
also know that what motivates one player may
not motivate another and that what motivates
a player one day may not motivate that player
the next day. Consequently, it is imperative that
we help athletes discover the keys to their own,
individual motivation processes.
Need Identification
If we cut all the theory away and dig down to
what motivates every person, we will discover
it is the desire to meet a need. Think about it: If
you are hungry or thirsty, you get something to
eat or drink. If you feel unsafe in your home, you
buy a lock for the door. If you are lonely, you seek
companionship. If you want to feel good about
yourself, you go back to school or get a better
job. If you want to be fulfilled, you write an article
or book. I am using Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy
of human needs understanding to illustrate how
our needs motivate us.
This same process may be applied to the players
on your team. I recently asked my female high
school varsity players to identify needs that
motivate them to play soccer using this hierarchy
of needs. Some of the answers:
+Basic needs: adequate equipment; practice space; hydration; good conditioning,
transportation, and uniforms.
+Safety or security needs: coach; good practice
surface; training equipment; rules; referees;
team leaders; team cooperation; develop ment of technical skill.
+Belonging needs: making the team; teamwork
and bonding; supportive coaches; fun
practices; friendships; good team chemistry;
having one’s opinion valued; doing things
together off the field.
+Ego or Esteem needs: earning captain or
leadership position; starter or role player;
championships; special recognition (team
awards); productive practices so team im
proves; family and friends coming to games;
goals, assists and shutouts; having an
experienced coach who knows how to take
the team to the next level.
+Self-actualization needs: setting high goals
for self and team, special training opportu nities, chance for college scholarship, tak ing risks in games to stretch skills and tactics,
achieving goals for self and team, developing
peak-performance mental skills.
Once a coach has facilitated the needs identification with each player, there are at least three
steps to enable him or her to establish a selfmotivation process.
Goal objects
Goal objects are practical ways the needs get
met. For each of the needs that a player seeks
to satisfy, there must be a goal object that meets
those needs. When goal objects cannot be
consistently integrated into practice and game
situations, a player becomes demotivated. For
example, a player needs adequate equipment or
a safe practice area and if neither of those needs
is met, motivation is stifled. Or if a player needs
to have fun playing the game, and the coach
harps on playing harder and does not give the
player an opportunity to have fun while training,
motivation may falter.
Goal setting
To ensure that each player focuses on two or
three needs that provide motivation, goals
should be established. To be effective, these
goals must be specific, measurable, attainable,
realistic and tangible. It also helps to have players write the goals as if they have already been
achieved. Instead of a vague goal like “I will be
more motivated as a player,” a smart goal might
be something like: “It is the end of the preseason,
and I am noticing that I have stayed focused and
motivated. I have consistently asked my coach
how I can improve, and I have worked hard to
make those improvements. Whenever I have
become fatigued and tempted to take short
cuts, I have reminded myself that if I am going
to get better; I must maintain a can-do attitude.
Whenever I have made a mistake in practice,
rather than thinking negative thoughts, I have
worked hard to make my next touch perfect. My
coach and teammates have commented on how
positive my attitude has been. I am feeling very
confident that I can be a leader on my team.”
Continued on page 56
Goal Accomplishment
Most players and coaches set goals during the
preseason. It is common, however, for those goals
to be forgotten as the season unfolds. Or at the
least, the goals are not revisited on a regular
basis. It is especially important to teach players
ways they can overcome negative thoughts and
feelings that come up during the season. Sometimes the goals need to be revised to be more
realistic depending on what happens during the
process of achieving them.
When players are not reaching their goals, the
following guided discovery process can help.
+Ask the players to read the goal out loud
+Ask the players to rate their satisfaction with
the goal accomplishment on a scale from 0 to
10 with 10 being complete satisfaction
+If the rating is 9 or 10, just celebrate the
success
+If the rating is below that, ask what will
happen instead
+Ask players if they can think of a specific situation that makes them think they will not complete this goal
+Ask them to tell you about the experience.
Where were they situated? What specifi cally was happening? Who were the impor tant participants in this experience? Describe
what happened briefly. Then ask them to rate
this described experience from 1 to 10 in terms
of satisfaction
+Ask the players what the most troublesome
part of the experience was and what would
need to be different in the experience just
described that would make it more accept able or satisfying
+Ask the players to describe what would
happen differently if what they said would make the experience better were to actually happen
+Ask them how this would make the experience
different
+Have them rate the changed experience
+If the rating has moved up toward satisfaction,
encourage them to take that different feeling
back on to the field
Often times this guided discovery process will
enable players to overcome negative feelings
that get in the way of their accomplishing a
goal. Many negative past experiences may create
obstacles for players. So this process may need
to be repeated. It is even better if we can teach
players to use a similar process in clearing out
the negative feelings about accomplishing their
goals. Teach players how to set and work on their
goals, and the goals will begin to work on them.
Conclusion
Rather than assuming that we coaches know
what motivates each of our players, it is much
better to have them identify and verbalize their
needs. We are then better able to create goal objects and enable our players to find goal objects
that will move them toward success.
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