No matter how talented they are, sometimes athletes can lose their motivation.
This is very common. However, as their coach, there are a few things you can do to stop this.
Whether it be their passion, discipline or persistence, all athletes have factors that help them become better in their sporting endeavours.
However, there is one factor that is a key determiner of behaviour and an important predictor of achievement: motivation.
The drive to succeed and the desire to achieve have a strong impact on an athlete’s performance. It controls the direction and intensity of their efforts. The more motivated an athlete is, the more effort they put into their performance.
A well-studied explanation of motivation is Self-Determination Theory. Understanding it can transform the way you coach and maximise your athletes’ learning and understanding.
What exactly is Self-Determination Theory?
Self-Determination Theory focuses primarily on intrinsic motivation.
This refers to actions that are driven by internal rewards, such as an athlete feeling satisfied when they have just learned a new skill or participating in sport to increase feelings of enjoyment.
It is only when athletes are intrinsically motivated that their behaviour can be considered self-determined – hence the term ‘Self-Determination Theory’.
This theory argues that athletes need to feel three components to become intrinsically motivated:
- Autonomy: feeling in control of their behaviours and goals.
- Competence: believing that their actions will contribute to their athletic success.
- Relatedness: feeling a sense of belonging to their sport.
It is vital these components are supported and maintained within your athletes to increase their motivation levels.
What impacts intrinsic motivation?
It is not uncommon for the three motivation components to fluctuate – positively and negatively.
There are various factors that can have an impact. Let’s explore them – starting with extrinsic motivation…
Extrinsic motivation
This is motivation driven by external rewards: tangible, like trophies and medals; or intangible, like praise and fame.
Although many athletes and coaches love the idea of winning a trophy or medal, sometimes these can be problematic for your athletes’ motivation.
Extrinsic motivators can have a negative effect on autonomy. If your athletes become increasingly controlled by external rewards, they feel less in control of their own behaviour, meaning their intrinsic motivation diminishes.
If your players’ behaviour is mainly fuelled by external motivators, this can cause athletes to develop a ‘win at all costs’ mentality.
Although this may appear to be very positive at first, it is the number one cause of gamesmanship – the act of trying to win games by doing questionable, if not rule-breaking, things – and unsportsmanlike behaviours.
If athletes focus on just the extrinsic elements associated with sports such as money and fame, this could lead to unsportsmanlike behaviours such as cheating in order to achieve their goals.
Positive encouragement
Positive encouragement can serve to increase intrinsic motivation.
Encouraging your athletes helps them to feel more competent – one of the key motivation components.
If you provide your athletes with positive feedback on their performance, this makes them feel more interested and motivates them to maintain their behaviour.
Social support
Social support, which involves being cared for and having assistance available from others, can also increase intrinsic motivation.
If athletes have strong social support from their coaches and team-mates, they will have greater internal motivation to learn. This is because they will feel a sense of belonging to their sport, which links to the third motivation component: relatedness.
How can you use Self-Determination Theory to motivate athletes?
Here are some strategies that can help you introduce the findings of Self-Determination Theory into your next training session and increase your athletes’ motivation.
Build in success
Barak Rosenshine was a professor of education psychology, whose research focused on learning instruction, teacher performance and student achievement.
One of Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction is to ensure a high success rate. This is because previous performance is a big driver of self-efficacy in athletes.
If you encourage your athletes to draw upon their previous positive outcomes, this can boost their confidence and motivation. This is especially useful when they are struggling with certain skills or tasks. In turn, it helps boost their self-perception of their own competency.
Give quality feedback
To help your athletes be the best they can be, it is not enough to just give regular feedback – you need to try to provide high-quality feedback.
Don’t just let your athletes know they need to improve; also tell them how they can improve. Be specific – detail is key.
If you see your athletes performing skills or movements a lot better than before, ask them what they did differently to achieve this outcome. This can help increase their competence and relatedness, raising their motivation to learn, perform and compete.
Encourage a sense of belonging
An effective way to develop a sense of belonging is to focus on strengthening the relationships between you and your athletes, and between each of your athletes.
This is why it’s important that you create an environment where your athletes feel like they can talk to each other, and to you.
This could be done through activities that are focused on team building. You can also set tasks where athletes compete against each other. This allows your athletes to push one another throughout the session by adding an element of competitiveness.
A quick and simple thing you can do as a coach is to consistently check your athletes’ progress and well-being. This will show them that you care and that they ‘belong’ in your setting.
“Tell your athletes specifically what they did well and how they can improve…”
Limiting praise
We are not saying don’t praise your athletes, because your recognition of their achievements goes a long way. However, overdoing it can weaken their intrinsic motivation.
If you give your athletes praise after every skill they perform, whether good or bad, it starts to lose its significance. Your athletes may struggle to differentiate your reactions between when they are performing a skill or technique well and when they need improvement.
Try to deliver praise alongside meaningful feedback. That is to say, tell your athletes specifically what they did well and how they can improve.
This will boost their competence and, in turn, increase their motivation.
Conclusion
Self-Determination Theory offers a valuable insight into what it takes to increase your athletes’ motivation.
When you support your athletes’ autonomy, competence and relatedness, it enhances their intrinsic motivation to learn. This is a lot easier said than done, because motivation is complex.
But hopefully these tips can go some way to helping to turn your players into independent, self-motivated and self-determined athletes.
