A popular pondering of most team coaches is “How can I motivate my athletes?” There are many sources of motivation for your team. Unfortunately, you are not on the top of the list. In order to strengthen your athlete’s mental game, it’s important to understand the most influential factors. Let’s look at the number one source of motivation in sport

The strongest source of motivation lives within the athlete.

When an athlete has a burning desire for something, motivation is high and consistent. So “self-reinforcement” is the most powerful source of reinforcement and learning.

Internal control is stronger than external control. The athlete’s ability to reinforce him or herself is internal control. In essence, the athlete coaches herself a portion of the time. A coach cannot be everywhere all the time. So the ability of a player to self-motivate, to self-reinforce is key to performance improvement.

An internally controlled athlete who uses self-reinforcement is the most motivated athlete. The coach’s challenge is to teach their athletes how to coach and reinforce themselves.

Here are a few ideas:

• Have the athlete set a performance standard for a particular task.
• Have the athlete self-reinforce only when the standard is met or bettered.
• Help the athlete construct a menu of reinforcing self-talk.

Stay “Tooned” – I’ll reveal the second and third strongest sources of motivation in upcoming posts.

Note: This post is adapted with permission from The neural and psychological bases of baseball pitching. Rushall, B. S. (2009). Spring Valley, CA: Sports Science

Some say, “Variety is the spice of life” – it might also be a key to coaching.  Variety not only keeps things interesting it also taps into the various ways our athletes learn.  All athletes learn differently:  they have their own unique learning style.

Learning styles are different ways of thinking and learning.   High school and colleges coaches that understand their athletes’ learning styles and vary his or her style of teaching strategies accordingly, have the best shot at truly impacting all their players.

In 1983, Dr. Howard Gardner, psychologist and professor of education at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University, proposed his theory of Multiple Intelligences.  Gardener believes that there are many ways to show our intellect and he defined 7 original intelligences.

Gardner claims that all people have all intelligences but to varying degrees, such that each person has a unique intellectual make-up.  For a coach to optimize their learning environment, they must identify and teach to these various styles with a range of activities that engage all types of learners.

Today, let’s look at one of the seven intelligences – Linguistic or Word Smart.  People who are naturally good with writing or speaking and memorization.  They learn best by reading, writing, listening and discussing ideas.

Traditional teaching and coaching (telling athletes how to do skills) favor this type of learner.  Other strategies to consider include having athletes:

• Read books and articles about your sports techniques and tactics;
• Write down what they’ve learned at practice and games;
• Talk about they’ve learned, or
• Discuss corrections they would make after viewing video tape of their technique or tactics.

The question coaches ask a lot  is “How can I motivate my players?” The answer to this is twofold. First, it’s time that coaches STOP TRYING to motivate their players and start helping athletes CONNECT to their own motivation. Second, when coaches foster the right mindset, a growth mindset, in their athletes, then commitment and motivation will automatically show up without having to force it.

I’ve read Carol Dweck’s book Mindset: The New Psychology for Success and I recently participated in a talk she gave to Positive Coaching Alliance trainers.  Dweck’s research on fixed mindset and growth mindset is essential for every coach to understand. To summarize, a fixed mindset reflects a belief that talent is inherent and cannot be altered—meaning we have fixed abilities, be they athletic, academic, artistic, musical, etc. A growth mindset involves a belief that you can develop talent—that talent is not fixed. Typically athletes with a fixed mindset tend to fear real challenges. Competition is seen as a threat as it “measures” an innate ability that they are powerless to change.

On the other hand, athletes with a growth mindset welcome challenge. Effort, learning and confronting mistakes is inherent in their framework. Someone else’s growth and improvement presents an opportunity and not a threat.  They are empowered by the belief that they can work hard every day to develop their talents and maximize their own potential. Losing is an opportunity to learn and is therefore not a failure at all.

What does all this mean for coaches?  How can we make sure our athletes remain learners with a growth mindset?  Here are a few ideas:

• Watch your language!  Our words tell our athletes what we believe and what we value.  Praise effort, persistence in the face of set backs, learning, improving, strategy, choosing a difficult task, focus, overcoming obstacles etc.
• Present your staff as mentors in your athletes learning process
• Learn, teach and talk about how the brain works.  Let your athletes know that effort and learning increase the number of neurological connections in their brain.  This is what makes them better, smarter.  Check out Dr. Dweck’s site www.brainology.us – she calls it “the owner’s manual for the brain.”
• Read Dr. Dweck’s book Mindset: The New Psychology for Success.

Unfortunately, button pushers get a bad rap.  They’re considered rude, inconsiderate, disrespectful, intrusive, self-absorbed and insensitive. They are the difficult people in life.  Teachers send them to the principals office, coaches pull their hair out and bosses fire them.

I see it differently.  I believe my job as a coach, partner and a parent is to push buttons and to welcome my buttons being pushed.  Why?  I’ve found that the best at anything – sports, public speaking, sales or surgery, have the fewest buttons and the ones they have are really hard to find.

Attempting to protect athletes or ourselves from button pushers is to do them (and you) a disservice.  Our competitors are all about to pushing our buttons.  The more buttons we discover within ourselves and the more we learn how to manage them, the better we will be under pressure.

So how do you know a button has been pushed?  Here are some classic signs:

• Getting angry and upset at someone’s behavior.
• Feeling annoyed by something.
• Feeling taken advantage of
• Being rebuffed, spurned, made fun of or humiliated
• Feeling unappreciated, unimportant or devalued
• Feeling falsely or unfairly accused

Typically when one of our buttons get pushed it send us down an unwelcome path of anger, hurt or withdrawal.  Unfortunately these patterns do not allow us to learn about ourselves.  Remember, when a button gets pushed – you’ve just discovered another area for growth.  So instead of reacting when a button gets pushed, stop, breathe and reflect.  Stay calm – do not get angry or yell.  Cool off before you say anything.

If a team is a reflection of its head coach, then the Cal men’s basketball team is in great hands.

Smart. Steady. Calm under pressure. Professional. These are just a few of the characteristics I’d use to describe Cal head coach Mike Montgomery.

He has certainly put his mark on the program in his first two seasons as the Golden Bears head coach.  I was one of the fortunate ones crammed into Haas Pavilion on Saturday to watch the Montgomery led bears end a 50-year wait for a Pac-10 title.  It was awesome.

As much as I enjoyed the game itself, I found my self studying Coach Montgomery and taking mental notes.  What was the difference?  What did Mike’s crew bring to the party to turn things around is such a short time?

Now, I don’t know and “X” from an “O” when it comes to basketball strategy.  But I do have a keen eye when it comes to coaching in general.  Here are my observations:

• Coach Montgomery sits most of the time vs pacing the sidelines
• He appears poised and in control to his players and the fans
• He talks calmly to his assistant coaches and his athletes
• When Coach Montgomery does rise to his feet and raise his voice – he does so with purpose, poise and passion.
• He uses “trigger words” and signals to get his point across rather than shouting a long unintelligible monologue that no one can hear.
• Finally, he let’s his players play through their mistakes and cold spells vs yanking them off the floor at the first sign of trouble.

So it’s basically the same players yet a drastically different result.  And what does that tell me?  It takes good to great “horses” to win yet it takes good to great coaching to win championships.