Written by There are a million different ways to ‘run’ a team, a million different ways to lead. No matter your approach to it all, one of the most important factors of the whole situation is motivation. Which can be a pretty broach term, and one that’s thrown around a lot. But at the end of the day, without motivation to drive both coaches and athletes, it’s hard to expect successful outcomes. Which is why we’re here to talk a little more in depth about motivation, how it can be used as a tool for both players and coaches, and the role it plays in building the team culture you’ve always strived for.
So, what is Motivation and where does it come from?
Depending on what articles you read and what research you cite, motivation can be broken down into a million different ‘styles’. But at the end of the day, there are 2 major types of motivation that drive people:
1. Intrinsic Motivation
2. Extrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic Motivation is often defined as ‘partaking in an activity because of the pleasure or enjoyment that the activity brings us personally.’ So, doing something simply because you are passionate about it or you enjoy it, would be driven by your Intrinsic Motives.
Maybe you go out for track every year, but it’s not because your goal is to become an Olympian, instead you have fallen in love with the feeling of running outdoors and pushing yourself to better your times each and every meet. An intrinsically motivated athlete will often be very driven to work and compete, but not as concerned with the overall results of their performance.
This type of motivation can be extremely powerful because there aren’t as many ‘outside factors’ tied to your performance. This allows athletes to stay more ‘process oriented’, enjoy the activity itself, and not worry as much if they were to have a poor performance. Intrinsic Motives are very powerful, but when they are combined with a little Extrinsic Motivation, then we are looking at a great formula for a highly motivated athlete, coach, or team.
Extrinsic Motivation is defined as ‘partaking in an activity because of the expectation of a reward or the fear of a punishment at the conclusion of the activity.’ Simply put; you are motivated to do something because you will be rewarded for completing it or you’re afraid of what will happen if you don’t complete it.
Extrinsic Motivation can look completely different depending on whether it is reward/accomplishment driven or fear driven. For Example:
1. You play High School basketball with the ultimate goal of getting a Division I scholarship and eventually playing in the NBA. AWESOME! If this is the case, those goals of earning a scholarship and reaching the NBA are Extrinsic Motives.
2. You know if you don’t play your best tonight, you will get an earful from your parents when you get home. This situation is a little more complex and not quite as healthy of a motive as the one discussed previously. This fear of getting scolded is also an Extrinsic Motive.
While both of these examples seem drastically different, they are both forms of Extrinsic Motivation. The extrinsic motives of wanting to win a big trophy and some money, or make it to a higher level of competition can both be very effective. They can push you to train harder and prevent you from letting anything get in your way. However, fear driven motivation can get a little dicey because eventually that fear can run out or you will have to keep raising the level of fear until it gets out of hand and you can’t push it any higher.
Just like anything, Extrinsic Motivation can be very effective if used properly and balanced well to fit your own personal situation.
Although there are two different major categories of motivation, there isn’t a right and a wrong type of motivation, which is a common misconception. Oftentimes we fall into the trap of demonizing Extrinsic Motivation too much and trying to avoid it at all costs. Don’t get me wrong, extrinsic motives have their downfalls, but that doesn’t mean an extrinsic motive can’t still be effective for some athletes and some teams. The strongest forms of motivation are a perfect combination of both Extrinsic and Intrinsic, but that combination depends on each athlete and each team’s dynamic specifically. So if I want to find this perfect balance for myself or my team, how do I do that? …and this is where the rabbit hole begins.
As a coach, how do I utilize this information and get my athletes to be more motivated and build that fiery culture I want? How do I get them to show up to practice every single day just as motivated as the day before? Answering these questions as a coach can unlock a whole new potential for your team.
Knowing your athletes as humans first, and athletes second should be the first step in utilizing motivation to your advantage.
If I want my athletes to compete their hardest and strive to be better every single day, I first have to know what it is that drives them. Are they more intrinsically or extrinsically motivated? Once we know which type of motivation an athlete prefers, we can then game plan around that and offer them the proper ‘rewards’ to feed that motivation. One great way to do this is by having athletes share their motivations. Having them explain who or what it is that pushes them to show up every single day. Having them tell you and all of their teammates about who they are and what is driving them every day. Simply having conversations with your athletes about things other than the sport you are coaching can be a great start to learning more about your athletes’ motivations and drivers. Getting to know your athletes as people first and athletes second helps you understand them more holistically and lets the athletes see that there is more than just wins and losses. Instead, there is a true, caring relationship between you and them.
Then on a personal level, it’s important to know yourself and your motives. You may be more intrinsically motivated in some things than others. You have to ask yourself these questions and determine where you fall within the spectrum of motivation. Like I said at the beginning, each of us will have a unique combination of the two types of motivation and we have to first understand our own stance on the two in order to get the most out of our training and our performance.
Then once you’ve determined where your athletes fall in the balance of intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation, you can put things in place to fuel them both. To fuel those that are especially extrinsically motivated, you can use a reward system to your advantage.
On the surface this may sound a little weird, and I would agree. I am not advocating for giving out participation ribbons or giving physical prizes for a good performance. But there are still ways to reward athletes and feed that extrinsic motive without tarnishing the feeling of accomplishment (which can happen with ‘participation ribbons’, etc.). Instead of giving out a physical prize, you could do something along the lines of this: If your team has an amazing high energy practice or training session, you let them choose the last drill or activity for the day. Or instead of the typical ‘end of practice’ conditioning, mix it up and have them play a game that is completely different from the rest of practice. For example: As a baseball coach, if we had a great week of practice leading into our weekend games and myself and my other coaches felt that our athletes deserved to be rewarded for their hard work throughout the week we would finish the practice with games of Ultimate Frisbee. This was a drastic switch from our normal baseball specific drills, but it did so much for us. It got our conditioning in, it mixed up the monotony of everyday practice, and it kept things competitive. You could create ways for players to earn rewards that speak to their hard work or leadership abilities, either at the end of the season, or throughout it.
The same thing applies if you’re an athlete specifically training on their own, because in this situation you may be even more susceptible to running into issues with your motivation. So put things in place to motivate you extrinsically. If you have an incredible week of training, reward yourself with a special meal or some extra time doing something else you love. The possibilities are endless and will really be up to you to find what’s going to push you the most and keep you pushing through.
Motivation is the backbone of any successful athlete or program, so finding ways to cultivate it and use it as a tool rather than a hindrance is the key to constant improvement and success. These motivation tactics can become the foundation of the team culture you’ve always tried to build.
Once you learn more about your team and how they’re motivated, your approach should shift accordingly. If you have a team whose culture is all fixed on winning championships, they’re obviously extrinsically motivated; and you can use that! Make winning the ultimate motivation, talk about it often, and make it the focal point of everything you guys do. Build everything around one common point. Find that #1 priority, that ultimate driver, and use it as the cornerstone of your team culture and identity.
If you find out that your team is more intrinsically motivated instead, that doesn’t mean you don’t talk about winning or being great, no! It just means you have to approach those same topics of winning, but from an internal perspective.
With an internally motivated team, they most likely still want to win and want to be great. But it isn’t for the big trophies or the glory that comes with success. They want it because of that feeling of accomplishment it gives them. They want it because of something inside them that’s been pushing them toward that goal for possibly their entire lives. Feed into that. Talk about that internal drive they all have, and how successful they’re going to feel when they hoist that championship trophy.
There’s a million different ways to approach motivation within your team and how you can use it as the foundation of your own team culture. At the end of the day, the key is determining what it is that motivates and drives your athletes, then using that information to mold and form your coaching strategies, game plans, and everything you do within the team. Take the time to learn your team and find their motives. It’s some of the most useful information for coaches of all levels.