SPORT SCIENCE Heidi Thibert, MFS, MM, MC
Building Athlete Motivation B Y A R I E N E . FA U C E T T
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magine arriving to the rink for a practice session with a skater who only a year ago gave you more headaches than you can count. However, within the past year, a shift occurred. It is twenty minutes before the start of the session and the skater is in the warm-up area properly dressed, rested, and hydrated. You see them going through their warm up routine, and it is obvious they are totally focused. Their personal notebook is open nearby with critique notes and previous session jump counts. As you walk in, the skater cheerfully greets you and proceeds with the warm-up. As you are moving to your own preparation area, you hear the athlete supporting other skaters as they talk about the workout ahead. The transformation from problem-skater to focused-skater is not a miracle, but rather the result of intentional effort on your part. Coaches do more than teach skaters technical skills and strategies for improvement. They also help skaters understand the grace necessary, both on the ice and off, to be truly successful in the sport. Yet the coach’s influence does not stop there. Coaches of all sports shape the way athletes approach competition. These lessons frequently extend beyond the sport itself and shape how athletes react to challenges in their daily lives long after competitive experiences have ended. We all hope that once athletes leave our influence, they take with them the spirit of dedication, respect, and hope that we helped them to embrace in our time together. While many coaches recognize their influence beyond sport, one goal is still to help athletes reach their full potential. Sport scientists have helped coaches and athletes alike understand there are many areas where specific attention can be directed to help an athlete improve upon and sustain performance. Getting the right amount of sleep, making sound nutritional choices, and incorporating adequate breaks are a few of the ways athletes can take active steps beyond practice reps to improve performance. Coaches can obviously encourage athletes to take these steps, however, what happens outside of practice is up to the skater (e.g., eat right, sleep well, and integrate active recovery on off days). Still, coaches can also affect effort and motivation during practice times. With intentional effort, coaches can create an environment where athletes are self-motivated to achieve. Instead of figuring out ways to pull greatness out of an athlete,
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these environments result in athletes approaching training sessions, practices, and competitions with maximal effort and energy. While this may sound like a dream scenario, sport scientists have consistently shown that specific coaching behaviors can encourage intrinsic motivation through the climate they create1. When coaches establish a healthy motivational climate, athletes put forth more effort2, enjoy their sport more3, have higher self-esteem and confidence4 all while having less performance anxiety1, fewer injuries6, and lower rates of burnout and dropout7. Put plainly, coaches who know how to encourage athletes to motivate themselves have better performing, happier athletes. But how can this be done? Consider this: generally, two types of motivational climates exist. Performance-oriented climates reflect those in which athletes are praised for their success against the performances of others. In other words, wins and losses and high scores are key markers of success. Mastery climates on the other hand, reflect those in which athletes are praised for their improvement on or mastery of a skill. While performing at the highest level is part of elite competition (of course we want athletes to win!) performanceoriented climates can result in problems. What if the skater is alone on the ice and there is no one there to compete with? Ultimately, they don’t practice as hard or put forth as much effort. This is because the feedback they need to measure their success is unavailable. It makes sense then that they won’t enjoy practice and will frequently need encouragement from their coaches to put forth effort. However, in mastery-oriented climates, athletes measure their success in sport by their ability to master skills or do better than they did the day, week, or competition before. Because they are focused on getting better, these athletes are more likely to push themselves as hard as they can regardless of whether they are alone in the rink or in front of a crowd. Again, this isn’t to suggest that these athletes aren’t competitive and don’t care about winning, they just adopt a more process oriented approach. Coaches who understand this and know how to cultivate this climate possess a secret weapon for helping athletes be driven, eager to learn, and successful. How can coaches create a mastery-oriented environment in skating? The first step is examining the way coaches talk to skaters. Take the following example,
