I've always believed that the key to success in most sports is finding players who want to succeed as badly as the coach does. How we embrace our work determines how we attack it. We need to stimulate the thirst for knowledge and the appetite for sustained growth. But how do you provoke and measure that level of commitment?
Let's provide "Emotional Fuel" to players. We have to understand the "retail politics" of coaching isn't fundamental teaching, Xs and Os, or better drills, it's how we get players to "buy in", their commitment, and add value to grow willing competitors. In the graphic above, that means they become Ambassadors for their program.
Motivation works best when driven internally not externally. Beginning with ourselves, we encourage a "Get to" versus a "have to" mentality. We "get to" become better conditioned instead of "have to" become better conditioned. We "get to" communicate better defensively instead of "have to."
Be transformational. "Little things make big things happen." Spend time building confidence without being disingenuous. We can always find positive points for each of our players. Recently, I had a player who was becoming disengaged defensively when her offense struggled. I pulled her aside and told her three things: 1) you're going to play because you're one of our most productive players. 2) When you make a poor play, and everyone does, "move on" and play in the moment. 3) "I believe in you." It took a minute and she seemed relieved.
Encourage self-evaluation. What do I do well? Where do I need improvement? How can I contribute more to the team?
Peer evaluations can produce startling results. Years ago a teacher had an unruly class. She distributed paper with everyone's name on it and asked each student to write down any two things that they liked about each child. She collected the papers, cut out the comments and glued them on a paper so that every child had a paper filled with POSITIVE comments about them. Years later at a memorial service, many of those children, now adults, still had those papers validating their self-worth.
What we do matters. How we do it is critical. We can always do it better.