7 simple ways to motivate players and teams.
7 simple ways to motivate players and teams.
Coaching is not easy, but with effort and proper strategies it can be one of the most rewarding careers that anyone could ever have. Being a great coach always involves having a few tricks up your sleeve to keep players disciplined, motivated and happy. Motivation can be short lived and depends on a player’s mood, age, background. It is a process that is crucial because it can positively impact a game. Here are some tips that a great coach could use to motivate his players.
- Be a teacher
This may sound too simple since a coach will always be a teacher too. But the concept of being a teacher involves focusing on a student’s growth more than just winning. Teaching them, helping them improve, ensuring that they see that they are improving becomes a priority. Make sure they are always improving and see the results. When a coach treats a player like a student, the player and team would improve drastically. When you start teaching your players, they will learn and once they see results, they would be motivated to learn more.
- Always explain ‘why’
Explaining the ‘reason why’ is a psychologically proven trigger that makes people take action. Humans want to know why they are doing certain things on a psychological level all the time. Players might not understand why certain drills are done, and when it is tough they might dislike it and even lose motivation. It is important to explain why they are doing a certain drill and how it would help their skills and game improve.
- Always show improvement and growth
When there is a tough season, players tend to get demotivated and start to believe that nothing they do is good enough to win. This mentality can slow the game and their progress, it is important to show them how they improve on a consistent basis and show and discuss their growth with them and explain how it makes a positive impact within the team. Make sure that you give them constant feedback on their performances.
- Celebrate success in small ways
Celebrations do not always have to come after a win. Celebrations can also come after fulfilling little goals and accomplishments that have been set for players during training sessions. During tough seasons, to keep the momentum going it is important to celebrate little wins like finishing a tough drill, meeting a new goal, breaking a bad habit etc. Measure turnovers, rebounds, and celebrate improving in those areas.
- Reward hard work instantly.
Positive reinforcement is important specially if you are coaching a young team. When you reward a child for doing something good, or for going beyond what is expected of them, the tendency for the rest of the children to replicate that effort is high, and the chance of repeating it is high. Rewards do not necessarily have to be tangible; they could be in different forms such as reward ball, more playing time, hustle trophy etc.
- Measure performance.
Identify what performances are important to you and the team and how you could showcase the statistics for them to be motivated. Certain statistics might confuse players and might not be as important. Team and individual statistics, high fives, compliments, player satisfaction ratings are things that can be tracked, and presented to the team so they can compete for better performance.
- Have fun competitions!
One of the most tried and tested methods is to include competitions in daily routines. Drills and practice can get mundane and less interesting. To avoid this many coaches have mini competitions now and then for teams. Design practice sessions in a more competitive and fun manner so the players will be motivated to come for practices every day.
10 reasons why online coaching should continue after Covid-19
Abertay and Glasgow Caledonian Universities have studied in detail how the lockdown has affected coaches. The Research threw up a few very interesting facts in favor of online coaching despite the fact that face to face sessions were not taking place. Researchers found some interesting reasons as to why online coaching should continue even after the pandemic. They are still monitoring coaching habits during lockdown and even after where many coaches are continuing their online training sessions.
Here are ten reasons why coaches need to continue online learning after the pandemic.
- Space to practice sessions during their own time in a familiar setting
The online settings and platforms like Koach allows players to practice their skills in their preferred time in a familiar setting which encourages them to learn new skills.It also allows for family members to be involved in their practice.
- Ability to conduct multiple training sessions
With skill maintenance being a core requirement during the pandemic, coaches continued to do multiple training sessions online therefore increasing the skill levels instead of just maintenance.
- Improve player-coach relationship further
Coaches maintain one to one relationships with players with the support of platforms where the individual coaching and motivation has benefited the relationship to develop in a positive way.
- Increase engagement by family members
When players are being trained online, it gives the parents a chance to engage with the coach and understand the game better while having access to the player’s progress.
- Chance to try different creative coaching methods
With the help of the latest edutainment platforms like Koach, coaches have more interesting ways to coach players while keeping them engaged and excited.
- Boost mental health and well-being of players
Online coaching provides space and time for coaches to include morale boosting strategies, thereby improving the mental health and well-being of players.
- Increased cohesion among team
Online coaching, when done right, gives a chance for players to collaborate, share their sessions and have common goals within the team which consequently increases team spirit and cohesion.
- Redefine performance statistics
Online edutainment platforms have given coaches access to player analytics and performance statistics to further refine their coaching strategies and improve the players game.
- Access to many visual training resources
Online coaching also allows for the easy dissemination of skills training videos and videos of matches in which the players were involved. This further adds to the skills developed on the field.
- Save time and cost
When certain training and lessons can be done online it saves cost and time for both coaches and players. These cost savings means more money to invest in a fun-coaching platform which will further reduce your admin work.
All these benefits does not indicate that face-to-face coaching should be replaced by online coaching, it only means that online coaching can be used as a very effective supplementary tool for coaches of the new generation.
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