The Art of Positive Coaching, Part I

by Roger Freberg, Reprinted

The role of the coach is similar to that of a parent or teacher. Our common goal in these roles is to prod, motivate, and cajole youth to be all they can be.

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Seven Concepts of Positive Coaching

The role of the coach is similar to that of a parent or teacher. Our common goal in these roles is to prod, motivate, and cajole youth to be all they can be. We are not in a popularity contest, but there are both positive and negative ways to achieve our goals. All we need is a little psychology.

In the United States we have an unfortunate cultural tendency to ignore good behavior. After all we are such good parents, coaches and teachers that we are entitled to good behavior. The problem with ignoring good behavior or performance is that it will undergo what psychologists refer to as "extinction." In extinction, unrewarded behavior simply stops. At the same time, we tend to really pay attention to negative behaviors. Attention can be a positive outcome for young people, and our attention may actually increase the behaviors we want to reduce.

Utilizing the Psychology of Motivation

How do we apply these principles to the coaching? First of all, to be a good motivator, your opinion must matter to your athletes. If they don't care what you think of them, you are not going to be very effective. The key here is mutual respect. Coaches who demonstrate respect for athletes will have their undivided attention. Coaches who belittle and demean their athletes will be tuned out eventually.

Female athletes are especially sensitive to criticism. The types of comments that males just take in stride can be devastating to a female athlete. It is also essential to be a good listener. Many of today's youth do not have adults in their lives with the time and inclination to really listen to them. If you take the time to show you care how they are doing in school and out of sports, you will have a much better idea of what makes your athletes tick, and they will view you as being on their side. You will also gain attention of your athletes if you are a regular source of positive feedback.

All young people do good things some of the time. Catch them being good and make a big deal out of it. It may be an athletic achievement, or just that they showed consideration to a teammate. If you wan them to do ti again, let them know you appreciate it.

CONCEPT ONE

Part of this process is setting realistic short-term goals. Goals that can be reached with a reasonable amount of effort in a short time are key.

Goals can be set daily, weekly, and seasonally. A reasonable question to ask any athlete is "where do you want to be by the end of the season?" From this point, shorter and smaller goals can be set to reach the eventual goal. Finding an effective "carrot" now that we have their attention, how do we specifically use rewards to motivate better commitment and performance?

Coaches influence better performance through the process of "shaping" (the scientific term is the "method of successive approximations"). In a nutshell, shaping means that you gradually raise the bar for obtaining praise and rewards. We start novices by praising them for being alive and standing up on two feet. Seriously, at the outset, we have very broad criteria for gaining praise. As the athlete progresses through the skill levels, we become very gradually stingier and stingier with our praise and approval.

The tricky part is to know when to ask an athlete for more. This is like walking a tightrope, and a mastery of this skill separates the truly great coaches from the wannabes. If you are too free with praise, the athlete is not motivated enough to improve. He or she is feeling just fine at his or her current level or performance. Try withholding your approval a little bit at this point and the athlete will immediately start searching for ways to regain it. If you don't praise enough, the athlete will get discouraged and stop trying. Go back to square one and start praising the most important things the athlete is doing right, and she or he should get back on track.

CONCEPT TWO

Finding the right carrot is important. In my own experience, I once scratched a line in the dirt for a shot putter as a challenge. If he threw over the line, I would buy him all the Big Macs he could eat. Food was his life. I was shocked at much he could eat! Soon, everyone wanted the same deal. It was a very successful and expensive year.

The successful coach knows each athlete very well, recognized plateaus in performance, and caters approval and praise and reward to the individual. It is also very helpful to keep your athlete in touch with reality - subscribe to publications that list outstanding performances, watch your local and state lists, let your athletes know where they stand relative to everybody else. There is nothing worse than thinking you are the greatest because you are the state champion, when you don't make the national lists.

Use the stick carefully, not all the news we have to deliver to athletes is good news. Once in awhile, an athlete will really have a disastrous performance that just can't be ignored. There are ways of making corrections more palatable, however. Instead of launching into a diatribe on flaws and faults, begin your discussion with a summary of what went right. Something, even if it is a minor thing, always goes right.

CONCEPT THREE

By starting off on a positive note, you reaffirm your role as being in the athlete's corner, and whatever corrections have to be made will come across as more constructive.

Use objective methods, such as reviewing video, to make your points whenever possible. You cannot argue with a camera, and there is less need for face saving on the part of the athlete.

If you are angry, wait until you are calm to have your discussion. Above all, the athlete doesn't need your exasperation and despair in the middle of competition. Nobody performs their best when they are being yelled at. It helps to remind ourselves that this is all about the kids - it is their performance, not ours. It may be difficult, as one of my friends related, to see your career being dribbled down court by an 18 year old, but the coach's success is entirely secondary to the athlete's.