Episode 7-Inspiration/Motivation

The podcast episode discusses the importance of inspiration and motivation in coaching. It emphasizes that inspiring athletes is not a given and needs to be earned. The speaker shares personal experiences of inspiring athletes through positive coaching, fun activities, and creating a sense of belonging. The speaker also highlights the dangers of overly competitive coaching and the unrealistic expectations of college scholarships in youth sports. The episode provides tips for inspiring athletes, such as team bonding events and quoting famous coaches. It concludes by emphasizing the need for practicing perfectly to achieve desired results. Hey, welcome back, coaches, to Gotcha Coach, the podcast about coaches for coaches presented by a real coach. Well, a former real coach. I'm your host, Coach Rick, and this is Episode 7, where we'll be talking about inspiration and motivation. But first, I want to wish all of my listeners a belated Happy Thanksgiving, and hope that you all had some great family time, watched plenty of football, and did your Black Friday shopping. And to let you know how thankful I am that I have over 60 downloads from all over the country, and even one in Japan. This whole endeavor has been about sharing my experiences and influencing at least one listener in hopes of them becoming a coach that transforms lives and the people that they come in contact with. Inspiring your athletes is a very important piece to your coaching arsenal, and yet it is sometimes overlooked or assumed that your athletes will be inspired by you just because you're the coach. Being able to inspire your athletes need to be, much like respect, earned and it's not just a given thing. Webster's Dictionary simply states the definition of the word inspire as, quote, to spur on or motivate. Pretty simple concept, right? Or is it? Think back to your own life experiences. Who inspired or motivated you? Was it your parents, a teacher, a coach, a boss? What was it they did to motivate you? Was it with their words, actions, or both? How did you feel and what did you do after that? Did you continue to seek that motivation in order to do the things or perform? Inspiring or motivating your athletes can be a tricky thing to successfully achieve. Why? Simple. No two athletes are the same. And many athletes are inspired by different methods. And as I used to say, when I first discovered this tightrope walk, God forbid that you mix up your methods and your athletes because you won't get the expected results. Here's what I mean. When I was coaching the South Tahoe Steppers girls AAU team, I had two very good middle and long distance runners. One, I could, quote, stroke her ego, and she'd run like the wind. The other, I had to, quote, kick in the butt, in a polite way, of course, in order to get her to perform at the same level. Can you imagine what would happen if I had mixed up the methods for inspiring these girls? There are numerous ways of inspiring or motivating your athletes. Here's one way that has worked for me in the past. While coaching my son, Caleb, in Little League Baseball in South Lake Tahoe, there were a couple of ways that we, me and my brother Bruce, used to inspire the kids that we were in charge of. Now, you may remember my brother Bruce from an earlier episode, where he was an integral part to my coaching of my distance runners on the South Tahoe Steppers girls cross country team. Jump ahead in time some 20 years or so to where my son, Caleb, was getting into Little League Baseball. Bruce was the most energetic and positive coach I had ever met in my life. And although I had always wondered why, I accepted his enthusiasm and felt that it helped me to be more positive in my endeavors. You see, while I was technically the manager of the team, and Bruce was the coach, I was always coaching high school track and field on a full-time basis and couldn't be at Little League practice all the time, especially on Saturdays, which meant that I relied on Bruce to, quote, unquote, take the reins and run things as I would have. And he did this and more. Bruce was so positive and had a way that reached these 10 to 12 year old kids. One of his pet phrases that he used to keep the kids focused on the current situation was, right here, right now. And every time that he felt the team was drifting off of what was happening, he would yell, right here! And the kids would respond, right now! With a resounding thunderous voice that let you know that the team knew what was going on. We also engaged the boys in a surprise water gun fight at the season-ending game one year. You know, that's the kind of thing when you're playing golf and having a poor game, and on the 18th hole, you hit every shot perfectly and birdie the hole and yell out, let's play 18 more! Keeping things exciting and positive and having fun is the best motivational tool around. When I became the head track and field coach at Lincoln High School in Lincoln, California, I hired a young teacher with absolutely no coaching experience as my throws coach. He was a former football player that impressed me as someone that would have the motivation to learn how to coach throwers. And so, I took a leap of faith that was one of the best leaps of my life. This guy, Andre Berg, was a real go-getter and embraced the idea of taking a group of kids that, in my humble opinion, were the unglamorous members of the track and field team and was determined to change that impression. Well, all Andre did was totally engage in watching YouTube videos on how to train throwers, but he also made throwing fun. Suddenly, when we went to meets, the throwers showed up with barbecues, tables, lawn chairs, food, drinks, and well, you name it, they had it. They opted to set up their area away from the rest of the team, which was in the cold, hard bleachers, and at first, I wasn't too happy about the separation, but I also realized that throwers are often the forgotten part of a track team as their events usually take place outside the track area where all the, quote, good stuff is happening. Andre made it cool to be a thrower. Then he came up with the idea to get t-shirts for his throwers. They came up with a design and the money and the and bingo, bango, bongo. The throwers had specialized t-shirts with their names or nicknames on the back. This caught on with the rest of the team and each group, sprinters, hurdlers, jumpers, and distance runners followed suit and got their own shirts as well. Coach Berg had some very good results with his throwers and his motivational style led to the throws group growing each year that he was with the program and eventually earned him the honor of being a guest speaker at a very prestigious northern California track and field coaching clinic where he spoke on how to grow a throws program. Not bad for someone who never threw a shot or discus in his life. You, as a head coach, always want to make things fun and interesting in addition to being competitive, at least in my opinion. But there are some coaches who take things very, very serious. And to them, in the wise words of Yoda, there is no fun, only winning. I told you in an earlier episode about how one of my girls' AYSO soccer teams was named the Macarenas. For those that don't know, the Macarena was a silly dance song that came out in 1993. And when I say it was silly, it really was. And to let the girls do that dance, there I did, after every win, was something that they looked forward to and thus inspired them to play harder so they could do the dance. So, when I told them that I would join them in the dance if we won the championship game, well, that just made them even more motivated. But for every good-natured coach, there are just as many die-hard, win-at-all-cost coaches out there that present their options for athletes and parents. And this is where it gets a bit dicey. Coaches that adopt an eat, drink, and sleep, fill in the sport blank. Well, let's just say that I questioned their motives and whether they are doing this for the athlete or for their own ego. When I was coaching my own kids in AYSO, I had multiple discussions with parents and parent coaches of the quote-unquote club programs that had some kids playing nothing but soccer for 10 months a year. When I asked why they had their kids doing this instead of experiencing other sports, I was told, I want my child to get a college scholarship. It was during this time that I attended a national AYSO convention in Washington State and listened to a speaker not closely associated with AYSO that told us that quote, only 1% of the players in youth soccer programs went on to play college soccer. Wow, 1%? Oh, then he told us this, quote, you want your player to get a scholarship? Well, only 1% of that 1% got scholarships. Now, I can personally speak of a female soccer player that also was a track competitor for me at South Tahoe High School. She was the Northern Nevada 4A Player of the Year during her senior year, but was not given a scholarship anywhere. So, she went to UCLA and wanted to join the soccer team as a walk-on. She lasted less than two weeks and quit because it was quote, harder than anything she had ever done before. Okay, let's get back to inspiring and motivating your athletes. Here's some other ideas that have worked for me over the years. Number one, have a team bonding event earlier in your season or any time during the season. This gives everyone the chance to meet the new kids. Depending on the sport that you are doing and the size of your team, that will determine what kind of event you have. I have known some coaches that have had these types of events at their home because the size of the team that they coach is 15 athletes or less. I personally would never try to host something at my house because of liability and insurance reasons. Spaghetti dinners or potlucks in the school cafeteria are good ideas for larger teams. Two, quote other famous coaches or tell your team about famous athletes' struggles or successes in the sport that you are coaching. I have used this throughout my career with each sport that I have coached. I have told my players that practice makes perfect is not accurate. Perfect practice makes perfect. This is what Vince Lombardi said about practice. Think about it. If you are practicing incorrectly but are doing it over and over again, it's not going to get the right result. You will only achieve the perfection that you strive for by practicing perfectly. Remember, it is said that quote doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. So if you are doing the same wrong thing every day of practice, but you're still practicing, why would you expect to get it right? Another great coach that I like to quote is John Wooden, the late UCLA basketball coach from the 60s and 70s. And his quote about make each day a masterpiece is something that I've used quite often during the years. He explained that this means that if you wake up each day and don't decide to strive to make each day everything that it can be, you are selling yourself short. Work to make each day everything that it can be, and you'll be a success. Number four, recognize and acknowledge personal achievements. When I was coaching high school track, once the 21st century hit, and competition results were available online, I acknowledged those results the next practice after that meet. Nothing motivates athletes to better themselves than hearing their coach acknowledge their personal records or season records or school records in front of the rest of the team. You'd be amazed at the impact on team members when you stand up on a Monday practice and tell them that the team accomplished 32 personal records and 20 seasonal records and three school records. It's really a very cool thing. If you attend a meet where medals are awarded, hand those medals out in front of the whole team at the next practice and acknowledge the accomplishment of each medal winner. I even started to give out awards for each meet. These were called wow awards and were presented to a male and female athlete that accomplished a result that just made the coaches say, wow, that was pretty doggone good. This award did not have to necessarily be given to someone that won their event. Here's an example, a 3200 meter runner that ran the entire race, even though they were a whole lap behind the other runners, but still gave their all. That was worthy of a wow. Number five, stories about great athletes and their accomplishments under less than perfect situations can also serve as an inspiration or motivation. I have on many occasions with my track athletes told the story about Jesse Owens and how he performed at the Big Ten Track and Field Championships in 1935 when he broke three world records and tied a fourth in only 45 minutes while having a very serious back injury prior to the meet. Number six, and the obvious, the end of the season recognition dinner. Make this event a huge deal. I personally love to give out awards, as many awards to athletes as possible. Now this can be somewhat tricky. I've let my teams on occasion vote on the award recipients and on occasion it turns out to be a popularity vote. So I still let them vote, take the input from the coaching staff and the athletes, and then I make the final award winner known to everybody. Note, don't order your awards with the individual names on them. This allows you to order in advance and not have to answer to why Jimmy's name was on the trophy when Johnny is the winner. Youth teams like AYSO and Little League don't really have these types of awards and the end of season dinner could simply be a huge pizza party. But note this, coaches, make sure you get enough pizza so that you get some before it's all gone. This has happened to me too many occasions and I've gone home hungry. Number seven, be creative with your awards. Why? Everybody loves to get an award and it can lead to those that don't get an award to be motivated to do things differently next year so that they can hopefully get that same recognition. I've been known to give awards for most outstanding, most inspirational, most improved, hardest worker, and a quote coaches award, which went to the athlete that was the epitome of what was expected of all athletes on the team regardless of their personal successes during the season. Here's an example. I coached at a high school where the mascot was a tiger, so I named the award the Eye of the Tiger. I even made a special effort at the school where I most recently coached to recognize the Frosch Soft boys team at our dinner. Our league did not give medals to winners in the Frosch Soft division, but we had so many that year that I made awards. I bought some white hard plastic plates, bought our school mascot quote logo bumper sticker, and placed it in the middle of the plate and then printed out the athlete's name and the accomplishment on the plate and presented it to every boy on the Frosch Soft team. It wasn't much, but it made a big difference to those boys. They worked their butts off just as much as the varsity boys, and they deserved the recognition. So don't be afraid to be creative in your motivation or inspiration style. I'm sure there are ways that all of you can come up with that will serve the purpose. And what's that purpose? Simple. Make your athletes want to come back next year and make others want to join the team and make everyone want to work as hard as they can to make an impact on the program. I hope that you are enjoying this podcast and I really hope you are getting some positive aspects from it as well. Until next time, take care, be safe, laugh a lot, and tell someone that you love them. And don't forget, you can email me with your questions or comments at coachbrickb53 at gmail.com. And you can listen to this podcast on Spotify, TuneIn, Google, Amazon, iHeartRadio, and just about anywhere you get your podcasts. I'll talk to you soon.