Sports, while being a competitive test of physical capabilities, will often come down and favor those with equal mental and emotional strengths. We have all witnessed the athlete who seems to be the complete package but is missing that additional spark of motivation to truly take them to the next level, going from good to great.

Especially in the world of youth athletics, an athlete’s true motivations can dictate how long the sport is continued, the rate at which they can develop, and could even affect their chances of success.

When considering an athlete’s motivations we can divide them into two categories, intrinsic, and extrinsic motivations. Intrinsic motivation is based on having the athlete motivated by the activity leading to personal joy or satisfaction. It is a reward from within.

Extrinsic motivation is caused by outside factors such as seeking reward, the desire for a trophy, or another tangible reward. This motivation could also be from seeking to avoid punishment.

Motivations are not as simple as being good or bad. Much like exercise, motivations need to be appropriate to the individual and situation. We see professional athletes chase extrinsic based motivations every year, whether it be individual or team-based titles or contracts. Though when considering youth athletes those missing the intrinsic motivation will suffer in their sport. Along with longer participation periods, higher intrinsically motivated athletes will have a happier and healthier relationship with the sport, leading to more physical activity and increasing the likelihood of happiness in other aspects of their life.

Extrinsic motivation factors can play a role for the youth athlete as well. While extrinsic factors are not as sustainable, it is okay if an athlete wants to be the best or have their team win the championship trophy at the end of the season. Even for youth athletes, having these goals can be positive and healthy if not taken too far.

It is the far extreme side of extrinsic motivation that is problematic and can be dangerous to the athlete’s self-esteem. If a youth athlete defines their worth as a person in winning and winning alone, that creates an unhealthy relationship with sport and negates all of the previous positives listed.

Parents and coaches have the greatest impact on youth athletes and must understand these motivations to better educate and prepare our athletes for on and off the field of play. This can be a difficult conversation that coaches and parents need to have not only with the athletes but with themselves! Youth athletes notice more than you think and extrinsically motivated athletes may just be participating in sports to appease their parents or do what they believe is expected of them. Instead of playing the sport for themselves and they are playing for you the parent.

Coaching can also go in a similar direction. Personally, I’ve had athletes avoid me because they didn’t do as well as what they felt was acceptable and didn’t want to disappoint me! Even without knowing it, we can dramatically affect how these youth athletes view and feel about themselves.

There are a few strategies parents and coaches can do to attempt to provide a more understanding and healthier relationship with the athlete during this time.

Communication:

A simple conversation can carry a lot of weight. Being direct with kids and their motivations for sport before the sport actually begins can better prepare you both for the season ahead. Whether you’re a parent signing your child up for the sport or the coach responsible, it’s important to set expectations and guidelines. Things such as attendance, effort, listening to the coach, and finishing what was started are all good learning opportunities for the young athlete.

Discussing these things up front will help better understand their true motivations for the sport and can be revisited during the tougher times throughout the season. You don’t need to go into the details of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors, but you do want to promote intrinsic-based ideas such as gaining enjoyment from personal development, and even highly committed athletes need to respect this mastery process.

Process > Outcome

Athletes should be praised for the process and not the outcome. Regardless of how dominant a win or how crushing the loss, comments or praise should be on the process that was taken to get there.

If an athlete had a great game over the weekend at their basketball tournament, congratulate them on all of those extra shootarounds and one-on-one sessions paying off rather than the win itself. There are of course, several variables to what led to the victory, but you want to make the connection of hard work is positive, not necessarily winning. They will not always win but should be expected to work hard always.

The same is true in defeat. If an athlete comes in and is upset about not doing as well in a game, yet their previous actions don’t match this commitment, then it’s important to take this difficult conversation and break it down.

That if they wanted to be as great as they claimed then they are going to have to give more than what they’ve been previously doing. If an athlete just wants to play sports for fun and practice the minimum, that is okay! Though they shouldn’t be upset with themselves if they’ve done the minimum, expecting the maximum.

Focusing on the process rather than the outcome helps athletes find more value in the work done to get them there, falling in love with the process and intrinsic values as opposed to chasing a trophy or more extrinsic values.

Encourage Multi-Sport Involvement

Youth athletes should start by participating in as many sports as possible. From a strict athletic perspective, this will help them build a well-rounded and robust base. The more various sports that are played the more motor patterns and situations they will be exposed to, helping them build upon in the future. Then once in the future, they can begin to specialize in a single sport with a much greater potential of athletic ability to pull.

From a social perspective playing multiple sports will allow kids to have experiences and meet people they wouldn’t otherwise, similar to athletic abilities, but for social skills and abilities.

This is beneficial in helping an athlete’s motivations because it will allow athletes time to explore and find what they prefer in a sport. Pressure isn’t as high if they are trying a new sport, and they can focus more within than on the world around them. If an athlete is obsessed with baseball, that is great but taking a month or two out of the year to play recreational park basketball that will give them a break from the sport and benefit their athletic and social skillset.

Conclusion:

Sports can be one of the best things you can give to a young kid. Though if their motivation is in the wrong place, we could already be setting them up for failure. Setting intrinsically focused motivations can help youth athletes maintain a healthy and long relationship with sport. It’s important to understand extrinsic motivation isn’t evil but is not a sustainable source of long-term motivation.

Utilize these three strategies of early communication, becoming more process than outcome-based, and encouraging them to participate in as many sports as possible. These strategies will help an athlete discover their true motivations and a healthier, happier relationship with sport.