If you have been in sports for a while, then you would know that every athlete and a player needs a coach to show them the way. They need a coach so they know exactly what they will be aiming for and how things will be done in the right manner.
In any sports field, a coach is a mentor who leads the way for their pupils and bring out the true champion from inside of them. However, it is a very difficult job to coach a single person because you have to do so much before a player becomes what you aim to be in the respective sport.
Coaching a Soccer Team
Avram Grant, a soccer expert states that things become even more difficult and complex when you have more than one player to take care of. In soccer, you not only face a single player but an entire squad that comprises of 20 or more players.
If you are or want to become a soccer team coach, then you must know that you will be required to do so much before your team earns any recognition. Despite everything that you have to do, there is one thing that you have to keep in mind and never fall short of, “motivation”.
You can have all the leadership skills and have the best players in the world. But if you and your team lack the motivation, then you cannot avoid defeat. Your team will never be able to perform to the fullest of their potential and will always be considered a below-average or at max, an average team.
Just saying the word “motivation” has no value until it is expressed and proven through actions and the behavior of the team. A team that is motivated will express it through their actions and if your team is not motivated, they will always be dull, and will be afraid of any challenges.
If you want to know how exactly you can keep your teams motivated and have them become a top-class team, then go through the below tips given by the expert, Avram Grant.
Choose Your Approach
The primary approach to motivating your team is to either go with intrinsic approach or extrinsic approach.
Intrinsic Approach
Intrinsic approach means where you fill your players with positive thinking and inspire them. You can make positive and promising predictions about the wins and their career to motivate them.
Doing this can fill your players with the right kind of motivation that can lead to them many victories. All you have to do is choose your words wisely and if your words seep into their hearts, then you will see how well they can perform.
As per Avram Grant, the extrinsic approach has proven to be even more effective against the players than the intrinsic approach. It means that you can use external means to motivate your players, which can either be positive or negative.
Extrinsic Approach
In terms of positive (extrinsic) motivation, you can promise your players that they will get a bonus or a pay raise if they perform well. When it comes to the negative (extrinsic) motivation, you can warn the players that they may be either be benched or may lose their job if they do not perform well.
If a player is found slacking off during the training sessions or showing no interest in the regular drills, then it is important they take things seriously. If a player is not willing to do it, then it is important they are reminded of their role in the team.
You also have to remind them what they may lose if they do not take things seriously. With this kind of approach, you can actually motivate such players and get them to work harder.
Avram Grant states that the extrinsic approach also means you can promise a day off to the players if they work hard during the training sessions or during the matches. You can even promise to promote a player to captaincy if his/her person is better than the rest and achieves all the expectations that are set for him.
Give Your Players a Motivating Environment
Another way of motivating your players is to prepare the right kind of environment for your players when they arrive at the club for training. There are multiple approaches to how you can increase the confidence of the players as they arrive for the training sessions.
Make your training sessions interesting by introducing newer, interesting, and entertaining methods from time to time. This way, you can get your players all excited and anticipating the next day.
As your players go home, you can make changes to their locker room and make it look cool and more interesting. Even the smallest improvements you make to the club where the players do their training or change, can make a huge difference to them.
You can even make a small investment towards buying new equipment for training or even add interesting and productive stuff to their clubhouse.
Build a strong friendship with your players to bring them closer and ask them to work as a team. This way, they would learn not only to fight for themselves on the field but for their teammates as well.
Build a Strong Communication
While you apply all of the above tactics to motivate your players, you can also motivate them through communication. You can build a strong communication, which as per Avram Grant, is another very effective tactic to reach out to the players.
Keep communicating with players on an individual level and find out if they have anything in mind that may be concerning them. Sometimes, the players have something in mind bothering them that hinders them from performing at their full potential.
Therefore, you can talk to each player individually to find out if they would like to discuss it with you. If they do, then it means they have started trusting you and you have the perfect opportunity of motivating them.
Ending Thoughts
If you are getting into coaching, it is very important that you never let go of the motivation factor. It is because of motivation that even a less prominent team can perform really well and give a tough time to teams that are very popular.
