Figuring You Out

Throughout many sporting travels, I have encountered hundreds if not thousands of team mates, competitors, coaches and officials. These people are all involved in sport, and for me that is a great thing. Sport is beautiful in the way that it combines people of all creeds and cultures together to be (at least for the period of the game) friends or enemies depending on the colour of their jersey, not that of their skin.

But what is their reason for being there? Why do they compete, train, hurt and sweat simply to do it all again next week?

In sport, one obvious reason is to win. People love to win as much as people love a winner. The competitive spirit almost bred into Australians is highly prevalent when any sporting contest is involved. Robbie McEwen, the Australian cyclist who has won the Green Jersey at the Tour de France displays this in his biography perfectly. If he was beaten in a classic race, such as the Paris Roubaix, he would stew for weeks as to why that happened. He was so confident in his own ability, he knew he was the fastest, and if he didn't win he wanted answers. He didn't care where he got them from, but most of the time it was from within himself.

But not everyone is there to win. How can an official win? A coach and a team or athlete can win, but what about the person who rakes the sand pit after the long jump? Why are they there? As an umpire, a win for me is to go completely unnoticed. I want the crowd to glance completely past me and focus on the players, as that is who they are there to see. They are the stars of the game, I'm there to help them do their job.

How does this relate to coaching? It's clear that not everyone cares to win, and some people may not have the competitive spirit of Robbie. As a coach, with up to 30 or more different personalities in your team, how do you figure out how to best reach them at a mental level to get the most out of them. For me, they key is to figure out what motivates them to be there. What desire are people fulfilling by partaking in their sport? For some it's fitness, others its social, others its to win and for others it's the pay packet at the end of it. If you can discover this nugget of wisdom and use it as a carrot at the front of the donkey, you may be able to take the athlete to the next level. Whatever type of level that is.

This not only applies to sport, but life in general. People's motivation to work is to make money to allow them to do things. It's a pretty simple concept which isn't difficult to apply. Give it a go, you may even coach yourself.

A pedagogic understands.