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Schwimm-Ratgeber

Motivation II

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Kategorie: Psychologie
Zugriffe: 4895
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Motivating your Swimmers

Lecture presented by Coach Bob Lawson at NSW ASCTA Clinic

People are always motivated … indeed, they are never unmotivated – unless they are dead. To be sure, they may not be motivated to do what some outsider believes they ought or should do, but motivation is always there.

If you attribute the cause of your swimmers training well, or failing to do so to some trait, need or drive – a state over which you have little control – it is all too easy to relinquish your responsibility for their action. Then, instead of striving to set up conditions and find ways to keep swimmers training well consistently, the temptation may be to decide that they really don’t want it badly enough or that they do not have the drive it takes to persist, and subsequently to write off some of your swimmers.

But you can impact on your swimmer’s motivation to train. Most (all) swimmers want to do well. They want to swim well. They want to swim extremely fast and they want to win their races. This is worth mentioning because, often when swimmers fail to train well, coaches tend to question how badly swimmers want it and to question their (swimmers) desire.

It is easy to slip into this kind of questioning of swimmers’ motivation. It seems to follow that … if a swimmer wants to do well, and if consistent, intense training and comprehensive preparation plays a critical role in determining high quality Meet performance. Then … swimmers should train well.

So, why don’t they train well all or most of the time?

  1. Lack of direction
  2. See no use in training well
  3. Have little or no incentive to train well
  4. Find training more adverse than rewarding
  5. Get distracted from their goal
  6. Inattentive to the purpose of training

Let’s look at these factors…

  1. People are always motivated, though they may not be motivated to do what others think they should. Without goals, swimmers have no direction. And unless swimmers’ goals are consistent with those of the program in which they participate, behaviour will not reflect the desired motivation.
  2. Swimmers may see no use in training well. It may be misguided to assume that swimmers understand that consistent, intense training and a comprehensive preparation pay performance dividends. Swimmers often fail to see a close relationship between training well and swimming fast at Meets.

AND WITH SOME REASON

It is not always the swimmer who trains the best who performs at Meets. In fact, in the younger age groups it is often the biggest, more physically mature swimmer who competes most successfully somewhat independently of how well they might train.

But, skill acquisition leads to great strides. And, if nothing else, swimmers tend to improve almost every time out while they are growing. As a result, many swimmers fail to learn the relationship between practice and improvement. If swimmers see little or no relationship between training well and swimming fast in Meets, they are not likely to train consistently well – no matter how much they desire to do well in competition.

They may also fail to train well because they think that they do not have the capability to reach their goals through diligent training.

The diligent training just may not be expected to compensate for a perceived lack of natural talent.

Confidence is crucial to motivation. If swimmers believe they lack ability, they are not likely even to try – no matter how badly they want success.

PROMOTE GOOD TRAINING HABITS

HELP YOUR SWIMMERS SET GOALS!

What is it you want your swimmers to be motivated to do? Guide your swimmers towards these goals. Goals give them something to train for and help them find the best way to get there. Help your swimmers to set daily and weekly goals for training … this will provide them with an incentive for hard, conscientious workout performances. This gives swimmers something more immediate to shoot for and make daily training sessions more relevant.

PROVIDE YOUR SWIMMERS WITH INCENTIVE TO TRAIN WELL

In general, motivation is great when it is anticipated that rewards will be delivered when, and only when, the desired behaviour is performed and should be with minimal delay.

The more interesting, exciting, fun and rewarding you can make goal-oriented training … the more likely your swimmers are to produce good training performances. Use your words, actions and enthusiasm to communicate that training can be fun and help them focus on what they enjoy about training and what they get out of it.

Swimmers’ self-reaction to their own performances constitutes the principal source of reward. But don’t be afraid to provide some inducements and rewards for reaching training goals.

Swimmers may have little or no incentive to train well. What largely motivates swimmers to train well is the expectancy that it will pay off down the road. This pay-off remains tied into Meet performance and not into training.

Swimmers may find training more adverse than rewarding. Too many swimmers fail to make training enjoyable. They view training as a necessary evil – the sacrifice they must make in order to succeed in competition. Many swimmers see training as painful and fear the hurt.

Swimmers also learn to gauge their self-worth largely by how well they do and almost everything in swimming is readily measured (especially training).

Swimmers may be inattentive to the purpose of training. Swimmers often fail to train well because they just plain fail to attend to what they are doing. Younger swimmers’ attention span is likely to be more limited and they are more likely to be at training because Mum and Dad sent them or it is just what they do at that time of day.

MOST IMPORTANT … SWIMMERS MAY GET DISTRACTED FROM THEIR GOALS

I suggest that swimmers often get distracted from their goals, presuming that swimmers have set goals for practice to begin with. Most swimmers do not. Most swimmers set goals for Meets. Often, any training goals are left quite misunderstood. Peer pressure often demands the average – it rarely promotes excellence. All these things distract swimmers from their purpose.

Knowing what we are up against helps point to strategies to promote a desired training performance. This poses other questions. How can I best pave the road to success and remove any obstacles keeping them from going where they want to go?

SHORT CIRCUIT YOUR SWIMMERS’ FEARS!

I believe training can be tremendous fun. It just plain feels good to speed across the water. And accepting the challenge of stretching your limits can be exhilarating and truly engaging.

But fear of failure interferes with swimmers committing themselves to giving training their all. If they don’t try – there is no risk. Their judgement of themselves is safe in the knowledge that with greater commitment they could have done better.

Help them feel confident in the likelihood of success. Make a point of acknowledging their success. Matter-of-factly present them with difficult challenges. Have them train on available criteria, while giving them sufficient opportunity to succeed. In fact, occasional failures that are later overcome by determined effort can strengthen self-motivated persistence.

To improve, your swimmers must constantly accept demanding challenges. But if the challenge is too tough or too easy, motivation wanes. Finding a challenge that presents the right probability of success is critical.

In general, a challenge that presents a 50-50 chance of success works well.

CREATE A SUPPORTIVE CLIMATE

Your swimmers will train much better when others around them are training well. Models are tremendously influential – especially peer models. Don’t underestimate the power of example nor your ability to create and mould models. Good training performances flourish in an environment where goal-oriented behaviour is accepted and highly valued by peers. Plan and arrange for an atmosphere that promotes goal-directed training.

KEEPING THEIR ATTENTION ON THE TASK AT HAND!!

A great deal of seemingly unmotivated behaviour is due merely to inattention. The basis of keeping their attention lies in having brought meaning to training via good goal setting and having goals with specified standards of performance for every training item. Give them different things to think about and shoot for at different stages of sets and throughout practice. Which goes back to what I said earlier … never let them leave the wall without knowing what to do or why.

IN CONCLUSION

Motivating swimmers to train consistently well is no small task. The challenge of training presents swimmers with formidable obstacles. Find specific strategies considerate to individual needs for motivating your swimmers to train well consistently.

Applying these principles requires a fair amount of planning, monitoring and adjustment in your program.

Frequently point out to your swimmers…

"THE MORE YOU PUT INTO IT …

THE MORE YOU GET OUT OF IT."

 

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