INSPIRING PEOPLE

Find the motivator

For one to motivate people to do something, you must first understand what people are looking for when they engage in a new activity. Research shows that people will engage in sports for different reasons. Where one person may want to try out such activities because they are into challenging events, another may want to try sports to learn a new skill. Figuring out the motivators at an early stage will help one find the basis on which they can carry out their inspiration for the different players. Once you have found ways to connect with the people you wish to inspire, you can then make use of the following tips.

Achievement

It is always nice to hear someone acknowledging your efforts and the same goes for sports. Players want to hear something nice said about their performance from coaches and senior players. Such words of affirmation encourage the players to work even harder to get more recognition for their efforts. The recognition that players get should not only be about how well they played but should also extend to other areas such as their levels of discipline, their attendance of training and other areas in which they excel. Some ways to recognize achievements include the awarding of prizes and simple pats on the backs.

Goals

People work harder when they have a purpose in mind as compared to situations when they do not know why they are working hard. A good way to set goals can be by sitting down with the players and finding out their weak areas. Supposing that a player has not been able to score in any game, you can set a short-term goal for the athlete, indicating that a score would translate to a met goal.
Long-term goals are also important as they will act as the map which players can refer to whenever they feel that they are losing track of where they are heading. Goals can be as simple as keeping time during training sessions. As long as the players are working on something, they will remain motivated. A good way to keep the spirits up is by recognizing their efforts when they achieve the goals.

Consistency

Players thrive in suitable environments. It is important that coaches realize that their moods towards the players greatly affect the performance levels of the athletes. Take an example of a coach who shows up in a good mood two days a week and is in a foul mood on the other days. It will not be long before the players catch on to this inconsistency which will, in turn, affect their attitude towards games and training. There is this misconception that coaches should be mean to their players. Being tough on athletes and being mean to them are two different things and they bear different fruit. As such, trainers should strive to be nurturing and attentive to the needs of the players, alongside being tough on them.

Variations

Engaging in the same thing over and over repeatedly and demanding different results is a sure way to fail. As such, training sessions should vary regarding intensity to better enable players to stay motivated. The challenges should also get harder with time. The variations should not be such that the training appears disorganized and there should be an order to the variations.