By Ben Bishop

There are plenty of ways to motivate your athletes for competitions. Thos are the easy fixes. The difficult cases arise with athletes that are over-stimulated, i.e, tense, stressed, anxious, fearful etc.  If the coach knows the athlete well enough, they should be able to identify (ideally without discussion) the underlying stressor and help decrease it. Young athletes are especially subject to their emotional/mental state thus their ideal “zone of stimulation” for competition can be a fragile state. As coaches of an individual, performance-based sport, we will get more value from minimizing stressors rather than defining new ones by pointing out obvious performance flaws. From the coach’s perspective, unless the athlete is unmotivated, unfocused, or lacking effort, the coach need not add any extra stress to the competition. Example of defining an extra stressor: The coach tells the athlete that they better perform to their expectation or (insert consequence here).

Be the anti pressure: Along with putting stress on themselves to perform, athletes must also be subject to the other outside pressures (parents and/or teammates for example) If it is your goal to illict high-level performances, then you will seek to minimize stressors for the athlete (especially any pressure coming from you). Athletes should be able to trust your sincerity in that, win or lose, they will not be subject to your criticism (even if you ARE disappointed). After all, it is only one bad performance. Everyone has them, yet people certainly don’t define themselves by them. Take away the positive points from the competition and promptly move forward.

Send the right vibes: Even if you yourself are nervous, mad, doubtful, disappointed, or possess some other sort of negative emotion, do not portray this. Let your athletes see that you have a positive, hopeful outlook on the competition. Hopefully this is a habit and something that must be faked.

Relax, offer the answer: Especially in the throws, once an athlete begins to “press” or “tighten-up” we begin to “dig a hole” that is very difficult to recover from and breeds poor performance. This is the scenario we seek to avoid. To overcome the tension, portray a positive attitude and keep the cues positive and simple- a championship meet isn’t the place to split hairs with technique. Focus on the one fix that the athlete could do right now to yield a better performance, try to avoid using the “don’t” cues.

Remember, at some point in time, you WILL BE “in the hole” at the state meet: two scratches and in need of a big performance to make finals. You WILL BE down 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs and two strikes. When your athlete looks to you, will you have your arms crossed, letting them know the score? Or, will you smile and let them know that they are on the verge of excelling?

See you in Charleston.

Coach Bishop