How much does our behavior as coaches really impact our players? If we constantly correct our players and dictate their every move, rather than point out what they do well and let them play a role in leading the team, what sort of results can we expect?

In 1998 Dr. James L. Meyer completed a study, Leadership Perceptions and Achievement Motivation in Sport, and found that “The impact of appropriate coaching behaviors on motivation and athletic performance cannot be overemphasized. The involvement of athletes and their subsequent success in athletics is often determined by their interactions with their coach.”

Previous research in this area found that athletes respond not only to informational content given by coaches, but also to messages coaches may unknowingly communicate through the manner or timing of instruction.

Meyer’s study included 332 alpine ski racers and 345 coaches. He compared athletes’ perceptions of their coaches’ behavior to the coaches’ perceptions of their own behavior. Meyer found that “alpine skiing coaches perceived themselves as providing more positive feedback than alpine skiing athletes perceive them to provide.” In other words, the coaches felt they were being more positive with their athletes than the athletes felt they were being.

Meyer also examined whether or not there is a relationship between athletes’ type of achievement motivation (in PCA speak—either “mastery” or “scoreboard” orientation) and their perceptions of their coaches’ leadership behavior. Meyer found that the single behavior found to enhance mastery orientation among alpine ski racers is Democratic Behavior, and the single coach leadership behavior found to enhance scoreboard orientation among alpine ski racers is Autocratic Behavior.

At PCA, we often talk about getting our players to shift their focus from the scoreboard to the ELM tree (focusing on Effort, Learning, and remembering that Mistakes are an inevitable part of the learning process). The ELM Tree is our short-hand memory aid for mastery orientation. What Meyer’s study shows is that when coaches give their athletes more of a voice in team leadership, rather than taking an autocratic approach, the athletes tend to focus more on constant learning and improvement, and they are not focused on winning alone. In this mastery-oriented environment, athletes consistently strive for improvement, and this is their primary goal.

From the coaching perspective, I certainly like the idea of my players continually pushing themselves to improve. Can you think of games where your team came out ahead on the scoreboard, but did not play to its potential, or perhaps other games where you came out on the losing end, but thought you played your best game of the season? Looking at how you and your team respond in cases like these can tell you if you are leaning more toward a mastery or scoreboard approach.

Meyer concludes, “The quality and integrity of a properly managed and coached sports program begins with the proper education of its leadership. This leadership, when properly applied in a sports setting, can teach many lifelong lessons that will help this nation’s children grow physically, mentally, and emotionally.” As youth sport coaches, we must work hard to give our players a voice and leadership roles within our teams. This will likely move our players toward the mastery approach to learning, which will help them both on and off the field.

Take-Aways
• Look for ways to include your athletes in contributing to the team’s direction. Treat team meetings as “conversations” in which athletes have a say in decisions affecting the team. In a setting where the athletes feel they have a voice, they will be better motivated to focus on giving maximum effort, continuously learning and improving, and not letting fear of mistakes hinder their performance or their enjoyment of the game (ELM).
• Remember that the timing of your feedback (not just the content) and your body language speak strongly to your athletes. During practice and games take a second to check your body language and expressions. When your team makes a mistake, does your hand fly to your forehead? Make sure your body language reinforces the fact that you think mistakes are OK.
• As youth sport coaches, we can take this finding as a strong reminder that we need to work hard to keep up a 5:1 praise/criticism ratio with our players. Even when we feel we are being exceptionally positive, it is likely that our athletes aren’t feeling an identical level of positivity. They hear our corrections louder than we speak them, and they often remember these corrections much longer than our praise. Remember that all of these six pieces of feedback (five pluses and one minus) are coaching! When I first started coaching, I thought my main job was to correct my players mistakes, and I now realize that an extremely important part of my job is to reinforce what my players are doing well. They don’t always know what they are doing well, and when I highlight these positives with praise, I am more likely to see these good things happen again!

Article reprinted from US Lacrosse Magazine January/February 2002, with permission of author.