motivation

[Madlax16]

i coached my highschool's team as the defense coach last spring back in DC. We had a few kids that were extremely talented but never had the drive in practice. so come the first game, though they were the kids voted capt by their peers and were the most talented, i had them ride the pine for the first half. nothing worse than going out for the coin flip, thinking theyd start, and be banished to the bench. Yeah they hated me for a long time for that, but i never had a problem with effort from then on, and if i did i just benched them for a game and everything straightened itself out. but then again we had the numbers to do that. But i think the best way to get kids to play better is to play the kids that work the hardest, not the ones that are necisarily the best. Once they realize that then all will give it all in practice.

[Sonny]

i coached my highschool's team as the defense coach last spring back in DC. We had a few kids that were extremely talented but never had the drive in practice. so come the first game, though they were the kids voted capt by their peers and were the most talented, i had them ride the pine for the first half. nothing worse than going out for the coin flip, thinking theyd start, and be banished to the bench. Yeah they hated me for a long time for that, but i never had a problem with effort from then on, and if i did i just benched them for a game and everything straightened itself out. but then again we had the numbers to do that. But i think the best way to get kids to play better is to play the kids that work the hardest, not the ones that are necisarily the best. Once they realize that then all will give it all in practice.

Bingo. Mr. Nail meet Mr. Hammer.

But I thought Coaches are powerless to motivate their players?

[DanGenck]

If someone does not want to do it on their own, then they won't do it. It's a choice someone has to make on their own, it cannot be forced.

I disagree completely.

Sometimes players need some outside motivation to spur positive action(s) or discourage negative action(s). To act as if these players operate in a vacuum and a coach is powerless to modify behavior is silly.

As I noted in my post, this is not from a coach's perspective... it's from a team leader/captain perspective.