The importance of balanced motivation and learning

Luis's parents took him to training every afternoon. It's not that he especially liked soccer, but he didn't mind going either. He had a good time with his teammates, although sometimes the coach caught his attention because he said that he was distracted and did not know anything. On Saturdays it was a game. He normally played little, but he didn't care because he also had a good time on the bench talking to his friends. The truth is that I did not understand why some took the results of the matches so seriously.

His partner Pedro was a boy who worked hard in training. He always arrived on time and was super attentive to the coach's instructions. He liked to improve. Sometimes he even stayed longer practicing what he could not fully master. On match days he was not nervous, because he knew he would only play for a few minutes. His coach sometimes told him that he had no blood in his veins.

However, Hector was the opposite. In the games "he left his skin", as he said. He liked to win above all else. Everyone told him that he was very good, and the truth is that he had great qualities. But he didn't like training at all. He used to be late and sometimes he was even absent with some excuse. During training sessions he used to distract others with his jokes and did not pay much attention to the coach's instructions. Only the little time that the game was played was when he really got down to business. The coach always started him because, although he trained little, he was very good.

On his part, Juan was a very committed player. He trained hard, always trying to do things a little better. He paid a lot of attention to the instructions of his coach and tried to rehearse everything he learned in training to put it into practice on game day. On Saturdays he was unstoppable in the field. I wanted to win at all costs, but also tried to do things better than in the previous game. He knew what he was doing well and took advantage of it, but he also knew what he could improve and tried to do it in every training session.

These four types of players, and especially the first three, are usually on almost all youth soccer teams. His way of behaving both in training and in games has a lot to do with the type of motivation that predominates in them.

Why it is important to have a balanced motivation

The motivational orientation towards the ego It is that of those players who have their goals set to improve compared to others. They measure their own worth in relation to others. They care about being starters, playing more minutes, scoring more goals, being the best ...

Motivational task orientation It is what those players have whose objective is personal improvement with respect to themselves. They focus on improving their own technical, tactical, physical and psychological skills that can make them a better player than they were the previous season. They focus on aspects such as improving control of the ball with the opposite foot, making better passes, learning to swing, taking position on the field, improving their resistance or speed ...

Player motivation moves on a continuum between these two orientations. In this way, Luis would have a low motivation towards the ego and also a low motivation towards the task. The normal thing is that, if we do nothing, a boy like Luis ends up leaving football to do another type of sport or activity that attracts him more.

In a wrong way, these boys are usually tried to instill a motivation towards the result, trying to make winning something very attractive to them and that way they get more involved in the activity. However, the first step would be to try to motivate them towards the task, towards their own personal improvement. In this way he will achieve greater self-confidence and, in the event that he finally abandons football, he will have learned some important values ​​for his life: importance of effort, constant improvement, self-evaluation, personal work to contribute to the team,... Your time in football will have deserved the pain.

Managing motivations

Pedro already possesses this high motivational orientation towards the task and yet he maintains a low motivational orientation towards the ego. Pedro may need a little push to take that step to translate that personal improvement into the results of the competition. Positive reinforcement of his progress by the coach and his parents He can help you build his self-confidence and from there encourage him to achieve some outcome goals. You should start with goals that he sees as achievable and move forward. As he plays more minutes, he sees that his progress translates into important contributions for him. team, he will feel more confident and his motivation towards the ego will grow, without abandoning his motivation towards the homework.

Juan is in the ideal situation. He is the type of player that any coach would like for his team. He has a fantastic balance between the two types of motivation, so that when he runs into performance difficulties, he will know how to deal with them. This kind of motivational orientation it will also help you to face the situations of your life, current and future, regardless of sport.

However, Héctor is in a situation of risk. Boys like Héctor are people with innate abilities that have made them stand out from a very young age. However, feeling superior to others, have not acquired the capacity for work and effort for personal improvement. As Hector grows, these skills will be equal to those of his companions and, having not learned to self-criticism, bad sports results (score fewer goals, play fewer minutes, ...) will always be attributed to the the rest. The excuses of the type "the coach has a mania for me" will begin, "in this team there are all packages", "they don't give me good passes" ...

If we don't remedy it, Héctor will start by changing teams, thinking that this will improve his results. But as long as his motivational orientation is not minimally directed towards the task, Héctor will continue not knowing how to face adverse situations. Finally, it is very likely that Hector will abandon football, possibly abandon all kinds of sports. And that he leaves him in a bad way, trying to look elsewhere for that recognition that he used to have from others. A lot of guys like Héctor end up getting into trouble seeking the praise of the gangs, misdirecting their life, trying to stand out in some way to feed their ego.

Take advantage of options to enhance personal growth

Both coaches and parents must learn to recognize what kind of motivational orientation our children have when setting goals. And even more, to recognize what kind of motivational orientation we are reinforcing in them with our comments. Do we encourage them when they improve the execution of a task or do we only look at the result of the match? Where do we put the focus? It depends, to a large extent, on us, whether our boys draw great learning from their time in football or whether it turns into the opposite.