Momentum & Motivation Over The Holidays
How do we avoid losing momentum and facilitate motivation during this time?
As we wind down and finals start to come to a close, it’s important to look to how our athletes are going to stay motivated over the holidays, so they don’t lose momentum. Especially if they will compete in the Spring or over the break. Sending our athletes away over the holiday can feel pretty helpless. Will they stick to their training plan? Will their families suck all of their time leaving little time and energy to practice? There is a lot out of your control, so what can you actually do?
First, you can look inward. At your end-of-season/semester meetings you may have asked your athletes to make a plan for the holidays and it could be beneficial for you to do so as well. Make a few goals and map out the weeks when you’ll be apart. In what areas do you want to improve? At what cadence will you connect with your athletes and how? You also don’t want to lose the momentum built during the Fall, and this is something you can control, so do the work alongside your athletes. Similarly, leadership from a coach can be a key component in spurring on motivation within athletes and by also setting goals, implementing a plan, and communicating what you’re doing to your athletes can help motivate them (Becker, 2009).
Another strategy that you could use is to pair up your athletes so they can keep each other accountable. Have them check in with each other bi-weekly to see if the other needs anything or if they want to practice together or challenge one another either in-person or virtually. Group-based reflection can help improve skill consistency, performance, self-confidence, self-awareness, and motivation, so if our student-athletes are reflecting together and working on improving together, they will likely benefit in the Spring (Koh & Tan, 2018).
Finally, help your athletes find opportunities to compete. In golf, there are plenty of tournaments out there over the Winter. Make sure to create a document before they go on break with the information they need to sign up for events, tournaments, or any competition. The more they can score a goal, put up a score on a scoreboard, or set a personal record, the more motivated our athletes will be as they move through the school year.
What strategies do you use to motivate and maximize on momentum? Comment below!
References
Becker, A. J. (2009). It's not what they do, it's how they do it: Athlete experiences of great coaching. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 4(1), 93-119.
Koh, K. T., & Tan, K. H. (2018). The Use of Group-Based Reflective Practice to Enhance Badminton Players’ Performance: An Exploratory Study. Asian Journal of Coaching Science, 1(2), 47-62.