Some very smart psychologist in the 1980s (Ames-1984, Dweck-1986, and Nicholls-1989) established the basis of what is now commonly called goal perspective theory.

Goal perspective theory is a fundamental concept for sports. It’s a concept that both sport parents and coaches must understand for the purpose of knowing what makes their athletes tick.

The core idea of this theory is simple. An athlete has the tendency to approach goals with two perspectives:

1. Task Orientation: Focus is on things one has control over. In addition, enjoyment comes from personal improvement and learning.
2. Ego Orientation: Focus is on comparing oneself to others. In addition, enjoyment comes from outperforming others and the outcome of events.

The theory suggest that athletes have some combination of both of these perspectives, with one dominating over the other. However, athletes who lean more towards ego orientation have more negative achievement behaviors such as:

1) Lack of persistence

Lack of persistence is when one gives up too soon. An ego goal orientation drives this behavior in situations when others are making progress faster. That faster progress of others then causes feelings of self-doubt. This self-doubt then leads to thoughts that something is wrong, even when there is not. As a result, the ego drives a decision to change one’s course of action prematurely without analyzing any other factors.

2) Debilitated performance

Debilitated performance is when someone performs worse than their true ability. Ego goal orientation causes this in scenarios when too much focus is put on countering the competition’s strengths. When the focus is on countering the competition’s strengths, it’s typical to neglect the tactics and skills that utilize one’s own strengths. Consequently, the competition dictates these rules of engagement. This reactive approach rarely works. It drives one’s attention away from dictating the pace, space, and skills that allows them to be at their best. This almost always leads to a decrease in performance.

3) Rescinding effort

Rescinding effort is when effort decreases when the challenge increases. Ego orientation causes this because one seeks to protect the ego by intentionally not giving one’s best effort as the excuse for losing. If someone with an ego goal orientation gave the best effort and still loss, the emotional blow would be too much for them to handle. Therefore, they use the lack of effort to rationalize losing when the going gets tough.

Three Methods to Help Athletes Who Are Dominated by an Ego Goal Perspective

As you see, a goal perspective dominated by ego orientation does not drive peak performance nor does it drive sustainable long term motivation. Especially in situations when athletes must routinely overcome difficult obstacles in order to reach goals. Therefore, parents and coaches should actively identify their athletes who have dominant ego orientations and then put a plan in place to decrease this dominance.

There are three basic methods to help athletes who let their ego dominate their performance.

1) Put a Heavy Emphasis on Process

Help your athlete create multiple process goals for every one outcome goal. For example, if your athlete has a goal to be a national wrestling champion, then ask them what daily and weekly routines they think they will need to achieve this goal. This may include things like:

• Do 500 pull-ups and 500 push-ups each week.
• Stay after every practice to drill my best moves for an additional 30 minutes.
• Perform conditioning drills 4 days a week to build my conditioning to the point where I can run a 12 minute, 2 mile.

2) Provide Constructive Feedback that Shows Them You Value Process over Outcomes

This method is 100% about the parent and coach. Too often feedback is on outcomes such as winning and losing. It would be a good idea to go completely cold turkey on outcome feedback.

Instead, direct all feedback towards the process. Help your athlete track their processes. In addition, help them gauge if they are on or off track with their progress.

3) Go Over and Beyond to Show them You Value ‘Who They Are’ NOT ‘What They Do’

Many parents and coaches inadvertently show more love when athletes have positive outcomes. The truth is, parents and coaches don’t love their athletes less when they lose or love them more when they win. However, this is what it feels like when a child gets taken to a special dinner after a win and leftovers after they lose. So the first step to show a kid that you value them is to treat them the same no matter the outcome.

Secondly, try to spend time learning more about what your athlete enjoys outside of sports. Find those things that they have interest in, but aren’t yet very good at doing. Spend time with them on the process of just enjoying that activity for the sake of doing that activity, not necessarily on mastery.

If the focus on every activity is mastery, you will further reinforce their ego. So the goal is to find something you and your athlete can do together that’s just for fun with winning and losing not being a measurable outcome.