Youth Coaches Need a Plan to Deal with this Motivation Type in Practice
Motivation is the energy to act. When it comes to youth sports, there are two main ways young athletes can choose to direct that energy. First and foremost, coaches work to direct young athletes to use their energy to pursue skills and results. Unquestionably, this is the ideal use of a young athlete’s motivation. However, using motivation this way is not innate and doesn’t come naturally. This is why coaching athletes to enjoy the process of developing skills to achieve specific results is the ultimate job of a youth coach.
Unfortunately, in nearly every sport, developing skills to achieve specific results is painful. It requires conditioning, repetition, and learning from failure. As a result, the second main way a young athlete can choose to direct their energy becomes a barrier. This second form of motivation is the energy to act in a way that prevents pain and painful outcomes. What’s more, this type of motivation is innate and does come naturally.
The motivation to avoid pain is a universal trait nearly every person is born with. This universal trait to avoid pain is something youth coaches deal with all the time. But the fact is, some coaches deal with it as a random nuisance and some coaches deal with it using a game plan.
Without doubt, having a game plan to develop pain tolerance in young athletes is the best option. There is no other way to get around the fact that young athletes have a natural tendency to avoid pain. Whether it’s the pain from conditioning, the pain from boredom, or the pain from losing; coaches need a plan to progressively increase a young athlete’s tolerance. Furthermore, this plan starts with the use of positive training pain.
Positive, Not Negative Training Pain to Address the Motivation to Avoid Pain
Positive training pain is training to intentionally create non-threatening pain. The goal of positive training pain is to improve performance by pushing an athlete beyond fatigue while keeping the pain threshold under the athlete’s control. In contrast, the goal of negative training pain is not to improve performance or to keep the pain threshold under the athlete’s control. Negative training pain is more of a punishment than anything else.
Coaches who deal with pain tolerance in young athletes randomly, tend to depend on negative training pain most often. This is obviously a mistake as it does not lead to young athletes enjoying the pursuit of skills and results, which is the ultimate job of a youth coach.
Developing pain tolerance must never be in the form of punishment as that is completely counterproductive. Kids are already wired to avoid pain, so when coaches use pain as a form of punishment, it just reinforces this motivation.
What makes the development of pain tolerance possible is that is something one chooses to do because of the benefits. Therefore, as part of a coach’s plan they must spend time explaining these benefits before the system to develop pain tolerance is implemented.
In short, if youth coaches don’t have an intentional system to develop pain tolerance using positive training pain, there is a good chance that the majority of their athletes will show more motivation to avoid pain than to get better.