Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

One of the most important jobs of a coach is motivation. When an athlete is struggling with motivation, a coach’s first instinct is to step in and offer an external motivator to kick-start the athlete’s motivation. Most coaches will either default to a carrot or a stick depending on their coaching style.

However, the problem with carrot and stick motivation is that it’s temporary at best. Moreover, research suggests that external motivators can undermine internal self-motivation. So, what is a coach to do when all their best motivational tactics are based on old-school carrot and stick methods?

My recommendation is that coaches learn how to use what’s called “Illusionary” goal progress to tap into an athlete’s intrinsic motivation.

How to Use “Illusionary” Goal Progress to Motivate Athletes

Illusionary goal progress is the process of shaping one’s perception of progress. Research supports that progress amplifies motivation, even when the progress is an illusion. For example, running a mile as one step vs. running four 400-meter laps as completing four steps. The perception of completing one step is not much progress, but the perception of completing four steps is.

Correspondingly, a coach who learns how to shape how an athlete perceives progress towards learning a skill or improving against the competition has the ability to also influence that athlete’s motivation. For coaches to do this, they must work on becoming better at two things.

1. First, coaches must get better at breaking down big goals into smaller more manageable goals. This requires the use of goal progression techniques that use routines to move gradually towards a more advanced state.
2. Second, coaches must get better at using tools to measure progress. The tool could be as simple as a checklist or as complex as an app that automates tracking. What’s more, when there is not an easy way to measure progress, a coach can instead track progress using the elements of discovery. For example, discovering what works and what doesn’t, discovering processes that deliver repeatable results, or even discovering an athlete’s strengths. 

To this end, coaches have many options for representing progress forward towards a meaningful milestone. So, as a coach gets comfortable using one or more of these options, unlocking an athlete’s motivation becomes far easier.