These Three Things Help Athletes Who Lack Motivation After Losing
When some athletes lose, they become extremely motivated. These athletes have their mindset oriented on growth, and use losing as fuel for their growth mindset. On the other hand, some athletes react with devastation after a loss. These athletes have a fixed mindset and losing indicates to them that they either lack talent or have bad luck.
So, when an athlete lacks motivation after losing, this is a strong indicator that they have a fixed instead of a growth mindset. Moreover, this is also a strong indicator that their goal orientation is on their ego.
With this in mind, there are three basic things coaches and parents can do to help athletes who have a fixed mindset and/or 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
Too often feedback is on outcomes such as winning and losing. It would be a good idea for parents and coaches 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) Show them the Same Love No Matter the Outcome
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 an athlete gets taken to a special dinner after a win and leftovers after they lose. Therefore, parents and coaches must learn to treat athletes the same no matter the outcome.
Finally, if rewards are a must, then insist on rewarding an athlete’s consistency instead of only providing rewards for winning.