Four Theoretical frameworks of motivation

There are four theoretical frameworks of motivation consisting of (1) Self Efficacy, (2) Attribution theory, (3) Cognitive Evaluation theory, and (4) achievement goal theory. Each play a crucial role in the impact they have on an athlete and motivation. If I were to choose strategies that I currently use to motivate my team, I would say I utilize communication and proper goal setting to allow my players to stay intrinsically motivated.

Communication is essential in any sport on and of the field. If I as a coach want to motivate my players, I first need to understand what they are thinking. Self Efficacy is defined as a persons judgment about her or his capability to successfully perform a particular task (Bandura, 1986) If I want to optimize self efficacy with my players I need to sit down and talk with each player about their strengths and weaknesses. I need to clearly convey a message of truth to ensure that my players see themselves and their abilities as they are and not a negative fallacy that they created by negative self talk. Coaches, sports psychologists, and athletes themselves would be wise to optimize efficacy judgments prior to athletes engaging in training or competitive related activities (Duda and Treasure P.59)
There are six key determinants of self efficacy that I as a coach need to be aware of in order to capitalize and instill self confidence within my players. The six key determinates are:
Past Performance – Most influential
Vicarious experience – I could show them game film of past Great players
Verbal Persuasion – “I know you can do it” Positive enthusiasm at all times
Physiological States – “Fatigue Makes cowards of us all”
Emotional State - Teach them emotional control techniques
Imaginal experiences – Envision themselves succeeding in the face of adversity

Communication becomes essential in attribution theory to maintain motivation and self confidence. Coaches, sports psychologists and significant others need to be cognizant of the reasons they give for athletes successes and especially their failures. In essence athletes should feel accountable for their performance (Duda & Treasure P. 63) I as a coach need to communicate specifically that my players are succeeding because of controllable, internal, and stable causes and capitalized on this experiences. If not, my players run the risk of falling into learned helpless (Dweck 1999)

Goal Setting is another key component. Through my readings I found that our goal as motivators is to give athletes control over their situation. We want to make their goals performance based and not outcome based.” Go out their and Win” is not in the athletes control but a statement like “go out their and play to the best of you abilities” is in their control. The book also talks about two specific goal perspectives of Task and Ego. When task is involved the athlete’s main purpose is to gain skill and knowledge, yet when ego is involved they are more preoccupied with their adequacy of their abilities compared to others. I believe as a facilitator I can try to channel my team more towards a task oriented motivation by setting goals that are in their control and measurable and not ego driven with a dangling carrot of award or negative reinforcement. This might be a difficult task because so many of my players to day are ego driven. It seems like getting their name in the paper or making the big play is all they think about instead of playing team ball.

Overall, I am excited that I am gaining knowledge through the readings of the specifics to motivation. I feel empowered through the readings. I feel by knowing the specific breakouts to motivation I will be able to communicate clearly and more effectively with my players. I keep going back to it but motivating players by giving them control over their situation is key. By doing this I know have accountability from my players and we can start to set goals via performance based instead of outcome based.