As the season moves forward I have found that the excitement of the new team and trying to impress the coach always fades. It’s no shocker that for the player who on their own challenge themselves to change old habits or learn new ones have more good practices than bad. Unfortunately not everyone on the team has this ability to internally motivate yet. The question is why not? I often work with the players own strategy for learning by having them define what aspect of the technique they will put their attention too. I then focus my feed back to the area they wish to emphasize. This is part of my effort to get them to leaner how to learn and to build confidence from finding success under their own power. But this strategy it's not enough to keep everyone focused from practice to practice. I find the process of learning motivating and I guess that can be said for the players who are always changing. So what is not motivating about try to change? I think part of the answer is not believing it possible or not always keeping change in perspective.
When I can give the girls a speech about growth to start most of them have a good practice. But if I don’t start with a perspective tune up I have a few people who drift into being unproductive after a few bad reps. The ultimate goal of course is that they lead themselves and each other to be productive in practice. So what thoughts do these kids have that slowly leads them to being unproductive? What can you do if your kid’s internal monologue doesn’t support the idea that change is possible? Just because I am saying growth is real and we tell them how research says that it's possible does not mean the players’ inner voice shares that understanding.
I am finding it comes down to personal perspectives. The likely hood they will find success vs. what they predict will be inevitable failure. One of my mentor’s has a phrase he writes every where for his players to read. "Do your thoughts serve you well?" and as I get better as coach I keep gaining a better understanding of how powerful a force personal perspectives are.
A big issue I find is when players compare themselves to each others. I have talked to them about the process of change and the days that I don’t remind them that each skill is highly specific and that each person will learn and adapt at their own unique pace. I have a few kids drifting into their own default mind frame that they are just not good enough.
I got lead from Tom B. on a lesson plan that is designed to help kids learn to identify what their internal monologue. It helps them identify what kind of thinks they tell themselves and the discussion you have will help the players understand what fixed mindset thoughts cause and it helps them learn to change it to a growth mindset. The article and lesson were written by Jennifer Maichin and it has a power point to lead you through it with your kids.
Click here for the article
