In the first of two passionate columns, EDUARDO BADESCU takes aim at the damaging incentives he sees as harming youth-player motivation and retention
I don’t think I’m alone when I say we need to change how our coaches interact with our youth athletes.
A coach’s concern regarding a soccer match is quite different to that of a player or a fan.
Coaches observe the psychological indicators of success or failure in sport. They are interested in a player’s perception of the game, their emotion on the ground, how they coordinate their attention, how they adjust their physical and visual intensity in an effective way, what motivates them, if they show distracted attention, and especially what attitude they manifest on the ground.
Coaches are interested in a player’s level of psychological training for the game and how that training can be used to predict success or competitive failure.
All coaches must be seeing the same thing as I am. Together, we watch a player step onto the pitch and the lights go out. The joy and passion for the game withers away as creativity drops, and players become terrified of making mistakes.
"The light in a player’s eyes often goes out once they reach the competitive level..."
The light in a player’s eyes often goes out once they reach the competitive level.
What I mean is that a player’s love for the game, which is present up to ages 10 or 11, is somehow lost. They are “pumped” to play the game, then something happens.
By the time players are into the third or fourth year of competitive play, around 16 years old, they lose their enthusiasm. They go from excitement about playing, to apathy or outright resentment.
How do we produce a thriving lifelong soccer culture that doesn’t have this problem? Let’s start with an idea about what NOT to do.
Here is the reason I think the light goes out. Elite players are attracted by the opportunities the sport can offer, and not by the so-called "love of the game”.
We have a poisonous habit in soccer. An interesting experiment to illustrate this toxic habit that can kill the love of soccer was carried out with a group of children passionate about drawing.
They spent two or three hours drawing whatever they were inspired to create. At one point, a psychologist comes in and offers €100 for each drawing.
The cheerful children accepted and said, “What a good thing - €100 is more than nothing, and I like to draw anyway”. So far, everything is perfect - the children have received an extra gift beyond that of investing in their passion for drawing.
The next day, the psychologist offers the following challenge before starting work: “I have only €10 to offer for your board – who wants to draw something beautiful?”.
This time, the children considered the offer intensely, and rationalized the following: “€10 is less than €100, but more than nothing, and anyway I like to draw”.
As you see, their motivation is still the pleasure of drawing, so they accepted. You would think that everything is fine, but after only about 20 minutes, the first child raised their hands saying they had finished the drawing and wanted their reward.
We can conclude that the first visible effects on their behavior are those related to work ethic, the desire to give everything, to investing in their work with what they have the most – passion and dedication.
On the third day, the psychologist returns to the drawing circle and asks them to draw, but without any rewards. This time the children say, “I do not like to draw anymore!". It only needed two days to destroy a passion by offering positive external rewards.
This is not the only study that suggests the “carrot-and-stick” approach destroys the love of the game.
There has been about 30 years of research saying the same thing, and a large review of scientific research points to one clear thing - when athletes feel pressured to behave through the use of rewards, it hurts the player in the long run. Relying on rewards is our toxic habit.
"The toxic habit is the way players are motivated by coaches and organizations..."
I can’t count the number of times I have seen a player on a developmental team be promised a chance to move up to a premier team if he or she does x or y, and then the promise is not fulfilled. Rewards don’t help - unfulfilled promises are twice as deadly!
Too much focus on money, adoration, and other rewards can distract attention from the love of the game. When the promised results are delayed or withdrawn, the athlete loses their passion.
Passion is a motivating, intrinsic, long-lasting factor that can be easily destroyed through negative experiences - defeats, quarrels, traumas - or even positive rewards. It’s not working and it hurts players.
We have to stop relying on rewards.
We must stop dangling the chance to be part of a “special academy” or program in front of players as a performance incentive.
We must stop making decisions without explaining the rational to players (not their parents) – there must be transparency in decision-making.
We must stop incentives other than through merit-based decisions.
We must stop promising more than we can deliver – for example, promising the chance to play professionally when you can’t control selection.
We must stop lying to kids about potential when it may not be there.
The toxic habit is the way players are motivated by coaches and their organizations. It is a big problem when coaches emphasize reward systems when 30 years of research says it doesn’t help players develop and degrades the love of the game.
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