As a parent, coach or team captain, you have a responsibility to motivate your football players to do their best while on the field. This means playing hard, playing focused and playing to win. Even the most successful team has room for improvement when it comes to motivation for the game. By preparing your team well, planning attainable goals and offering incentives, you can help your team feel more motivated and confident, resulting in harder, more effective game play.
Step 1
Prepare your team for the upcoming game by having them view film or video of your opponents and holding regular practices. This will help give your players confidence that they can win their next game, which will motivate them to play harder overall. Drills and scrimmages along with play meetings can also help to prepare your team members for victory.
Step 2
Set attainable goals as a team, complete with incentives for meeting those goals. For instance, if you want your defense to play harder, set a goal to only allow seven points to be scored by the other team during the game. This leaves enough room for slight error while putting your focus on defensive strategy. Offer and deliver an incentive such as a team pizza night, a lighter practice or a games and movie night.
Step 3
Develop or adopt a team motto or quote that you repeat before every game and during time outs. Whether it's popular song lyrics that get your team pumped up or a quote such as "united we play, united we win," for team unity, repeat the motto, print the motto on shirts and lead the crowd in chanting to help motivate your players in the fourth quarter.
Step 4
Offer your own praise and support when you see a particularly effective play on the field. While it may be tempting to threaten or degrade your players when they aren't playing to your standards, that can cause a loss of confidence. Instead, buoy up your players by making them feel confident in themselves and their teammates. This results in a more energized mood, which can translate to playing harder for the win.
Step 5
Ask some players to call plays and hold leadership roles within the team. Giving the appropriate team members a portion of the responsibility of management gives them pride in their team and a willingness to play harder to prove themselves. Seeing other teammate promoted to management roles could motivate other players to work harder and be more responsible to attain the same recognition.
References
- Dummies.com; Coaching Football by Motivating Players; Martin Signore
- Football Saskatchewan; Motivating Others; Tom Sargeant
- "100 Ways to Motivate Others: How Great Leaders Can Produce Insane Results Without Driving People Crazy': Steve Chandler and Scott Richardson; 2005
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