Athletes Motivation
Flosha, 13.01.-03.05.2026
The problem of the athletes motivation is of the utmost importance. A coach can have the most technical knowledge in the world and know perfectly how he can teach an athlete the elements he needs to perform, but if the process, this path of getting the athletes from this point A to point B is so demotivating, so hard, so painful or so long that the athlete stops walking with you, stops training, then all your knowledge and technical expertise will be in vain.
If there is an easier path, that works just as well and leads to the very same result in shorter time, then it should be taken. But what if there simply is no easier path? Acrobatic elements are difficult, they are hard to learn and there is no way around it. How can you then influence the athlete’s motivation?
(1) Idols or living Examples: Without idols, others who have walked the same path before and that can be seen performing what the coach wants them to perform one day, it will be very diffcult. It is always easier and often necessary to follow in the footsteps of others instead of carving a completely new path all on ones own. If one cannot see others doing an element, one may much easier give up, saying that it is impossible. Knowing that some others can do it somewhere in the world doesn’t help much, as they will then just be considered as superhuman and not being able to compare them with oneself, especially for children. They need to see it directly and get in touch with those, to confirm that these are regular humans like themselves who went exactly through the same struggle and reached the goal. Seeing them working as hard as the coach expects from them will also normalise this very hard training and they will be able to adjust to it much easier, that otherwise may feel like an unbearable, inhuman hardship. But living examples will give them confidence. Thus, one of the most motivating factors is whether or not the athletes have living, active idols around them. If there are just a few who walked the path, pushed hard and reached a high level of skill, then this will help tremendously to pull others up with them, otherwise athletes will often be stuck and progress will be slow, as the goal is too surreal. If there aren’t any such living examples around, then a coach can at least try to substitute this lack by bringing the athletes to another place occasionally where there are such higher level athletes, going to camps, competitions or even just showing them motivational videos.
(2) Having a vision/a goal. The coach always has a goal, but how can one expect ones athletes to share it and work passionately towards it if they don’t know about or don’t agree with that goal? It is important to develop a vision together and formulate goals to and with the athletes that they accept as their own. When you have no clear goal in mind, then how can you confidently walk any path? Since you don’t know where it is leading or where you are supposed to go. A subfactor here: Even if one knows and shares the goal it may not be clear to an athlete, why or how what the coach is doing or letting them do will lead them to this goal, which exact purpose particular exercises serve etc. If the coach explains to the athlete, helps him to visualise and feel how and why a particular exercise will help him and is necessary in order to reach the goal and ultimately to fulfill the vision, the athlete will be motivated much more.
(3) Having very small subgoals in incremental steps: If the vision is very lofty, the goal strived for very difficult to achieve, then the path to it will be very long too. A very lofty vision can be very motivating to work for, but also very devastatingly far away. If you only have that far goal in mind, that is so far that you cannot even see it yet, it will be hard to trust, in yourself, in the coach, in the partner, that it will ever be possible to achieve. Therefore, it will motivate much to have smaller goals that can be achieved faster, in shorter time and that can be seen as incremental steps on the path towards the final goal in the distance. Then, instead of only seeing the seemingly endless path, the athlete can see the next small goal, and when reaching it the next comes into sight and so on.