A presentation about motivation, the coach's role as an extrinsic motivator and how to support intrinsic motivation within athletes.

1. THE COACH AS AN EXTRINSIC
MOTIVATOR
and a supporter of intrinsic development in athletes

2. What we will cover
 Extrinsic/Intrinsic motivation
1. What is it?
2. How does it affect our athletes behavior?
 Coach as an extrinsic motivator
1. What tools does a coach have to extrinsically motivate
their athlete/s?
2. How should they be used?
 Using the tools
1. Using extrinsic motivation in a way that will inspire
intrinsic motivation
2. My changes to my own extrinsic feedback

3. But, first, Motivation!
 Motivation is determined by things such as:
 the age and skill level of the team
 personnel and personalities of the team involved
 Different coaching philosophies
 Motivation is made up of both extrinsic and
intrinsic factors.

4. Extrinsic motivation
 Extrinsic motivation is when people engage in
the activity for the rewards or avoiding
punishment. Any external influence is referred to
as extrinsic motivation
This is broken down into 4 categories
 External regulation
 Introjected regulation
 Identified regulation
 Intergrated regulation

5.  External regulation
behaviour related to receiving
reward/avoiding punishment
 E.g. “I will go to training today so I don’t sit on the
bench this weekend”
 Introjected regulation
Similar behaviour to external regulation
but the person has internalised the reasons
for their actions
 E.g “I will go to training today otherwise I will feel
guilty”

6.  Identified regulation
The athlete internalises their actions so
much that it becomes part of the athlete’s
values.
 E.g “I will go to training today as it will increase my
performance!”
 Intergrated regulation
The athlete starts to incorporate extrinsic
factors into their values system
 E.g. A player will go to bed instead of going out
with his friends so that he plays soccer well the
next morning and doesn’t get into trouble.

7. Intrinsic motivation
 Intrinsic motivation refers to doing an activity for the pleasure
and satisfaction derived from engaging in the activity.
(Mageau, A, 2003)
 It can be broken down into 3 categories
 Intrinsic motivation to learn
 Satisfaction from knowledge/competency
 Intrinsic motivation towards accomplishments
 Self-challenge
 Intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation
 Satisfaction from being active etc.
 I will use the same example of the person going to the gym. If the
athlete is intrinsically motivated they will go to the gym with no
reward other than the satisfaction they feel being there, knowing
what to do and challenging themselves.

8. What behaviours result from
Intrinsic motivation?
 Intrinsic motivation can invoke many positive behaviors within an
athlete because of their genuine interest in the activity, the fact
that they are participating out of choice and because they get
satisfaction and enjoyment from participating.
The association of applied sports psychology list the benefits as:
 Better task-relevant focus
 Fewer changes (ups and downs) in motivation
 Less distraction
 Less stress when mistakes are made
 Increased confidence and self-efficacy
 Greater satisfaction
 Achieve ‘Flow’ or ‘being in the zone’

9. Flow
 Flow stems from intrinsic motivation. It is
described as 'the a perfect match between
the perceived demands of an activity and the
perceived ability to meet the demands‘
(Karageorghis, C, 2012) or being ‘In the zone’

10.  The simplest example of flow is with children.
When they are on the field they are
completely immersed in the activity and
completely unaffected by extrinsic factors.
 They do not yet know that the frame of mind
they are in is actually the mind set for peak
performance.
 As suggested, ‘Intrinsic motivation usually
comes when there are no extrinsic factors
being placed upon the person.’
(Karageorghis, C, 2012)

11. What behaviour results from
extrinsic motivation?
 Most behaviours that arise in athletes when
external influences have become the focus are
negative. i.e When the athlete is only involved
for the reward or to avoid guilt by not being
involved.
 The association for applied sports psychology
lists these behaviors:
 Less interest, value, and effort towards
achievement
 Anxiety
 Difficulty coping with failure

12.  If the emphasis is continually on rewards or
avoiding punishment the athlete will feel
what is referred to as ‘Amotivation’ or ‘the
absence of motivation’.
 The size of the rewards will need to increase
constantly to maintain motivation.
 Desire to complete the task on their own
(intrinsic motivation) disappears.
 The athlete starts to feel coerced into the
activity, further diminishing the feelings of
satisfaction and pride for completing task
(the characteristics of intrinsic motivation).

13. However, extrinsic motivation is a part of all
motivation and cannot be avoided. In fact,
when extrinsic rewards are used correctly by
the coach they can result in positive
behaviors:
 Greater interest, enjoyment, and effort
towards achievement
 Desire to learn new skills or strategies
 Positive coping styles

14. Making sense of it all
 We know that our athletes, regardless of
sport, will have both intrinsic and extrinsic
factors affecting them.
 Extrinsic motivation, as the focus, becomes less
effective and eventually destructive to intrinsic
motivation.
 Intrinsically motivated athletes perform much
better than extrinsically motivated athletes
 As coaches, we have to inspire our athletes to
feel enjoyment, pride and satisfaction in their
achievements to develop intrinsic motivation.

15. Coach as an extrinsic
motivator
Coaches have two main weapons in their
arsenal when it comes to motivating our
athletes and these are:
 Feedback
AND…..

16.  Rewards

17. First, a little bit on
feedback!
 Our main job as a coach is to deliver feedback both
to motivate and to instruct. One use of Motivational
feedback is the use of phrases such as “Keep going!”
or “Keep up the pace” (Relevant to the situation) to
enhance confidence, energy and effort.
 The second use of motivational feedback is when
feedback stimulates a positive or negative feeling to
the athlete. For example, you (the coach) call out to
your athlete and correct their technique on the
court. This causes the athlete to feel a level of
dissatisfaction with their performance (negative
feeling) and, in turn, they work on it and improve.

18. How to give instructional
feedback
 Instructional feedback should cover 3 areas
1. The specific behaviors that need to be performed
e.g. the stages of a squat, phases of throwing a ball
2. The levels of proficiency that should be achieved
e.g. appropriate use of force throughout lift, throw
3. The athletes current level of performance
e.g. How they performed all of the behaviours
compared to baseline.

19. Turning feedback intrinsic!
 If you wish to turn your athletes intrinsic research suggests that you must
adopt a autonomy supportive style of coaching (Mallet,C). Put
simply, this means you give your athletes a large degree of input and
freedom over their training program. The points listed below will help
you adapt your style.
As an autonomy supportive coach:
 Provide choice within reason
 Provide reason/s for tasks to be performed
 Demonstrate respect for other’s feelings and perspective
 Allow athletes to work independently and to have input into solutions for
solving problems
 Provide competent feedback that contributes to positive behavior
changes
 Avoid coaching behaviours that seek to control athletes — avoid coercion
and bullying. (adapted from Margeau and Vallerand 2003)

20. Goal setting…
 is an effective way to improve intrinsic
motivation within your athlete and an
important part of building rapport. Make sure
they are heavily involved in setting goals.
 Setting challenging and realistic goals will inspire
determination and drive and once the goal is
achieved the feeling of satisfaction, confidence
and enjoyment will develop them intrinsically.

21. Verbal feedback
 When giving feedback to the athlete, make
sure you present it in such a way that makes
them reflect on their own performance.
 e.g. A client has just finished performing a squat
with less weight but with improved technique, I
would say "How did that feel compared to the last
time you performed the exercise? Did you feel
more muscles being used? etc."

22. Verbal feedback
 Also, in terms of providing verbal feedback,
with the same example, I would make sure to
point out that they improved their technique
and relate it to the clients goals.
 e.g "You performed the exercise using more
muscles with this technique and, since you're here
to lose weight, this means you are burning more
energy in this exercise than last time".

23. Personalised Feedback
These are the changes I have made to my own style of
providing feedback in a gym setting:
 Goal setting discussions where clients choose the goal and we
tailor it together,
 I provide feedback on progress rather than results,
 I always relate what they do back to their goals,
 I get my clients to self-evaluate,
 I incorporate ‘homework’ exercises or research to make them
reflect
 I make sure they are proud of all of their achievements.
Not all of my clients are intrinsically motivated, but they are all
improving and requiring less external influence than before!

24. Rewards – Some useful rules
Human beings as a whole respond well to extrinsic rewards. The use of incentives or
rewards is extremely useful for a coach in inspiring motivation.
The special olympics website has 7 rules to rewarding. Using these simple points you
will make your rewarding much more effective and more likely to develop
intrinsic values within your athletes.
 Reward the performance, not the outcome.
 Reward athletes just as much for their effort as you do for the desired outcome.
 Reward little accomplishments on the way to learning an entire skill.
 Reward the learning and performance of desired emotional and social skills too.
 Reward frequently, especially when new skills are being learned.
 Reward as soon as possible when new skills are learned.
 Reward an athlete when they have earned it.

25. Rewards to intrinsic
 Rewards can be a very powerful tool in cases where intrinsic
motivation is not present at first.
 I'll use the example of a person in the gym who has just
started training, has no routine yet and feels like sessions
are a chore.
 Arrange with your client a goal and reward such as 'If you
come to every session this week, no matter how you are
feeling, you can have your favorite dinner even though its
not in your diet plan'.
 This will make the participant feel like they have
control, satisfaction when they complete the goal
and, even with an extrinsic reward being
involved, subconsciously the internal rewards they feel will
be the focus.

26. Rewards to intrinsic
To avoid the problem, mentioned earlier, of
rewards needing to be larger as time goes on
to maintain motivation, you should start to
deemphasize rewards and start focusing on
internal rewards that they start to feel.
E.g. “Well done, Brian! You made it through the
whole session today with less breaks! How do
you feel?”

27. Personal changes to Rewards
An example of the changes I have made with my
own clients would be with someone I will call
‘Bob’.
 Bob has been my client for a year now and he has been
a difficult person to motivate. Our sessions used to
rely completely on rewards to get him to the gym and
get him to work.
 Thinking I had to plan ahead for this, I started
scheduling Friday as the day I would reward him.
However, this became a trap as every week I had to
think of new constructive rewards and implement
them. This started getting more difficult while
motivating Bob less and less. He also was never
involved in choosing the reward.

28. So it changed!
I was breaking a lot of the rules I presented earlier
and it was turning out exactly as my research
suggested it would. Poor extrinsic motivation!
 I cancelled Friday as rewards day and instead started
to think of my rewarding as more spontaneous. This
made him start to work harder during the whole week
as he was no longer thinking ‘Well, I’ll work hard on
Thursday as it is closer to my rewards day!’
 I no longer rewarded Bob just for showing up! This
puts too much emphasis on the reward as the reason
to train.
 I started to reward him for showing signs of positive
attitude towards the gym

29. Where is Bob now?
 Bob is still highly extrinsically motivated but I
have started to notice a shift in the following
ways:
 Bob no longer asks about the rewards and when
he recieves them he reacts less to them,
 He has a happier, more enthusiastic attitude to
training,
 He has started talking about his personal goals
and achieving them in the way he used to talk
about receiving external rewards.

30. Take this home with you!
Most people I meet in the gym are not
intrinsically motivated. They come to me for
guidance down that path. From the beginning
you want to make them form a genuine interest
in the activity, whatever it may be.
If you expect and embrace their initial desire for
rewards, and use it as a way to build their
intrinsic motivation, you then only have to
encourage this growth with your feedback and
rewards.

31. By taking a autonomy supportive style of
coaching you provide them with choice,
freedom, meaning and involvement in their
activity on a level that will develop the 3 types
of intrinsic motivation.
As they start to shift from extrinsic to intrinsic
you can further reduce extrinsic influence until
it does not impact their motivation at all.

32. Bibliography
 H, Stephanie, 2007, Association of Applied Sports Psychology, Extrinsic Rewards and Motivation, accessed:
02/04/2012, http://www.appliedsportpsych.org/resource-center/coaches/articles/extrinsicrewards
 Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, Special Olympics, Coaching Guides - Positive Reinforcement and Rewards
[Online], Accessed: 02/04/2012,
http://sports.specialolympics.org/specialo.org/Special_/English/Coach/Coaching/Principl/Positive.htm
 Karageorghis, C, et al., 2012, Human Kinetics, Balance extrinsic and intrinsic motivation for success [Online],
accessed: 01/04/2012, http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/balance-intrinsic-and-extrinsic-
motivation-for-success
 Mageau, G and Vallerand, R, 2003, The coach-athlete relationship: a motivational model, Journal of Sports Science,
volume 21, p885-888, accessed: 01/04/2012, http://groups.jyu.fi/sporticus/lahteet/LAHDE_4.pdf
 Mallet, C, 2005, Australian Sports Commission, Understanding motivation to enhance the quality of coaching
[Online], accessed: 01/04/2012,
http://www.ausport.gov.au/sportscoachmag/psychology2/understanding_motivation_to_enhance_the_quality_of
_coaching
 Martens, Rainer, 1987, Coaches Guide to Sports Psychology, Human Kinetics, Lower Mitcham, South Australia
 Vallerand, R, 2004, 'Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation in Sport', Encyclopedia of Applied Technology, Volume 2, p428-
430, accessed: 01/04/2012, http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r26710/LRCS/papers/128.pdf
 Weinberg, Robert, 2007, Foundations of Sport and Exercise Physiology, Human Kinetics, Lower Mitcham, South
Australia

33. THE END
Presented by Jeremy Phillip Stephens
(U3025931)