I had an interesting string of chats with two very qualified coaches today that I’d like to share with you and get your thoughts on…
It started with this quote:

The ones who want to achieve & win championships motivate themselves. -Mike Ditka

Coach 1: How do we balance that with coaching?

Me: Teach our athletes how to motivate themselves initially so they can continue to do so I thought about that same question a lot too in fact.

Coach 1: At what point do we decide when they are doing it on their own? Need more time to “learn how”, or just really don’t have it and never will be. When I talked to Taryne Mowatt for instance she said she doesn’t like working out, but does it in order to succeed. At some point she had to persuaded then the Champion in her ran with it. Is it that point when we encourage something and they do twice as much on their own? At what point do you think Candrea knew she had “that” in her?

Me: When the love for achievement out-battles the hate for sacrifice…I think coaches help ignite the fire and Champions learn to run with the flame….

Coach 2: Too bad we are in such an entitlement era, maybe some of the kids would try this.

Coach 1 to Coach 2: Exactly. Struggling to figure out if girls need more time for the inner “champion” to be unleashed because they’ve never really had to compete, or if they just don’t have the “gene” and I should stop pushing. Its always easy in hindsight to know why someone became a champion. But hard to know when giving up on someone might have been 1 week too soon.

What are your thoughts? How do we balance this with coaching? What is a coach’s role in the process of motivation? Is an athlete born with it or is it developed?