Motivation and Complacency

Anyone else constantly struggling keeping their girls motivated throughout a season? I've had the majority of my girls since teeball (now 10U). Most of my girls play basketball as well as softball and we have the same problem in both sports. Every single year for the past 3 years they start out on fire, dont lose a game and then around the 7th or 8th game its like a switch is flipped and it seems that they are just bored and complacent. Its suddenly a huge fight to keep the girls practicing hard and motivated through an entire game. The final 4 or 5 games of any season are always interesting and frustrating as a coach or parent as the girls barely do enough to win, regardless of the competition. We have increased practice frequency, decreased it, lighted the atmosphere, hell, i think we've changed so much in the last two years trying to get them to "finish" and none of it seems to work.

Obviously, the level of competition is an issue as the girls play recreational summer ball in a smallish community (50k) and YMCA ball for basketball. Thinking improved competition will help not only this issue but help the girls grow as ball players we tried to get the parents on board to travel a little. Not alot but once a month take the 90 minute drive to Tulsa or OKC for some one day tourneys or the occasional weekend. Needless to say, less than half the teams parents were willing to take this route.

As a coach, im stuck. While the girls are good enough to win here (and the parents seem to be just fine with that), they arent going to reach the level of play they want to reach by beating up on local teams without someone to push them. Pushing that level of competition in practice only seems to work for half a season, then they all seem to say "why work that hard when i can still have success with half the effort". If i decide to take the girls and travel, i likely lose half my roster.

Deep down i know the answer and what i need to do for the betterment of the girls (most of them anyways) but my question is this, are there things outside of what i have thought of that will help motivate the girls to continue competing, even when they dont need to. Its really sad that as a coach, sometimes i wish they would lose just to wake them up a little bit. We as adults see the "big picture" but in the mind of a 9 or 10 year old, its different. Anyone have any motivational ideas to keep the girls from getting complacent?

Are you allowed to play in a higher age division?

When my 10U girls hit a similar lull, I played them at their secondary positions. That worked with some of them. Been a while now and I don't recall how effective it really was.

CoogansBluff said:

Are you allowed to play in a higher age division?

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In basketball they played a year up starting with Kindergarden (had one girl the same age but a grade higher) and this year will be the first year they play their own age/grade (4th) so it may get even worse.

In softball, we actually talked about moving them up but my 10U team is pro dominantly 8 and 9 year olds, playing against 12 year olds really has me concerned from a safety standpoint, regardless of the skill level.

Another thought is on who is the team leadership and what is their competitive culture?

Over my too many years I have seen too many teams fizzle due to bad team chemistry. Many times the "best" player is automatically annointed the team captain. Too many times these best players have no place in inspirational leadership and can actually be a cancer to the productive nature of the team. Maybe this is not the case but maybe it is....

When things come easily it's tough to keep players motivated. They're already good enough to beat anyone they want when they want. And with the parental attitude you describe, that may be good enough for many of the players and their parents. They are content being big fish in a small pond.

As a long-time coach I can tell you that you can't force your kids to be motivated. You can help them with their motivation if it starts to wane, but you can't give it to them if they really don't have it. Motivation doesn't mean excited to play games at the beginning of the season, or winning against lesser competition. It's a desire to see how good they can become, individually and as a team.

You have to take a long, hard look at your players and figure out what they want from it and whether what they want is the same thing you want. My guess is it's not, and that's where the disconnect is coming from. When the coach is by far the most motivated person on the team it can get difficult.

What you may need to determine is how many of the girls on the current team want more. If there are a few, use them as the core of a team that is willing to travel to play against better competition, and not afraid of losing if it means they're being more challenged. Definitely make sure your own DD is one of them or it will be misery, by the way. Then go out and find a few more who want more as well.

Let the rest stay local and play in the local league. There's nothing wrong with that. There is a level of softball for everyone.

Lou Holtz was once asked how he became such a great motivator of football players. He said he looked for kids who were self-motivated and cut the rest. There's a lot of wisdom there.