Motivation | The Key for Greatness

“I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.' Muhammed Ali

So Cristiano Ronaldo has been crowned the Balon D’or for 2013. It is an award which signifies his status as the world’ best footballer (at this present time). For the past four years Lionel Messi has thwarted him for this honour (deservedly so) yet Ronaldo has persevered and continued to perform at exceptionally high standards. There are those who think he did not deserve it due to his team’s lack of success this year yet there is no denying he has been fuelled by a desire to be the world’s best player, a motivation which seen him enhance every part of his game in order to win this award. This idea of striving for awards and trophies is a contentious debate in Britain and one we will discuss here.

What do top-level athletes all have in common? Yes they possess the technical skills, tactical knowledge and the physical attributes necessary for their sport yet above all those who achieve at the top of their sport possess the mindset to be a champion. It has been found by researchers such as Carol Dweck that the difference between becoming an elite professional and staying an amateur is based on what happens in the mind. 

Technique, speed and tactical execution are crucial components in sport, but it is mental toughness which has been found that marks out the very best players. These performers are able to perform when the pressure is highest and the opposition is strongest. Mindset underpins technique and tactics and game intelligence and also mediates how well those qualities are executed on game day.

The power of the mind

Anders Ericsson’s research shows that most world class experts practice between three-five hours a day, no matter what skill they pursue. Now this kind of level of training, focus and dedication requires a strong and dedicated mindset. Therefore a key factor for a young up and coming player is the ability to continue to have high levels of motivation.

The key question therefore is how hard are young players willing to work? Are they willing to sacrifice, be disciplined and possess the drive to succeed  which are all necessary for elite development. They  can’t achieve anything without the work needed to attain those 10,000 hours of key practice.

It may sound simple, yet many athletes cannot deal with these expectations of behaviour and commitment, along with the expectations and pressures of family and friends can increase the burden and pressures of achieving the goal of becoming a professional.

For Coyle their motivation matters because the more you love something the more you want to train and improve. As he proclaims, “virtually every success story seen in history involves someone or some group working harder than their peers, an addiction, obsession, increased practice.” 

Motivation is the key aspect of players progressing. Hard work, obsession and winning are all great, yet what happens if a player experiences failure? This is where mindset is tested the most and where many players suffer. 

Carol Dweck believes by having young children and adults being willing to see times of failure as times of development and learning, is the key for improvement. Dweck’s research has found there are two types of people; those with a ‘fixed’ mindset and those with a ‘growth’ mindset. She believes the type of mindset a person has can determine their ability to succeed.

Her research has found that the way children and young athletes are spoken to and importantly commended, can be a key factor in their development to become an elite athlete. She argues that coaches who praise the talented players for their ‘abilities’, for their ‘natural talent’ are actually detrimentally affecting a players development. 

Dweck argues that by praising work rate over talent, a coach can motivate a player or group to persist and overcome boundaries and see mistakes as learning tools and challenges and not as signs of being un-talented. People who possess the ‘growth mindset’ have been found to be more willing to challenge and “stretch” themselves and will ultimately become better than those deemed ‘naturally talented’. Simply by changing the wording of feedback, coaches could give a player a better opportunity to progress.

So if motivation is the key for athletes to become great then what kind of motivation is required? 

Moments of pain and suffering 

It appears that it is important for development that players experience moments of failure as they need these to improve. This willingness to challenge and persevere with difficult tasks is the hallmark of the growth mindset. As Dweck says “this is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.”

As Dweck says “When we teach people the growth mindset with its focus on development, those ideas about challenge and effort follow. People in a growth mindset don’t just seek challenge, they thrive on it. The bigger the challenge, the more they stretch. And nowhere can it be seen more clearly in the world of sports.”

The player with a ‘growth’ mindset believe in effort and this is what ignites and turns it into accomplishment. Therefore their motivation is to continually improve and not be afraid of failure. See how important this mindset is for the development of a professional player?

There is an example that Dweck uses which is the best lesson which can be taught because it concerns the one of the best ever athletes to play sport. Michael Jordan is regarded as the best basketball player ever, his willingness and drive combined with his immense skill brought success to his Chicago Bulls side.

Yet did you know that he was not selected for his Varsity team in high school? At 17, he was not considered good enough. His reaction to this rejection is the epitome of a why a growth mindset develops elite performers. Jordan did not just accept he wasn’t good enough, but decided to work on his skills, enhance his speed and agility, all through hard work and determination. 

As he says "I think that not making the Varsity team drove me to really work at my game, and also taught me that if you set goals, and work hard to achieve them-the hard work can pay off." 

Motivated to prove his worth, Jordan became the star of Laney's junior varsity squad. And being a late developer he grew four inches while all the time training harder than anyone else. His motivation was a feeling of proving people wrong yet he did so by working harder on his game. Many may have accepted the rejection yet Jordan became the player he was because of it. 

And through all that extra work he put in he became the greatest basketball player to ever play the game. Jordan spoke throughout his career of the failures and mistakes he made and how they were the most important motivational tool for his success, his willingness to try things and fail were what made him great. It really is the ‘growth’ mindset in action isn’t it?

Ronaldo's Motivation

And when we look at Cristiano Ronaldo and consider his journey we see the hardship story again. By all accounts his early life was shaped by hardship; his father often drank too much and it was his mother who kept the food on the table and money for the family. His upbringing may have been difficult and football was not only his release but his inspiration for helping him and his family have a better life. He became highly motivated at a young age to become a great player.

Ronaldo like the other greats in sports had a self-motivation to be the best player in the world. His tears at this weeks awards ceremony were a release and sign of his achievement, his dedication and endless work which has yielded this reward. For him he has strived for this accolade and it is this which has spurred him on. 

It has been difficult in recent years and he has had to wait four years in which time he has seen Messi and Barcelona overcome him and his side yet he has never quit or faltered. That is the sign of a true champion. When others may have lost focus, dedication or belief he continued. 

This is a trait he has had since he was a boy growing up and suffering struggles at Man Utd when he first arrived. The battle with Messi has certainly helped him become a better player. 
Coming second often highlights what an athlete needs to improve, whether technique or the 

whole training regime, as opposed to a complacent champion who doesn't feel the need to improve anything. 

Coming second embeds an incredibly powerful motivational spur to do better. It gives a performer something to strive for, something to work harder for, it is their motivation to improve and it could be their motivation to succeed.

As we can see how athletes respond to failure and learn from it is part of what shapes a champion and this is why motivation and mindset is such a powerful tool for success.

There a few with a greater mindset than Ronaldo. The feeling of hardship, pain and rejection may be the necessary jolt to push talent forward. And yet many in England still fail to appreciate him and what he has achieved? It does sum up our cultural mentality to greatness and success.

Pain and setbacks

In order to achieve success you must inevitably go through periods of pain and hardship. It is very rare to find any story of success that did not involve difficulty and struggle.

Perhaps the difficulties of coming from a broken home, as in the cases of LeBron James and Mike Tyson helps young players achieve greatness? Both lacked a father figure in their upbringing and were brought up by their mothers, it was a time of hardship for them. LeBron's mother was just 16 years old when she had her son and they moved constantly when he was a young child. In the film More Than a Game he discusses how hard it was for him as a youngster and how basketball was a release for his difficulties. Sport was their release in terms of enjoyment and yet also their motivation to achieve more from their lives. 

Lionel Messi experienced similar setbacks as a chilld. He is another world class athlete who proves what can be achieved by overcoming setbacks and disappointment. At 11 years old Messi was deemed to be too small and rejected by many clubs in Argentina. He must have thought his dreams of being like his idol Maradona were over. Yet Barcelona took a risk and gamble on him, they were willing to pay for the injections which he needed and the rewards can be seen now. Messi has repaid and thanked Barcelona for their belief in him and has highlighted his mental toughness and motivation to overcome his setbacks. If all had been plain sailing for Messi, would he be the player he is today? It is doubtful.

The truth is the career of a young footballer is not always easy and straightforward. In fact it may require obstacles and setbacks to allow a player to work harder and not coast. 

In all these stories of those achieving greatness in their sport pain appears necessary for success. These individuals had the mindset to overcome that adversity and strive for greater things. And in the case of all of them their goals were to be the best. What an ambition! It is not easy to achieve this kind of dream, it involves incredible sacrifice, dedication, discipline and immense perseverance. Which is probably why many do not attain these levels. 

Fearful of achievement

In football, could this moment of failure and rejection be the key motivational tool that players need to progress and work harder? It is interesting to ponder, because those who are showered in praise and accolade perhaps do not need to work as hard, believing they already possess the skills necessary. 

These periods of failure and rejection can motivate a player more than any kind of success, understanding defeat and making mistakes improve players, coaches and individuals more than winning. For coaches and academies therefore, the psychology of young individuals is the single most important factor in taking a good player into an elite one.

There is a common argument in Britain about intrinsic motivation over extrinsic motivation and the research shows that those young children who have intrinsic goals and who ‘enjoy’ playing rather than winning games or trophies are generally happier. Of course in some respects this makes sense as there only a minimal amount of trophies, awards and contracts available. Yet in an elite sense this mentality is very restrictive over elite development. 

Continuing to improve is not easy, in fact it has to be hard as you need to push your body and mind to greater levels. Perhaps it is a cultural thing but in Britain achievement is looked as at negative, trying too hard or striving to win and succeed is not looked as favourably.

Compare this to the USA where every young child is told they achieve something, be someone. Is it realistic? Perhaps not. But it gives them a dream, that feeling of hope and desire and it is up to them to achieve that. The British mentality is that of safety first, a feeling of “better not try it in case you fail”. Where is the ambition? The risk? Our cultural mentality is negative and fearful of achievement. Are we as a nation holding our athletes back? 

Yet if we look at the British cycling team we see a model of elite development where they give their athletes every chance of success, every 1% gain is attempted and measured. It is this kind of focus and detail which is necessary from our youth academies and coaches. We are not giving our players the greatest chance of success, with our cultural mentality and our standards.

If failure can be seen to be a key motivational tool, based on a players mindset then when people talk of the benefits of ‘coming second’ we can see something in that. Of course it is not something most coaches recommend but, with hindsight, most champions recognise that this is one key to success.

Developing elite players

In youth academies across the country, the psychology of young individuals can be argued to be the single most important factor in turning a good player into an elite one. Yet ‘sport psychology’ has been viewed negatively in English football for decades. Dan Abrahams, the writer of Soccer Tough believes the word ‘psychology’ comes heavily loaded and suggests ‘problem’ or mental health.

Young footballers have many barriers to restrict their development to becoming a professional. Dealing with injury, setbacks and making mistakes can all have a detrimental effect on a player during his developmental years. Being able to train the mind and work on improving a players mindset has become an important tool in helping young footballers deal with setbacks and allow them to continue on their journey. As Delice Coffey argues “mental toughness is a learned skill, that it is a necessity for all athletes to master and needs to be trained as frequently and seriously as you would train your body physically.”

Dan Abrahams argues that “young players need to improve when it comes to managing themselves emotionally and socially on and off the pitch. The ability to cope with adversity is a strong mediator of speed of skill acquisition.”

In conclusion if we are serious about developing elite footballers who can compete with the best in the world then we must seek to use all disciplines open to us. Sport psychology has started to become more accepted both with senior players and with youth academies and many are waking up to the understanding that sport psychology is a valuable tool to further the development of football players of all ages. 

When you listen to the world’s best players at this time, Messi and Ronaldo, talk is always about their need to improve further, to keep honing their skills, being better constantly. They never seem to be content and thus continue to improve and be the best. Imagine if we could make all our players believe that hard work and practice will improve performance, there are no better examples for players than Messi and Ronaldo. 

What we need to consider in terms of elite development is that the route to greatness is never easy and kind, it is incredibly difficult and a reason why many fail to reach it. Our job as coaches is to facilitate young athletes development and help them reach new levels. We need to be more creative and demanding of them and understand that if it's too 'nice', it probably isn't good enough. We must do more to push our young athletes minds and bodies to new levels. We must create a mindset of dedication, sacrifice and perseverance to push beyond limits and boundaries.

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