Crossmaglen have been winning titles for years, because they follow simple guidelines

Crossmaglen will hope to retain their Ulster Club title next year as Dublin will want back-to-back All Ireland title success this coming summer.

Back-to-back titles are common in most sports but it’s generally accepted that it’s a difficult feat to achieve, as Dublin, Kerry, Donegal, Tyrone and Cork have found in the last decade of All Irelands. The same fate befell Manchester City, Chelsea in recent premiership years and Ireland couldn’t put together back-to-back Six Nations titles in that decade.

Vince Lombardi said, “Coaches who can outline plans on a blackboard are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their players and motivate.”

Over the next two articles I present a menu of 32 Player Motivation Guides to help your team win titles.

Before you use any of these, realise there is no one size fits all solution. Use only examples that you feel will affect your team positively.

Guide 1: Recognise the importance of player motivation

Good coaches teach and motivate. Understand how to motivate and spend the time needed to motivate players. Effective motivation is one of the main needs of successful teams coupled with ‘hard work’ = committed effort.

Guide 2: Do not ‘run’ at the end of a session

This is a surprise maybe but it ruins your session. Conditioning at the end means players will ‘save themselves’ – less effort – inside the rest of the session, because they know the running is coming. Mix conditioning into the session to achieve constant high intensity. Fast paced games/exercises which condition works best.

Guide 3: Be a teacher

A team achieves by player progress, not ‘by wins and losses’. Treat players as students, coach them by discovery learning, help them improve constantly. As simple as that.

Guide 4: Explain the reason why

Understanding breeds belief, breeds learning, breeds effective action; eg, coach the correct way, show the incorrect way re-coach the correct way.

Guide 5: Show improvement and growth the entire season

Motivate by constant feedback on their effort and performance and emphasise and affirm their improvements. Never let players or sessions be ‘stale’. Sessions should be progressive all season to encourage learning. Make sure you are confident, organised, using varied methods. Remember, a coach’s mood and approach is reflected in their players. Remind them of their improvements often.

Guide 6: Celebrate small success, both team and individual

Celebrate – (i) an excellent warm-up; (ii) meeting a goal, finishing a difficult activity, anything learnt or made better, evidence of teamwork, etc. Make it fun.

Guide 7: Relentlessly reward hard work and give positive reinforcement

Lots of ‘high fives’, surprise treats, uplifting words, provide a meal/pizza, etc, a cinema visit/day away. These focus on positive goals rather than negative events.

Guide 8: Set tangible goals

Short, medium and long term. To achieve goals, three steps must be adhered to:- (i) they must be specific and easily understood; (ii) they must be measurable and be measured; (iii) feedback must be frequently given. Any one of these missed/neglected, that goal will fail.

Guide 9: Measure performance

Use self-appraisal (player) compared with coach appraisal to improve performance. When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back on, the rate of improvement accelerates significantly.

Guide 10: Show you care and improve relationships

Players don’t care what you know ‘til they know you care. So, learn things about them not connected to your sport to aid conversation. Talk to each player at least once a week, etc. Offer help with family, exams, etc, if needed.

Guide 11: Inspire players

A recent article of mine on inspiration methods was published here recently. Find it. In the meantime, remember, ‘The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.’ Think John Wooden.

Guide 12: Find out what makes each player tick

This is hard but rewarding work. You must find out what each individual player’s motivators; are (his buttons) and if you know his ‘buttons’ and press them positively, that player will deliver a high quality performance.

Guide 13: Make activities, exercises and sessions fun and competitive

Players respond to varied routines which are fun and game related. They don’t respond to monotonous routines which are super hard with a yelling coach.

Guide 14: Establish habits

Mimic the competitive game in practice sessions, ie, give 100% in warm-ups, every activity, every small-sided game, every full game. Accept nothing less because this is the only way to maintain intensity throughout the entire season as players won’t know any different if they give 100% in all they do.

Guide 15: Competition

Motivate players by adding competition to each session, eg, divide the squad into ‘equal ability’ groups and have a team challenge each session in skill or tactical or mental or fitness or teamwork.
Every six weeks reward the winning team, each player donates £5 each (£150 total in squad of 30). Five teams of six compete in the challenges each of the six weeks – winning team gets £100, runner-up £30 and third placed £20.
Guide 16: Keep sessions fresh, fast-paced and moving
Use 7-10 minutes games, have few stoppages (be a guide on the side coach).

Hopefully these ‘16’ have whetted your appetite to want next week’s ‘16’ to help you win titles, even ‘back-to-back.