Cheerleading Coaches: How do you praise your team?
It happens every day. You, as a cheerleading coach, are constantly giving feedback to your squad as you observe them in practice. But did you know that the way you offer praise can affect the motivation of your cheerleaders?
Psychology professor, Carol Dweck, studied what happens when people praise others for ability versus praising for effort and the effect this has on young people’s motivation and performance.
The results showed that 90% of young people who were praised for effort (“you worked really hard on this;” “your persistence is helping you succeed,”) wanted to perform tasks which were challenging and from which they could learn (and not necessarily immediately succeed).
Two-thirds of young people praised for ability wanted to carry out a task which ensured further success; they weren’t as interested in being challenged.
When both groups were given a set of harder problems, the students who were praised for their ability (“you are so smart;” “you are really good at this”) reported the least enjoyment. They were also the least likely to take problems home to work on. Also, the students who were praised for their ability (not effort) demonstrated considerable negativity after failure (“I am stupid”) even though they had had a previous string of successes!
The group that had been praised for ability also showed a significant decline in performance compared to those who had been praised for effort.
The group that had been praised on effort continued to enjoy the task even when they encountered problems and they were more likely to persist when they confronted challenges. This group (effort) on the whole performed much better than the other group (ability).
How does this translate to cheerleading? Well, I would suggest cheer coaches will enjoy more success with their cheerleaders when they praise them for their efforts rather than their abilities. Why should this be true? Effort is something we can control. We either exert effort to learn, to improve, to refine, or we do not. It’s a matter of choice. Ability is innate; we either have it or not and thus we cannot control it per se.
So take note of how you give feedback to your cheerleaders. It’s fine to say, “good job!” or “great focus on that last jump” but be wary of saying, “you’re the best flyer we’ve ever had.” Even if this is true, add to this: “…your focus and practice time is paying off; you’re really enhancing your natural talent by all your hard work.”
Tags: cheer coaches, cheerleaders, Cheerleading, cheerleading coach, motivation