How can cheerleading coaches motivate their team?
Yesterday I wrote about cheerleading coaches who yell at their cheerleaders. I suspect many do this because they truly believe it is a way to motivate athletes. But does it work?
John Wooden, known as one of the best athletic coaches ever (he coached the UCLA basketball team to 10 NCAA national championships) has a few things to say about this topic. Mr. Wooden, who died recently, was a luminary who was named Coach of the Century by ESPN, was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor. The guy has some credibility!
Many coaches have looked to John Wooden for advice on how to work with a team so I thought I would offer some of his wisdom and apply it to cheerleading.
Mr Wooden thought that coaches resort to punishment due to a lack of understanding of the limitations of punishment plus not having the skills to create motivation based on pride rather than fear.
The coach’s mission, according to Wooden, is to “get those under his/her supervision to consistently perform at their peak level in ways that benefit the team.”
Wooden said that the “well chosen carrot was almost always more powerful and longer lasting than the stick.” However, a carrot can become a stick by the coach withholding a properly selected carrot as “punishment” and as a motivator.
What does he mean by carrots? Wooden found that intangibles worked best – especially approval and recognition! Of course, sincere approval also instills pride and enhances confidence. (Mr. Wooden wanted a team filled with pride, not fear.) As he put it, “Pride in the team and commitment to its mission are fundamental components of competitive greatness. Wise use of the carrot can facilitate this, especially in combination with prudent use of the stick.”
More on Coach Wooden soon…
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Tags: cheerleader, cheerleaders, Cheerleading, cheerleading coaching, confidence, John Wooden, motivation