Baseball Training: How To Motivate Your Players To Hurry
Motivation is defined as the driving force to achieve goals.
If you are very lucky, you will have a player who acts as a spark plug and supports the team, but don’t forget, even an All-Star player becomes just a teammate if the going gets really tough. In fact, it can hurt a team in certain circumstances if the players suffer from the spark plug.
With that said, let’s go to Brass Tacks, Team motivation begins and ends with the coach. Period. Your team will take on your personality and mental attitude, so be as prepared to teach attitude as you are to instruct hitting.
Spring training is about more than learning physical skills, although it is 90% of the same, but you must also start teaching mental and emotional toughness. Knowing your players is extremely important from all aspects. Observe the reaction of the players as they perform their exercises. Some players will get angry when they fail, others will be embarrassed, others will take it as a learning experience and go about their business. You should take a mental note of how each player reacts so that you can motivate him individually at some point in the season.
ADVICE
You don’t want to raise your voice or raise your fist to motivate a player who is already so eager that they bounce off the dugout walls. This is when an arm around your shoulder and a softer monotonous instruction are required.
“Okay, Johnny, listen. I don’t need a home run. Just make contact. It’s okay.”
Let’s see what we just did. We calm Johnny a little with the soft voice. We let him know that we weren’t expecting him to try to beat it with a home run. We gave him specific instructions, we contacted. Then he reaffirmed everything with an acknowledgment question to which he has to answer.
A player who has shown passive or emotional feelings, anger, when he fails at something requires a different approach.
“Alright Johnny, this is no different than what you do every practice. In fact, I throw faster in batting practice than this pitcher throws. Now go get them.”
What do we achieve? Our voice has a more authoritative tone, which means that we know what we are talking about and are confident that it is up to the task. We remind you that you have already managed to hit pitched baseballs faster than you are about to. One last word of encouragement and an order to do something.
Leading and motivating a team is naturally something different than an individual because it involves multiple styles of motivation at the same time. This is where it is imperative to make the players a team, they are approached as a team and they will respond as a team.
98% of the time when I went to the pitching mound, the entire infield came to the mound. The first thing I did was for everyone to take a deep breath to relax a bit, but mainly so that their minds would have time to calm down and prepare to listen.
No matter the reason for the situation, mistakes, walks or bumps, I made sure they understood that we could not change the situation we were in, we could only react to it. Then he would give them specific instructions and remind them as a “team” that they could get out of this predicament.
The conversation can be like this.
“Alright, everyone take a deep breath. (Wait) Ok, we got into this situation as a team and we will come out of it as a team. I want everyone to come in 4 steps. Ground ball … come home. Fly ball … help each other each other “. Looking at my pitcher “We just need strikes.” Looking at my receiver “Good aim now.”
When leaving the field he would always yell at the outfielders and indicate with his fingers how many outs there were. Not only did that make them refocus, but it reinforced the “Team” feeling.
There are hundreds of different situations that require different methods of motivation and thousands of books, videos, and assorted material with tips on how to manage motivation. Reading or listening to these materials can do nothing more than help improve your understanding of motivating, but do you really have the time?
The important thing is that you are aware that motivation is a necessary skill to successfully coach a baseball team and it is your responsibility, as a coach, to set the tone for the team.
Everyone has their own style and mine can sound quite strange or unrealistic to you, and that’s fine. It worked for me, but another avenue may work much better for you.
I’ll close this segment with this comment:
“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the largest group of individual stars in the world, but if you don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a penny.” Babe Ruth