Luis’ parents took him to training every afternoon. He didn’t particularly like football, but he didn’t mind going either. He had a good time with his teammates, although sometimes the coach would draw his attention to him because he said he was distracted and didn’t know anything. On Saturdays he played games. Usually he didn’t play much, but he didn’t mind because he also had a good time on the bench talking to his friends. The truth is that I didn’t understand why some people took the results of matches so seriously.

His partner Pedro was a boy who worked hard in training. He always arrived on time and was super attentive to the coach’s directions. He liked to improve . Sometimes he even stayed longer practicing what he couldn’t quite master. On match days he wasn’t nervous, because he knew that he would play for a few minutes. His coach sometimes told him that he didn’t have any blood in his veins.

However, Hector was the opposite. In the games, he “worked his ass off,” as he put it. He liked to win above all else. Everyone told him he was very good, and the truth is that he had great qualities. But he didn’t like to train at all. He used to arrive late and sometimes he even missed with some excuse. During training he used to distract others with his jokes and didn’t pay much attention to the coach’s instructions. It was only when he was playing games that he really got his act together. The coach always gave him a starting place because, even if he didn’t train much, he was very good.

For his part, Juan was a very committed player. He trained hard, always trying to do things a little better. He paid a lot of attention to his coach’s instructions and tried to rehearse everything he learned in training to put it into practice on the day of the game. On Saturdays he was unstoppable on the field. He wanted to win at all costs , but he also tried to do things better than in the previous match. He knew what he was doing well and he took advantage of it, but he also knew what he could improve and tried to do it every training session.

These four types of players, and especially the first three, tend to be on almost all base soccer teams. The way they behave both in training and in matches has a lot to do with the type of motivation that prevails in them.

Why it is important to have a balanced motivation

Motivational ego orientation is that of those players who have their goals set on improving themselves in relation to others. They measure their own value in relation to others. They care about being a starter, playing more minutes, scoring more goals, being the best…

Motivational task orientation is that of those players whose goal is personal improvement with respect to themselves. They focus on improving their own technical, tactical, physical and psychological skills that can make them a better player than they were last season. They focus on aspects such as improving their mastery of the ball with the opposite foot, making better passes, learning to swing, taking position on the pitch, improving their stamina or speed…

The players’ motivation moves in a continuum between these two orientations. In this way, Luis would have a low ego motivation and also a low task motivation. Typically, if we do nothing, a boy like Luis will end up quitting soccer to do another type of sport or activity that appeals to him more.

In a wrong way, these kids are usually tried to instill a motivation towards the result, trying to make winning something very attractive for them and that way they get more involved in the activity. However, the first step would be to try to motivate them towards the task, towards their own personal improvement. In this way, they will achieve greater self-confidence and, in the event that they finally abandon football, they will have learned some important values for their lives: the importance of effort, constant improvement, self-evaluation, personal work to contribute to the team, … Their time in football will have been worthwhile.

Motivation management

Peter already possesses this high motivational orientation to the task and yet maintains a low motivational orientation to the ego. Perhaps Peter needs a little push to take that step to translate that personal improvement into competition results. The positive reinforcement of his progress by the coach and his parents can help him to strengthen his self-confidence and from there encourage him to achieve some result goals. You should start with goals that he sees as attainable and move on. As he plays more minutes, seeing his progress translate into important contributions for the team, he will feel more confident and his motivation towards the ego will grow, without abandoning his motivation towards the task.

John is in the ideal situation. He’s the kind of player any coach would want for his team. He has a fantastic balance between the two types of motivation, so when he encounters difficulties in results, he will know how to deal with them. This type of motivational guidance will also help him to face his current and future life situations , outside of sports.

However, Hector is at risk. Kids like Hector are people with innate skills that have made them stand out from a young age. However, because they feel superior to others, they have not acquired the capacity for work and effort for personal improvement . As Hector grows up, these skills will become equal to those of his peers and, as he has not learned to be self-critical, he will always blame others for poor sports results (scoring fewer goals, playing fewer minutes, …). They will start making excuses like “the coach has a thing for me”, “in this team they are all packages”, “they don’t give me good passes”…

If we don’t remedy this, Hector will start by changing teams, thinking that this will improve his results. But as long as his motivational orientation is not minimally directed towards the task, Hector will continue to be unable to cope with adverse situations. Finally, it is very likely that Hector will abandon football, possibly abandoning all types of sport. And that he will abandon it in a bad way, trying to look elsewhere for that recognition that he used to have from others. A lot of kids like Hector end up getting into trouble looking for the praise of the gangs, misdirecting his life, trying to stand out in some way to feed his ego.

Taking advantage of options to enhance personal growth

Both coaches and parents must learn to recognize what kind of motivational guidance our children have when they set goals. And even more, to recognize what kind of motivational guidance we are reinforcing in them with our comments. Do we encourage them when they improve the execution of a task or do we only look at the result of the game? Where do we put the focus? It’s up to us to ensure that our kids learn a lot from their time in football or that it becomes the opposite.