The quality of any tennis performance is influenced by three factors: ability, motivation, and the difficulty of the task. Of these factors, only one, motivation, is entirely within the control of the player. Consequently, coaches should focus much of their energy on developing and maintaining a high level of motivation in their players. This task is not easy because of the length and intensity of the competitive season and the mental, emotional, and physical stress the athletes are under during this period.
What is Motivation?
Simply put, motivation is the ability to initiate and persist at a task. This desire to participate in an activity comes from the belief that it provides some type of intrinsic (e.g., satisfaction, joy) or extrinsic (e.g., validation from others, wealth) rewards. At a practical level, it is these rewards that enable players to keep working hard in the face of boredom, fatigue, physical pain, and the desire to do other things. Though intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can both be effective in the short term with players, research has shown that intrinsic motivation provides the longest lasting effect on participation and achievement. This is because the presence of extrinsic rewards can vary or, quite possibly, disappear. However, tennis players have control over their intrinsic rewards and can utilize them at any time. Thus, with all players, self-motivation is ideal.
Highly self-motivated players are willing to do everything they can to become the best that they can be and are not dependent on others for rewards. This drive must be directed into physical conditioning, technical training, mental preparation, and general lifestyle including diet, sleep, school, family and social relationships. A simple progression helps illustrate the importance of motivation to performance: High Motivation! Total Preparation! Maximum Performance.
Symptoms of Low Motivation
It is not often difficult to identify those players who lack motivation. These athletes have a lack of interest in some or all aspects of training, give less than 100% effort, and may skip training altogether. They also may shorten their training routines or practices, use minor injuries to get out of training and take unnecessary days off.
Developing Motivation
Regular training partners.
No matter how hard players train alone, they will work that much harder if they have someone pushing them. A useful way to increase motivation is have players work in pairs. This is especially effective if the players are of similar ability, and have similar goals and training programs. On any given day of training, at least one of them will be motivated to work hard. They will also be more dedicated if they know someone else is counting on them.
Identify greatest competitor.
Another effective motivator is to ask your players who is their greatest competitors. Have them place the name or a picture of that competitor where they can see it regularly. Also, you can periodically ask them whether they are working as hard as their competitor.
Motivational keys.
The more players can reminded to stay motivated, the more it will sink in. A useful way to constantly remind them is to identify some motivating keywords, e.g., hustle, go for it, phrases, e.g., “if you’re going to be a bear, be a grizzly,” and photographs, e.g., Sampras or Graf, and place them around the club house, particularly above the door as they go to practice or train.
Ask daily questions.
Finally, there are two questions that you can ask your players at the beginning and end of every day. Before training, ask your them, “What can you do today to become the best tennis player you can be?” After training, ask them, “Did you do everything possible today to become the best player you can be?”
Training diary.
It is reinforcing for players to see improvement in different areas of their training and performances. An effective way for them to clearly see their progress is by keeping a training diary. Maintaining a detailed training log enables players to record important aspects of tournament preparation such as physical, technical, and mental training. It also enables them to track their match performances. Plotting improvement provides clear and tangible evidence to players providing reinforcement to their efforts which increases their motivation. Training diaries are also useful means of identifying the causes of overtraining, illness, injuries, and performance slumps and streaks.
Quality vs. quantity.
Having players with high self-motivation is a worthy goal. However, highly motivated players must also be monitored and “reined in” at times. These players often have the belief that sheer quantity is the way to develop fully. For example, if one hour of drilling is good, then two hours will be even better. They often lose sight of the importance of quality in their training. An important theme to instill in them is, “Don’t train hard, train SMART!!” Along with this idea, you must show them how training smart, rather than hard, will lead them to their competitive goals. You can facilitate this process by indicating how placing quantity over quality can result in staleness, burnout, illness, injury, and slumps.
