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Coaching Vision

Winning with the Positive Coach Mental Model

By Steve Horan

The Positive Coach Mental Model was developed as a way to bring a more positive culture to a sometimes toxic youth sports environment. There are two additional benefits to the Positive Coach Mental Model - it promotes positive youth development, and it wins. The Positive Coach Mental Model reminds us that what some people think is a 'choice' between positive youth development and winning is really a false choice. We can promote positive youth development and win more often by applying the Positive Coach Mental Model.

1. Redefining "winner" in terms of mastery

In the Positive Coach Model, winning is a by-product of mastery. In this context, a winner is someone who makes maximum effort to learn and master their sport. A winner sees mistakes not as something to be feared, but as an inevitable part of development. A winner always strives to win, but does not define him- or herself in terms of a scoreboard.

A mastery orientation can help our athletes in mutiple ways. First, a mastery orientation can help reduce distractions and negative anxiety. When our athletes define their success primarily based on the scoreboard, they cannot help but think about many things they cannot control. They spend time and energy worrying about who they are playing, where they are playing, and what the outcome might be. For some athletes, pondering these 'uncontrollables' is a primary source of distraction, stress, and performance anxiety. By contrast, when we focus our athletes on mastery of skills and strategies, we shift their thoughts and energy to things they can control. This gives them a sense of empowerment and motivation as they pursue their daily goals of mastery. As they progress in mastering skills and strategies, their confidence grows and their performance improves. Many championships have been won with this emphasis on mastery above and beyond the results on the scoreboard.

2. Filling players' emotional tanks

We all admire those athletes who are completely self-motivated. It seems like they can thrive in any environment without requiring much if any positive reinforcement. But the truth is, these athletes are few and far between. And, many athletes who appear to be ten feet tall and bullet proof are more sensitive than we might know. This need for periodic affirmation is simple human nature, and coaches and sport psychologists agree that it applies to significant numbers of athletes at every level, from middle school to the pro's.

We can elevate our athletes' performance by filling their emotional tanks on a regular basis. This is not a matter of being soft or peddling false praise. As the folks at the Positive Coaching Alliance recommend, we can fill our athletes' emotional tanks by giving specific, authentic approval to their positive behaviors on a regular basis. We only need to do this quietly and consistently to have the intended impact.

This kind of affirmation does two important things for our athletes. First, it builds their confidence in what they can do. Second, it keeps them open to the legitimate constructive criticisms every coach has to deliver. Consequently, filling our athletes' emotional tanks accelerates their improvement - and puts them in better position to optimize their performance and win when they should.

3. Honoring the game

The third element of the Positive Coach Mental Model is honoring the game. The folks at the Positive Coaching Alliance talk about honoring the rules, the opponent, the officials, our teammates, and ourselves. At the heart of honoring the game is a personal integrity which says we will not compromise our highest values or our athletes in order to win a game. This builds a bond of trust and respect with our athletes which becomes a powerful asset for the team. When our athletes trust us, they just play better, especially under pressure. It is this trust, more than anything else, which allows a team to rise up and play smart, quick, confident, and tough under pressure.

Positive Youth Development

The Positive Coach Mental Model promotes positive youth development in several ways. First, ]the mastery orientation learned through sports is a success factor which can be transferred to academics and other endeavors. Second, authentic affirmation - filling the emotional tank - can keep our athletes motivated in the right direction. In addition, our athletes can learn from us the importance of filling the emotional tanks of their own teammates in athletics and beyond. Thirdly, Honoring the game can help out athletes develop an ingrained respect for ethical competition which can help them in countless ways in athletics, the classroom, and beyond.

Winning

The Positive Coach Mental Model can certainly improve the culture of youth sports and promote positive youth development. And it can also win. Think about it. Every team needs skill, confidence, and trust to win. Focusing on mastery can elevate team skill levels to the point needed to win. Filling players' emotional tanks can elevate team spirit to the point needed to win. And honoring the game can contribute to the creation of the culture of trust needed to win.

Drawing a line between the Positive Coaching Mental Model and winning is important because there are still some people who think there is a 'choice' to be made between winning and positive character development. But this is simply a false choice. Positive coaching can win, and does win, wherever it is applied by a competent coach with adequately talented athletes. Of course it is also true that negative coaching can win and does win. But those teams, and those coaches, will never reach the heights they could have in a positive coaching environment.

Thanks for being a coach!

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