Is being motivated important?
In this article Coach Alan writes about the age group athlete journey and how a little bit of perspective can help with performance, longevity and enjoyment of the sport of triathlon.
We all hear about sports psychology and how we need to focus, concentrate and be committed and motivated to our sport to succeed, but are the best athletes super-motivated?
I’ve worked with many age-group athletes now, and my observation of motivation is that it isn’t that important at all. It is much more accurate to say motivation doesn’t get discussed at all with the most successful athletes.
Setting the right goal for you personally is critical; after that, an athlete simply chooses to work towards it. This choice of the goal is partially based upon your motivational orientation are you intrinsically or extrinsically motivated. An intrinsically motivated athlete may pick a fast course to achieve a fast time an externally orientated athlete may pick an event where the most people are going with the most ‘kudos’ attached to it. It is of the utmost importance that an athlete completely owns this goal. Once that choice is made, motivation is no longer a question if you have selected the correct goal, appropriate to your drive and personal training environment. What is required next is discipline. But discipline is where it all starts to get a bit tricky.
Fun
I can’t think of a single person who initially didn’t get into a sport because they enjoyed it, loved to move, loved to play and loved to compete. The issue with ‘fun’ is that once an athlete starts to work with a coach, ‘enjoyment’ is no longer mandatory. It can certainly be part of the process, more for some and less for others, but either way, the expectation with training is that sometimes it won’t be fun. When it isn’t fun, athletes can often choose to avoid, ignore, retreat, excuse, or question/argue; these are all methods of response in times of conflict.
That conflict being;
“I do this for fun; that wasn’t fun; this is a problem.”
But this problem has only arisen due to incorrect expectations. Exercise is for fun; training is to work towards a goal. Work requires discipline, and as has been shared in my Coached Athletes WhatsApp group, the motto is “Get sh** done!”. They do know how to make the most eloquent contributions…
Discipline
When training, it is not motivation that is required but discipline. The discipline to stay on task and repeatedly stick to the process of plan, do, review. As an athlete, this means continually being organised and choosing to prioritise training based on your current objectives appropriately. Athletes need first to assess their current state before training. After all, the plan was written before the athlete woke up, and that new information may change “the plan”, as might the implications of the following day too.
Questions such as;
How did I sleep last night?
How have I felt today?
How have I felt in the last few days of training?
Have I felt like this before? Is there a pattern?
What training have I done? Should I expect this?
What training/conditioning work haven’t I done? Should I feel like this?
These questions can help attain the best mindset to enter a training session to get the optimal outcome based on that individual session and tomorrows training and the following days training as well.
None of this requires motivation; it simply requires a diligent and mindful application to the task.
Spectrum
I was recommended to read a book called ZigZag: Reversal and Paradox in Human Personality by my coach Rob Griffiths. The book centres on Reversal Theory and takes the overly simple idea that we are all born with fixed personality traits and proposes that our behaviour, thoughts, and personality can change in different environments for different reasons. The book gives five opposing states, one of which is serious and playful.
Confident triathletes on the bike can be very playful during bike skills. Still, they can also be very serious in an open water session not because they are suddenly confused about their personality but because they are in and out of their comfort zone with the two disciplines. An open water skills session in the pool or a lake rather than the sea may see that same athlete somewhere in between. Athletes aren’t necessarily one or the other they are at one of the hundreds of different subtle variations that lie along a spectrum of seriousness and playfulness. Alas, however, we live in a world where binary perception is everything:
I won; I lost
I’m good; I’m bad
I’m a success; I’m a failure
I’m having fun; I’m not having fun
They are good; they are bad
I like this; I don’t like that
and worst of all
They are talented; I’m not
They are good; I’m not
I’m motivated; I’m not motivated
Ultimately we are hugely variable in our response as unique individuals; comparison with others often only encourages this level of binary thinking and low personal mood when really none of it is relevant or within your control.
Choose what YOU want to explore; you may like it, you may not, but if you don’t take action and try, you will never know.
Athlete Lifecycle
Often athletes start at fun and goals develop, and training starts to require more discipline. At this stage, athletes can get lost and confused as to their purpose. The trick is to fluctuate between the two states appropriately; some sessions can be relaxed and fun, some are serious. Not all sessions require discipline, some require relaxation, others can be done with clubmates, and others can be outright fun. Indeed the mix can even fluctuate with the time of the year and the focus of a training block.
We are getting to the time of year where athletes often need to recharge their discipline battery with a period of time off and a period of training that is unstructured, unprescribed, playful, Garmin-less and muddy! Take this offseason opportunity to recharge but also in your next season, try to remember to move back and forth along this spectrum in your training and racing to improve your love of the sport and your ability to be disciplined when discipline is required. Discipline fatigue is a real thing and it is one of the critical reasons to take an end of season break. This can be even more tricky for athletes who are very disciplined as it goes against their normal processes and routine and leads to an uncomfortable feeling. Understanding that taking a break also requires discipline might just be a game-changer for these athletes.
This goes both ways. Some athletes require more discipline, and some athletes need more fun. Really strong athletes who train and race well can maintain perspective, fluctuate their approach appropriately in terms of discipline and keep sight of their overall objective. Ultimately the only difference between doing it and not doing it is doing it. But don’t forget fun is okay too, as we don’t have to be binary in our approach.
Alan has worked with Tri Training Harder since 2014. During this time working with a wide spectrum of athletes from beginner, to youth and junior elite athletes through to 70.3 and Ironman AG winners and Ironman Kona Qualifiers.
An active Triathlon coach since 2007 Alan has been fortunate enough to work with athletes, peers and support staff who have continually challenged him to evolve and develop. Building on a solid foundation in swimming teaching, Alan has specifically developed swimming coaching experience having worked in High Performance Swimming environments. Alan's other passion is all things fast on a bicycle!
Since 2015 Alan has worked in conjunction with the other Tri Training Harder Coaches to significantly develop collective coaching practice both on camp and online.
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