Positive reinforcement helps develop mastery in skill and mastery in performance. Athletes are always looking for feedback on how they perform. They work with coaches to learn the best in technique and get guidance on what they should be doing and get feedback about their progress.

Reinforcement is the use of rewards and punishments that increase or decrease the likelihood of a similar response occurring in the future. You can respond to an athlete by saying something like, you should be doing a lot more than that by now (negative feedback) or you can respond by saying, hey, your form looks great, you are doing much better” (positive feedback). Which one of these scenarios would most likely make your athlete feel better so they continue to be motivated to perform?

It is critical to understand positive reinforcement and know what’s more appropriate to say and how to respond to athletes – the aspects of why, when, and how to use it.

Understand basic needs in an athlete’s performance

In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Maslow asserts that people attempt to satisfy their needs according to priorities. These priorities can be divided into two general categories: deficiency needs (hunger, thirst, sex and security) and growth needs (belonging, love, self-respect, ego, and self-actualization). He discusses how once a need is satisfied and remains to be satisfied it no longer is a need and the person moves up the hierarchy to the next need.

These needs are useful when thinking about athletic performance. Research indicates that athletes seek to fulfill three predominant needs.

• Play for fun – which meets the need for stimulation and excitement.
• Be with other people – which meets the need to affiliate with others and belong to a group.
• Demonstrate competence – which meets the need to feel worthy.

This is why many athletes want to be involved in sport and it is important for coaches to understand these basic needs as they relate to each athlete and how you can positively reinforce these.

Choose effective reinforcement

The best way to eliminate mistakes is not through punishment but rather to strengthen the correct or desired behaviors. Positive reinforcement focuses on how your athlete improves rather than screws up. Within positive reinforcement, mistakes are information that is necessary to improve performance. Besides being able to understand why positive reinforcement effectively works it’s also important to choose effective reinforcements for your athletes. Not all reinforcements are going to have the same effect on everyone. So you need to know your athletes and what is most beneficial for them. Positive reinforcement can take many shapes such as:

• Social: praise, smile, pat on the back, etc.
• Activity: ask athlete to teach a class or skill, use your athlete’s form as a good example, etc.
• Special outings: take your athlete somewhere else special to work out, bring in a special guest coach or athlete to workout with, etc.

While all of these positive reinforcements are external, meaning they come from an external source, they tap into your athlete’s internal ability to feel good about themselves and their accomplishments. Material reinforcements, such as trophies or medals reinforce external motivation but they should be used minimally as they are not considered effective (for very long).

When you tap into an athlete’s internal feelings, it allows space for more learning, more mastery, and more love for what they are doing.

Schedule reinforcements effectively

So when is the best time to give positive reinforcement, how often, and how consistently should it be given? The sooner after a response a reinforcement is given, the more powerful it will effect the behavior.

Initially, rewards should be continuous. Example: when beginning to coach someone, it’s initially important to continue to reward form, reps, sets, motivation, etc. It not only strengthens the desired response, but it also provides frequent feedback and support for someone who is in the beginning stages of something new.

Once a behavior or skill has been mastered, reinforcement can be reduced to intermittent. Research has shown that behaviors reinforced on intermittent schedules persist much longer in the absence of reinforcement than do those continuously reinforced. Intermittent reinforcement increases the likelihood a behavior will persist and be more consistent.

Reward appropriate behaviors

You cannot reward someone every time they do something right so you have to decide on the most important behaviors to reward and focus on those. It is very important to reinforce effort more than results. The one thing athletes have complete control over is their effort. Depending on the environment and the circumstances, they have limited control over the outcome.

• Reward small improvements to shape and allow an athlete to get closer and closer to the desired behavior. This helps spark motivation and provides direction.
• Reward performance and effort-example: if an athlete is doing better Tuesday than she was on Monday although she hasn’t quite reached her goals, it’s important to reward based on an individual previous level of performance as the standard for success.
• Reward emotion and social skills-people who demonstrate good sportsmanship, responsibility, judgment and other signs of self control and cooperation should be recognized and reinforced.

Focus on progressive behavior

To really win, you have to get everyone to go beyond their capabilities. They must feel great about themselves. They must feel that their coaches have total confidence in their abilities and feel that their weaknesses are small and their strengths are much larger and much greater.

Positive reinforcement strengthens desired behaviors and promotes the development of a positive motivation for success as opposed to the effect of negative reinforcement which can spark the fear of failure. Reinforcement and performance feedback require coaches to identify specific behaviors that are important to the individual’s success, choose appropriate positive reinforcement for those behaviors, and give them out accordingly.

Sources:

1. Weinberg RS, Gould D. Foundations of Sport & Exercise Psychology. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics
   Publishers, Inc. 2003.
2. Williams JM. Applied Sports Psychology Personal Growth to Peak Performance. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company. 1998.
3. Martens R. Coaches Guide to Sports Psychology. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc. 1987.