First and foremost, we need to establish what I mean by motivating athletes. We must dig deeper than an instant motivator (external or internal). We need to establish the athlete's WHY.

The "why" will lead to passion and ultimately become the athlete’s driver. What is the core driver behind their training, and why does it matter to them? You need to find what makes them passionate about playing their sport, about training, who will benefit from their success, and what is the impact of all of this? It is not only motivating, but it will become a purpose. It will give a sense of meaning and contribution to the athlete. Then when it gets tough you will always have this why to fall back on.

Once you establish the why, you can show the athlete how the training you are doing with them will help achieve this overall purpose. We call this actualization.

This is a tried and tested technique used in all areas of performance and is strongly linked to the "why." For example: We get the athlete to visualize themselves scoring the winning goal of an important soccer match, and how they feel upon achieving this, the impact this has on them, their teammates and family. Once this vision is established, the athlete can now access this feeling to help motivate themselves — and are one step closer to that end vision.

The why and visualization then tie into choices. Is the choice they're making right now (i.e. nutrition, sleep, training, etc.) going to help them reach their goal? If not then it is a poor choice. Take a few breaths and step away from the poor choice. I remember once finding myself in a supermarket standing in front of the baked goods section salivating, with a bunch of donuts screaming at me to eat them. I don’t even know how I ended up there (the smell of the goods, perhaps), but I took a deep breath and literally ran out of the shop. Slightly over the top reaction, but it worked. A good choice.

Once you have the why you can work backwards and identify smaller long-term and short-term goals to help reach that end goal. With these landmarks established we can show how their training is working towards achieving these goals (i.e. the numbers in the gym are improving) and how it relates directly to success in their sport. For example, we can show how sled pulling can improve acceleration. Or how a stronger core means they can lift heavy stuff at home, or even play with their child when they are older.

Results create buy in. Nobody is going to believe something is working better than actually seeing results, in achieving their goals. Identify-short term goals and thereby the path to long-term success. When the athlete hits these markers it will create further motivation. This can be done by tracking numbers in the gym, which shows progress and movement towards achieving goals. This in turn helps create momentum, which creates a sense of achievement and further motivation. The athlete can directly see how the work they are doing with you is helping reach their main goal.

Tracking progress shows how far the athlete has come and how much closer to their goals they are. If you don't record this data how do you know how much the athlete has improved, or how effective your training program is? If you want to drive to a specific destination you need to have the right amount of fuel in the tank and know the fastest way to get there. Otherwise, you’ll never get to your destination, the car will run out of fuel. You’ll have to walk home, end up dehydrated and hungry, and you certainly won’t be happy, unless of course that was the goal.

Goals need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-Specific) to be effective. Some goals might not be directly related to the sport, but the athlete might want to reach that target for personal reasons (i.e. bragging rights amongst teammates/Instagram pics, etc).

Make a leaderboard for certain exercises. This helps create competition between athletes, which again creates motivation. The leaderboard celebrates success in the gym, awards won, honors achieved, etc. Competition is a big driver of motivation while training, especially with athletes who are competitive by nature.

Use technology to help create competition among athletes within the sessions themselves. Build in ‘who’s the fastest?’ into your speed sessions by including races. VBT (Velocity Based Training) is also highly effective in this regard — measuring power clean speeds creates competition between the athlete and the device, plus it also tracks the effectiveness of the individual cleans. You can also incorporate jump distances and heights competitions. Once there is no risk of injury, this shows you understand what makes the client tick. This will also bring out the most effort from the athletes.

Try and also find fun goals (i.e. jumping on to a high box) that the client wants to improve upon. Maybe they want to do an extra set, rep, or even some extra bicep/tricep work. Everybody loves posting pics of themselves jumping on a big box/vertical jump on Instagram. Be sure that it doesn’t dominate the session or detract from the overall goal, but is a nice add-on.

Athletes respond well physically and psychologically to variety in warmups, exercise selection, reps, tempos and sets. While variety is important we don’t want to be standing on a ball doing barbell squats with our eyes closed, while a trainer throws flaming swords at us. It’s choosing a similar exercise but slightly different in terms of the tool, grip width and angle on the joint/muscle. Swapping a barbell bench press with a neutral bar. Ultimately achieving the required adaptation via another route. The workout should be tough, but there has to be a fun element in there somewhere. I often introduce some skill/balance/reaction games in the warmup. Laughter and smiling is always encouraged. You need to include exercises that the athlete really enjoys, or a version of a chosen exercise that they might want to do that day. Keep them interested. Don’t be a slave to the program or a specific exercise.

It is the coach's job to discover how best to motivate an athlete. In the early stages that is by helping to identify the athlete’s why and to create purpose. Then with selecting long-term and short-term goals to achieve that, thereby creating intrinsic motivation in the client. The coach can use external daily cues to motivate via positive reinforcement, creating a motivating environment (via music), language used by the coach and body language. Create a space that the client wants to be in. Show the athlete you care. Athletes don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care. There is nothing worse than trying to train to awful music, while on the other hand good music can be extremely motivating.

Good clear communication is a vital ingredient in motivating clients. From goal-setting, exercise selection, to expectation management of client, coach and program, to pitching the session. This behavior shows you’re interested in the client and they are not just another number to you. Do this in a genuine way, talk and listen. Maybe they had a fight with their partner, maybe they got dropped from their team, etc. Some athletes benefit from getting the science and being educated and therefore being able to have more input/control over their training. While others just want to be told what to do next and when to do it. A client who doesn’t care about the exercise and rep selection won’t appreciate an accompanying science lecture.

Simple questions like: ‘How are you feeling today?’ ‘How’s the energy?’ ‘How did you sleep?’ ‘What did you do yesterday?’ These questions show you care, but also can provide a lot of feedback about where the athlete is mentally and physically before the session starts.

Potential pitfalls can include things like exams, holidays, team training, big games, mental and emotional fatigue. Program around these and have backup plans in case they have negative outcomes. If the athlete is angry, sad or drained, move to plan B. A favorite of mine is throwing in ball slams when the athlete is pissed off. Everyone feels great after a few ‘all out’ slams, and they put tons of intent into the slam, resulting in a better adaptation. Channel that aggression into a positive output (physically, emotional and mental). You need to be fluid with your programming and ready to toss it out the window and adapt at the last second.

Use an energy survey (a series of exercises) at the beginning of a session that shows energy levels, or a CMJ test, a simple handshake, or a sleep survey to see how the athlete feels pre-training. This shows you care and are detailed in your approach, but it also means you can tailor the session at the right level. You can also use wellness monitoring. There are some cool apps and software available, but nothing in my opinion beats shaking the athlete’s hand and asking a few simple questions. If you ask a more general question like: “how do you feel,” they will answer “fine,” “good” or “ok”. You need to be a little more specific with the questions. Simple questions like: “How’s the energy on a scale of 1-10?” “How did you sleep?” “What did you do yesterday?” These questions show you care, but also can provide a lot of instant feedback of where the athlete is mentally and physically before the session starts.

Look at the body language of the athlete as they walk in. Are they slouched over and dragging their feet, or are they skipping into the session full of energy. Listen, and establish a baseline of trust and that being open and honest about how they feel is not going to negatively impact what you think of the athlete. These questions also present an opportunity to correct sleep, nutrition, hydration, recovery and stress management. The harder you can recover the better the gains and the harder the athlete can train. You can only train as hard as you can recover. But most importantly listen to the person in front of you.

Energy creates energy. As a trainer, if your own energy sucks during a session, chances are the athlete's performance will also suffer. So bring energy every time you walk into that room. Sometimes when the athlete is genuinely tired you will need to back off and maybe move into a more restorative session, or a session of a lower intensity. Back off when tired, but equally ramp it up when the energy is there.

As a coach we can get "buy in" from the athlete learning what an exercise or training modality does, and its effect and how it will help achieve their goals. Create buy in' on training methods. You can use “overcoming challenges” as an effective way to make the athlete feel good. Start with a challenge you know they will only just fail. Then with some coaching and extra cues they complete the challenge. You want the client to leave the session on a buzz. The last emotions the athlete leaves you should be of success, achievement, etc. As my Dad used to say to his sales employees each day, “Make sure that the person you are dealing with leaves you feeling better than when they met you.” Wise words I try to use on a daily basis when coaching.