Competitive Drills to awaken the passion

There may be people who have more talent than you, but there’s no excuses for anyone to work harder than you do. When your team lacks the will to win, the desire to work hard and the passion to play the game it doesn’t matter how good of a coach you are, you are going to find it difficult to get results.


One of the beautiful things about team sports is working towards a common goal.  Whether you achieve your goals or not doesn’t change this; what matters is the journey you took to get there.

Sports is a battle, it’s a war and you are fighting for your teammate next to you.  You continue to battle until you have scrape every last drop of energy in your body.  You don’t stop until your lungs scream mercy or the final whistle blows.

What separates winners from losers is going home after a game and looking in the mirror and being able to say “I left it all out on the field, there was nothing left I could have done.”  That’s sports, that’s beauty.


But it doesn’t always go like this, does it?  Sometimes you inherit a group of players who don’t have that winning mentality, who don’t know what it’s like to push yourself to your limit.  How do you get your players to change their mindset, to understand what it truly means to be a part of a team and to fight? You might not be able to control the amount of talent on your team but you can control how hard you work.  And that’s what separates winners from losers.


Losers are not the ones who lose three and four goals to nil.  Losers are the ones who hang their head’s and feel sorry for themselves.  Losers are the ones who do not pick themselves back off the ground and keep fighting.  Losers are the ones who do not care when they get smacked by three or four goals and it’s just another day on the field.  Losers are the ones who go through the motions and expect different results.

The way you combat this attitude is by making your practice sessions competitive.  If your practices are always the same and your drills are the same your players will just continue to go through the motions.  But you can force them to be energized by incorporating small sided competitive matches.

Put consequences on the line for the losing team, make them battle to stay on the field.  If your players are not competing to be on the field than they shouldn’t be there.  Invest in players who are willing to put in the work and to fight.

 

An attitude problem is a tough one to battle and it can be frustrating as a coach.  Some players are just not used to the competitive nature of sports.  Make your practices competitive and get them used to having the will, desire, and passion to win.  Nobody likes losing but there is nothing worse than accepting losing.  Keep fighting and keep battling and the results will come.