Motivation and dedication to sport is something that coaches need to instill in their athlete’s at a young age to develop good habits. Therefore, the use of achievement goal theory strategies can be implemented in order to promote the learning of basketball skills in the youth population. The “youth” in this context describes athlete’s aged ten and above, where they start to realize the difference between actual skill and high effort relating to the ability to play sports at a high level (Nicholls, 1984). The first achievement goal theory strategy we will utilize are mastery goals. Mastery goals are used to increase ability by getting by getting better at a task or learning a new skill. In terms of youth basketball players, they might set the goal of developing better skills on the offensive side of the ball. For example, they might want to improve scoring ability by increasing shooting percentage or improving their ability to finish at the rim. If we as practitioners or coaches know that this is a mastery goal of that athlete, we need to provide them with drills that enable them to practice the skill. At a young age, the drills do not need to be anything to advanced, we can simply give them practice shooting by rebounding for them while they shoot from different spots on the floor, or give them a defensive look as they attempt to drive to the basket and finish at the rim. Just giving them the ability to practice the skill will allow them to start to master their specific goal, and then they can begin to apply that new learned skill to game situation when they are playing organized games. They started by setting a mastery goal to get better at scoring, we gave them the ability to practice that skill, and now they have developed the foundation to further practice and utilize that skill throughout their basketball career. The second achievement goal theory strategy we can implement is the use of performance goals. Performance goals are ego related have been shown to reduce enjoyment and effort levels (Vansteenkiste et al., 2007). However, performance goals may provide some benefits if you use them correctly. For example, a performance goal a youth basketball player could set would be something along the lines of that player wanting to win the championship of the league they are playing in. There is nothing wrong with setting the goal of wanting to win at a young age. This is the age where you develop that “dog” mentality and become a true competitor. Competition breeds intent. If that athlete sets the goal to win and they do everything in their power to win, and complete that goal, we as coaches need to motivate them to continue to build off of that success. If they put effort in and lose, this doesn’t mean that athlete needs to be a sore loser, but it should leave a bad taste in their mouth. Coaches need to use this loss as motivation to push that athlete to continue working on their craft and getting better at the necessary skills to improve their game. Being competitive in itself is a skill, and performance goals can be set to train that skill. Training these skills are important to do during this young age where the athlete is in the stage of critical periods of development where they have greater abilities to develop necessary skills that and be utilized and built upon in the future. Now just because we want to instill competitiveness in our athletes, does not mean that we shouldn’t make the game fun. Coaches don’t need to be yelling and screaming at young kids making mistakes on the basketball court. Every opportunity to make the game fun should be taken because that is how the player is going to want to continue to grow and get better at basketball or the sport they are playing. We can set performance goals and develop competitiveness while still making the game fun for the young athletes.
REFERENCES
Nicholls, J. G. (1984). Achievement motivation: Conceptions of ability, subjective experience, task choice, and performance. Psychological Review, 91(3), 328–346.
Vansteenkiste, M., Matos, L., Lens, W., & Soenens, B. (2007). Understanding the impact of
intrinsic versus extrinsic goal framing on exercise performance: The conflicting role of task and ego involvement. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 8, 771–794.
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