The Athlete Motivation Manifesto

The Athlete Motivation Manifesto Champion Strategies to Ignite Team Performance

Ben Crookston CEO + Founder, TrainHeroic

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Contents Why? Users Manual Athlete of the Month Game Time Share it on Social Monster Max Out Ration the Rap, Dose the Dubstep Movement Master Videos Pin the Skins Rack ‘em and Stack ‘em Culture Quotes Strongman Series Standards of Excellence Outro

Title of the book

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Why? 6 years ago, I was a teacher and coach on the Southside of Chicago at one of the worst schools in Illinois. We were in the last 1% in nearly every statistical category. Our facilities were haggard, the neighborhood was riddled with gang violence, and “hope” was more a fleeting abstraction than tangible reality. The experience changed my life. In those roles and environments, I learned an abundance about human behavior, social structures, and skill acquisition. And, while those lessons proved valuable, the most important lesson I learned was this:

The real energy crisis in America is not about our fuels, it’s about our people. Being energized and motivated in society today is not an expectation, it’s an exception. Lacking accountability to a goal or purpose, many aimlessly fall into a life of dependency. The majority of young people in our society are plagued by self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. They got that way because we made ‘em that way. Now, it’s our job to fix it. As expert coaches and teachers, this is our calling. It’s why we got into this business. If we can imbue people with the fire of life at a young age, the majority of society’s ills are eradicated. It all starts with a goal. A goal that fans their own inner fire. Motivation is the fuel that feeds thousands, moves mountains, and sustains societies.

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Passion is high octane motivation. It’s the stuff that results in exploding breakthroughs. It is the heart of civilization. Starve a team of motivation, and like a plant without sun, it will die. The perfect plan, program, and system are rendered useless in the face of a motivation shortfall. But unleash a team with motivation and commitment behind a shared purpose and that team will achieve dreams. This is why TrainHeroic exists. We serve coaches so they can empower athletes. We serve coaches so they can affect lasting change and motivate people for a lifetime.

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” - Marcus Aurelius

We do this by providing the tools coaches needed to engage, instruct, and hold athletes accountable. We do this by facilitating a deliberate practice model that allows for expert instruction, structured training, immediate feedback, and goal setting to occur in seamless harmony and with fewer resources so that athletes can achieve mastery. This book is just one more resource to help you motivate your team. It’s another tool in your toolkit. Whether you’re more laden with resources than UCLA or more strapped than I was at South Shore High School in Chicago, these concepts are proven by the top coaches in the game to improve team culture and amplify your athletes’ attitudes regardless of environment. There’s no BS here. Nothing soft, nothing fuzzy. Just tried-and-true strategies that get results. Use them. Get results. Send us your stories. Train smarter,

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Ben Crookston CEO + Founder, TrainHeroic

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How to use this book There are two forms of motivation in the world Carrots and sticks. Sticks to punish and hold accountable. Carrots to excite and drive. This book is full of carrots. Carrots your athletes will love and they’ll boost the health of your team.

Before you start, here are three quick, important disclaimers: 1) Everything starts with you, the Coach You’re their leader, the one they trust. Almost all young athletes (and arguably even experienced pros) trend toward the extrinsic end of the motivation spectrum. They pull their energy and behavior from outside sources. More specifically, they pull their energy from you. So, when picking motivational strategies to test with your teams, find something that you can get fired up about, too. If you bring the heat like Scott Cochrane mainlining a 6-pack of Red Bull, your athletes will feed off of that. Conversely, present the concept like you’re more embarrassed about than a 12-year old hiding their first zit and expect your team’s motivation barometer to plummet. Do what you believe in. Stay authentic. Get excited about it. It almost doesn’t matter what you do, it matters why you do it. Do what you believe in. Do it with confidence and excellence.

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2) Every team is different There is no one size fits all application, but the concepts are universal. In a way, it’s like saying, “everyone wears t-shirts...but they require different sizes, colors, etc.” Different strokes for different folks. Start by getting to know your athletes. Learn what makes them tick. Figure out why they show up. Identify the leaders, then select concepts you can easily tailor to their tastes. Trust me, it’ll make a BIG difference.

3) K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple, Stupid. If what you do is complex (and complexity comes thru a volume of random initiatives) you won’t follow through on any of them. Lack of follow through is worse than not starting something in the first place. You’ll crater your credibility, confuse your athletes, and lose their trust. Instead, heed Bruce Lee’s words:

“Fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” Be lethal with one knockout strategy. That’s a foundation you can build on. Roll that strategy with ruthless consistency for three months. Then, and only then, add in one more. Rinse. Repeat...Win.

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Athlete Motivation Method #1

Athlete of the Month Why - Two things make an Athlete of the Month powerful 1) Public recognition / praise. Receiving a shout out in front of the whole team is the adolescent equivalent of winning an Oscar. All the benefits of the spotlight, no lengthy acceptance speeches needed. Be specific…Tell ‘em why.

2) A physical, tangible reward. Like Marvin Gaye crooned, "Ain't nothing like the real thing." As far as awards go, nothing beats being able to hold, wear, and/or show off your prize to your teammates, friends, and family. Make sure you create an award that's truly worthy of pride to own.

How - Build the Bounty The award should be authentic to your team's culture. Working with thousands of coaches, we see it all. Some make a trophy in the team mascot's figure, more and more celebrate with a prizefighter style championship belt, and plenty still emphasize their blue collar culture with a Hard Hat award. Really, there are no limits here, but the award should reflect what you believe in, what you stand for, and where you want the team's culture to go. Also, this award should be reserved to once a month rotation. Don’t overdo it and dilute the value. 
 This isn’t T-ball. Not everyone has to win. Not everyone should. Anymore than that and it loses its mystique, any less than that and it becomes an afterthought your athletes forget.

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Athlete Motivation Method #1 (cont.) Athlete of the Month

What - Motivate across your three big needs Awards should be aligned with the behaviors you want to see. Here are the three most common categories: 1) Attendance/Effort - If you're struggling to get consistent compliance, energy, or focus in your weight room, recognizing athletes who lead from the front and are the exemplar for the lunch-pail culture you're trying to build is a bulletproof way drive your point home. 2) Improvement - Your goal as a strength coach is to progress athletes. By rewarding improvement across testing cycles and gains in technique you send the message that "it's not where you start, but where you finish" that matters. Training's a journey, not a one time event.

“Oh, how blessed young men are to have struggled for a foundation and beginning in life.” - John D. Rockefeller

3) Performance - While weight room performance doesn't necessarily translate to the court, field, and competition stage 100% of the time, the leaders in the weight room set the tone for the entire team and guarantee your team is pushing hard to maximize their potential. The utility of their efforts is not to drive everyone above a fruitless objective like a 500 lb squat, it's simply to build a culture of hard work and commitment. Those intangibles are invaluable. While PR's, big weights, and fast times are a nice thing to see, the most significant gain that happens from excellence in the weight room is building intrinsically motivated athletes who sell out for each other and understand the long-term returns of short-term sacrifice. Rewarding these Benchmark heroes for their achievements gets the rest of the gang on-board and pushing for excellence. *Regardless of category, it's important to note that you're not praising or rewarding nominal and expected behaviors. These awards are for breaking away from the norm and going above and beyond.

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Athlete Motivation Method #2

Game Time Why - Three things will make your team unstoppable 1) The willingness to compete I don’t care if it’s going toe-to-toe with their grandmother in Scrabble, your athletes must be willing to compete. They need to be encouraged to compete for every extra yard, every loose ball, and you must provide every opportunity for them to compete whether in-or off-season. Athletes that love to compete will fight for you on game day or any other day of the week. They’ll fight for their teammates and they’ll love every second of it, whether they win or they lose, they will be fierce competitors and that type of team is scary.

2) Learning to win and lose as a team Losing is tough to swallow. Winning can be just as challenging. By creating competition routinely, your athletes will learn to win and lose as a team. They’ll learn what it takes to win and they’ll reflect on why they lost. This is the type of behavior and culture that you can create.

3) Having fun

“Do something that you love and you’ll outwork everyone else in your field.” – Jim Harbaugh I don’t care if that’s tax accounting or playing football. Create a culture that is fun and a culture that athletes love to be a part of. If they love what they’re doing, they’ll outwork their teammates and the team will outwork their opponents. It won’t be close.

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Athlete Motivation Method #2 (cont.)

Game Time How - Stay Focused Keep it relevant. Focus on building better athletes. Games should be aligned with what your goals are in the weight room and physiologically they can benefit your team’s development too.

What - Put it on them Give your captains a few choices and switch things up to keep it interesting. Here are some proven winners: • • • •

Dodgeball Tug of war Tag Capture the flag

All games are known (no need for rules explanation or otherwise) and require little to no equipment. Your athletes’ athleticism will be on display in each of these games and they’ll start to reap the reward of their training too. Award the winning team. A "team" picture on Twitter will go a long way. T-shirts or chocolate milk for the winners will take things to another level during the competition. The losing team can drink whole milk instead but they didn't earn the chocolate!

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Athlete Motivation Method #3

Share it On Social Why - Notifications on social apps drip dopamine faster than your granny's broken faucet leaks water Today's athletes live on social media. You can chose to embrace that reality or you can fight it. Fight it, and your athletes will fight you. Lean into it, have fun, and you'll reap the benefits of connecting with your athletes. Creating an account on social media to spotlight your team’s efforts is a free, effective, and low-effort way to drive athlete engagement.

How - Post once a day Create a Team account on Instagram and Twitter. Post 1X/day on Instagram to build rapport and consistent motivation with your athletes. These posts can be directly pushed to Twitter too. Tag athletes modeling the behavior you want in each post. This volume of a singular post a day works for two reasons: 1) The scarcity of a singular post makes it special. If there are 10 posts each day, no one really feels recognized. 2) Any more than one post a day, and you just created a bunch of work for yourself. Focus on coaching, not snapping a hundred pictures/videos each training session.

What - Instagram and Twitter These two channels are easy to access, heavily leveraged by your athletes, and perfect for the real-time atmosphere of training. Tag @trainheroic to get spotlighted in our community.

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Athlete Motivation Method #4

Monster Max Out Why - It’s simply awesome. Epic actually Few things will get the T-levels skyrocketing like a cruise missile like donning a cape, tossing some body paint on, and wearing the persona of super hero. Further, it’ll recruit new kids to the weight room in a way nothing else in your program will.

How - Play this video Let your athletes know well in advance of the Max Out date. Hype it up. Tell ‘em to get creative. Let them know there will be awards for best costumes, grittiest performances, etc.

What - Go over the top Shoot plenty of video footage. Post the spectacle on social media. Put it everywhere. Let the AV kids make a highlight reel and use this both as a memory for the kids and a teaser trailer to get buy-in from your incoming classes. Bonus points: The coaching staff dresses up with the athletes. Smoke/fog machines. That's low hanging fruit for turning this into a spectacle the kids won't forget.

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Athlete Motivation Method #5

Ration the Rap, Dose the Dubstep Why - At times the iron can seem daunting But 120 beats per minute has an unmatched capacity to make the weight seem lighter, the goal seem more achievable, and the pain more tolerable. The stimulant hormones culled by motivating music actually increase free testosterone in the body. This factor is ideal for driving training intensity and muscle growth. Inversely, mellow, ambient music can speed recovery by pushing the body into a parasympathetic state faster to improve an athlete's stress response.

How - Ask your athletes what they want to listen to Sure, you wanna listen to Kenny Chesney and watch the Sun go Down while your kids clang the iron. But if you want the music to motivate, it needs to matter to them...not you. Feel free to put some constraints on it (you don't have to support anything that's overtly offensive, violent, etc.), but chances are you'll need to step outside your comfort zone. Let them have a bit of creative control and the energy will jump. Oh ya, faster and louder are typically better.

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Athlete Motivation Method #5 Ration the Rap, Dose the Dubstep

What - Be intentional Believe it or not, if you blare music all the time, the stimulus it provides weakens in direct relation to the amount it's used. Use it too frequently, and you'll dilute the motivational effect. Like any stimulant, reckless dosing will dampen the nervous system's response and increase tolerance. Make sure your beats pack a punch. Apply them sparingly.

Here's a simple method to make sure you have the optimally effective dose: • Keep music off while you introduce the workout • Have it quiet during the warmup and as your instructing movement • Ramp it up as athletes hit the intense pieces of their training • On Max effort days, test the integrity of your speakers. Blow it out. Let the athletes get loose!

“Successful people have a bigger fear of failure than people who've never done anything because if you haven't been successful, then you don't know how it feels to lose it all.” -Jay-Z

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Athlete Motivation Method #6

Movement Master Videos Why - A foundation of movement quality is the bedrock of optimal strength Without solid technique, expecting an athlete to routinely load themselves with 300+ lbs and move it for a volume of reps is like expecting a shanty built on sand to withstand a hurricane. Once things get serious, the frame’s gonna cave. The kid's gonna go down. Fast. Having worked with thousands of coaches, we know first-hand that even today, the weight room is an epidemic of unbearable form. Valgus-kneed squats and canoed backs have infected the high school training world more rampantly than zombies plagued Brad Pitt in World War Z. While that's good news for your local PT, it's bad news for your team's starting lineup. Motivate athletes to be good movers by shining a spotlight on flawless technique.

How - Start small, start simple Announce to your athletes that you’ll be selecting top movers in each of your staple movements to be in videos used for instruction with all current athletes in the athletic program as well as incoming Freshmen, etc. Make the announcement one month before the actual video shoot. Remind the kids each training day until the day of the shoot. Hype it up. Make it special. The kids will respond and get moving with more precision than a Steph Curry crossover.

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Athlete Motivation Method #6 (cont.)

Movement Master Videos What - Map out the movements that are core to your program If you don't know where to start here's a quick list: • Squats (fronts, backs, overhead if used) • Deadlift variation (conventional, sumo, trap bar...again, whatever you apply) • Clean variations • Press variation (bench, seated, push press, etc.) • Warm Ups • Running + Plyos Shoot the videos. Two easy ways to get this done: 1) Use a DSLR or your team’s video cam to shoot the videos all at once. Then load to Youtube 2) Download the Youtube Capture app for your phone, shoot vids with your iPhone/Android and automatically load them into your team’s youtube channel Spotlight one relevant video before each training session. Top coaches like Ron McKeefery and Fred Eaves make this experience even more intimate for their athletes by pushing their videos in athlete's daily workouts thru TrainHeroic's iPhone + Android apps.

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Athlete Motivation Method #7

Pin the Skins Why - At the end of the day, all that matters is the W column As we mentioned above, the results that matter the most aren't the numbers in the weight room, but the W-L record of your team. To make this message is clear, this strategy, relayed from Notre Dame HS's Nick Garcia (and borrowed from our old Coach Shannon Turley of Stanford) makes sure nothing is lost in translation. Turley calls this "Confirmed Kills." While the language might be a bit jingoistic for the high school setting, the strategy resonates anywhere. Focus on the things that matter. Focus on how the team, as a whole, performed in competition. No individual accolades, weight room achievements, or efforts trump a victory on the battlefield.

How - Chalk 'em Up, Knock 'em Down 1. 2. 3. 4.

Post these three things visibly in the weight room. Your Competitors Logos and Names The Score of your games against them The Date of the Competition (it's a powerful effect to have last season AND the current season side-by-side)

What - Update 'em In-Season, Reflect on 'em Off-Season Often the thing that lags in team training is the in-season motivation. The season can be a grind, and it can be a dangerous habit for athletes to view their time in the weight room as a perfunctory endeavor. It's not. The best teams train hard and consistently year round. To keep them on point, update this board each week in your pre-workout announcements. Emphasize the correlation between their efforts in training and their results in competition. During the off-season, stay consistent by reflecting on each game. Revisiting each win and loss will have its own relevant message contributing to your team's overall training and hard work narrative.

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Athlete Motivation Method #8

Rack ‘em and Stack ‘Em Why - Stack rank each athlete to bring out their best Leaderboards are simple to set-up and easy to maintain (again, consistency and follow thru are key in the success of athlete motivation strategies). Leaderboards create a healthy forum for competition and embed this culture in your team's DNA. Further, they provide potent immediate feedback for athletes and a context for an athlete's performance amongst peers and rivals. That context is invaluable for maturing athletes.

How - We recommend two applications of the Leaderboard 1) To build everyday engagement, a daily leaderboard is a must-have. Simply pick an element in your daily training (no need to change your program or do anything special here) and let the athletes know at the beginning of the day which element will be up for competition. Next, have athletes log their results (you shouldn't spend your time doing this for them) to build out the leaderboard. Then watch engagement sky like a bottle rocket on the 4th of July.

2) To build a lasting tradition and historical records, post benchmark leaderboards. These boards should always be viewable and publicly shown. It's a badge of pride to get in the Top 3 of any given benchmark and athletes will work tirelessly to clamor for a top spot. Pick up a few pieces of cheap shower board from HomeDepot to post these leaderboards as an effective minimum viable product. If you want to take it digital, make it powerful, and keep records forever, our Big Screen view perfects the process.

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Athlete Motivation Method #8 (cont.)

Gun for the Top Spot What - Leaderboard management best practices 1. Encourage competition across a broad range of domains This ensures athletes are encouraged to develop all facets of their athleticism (speed, strength, agility, balance, power, etc.). Also it guarantees the same athletes aren't atop the leaderboard each day. Some days, your lumberjacks win, some days your road runners win. It balances the fun. An example week of mixing it up (with a basketball team): • Monday - Record heaviest 5 Rep squat attempt (Strength) • Tuesday - Junkyard Dog Warm Up, Record time (Agility) • Thursday - Record max reps across three rounds of upper body superset (Power Endurance) • Friday - Record worst time, 10 suicides (Endurance)

2. Mix it up Don't have the athletes max out everyday as your de-facto leaderboard application. Use leaderboards on fun warm-ups, conditioning workouts (met-cons), heavy barbell movements, and any skill practice you might naturally prescribe into your team's training. You don’t have to trade the proven science of your program in for some extra engagement. Be creative. Like a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, a leaderboard in your weight room makes the barbells go up.

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Athlete Motivation Method #9

Culture Quotes Why - Start with the Why “If it is important, do it every day. If it’s not important, don’t do it at all.” - Dan John Scrawled in white paint on a deep navy backdrop, that quote sat on the West wall of the USD Varsity weight room. It spoke to us each day as we stepped foot in the facility and has been etched in our minds everyday since. In fact, if you were to look at the other walls in that 5,000 sq ft. sanctuary of performance, similar sayings, each profound in their own simplicity, galvanized our purpose. Stephane Rochet, our strength coach at the time, took the time to paint those up there. Each quote made us think of him. They made us think of the work we had ahead of us and they made us think about our commitment to what we'd sign up for. They bonded us. Like we remember Rochet's quotes, your athletes cling to every word you say. But sometimes, you're not around. Reinforce your message and what the team stands for by painting quotes around the weight room that parrot the positive language and culture in which you believe. This small investment in culture shows up in serious on-the-field ROI.

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Athlete Motivation Method #9 (cont.)

Culture Quotes How - Round up the Staff and some 12 oz. Inspiration Pack your staff into a team meeting room with laptops, a printer, and inspirational fuel (coffee, beer, pizza, etc.).

Follow this meeting agenda: • Google + Fuel (30 min) - Have each coach scour the web for 3 quotes to represent your culture (set a goal to round up 20 total or so)...cue beer and pizza • Vote (10 min) - Pick the top 5-6 quotes as voted by your staff • Print (30 min) - Type out your quotes in a Word doc in your desired font and print 'em out • Trace (30 min) - Have each coach trace the printed quotes onto the walls of your weight room • Paint (1 hour) - Bust out some team colored paint and try your best to stay between the lines For a step-by-step video guide on painting typography on a wall, click here Total time for creation: 2.5 Hours Lasting impact: Forever

The name on the front of your jersey is who you play for, the name on the back of your jersey is who raised you. Do them both justice. -Herb Brooks What - Remember, this is an investment Though it's a short activity, the ramifications of your efforts are permanent (or at least until someone stumbles upon the desire to paint over your art). Make sure you're deliberate in your approach. Spend time in your brainstorming process. Ignore the cliché and the most known quotes. Dig for something unique to your squad. If you need a kickstart, read Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle is the Way. It's packed-full of examples to ignite your inspiration. Make it required reading for your team/staff.

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Athlete Motivation Method #10

Strongman Series Why - Strongman is universally cool Every kid has spent at least a few sick days on the couch locked-in on ESPN, watching re-run episodes of The World's Strongest man. It's fun. It's addicting. It's a little weird. Every athlete loves it. And, while recreating your own Strongman contest is a surefire way to break up the monotony in your program, it's also sound and proven strength programming. Strongman lifts (odd objects, carries, etc.) are incredibly functional and applicable to the world of sports. Strongman activities develop efficient movement patterns (hinging, pressing, balancing, etc.) and power output in a manner second to none. Toss in a day of Strongman to let the kids get a taste of something a bit different. Their bodies and minds will thank you.

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Athlete Motivation Method #10 (cont.)

Strongman Series How - Get ‘em Outside Swap your Strongman day in for a previously scheduled end-of-the-week training session. Give out awards for the Team's Strongest Man (or woman). Pick a handful of events to balance the program. Included in your roster of contests should be some variation of a carry, a throw, a hold, a press, a pull, and a drag. Pro move: Double up and make your Strongman event a fundraiser.

What - Gather up the essentials Stocking up on equipment is a lot easier than you'd think. The basics (tractor tires, stones, logs, and trucks) are typically either on hand or cheap/easy to pick up. The wonderful blessing of the Strongman world is that most of the implements are discarded freely in real world use (mechanic shops, junkyards, craigslist) and are ready for your collection. One man's trash is another man's...training equipment.

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Athlete Motivation Method #11

Standards of Excellence Why - Everyone needs a goal I’d attribute a singular poster in my high school weight room as the catalyst to every athletic achievement (and arguably every life achievement) in my career. The poster was as basic as could be. Just a simple table showing the standard progression of the 40-yard dash for an athlete from their Freshmen to Senior year. I triangulated the coordinates on the table to find that if I wanted to run a 4.5 40-yard dash by my Senior year, I needed to be able to run a 5.0 40-yard dash in my Freshmen year. As a gangly, incoming 8th grader staring at that poster in awe, I knew I had work to do. I had just blazed, or more accurately, crawled to 5.2 second 40 in our testing session. However, that singular target was all I needed to get the fire in my belly to chase down my dragon. Everyday from that time on, I ran thirty 40's each day, lifted like Rocky, hammered on my running mechanics, rehearsed starts, and raced every kid in the school till they quit. At the Nike Combine, I ran 4.44 and was ranked as the 9th athlete in the country. That poster started the fire. The formula for the spark is simple: Help someone find their target Show them what's humanly possible Provide them context and clear path to achieving the goal Then, get out of their way. Similar tactics could do the same for your kids.

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Athlete Motivation Method #11 Standards of Excellence

How - Determine your Standards Draft your own standards, or use these old posters from our friends over at Bigger Faster Stronger as a starting point. Want to see what the studs are doing at the college level? Here's a well-rounded example from our friend Josh Everett from his days at UC Riverside.

What - Just post ‘em and announce ‘em

“Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives. - Viktor Frankl

This is one of the easiest and most passive ways to motivate athletes. Make sure these standards are posted prominently in a high traffic area so athletes see them all the time and know what they're working towards. An easy way to reward athlete progression and achievement is to create shirts for reaching the top tier of your standards. Stephane Rochet, our old coach at the University of San Diego took his standards from his days at UCLA. We had Gold, Silver, and Bronze levels to chase after. Shirts were passed out only at the Gold level. However, regardless of the level each individual reached, the result for athlete motivation overall was pure platinum.

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Thank you. Thank you, Coach, for the time you invested in reading this eBook. Time is one of your most precious resources, and the time you spend with your young athletes can change lives. You'll never know, but that time you make the team do 50 burpees for your sophomore running back showing up late for weights may teach him a life lesson about accountability to others and that there are consequences for one's actions. Just maybe, that lesson you taught him (and the resulting feedback from this teammates) may really hit home and propel him to some greatness. Perhaps more likely, he will at least be a better, more responsible person. TrainHeroic empowers coaches and their athletes in the weight room. It’s a tool and resource that saves you time and, as a result, increases your impact on athletes. We would welcome the opportunity to learn about your needs and see if we might help you "win in the gym."

Wanna learn more? Visit www.trainheroic.com/teams to start your free 14-day trial today

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