Mastery-Oriented Athletes

One of the things that David needs to do to increase his motivation and help him become The Resilient Athlete is to take responsibility for his successes and failures. He seems to be an external oriented athlete, but needs to become an internal oriented athlete to help him be more motivated. Since he never thinks his mistakes are his fault or responsibility, he has an external locus of control. This means he sees his ability as fixed and uncontrollable and therefore rejects responsibility for changing it. To change this, he needs to have internal locus of control because he will see effort as something he can control and then take personal responsibility for it (pg. 67). Athletes who take responsibility for their failures but can control their destiny are more capable of learning from their mistakes and work harder in their future (pg. 72).

Another way to increase his motivation is to

compare himself to others that are resilient athletes. The covariation principle occurs when athletes compare their performances to the performances of others. So as a coach you could talk to him and compare how he can do what another athlete can do but better. Looking at past results and records could help him become more motivated (pg. 75). He could see that he has a time close to another athlete and think, “Man, I’m close to that record! I must be pretty good!” Having these results and records could help him boost his self-esteem and self-confidence.
Mastery-oriented athletes tend to value achievement and see ability as something on which they can improve.

He could set learning goals which are personal intentions to improve abilities and learn regardless of how many mistakes are made or how awkward the individual may look during this learning process. (pg. 71). If David made these learning goals, it could help him become more confident and motivated when he achieves them. As a coach wanting to develop mastery-oriented athletes, the coach needs to create a mastery climate in practice to encourage athletes to become mastery-oriented. In this climate, the coach reinforces their athletes for working hard, demonstrating improvement, helping others through cooperation, and believing that each player’s contribution is worthwhile. A coach would not want to develop a competitive climate in David’s case because this climate is where athletes perceive that poor performance and mistakes will be punished (pg. 78). Since David thinks he has no ability this could make him feel like competent in his talent and not be motivated to get

better.
The self-determination theory suggests that all individuals are motivated to satisfy three basic needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness. In the book it says, the more a coach can facilitate athletes fulfilling these needs, the more these athletes move from extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation and, consequently, from low self-determination to high self-determination (pg. 80). If David becomes intrinsically motivated, this will help him think things can change and become more confident in his ability. He will be more determined to better himself, therefore, increase his ability.
Having an internal locus of control, being compared to other successful athletes, becoming a mastery-oriented athlete, and developing the three basic needs are excellent ways David can become more motivated and become a resilient athlete.