Coaches Coaching Coaches Pt. 4
Building a Culture That Actually Sticks There is a difference between a program that has values posted on a wall and a program that lives those values every single day. I have been in both kinds of programs. One of them produces intrinsically motivated athletes. The other produces athletes who know how to look motivated when the coach is watching. The goal of this post is to talk about how we actually try to build real culture at Deer Creek, specifically through the lens of two motivational categories from my research: Integrated Regulation and Identified Regulation. These are the two categories that sit closest to pure intrinsic motivation, and they are the areas where coaches have the most direct influence. Integrated Regulation: When the Team's Values Become Their Values Integrated regulation is what happens when an athlete does not just follow the rules of a program, but genuinely adopts its values as their own. It is the difference between an athlete who works hard because the...