One very good tool for motivating soccer players to do well, is the complement. Kids love complements. Everyone loves complements, but occasionally it’s not quite enough to motivate some people. You need another tool.

I was observing another coach that I respected, and I noticed that he was making the kids do pushups as a result of being on the loosing team during a practice game. I really didn’t think much about it. I’ve had kids do “donkey kicks” without much success. Many of the kids either intentionally messed so that they could do donkey kicks and I actually had one girl cry when I asked her to just do one. After the crying episode, I gave up on the donkey kick.

Complements are great, but I needed something on the other end of the equation, if you know what I mean. What happens when a kid keeps doing something wrong and really doesn’t seem to care about whether they do the activity wrong or right? Have any of those players? I thought, what the heck, I’ll try the pushup thing. Bingo! It worked like a charm and I’d strongly recommend it to any coach. The great thing about pushups is that anyone can do it, it’s nothing too novel (like the donkey kicks). It’s just enough of a pain in the butt, that kids really don’t want to do it. It’s not that big a deal at my practice because during the course of an average practice, almost everyone does a few, even me. As a matter of fact, if a kid sees me making a bad pass during a scrimmage, down goes her thumb (meaning “drop and give me one”). Pushups seam to be the right solution for the need.

This is why I think it works…

1. Everyone can do one (don’t be too particular about proper pushup technique)
2. Since I use this “motivational technique” for the littlest mistakes (bad pass, failing to sprint after making a pass, poor first touch) almost everyone does a few pushups during the average practice. If only one kids is singled out, it’s humiliation, (not good) but if everyone has to do it, it’s not so bad. The kids especially like it when I get caught not sprinting after a pass. “Come on Mr. Ray, drop and give me one”. And I do.
Pushups are a pain in the butt to do because of the actual work and because it’s a very mild humiliation. It’s sort of like being called on by your teacher to comment on the homework that you forgot to do. It sort of motivates you to remember your homework the next time. It gives everyone just a little more incentive to try just a little harder. And isn’t that what every coach wants?