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How to motivate a losing basketball team
5 ways to motivate a team after a loss
The game clock winds down and the scoreboard reads the wrong way – a loss.
There’s no easier way to turn a bad day into a bad week.
U.S. National Development Games head coach and Buffalo Grove (Ill.) High School assistant head coach Jeff Vlk offered the following advice to help players and coaches turn a loss into motivation for the next week.
Focus on the positive
As a coach or player, it’s easy to focus on what went wrong. Rather than let the negativity spread to the next game, focus on what went right and how to correct mistakes. No team, player or coach is perfect. Find a way to improve and put a plan of action in place.
“A lot of the time, coaches spend the time on everything that went wrong and don’t focus on the positives,” Vlk said. “Think about the positives. How can we take the things that went right in the middle of the field to take it into next week? I’m big on positive energy, no negative energy. ”
“If you focus on those positives first, they’re more likely to look over the negatives. Here’s three things we did right in the game, and here’s what we didn’t do so well. How can we take the things we did well in the middle of the field and take that to the rest of the field?”
Make more emotional deposits
Whether you’re a coach or captain, be sure to set new goals for the next game rather than focus about the most recent loss. Motivate the rest of the team with positive feedback and encouragement throughout the week ahead.
“When I talk about motivating players, I always talk about how kids have an emotional bank account,” Vlk said. “There’s certain times when you need to make deposits and certain times to make withdrawals. After a tough loss, it’s the time to make the most deposits. To lose a game to thousands of people in front of your friends and family, that already takes enough out of that emotional bank account. If you continue to take withdrawals as a coach then those kids are gonna shut down. ”
Don’t blame one player
One fumble or interception didn’t make the team lose the week’s game. While it might be easy to blame one player for a mistake, remember that the game is a team effort.
“Make sure that people don’t point fingers,” Vlk said. “Letting everyone know that it takes 22 legs to score a touchdown. If one kid screws up, he didn’t ruin the whole thing. You gotta make sure that you’re there to pick your teammates up.”
Think ahead to the next game
The best way to motivate the team after a heart-wrenching loss is allow some time to grieve, then encourage the players to move on to the next game. Talk with coaches and players about ways to address aspects of the game that went right and ones that went wrong.
“I give the kids a timeframe. When you come in Saturday, we’re going to talk about Friday, but by the time you leave the skills session, I will give you until midnight tonight to think about that game,” Vlk said. “Come Sunday morning when you wake up, that is the start of a new week. You have to erase the previous game and the emotions that came with it, positive or negative.”
Remember the experience
In the end, mind set is what matters most. Think about ways to make each game a memory for years to come.
“Despite wins and losses, it’s about the experiences,” Vlk said. “I’ve been on losing teams where the kids are so great and so positive. By creating a positive experience brings team unity and brings kids together.
5 Amazingly Effective Tactics Coaches Should Use After a Loss
Coaches have many favorite moments in sports—losing is not one of them.
By simple deduction we know that coaches who take the time to read anything online to help them excel are after a few things: developing better players, learning how to improve their coaching, finding out how to foster team unity, etc. All of the components just mentioned are in effect aimed towards the end goal of winning.
But what happens when you lose? What happens when you face a group of young men disappointed, spirits crushed, and looking to you for answers? More importantly, what happens when you get discouraged by a loss?
The players have made the long walk back to the bus, and it's a long quiet ride home. What do you say to your players? Here's the shortlist for nurturing individuals to pick themselves up to find answers.
1.) Take ownership.
Look to yourself first. Don't beat yourself up, but if you made some bad calls and moves, be man enough to admit it. In Harvard Business Review's "Why Good Leaders Pass the Credit and Take the Blame," researchers found that the leaders who took ownership of slumps and stayed the course were the leaders who successfully navigated turnarounds for their companies.
It’s no big news that leaders in turnaround situations tend to play a more prominent role in their companies than leaders in business-as-usual scenarios. What’s interesting is, in interviews, the CEOs who had led turnarounds took personal responsibility when things went wrong and did not hesitate to share the credit with their teams when things went right.
Being honest about personal coaching mistakes brings about greater respect from your players.
2.) Objectively measure the team's performance and energy.
The old adage: Good pitching beats good hitting is true. If a pitcher's on his A game, chances are he's gonna beat the hitters. They may have hustled hard, but got outplayed.
It is important here to emphasize that the coach must celebrate what went right in his team, even if they come out losing. Your team may have gone out swinging, but the hustled effort and passion must be acknowledged in order to pick up, dust off, and get ready for the next one.
Dr. Alan Goldberg's Competitive Advantage: Peak Performance and Overcoming Sports Fears and Blocks covers the topic of effectively motivating your players. Some of his standout tips include:
DO NOT EQUATE YOUR ATHLETES' SELF-WORTH WITH THEIR PERFORMANCES Bad performances don't mean bad people. Let your athlete know that you are even more there for them when they have a bad performance than when they have a good one. Don't be a fair weather fan to your athletes!
HANDLE FAILURES AND MISTAKES CONSTRUCTIVELY Teach your athletes that failures and setbacks are a necessary part of the learning process and not a cause for embarrassment or quitting. Model this attitude and you'll motivate your athletes to take risks and really go for it. If you jump in an athlete's face whenever he messes up you'll demotivate him and get him worrying about failing. (source)
Coaches have the simultaneous responsibility to see growth and encourage development, while also see areas of weakness, and provide strength.
3.) Dissect the loss without casting blame.
Great coaches have the ability to assess areas of strength and weakness without villian-izing anyone. The season is not one game, it's a process.
Lem Elway's "Lessons in Losing" has some awesome points on how to navigate the analysis and implementation of improving after a loss:
Keep the confidence of your players and parents: Constantly evaluate why the team lost and try to turn things around.
Break down every game and figure out what went wrong and what went right. Know what your athletes are doing well and what they need to improve on. Are there problems with concentration, technical skills, or communication? Have you neglected to teach them something? What will you do in practice to work on those problems?
I use statistics and performance analysis to find areas that need improvement. I am a firm believer in the motto, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link,” and when we’re losing, I ask myself if there is a weak link in our offense or defense. Then, I work with those athletes to improve their skills, or I increase the number of athletes working at the position so I can make a change if necessary. Either the athlete gets better or I alter the lineup.
Be transparent about your decisions: Throughout all these evaluations, I make sure I am communicating well. After games, I talk to players about what caused the team to lose and what we need to do to improve. I post production sheets on the locker room bulletin board so my athletes can see the facts of their performance, and I let them know that I am evaluating them on their hustle, teamwork, and attitude. (source)
Focusing on ways to get better will always be the best way to concentrate you and your players' energy and frustrations after a loss. In addition, throwing your attention on improvement helps take guilt or blame off of any one player.
4.) How about the plan?
When it's time to hit the field again, what's the strategy? Tomorrow you'll need to present something in practice whether it's carry on as usual or making adjustments. Don't be emotional when identifying the areas that need work; the last thing players need after a loss is a hammer of a coach.
Knowing what you can and can't control in your planning process is key for both coach and player. Empowering your players after a loss with what they can do, just might be the most sure way to snap them out of the losing mindset.
Baseball Excellence: "Techniques For Coaching Success" covers the elements of the game you can and can't control that are worth mentioning in light of developing your plan of action and empowering your players.
No Control:
Can Control:
1. Winning the game
1. Work Ethic
2. Hitters' hits
2. Practice habits
3. Teammate's errors
3. Attitude
4. Umpires's Calls
4. Developing mental toughness
5. Crowd noise
5. Ability to focus developed through sound practices
6. Weather/Playing conditions
6. Desire
7. The play of the opponents
Reminding your players of what they can and can't control will allow them to focus on the variables most important to them: the things they CAN control.
For needed encouragement to the coach, Lem Elway offers some sound advice on perspective for making new practice plans and staying focused on what you are about:
The first step to take when you start losing is to review your coaching philosophy. If you have a written philosophy, re-read it. It will help remind you why you coach, and for most of us, it’s not only about winning. Staying true to your coaching philosophy is paramount to keeping the situation positive. (source)
Confidently executing a plan, whatever it may be, gives your players reason to be confident in their coach and their ability to recover from a disappointment.
5.) Don't Get Lost in Your Loss.
It's important that everyone who decides to play the game of baseball realizes that at the end of the day, there's going to be another day. Everything counts and matters, but after it's over, you have to regroup and fight another day.
Still not convinced? Take it from the greats delivering tried and true baseball altruism:
"Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is." ― Bob Feller
"Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer." ― Ted Williams
“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” ― Babe Ruth
“I have always felt that although someone may defeat me, and I strike out in a ball game, the pitcher on the particular day was the best player. But I know when I see him again, I'm going to be ready for his curve ball. Failure is a part of success. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life. But failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it.” ― Hank Aaron
Don't get lost in your loss. There's work to be done, room to get better, and games to be won.
Thanks for reading! Have some stories of your own? Please share your experience with us in the comments section. Want more tips and strategies for coaching? Check out 8 Baseball Practice Secrets For the Coach Who Wins Championships or Top 5 Books to Add To Your Locker Room This Season.
Stanislav Eremin: "The main task was to keep motivation and concentration" - Basketball
Krasnye Krylia head coach Stanislav Eremin, after defeating Nizhny Novgorod (75:66) in the match of the 17th round of the VEKO PBL regular championship, noted the important role motivation for success.
“It's very difficult to play such matches – the burden of responsibility hangs on the team, because we couldn't lose this game. We seem to be stronger in terms of composition, and the opponent has several players injured. But after all, we also ran through the whole of December without four back line players. The main task in preparing for the game was to ensure that the players did not lose motivation and concentration after the victory in Krasnoyarsk.
We played the first half of the match well. But at the end of the first half, they lost the initiative, conceding two three-pointers, and started the third quarter in almost the same style, conceding a couple of easy goals. All of us - both the coaching staff and the players did not have a very good second half of the meeting. This often happens: with a big difference in the score, as we have after the first half of the match - 46:31, the losing team, realizing that there is nothing to lose, liberates itself and starts playing much better. But in the end and in defense, they played well and scored their goals, ”the official website of VEKO PBL reports Eremin’s words.
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It is very difficult to foresee a strong-willed victory. But on such results you can get rich due to high coefficients.
Photo by Championat.com.
In many matches in different team sports, the plots develop in the most unpredictable way. The losing team or athlete turns on additional revolutions and snatches the victory. Watching such confrontations brings a special pleasure to the fans, and in some cases it even becomes a script for a TV series or a movie. But it turns out that you can also earn extra money on such matches. To do this, you need to learn to foresee strong-willed victories.
What is a strong-willed victory in sports?
Here it is necessary to distinguish between volitional effort in reality and its formalized measurement by bookmakers. So, in basketball, a team can lose by 15-20 points, but then bounce back in the last quarter and snatch victory in the last seconds. Why not a strong-willed victory?
But you won't find such a market for basketball matches in the list of bookmakers. This is explained very simply - in this game sport, swings often occur: one or the other team leads. How to formally record a strong-willed victory?
Most often, this bookmaker's market signs for the following sports:
football - the losing team wins;
hockey - similar situation;
tennis - the match is taken by an athlete who lost the first game in a three-set confrontation or lost 0-1, 0-2, 1-2 in a five-set match.
Other options are possible, but these are the ones most in demand among players.
Photo by Championat.com.
How bookmakers indicate a strong-willed victory in the list and what odds give
The designation in the bookmaker's list is given through the following phrases:
strong-willed victory of team 1 or 2;
strong-willed victory of either side;
victory in the match of the tennis player who lost the first set.
Consider the level of odds that are given for this market in the listed sports.
In football:
strong-willed victory of the favorite team - 8.00-10.00;
strong-willed victory of the underdog team - 14.00-16.00, in some cases it can reach 100.0;
strong-willed victory of either side - 6.00-7.50.
In hockey:
strong-willed victory of the favorite team - 4.00-6.00;
strong-willed victory of the underdog team - 8.00-10.00;
strong-willed victory of either side - 3.00-4.50.
In tennis, it is most often possible to bet on the victory of an athlete who lost the first game with odds of 4.50-6.00.
Let us emphasize that the indicated quotes are given in the prematch. That is, a variant is implied in which a strong-willed victory does not happen at all. You can also bet on this, but the odds are too low - 1.02-1.07. Therefore, there is no point in betting on them. The potential gain is minimal, but the risk exists.
Factors of pre-match analysis when betting on strong-willed victories
In a pre-match it is difficult to predict a strong-willed victory of one of the parties with a high degree of probability. A rather complicated scenario should happen: one of the teams takes the lead, and then the opponent wins.
Let's dwell on what factors make such a development of events more likely in football matches:
Both teams have sharp attacking lines. A weaker club also needs to have good offensive potential to take the lead. The favorite, on the other hand, needs sharpness in the attack in order not only to recoup, but also to win.
Tournament motivation of the stronger team. The favorite should not be satisfied with a draw. The need to win will push for aggressive actions immediately after a missed goal and will not allow you to reduce concentration when comparing the score.
Underdog is not hopeless. Matches are suitable in which not 1.20-1.40, but at least 1.60-1.70 is given to win the favorite.
Tournament format. Cup competitions, especially return matches, are well suited for betting on strong-willed victories. It is possible with a high degree of probability to foresee that after the first goal scored, the other team will definitely go to recoup.
To illustrate the last point, let's take as an example the Champions League semi-final pairing of the 2020/2021 season - Manchester City - PSG. Both teams are sharply attacking, so it was advisable to bet on a strong-willed victory in the first game. And there the British really won, losing after the first half with a score of 0:1.
But what factors contribute to making a similar bet before the return game? Let's list them:
both teams will fight to win - the Parisians need it, but it's too risky for the Mancunians to play for a draw;
for both teams, the emphasis is on the attacking line - PSG scored in the first half in the previous four away games;
if the British score first, the French will definitely launch a massive attack, because they will have nothing to lose;
if the Parisians differ, they will need a second goal - they will have to take risks, open up, and the "citizens" will get their chances in attack.
Therefore, even before the start of the return match, it made sense to bet on a strong-willed victory of any team with a coefficient of 6.65.
Photo by Championat.com.
Strategies for betting on strong-willed victories in football and other sports
It is difficult to work with pre-match strategies for this market. On the Internet, you can find recommendations for betting on a strong-willed victory of a favorite in football matches. But in fact, it is almost impossible to build a long-term scheme for this market.
The main difficulty: how to predict that it is the underdog, and not the favorite, who will score first? The selection of such matches is more of a lottery than a serious analysis. But it is not necessary to bet on a strong-willed victory in the pre-match, although high odds are given there.
Track live scores and go to events where underdogs score. This can be done not only in football. For example, let's take a tennis match between the Greek Maria Sakkari and the American Amanda Anisimova, which took place on April 30, 2021 as part of the WTA. Madrid".
Before the match, everything was in favor of Sakkari:
In the pre-match, the odds for the Greek victory were 1.40-1.45. What was the surprise of the fans when Anisimova took the first set dry! After that, the quotes for winning the Greek woman increased to 3.00-3.50. But who dares to bet on her victory after 0:6?
And in the very first game of the second installment, Sakkari showed that she did not give up, earning three break points. She lost that point, but those who bet on her strong-willed victory at that moment got good winnings, because Maria confidently took two games - 6:1 and 6:4.
Advantages and disadvantages of betting on strong-willed victory in sports
As a conclusion, we highlight the pros and cons of betting on strong-willed victories.
”
“Come Sunday morning when you wake up, that is the start of a new week. You have to erase the previous game and the emotions that came with it, positive or negative.”
What’s interesting is, in interviews, the CEOs who had led turnarounds took personal responsibility when things went wrong and did not hesitate to share the credit with their teams when things went right.
Some of his standout tips include:
Then, I work with those athletes to improve their skills, or I increase the number of athletes working at the position so I can make a change if necessary. Either the athlete gets better or I alter the lineup.
Don't be emotional when identifying the areas that need work; the last thing players need after a loss is a hammer of a coach. 
Weather/Playing conditions
Failure is a part of success. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life. But failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it.” ― Hank Aaron
But in the end and in defense, they played well and scored their goals, ”the official website of VEKO PBL reports Eremin’s words. 
So, in basketball, a team can lose by 15-20 points, but then bounce back in the last quarter and snatch victory in the last seconds. Why not a strong-willed victory? 
You can also bet on this, but the odds are too low - 1.02-1.07. Therefore, there is no point in betting on them. The potential gain is minimal, but the risk exists. 
This can be done not only in football. For example, let's take a tennis match between the Greek Maria Sakkari and the American Amanda Anisimova, which took place on April 30, 2021 as part of the WTA. Madrid". 
