In this blog, Yaasir Pasta who coaches Leicester Bharat U17s, explains why your players enjoy their football and how you can bring the best out of them. 

If you ask your players why they play football, you may get responses such as they like winning or getting exercise, but that’s not entirely true. The real reason they play, the reason anyone does anything, is they need 4 things: dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins (the ‘happiness chemicals). It’s the driver behind most human decisions, it’s what drives you to coach and your players to play. These hormones were designed to help us survive and make us feel good. As coaches, we can leverage this to the benefit of our players. 

Dopamine 

Dopamine, also known as ‘the reward chemical’, is released upon completing a task and upon anticipation of or receiving a reward, which is why you feel happy when you see likes on your Instagram post. It’s designed to motivate people to work towards more and more rewards. 
In football, players produce dopamine when they score a goal, dribble past a player, make a great tackle and so on. You can leverage this by giving players the opportunity to have those moments on the ball they love. If your sessions involve lots of ball rolling time, games and shooting, players will enjoy themselves much more.  
Reinforcing the things players do well will work better than negative comments because it can give players dopamine and will motivate them to want to do it more. An example of positive reinforcement would be saying something like 'Sophia, that was a great use of the step over then to help you dribble past that defender". 

Oxytocin 

Oxytocin is linked to your relationships with others. When you have positive interactions, open up emotionally and have physical contact, oxytocin is released which gives feeling of love, safety and self-worth. Whereas dopamine provides short-term bursts of instant gratification, oxytocin brings low-intensity, lasting feelings of happiness. 
As a coach, you can produce this in your players by having positive interactions with them and building trust. Take an interest in the person, not just the player. Ask them about their life, their interests, their families. Show them you care. This will build a connection that they can draw energy from.  
Players also benefit from their relationship with their teammates. Build a supportive and inclusive environment by praising the right kinds of communication. You can use team talks to encourage players to say positive things about their teammates, even let them choose the player of the match.  

Serotonin 

Serotonin helps regulate our overall mood. Exercise, meditation and other healthy habits improve serotonin levels. This makes people generally happier, calmer and have greater feelings of self-esteem. 

People also get serotonin from having a sense of accomplishment. As a coach, you can work with them to set small, achievable targets every week. You can also give instructions and use positive reinforcement to reward them for not only the right execution, but also the right intentions. Especially as they get older, players like being challenged. Make sure you manage difference your sessions by providing different levels of challenge for player with different levels of skill. 

Endorphins 

Endorphins serve as the body’s natural painkiller, both physical and emotional. When produced in great amounts, it can lead to a euphoric feeling (for example, a runner’s high). Endorphins are particularly useful at helping relive stress (which is great for a student with a lot of exams to worry about). Exercise, fun and laughter are some of the things that can help release endorphins.  

As a coach, you can design your sessions to be physically demanding but also fun. Providing players with autonomy and bringing out competition are two great ways of doing so. It’s also beneficial to share moments of laughter before/during/after your sessions, by using games like tag. Try not to be too serious as a coach; it’s important to remember your players probably don’t want to be focused on coaching points for a full 90 minutes. Having a laugh between practices can give them time to decompress but also bring them a different type of fun. 

Conclusion 

Players ultimately want to enjoy themselves. They want to play, they want competition, they want challenge, they want to talk to their friends and so on, each bringing out a different kind of fun. By providing players with these different moments, it will bring out self-esteem, happiness and optimism not only in their football, but in their life. It’s important to remember that football is just one part of their life and how they benefit from football can only be taken in the context of their whole life. 

What do you think of Yaasir’s blog? How do you help your players enjoy your sessions? Let us know below.