One of the toughest challenges any coach faces is motivating his or her players. There are many tools that a coach can utilize in practice sessions to improve overall motivation and performance in both practice and games. One such tool is a strength record board.
Strength record boards have been used for years by coaches, in schools all around the world, to motivate players to perform at their peak. What better way to motivate a team than visually displaying their progression from session to session? Those numbers, hanging there on the locker room wall, are just begging to be beaten before athletes go home for the evening. Whether it’s their current max on bench press or how many seconds it took them to complete their 40 yard dash, record boards have a way of inspiring a team like nothing else. Not even the coach can compete with the drive to improve personal records in a way that’s visualized.
Coach Vince Lombardi was known for his charisma and player inspiration until the day he left this world in 1970. He once said, “Coaches who can outline plays on a blackboard are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their players and motivate.” He clearly found a way inside his players’ minds. As his record proves, Lombardi and his Packers won three NFL Champions in a row in the 1960s and five total championships in seven years. This says something about motivation and what it can do for a player.
Players who are motivated by their name being on their team’s strength record board will learn from their coach faster, improve their skills faster, become better players as well as people, and in general win more games. Strength record boards are in locker rooms, weight rooms and on the walls of schools all over the world for players to see their progress, experience small, regular successes and ultimately be recognized and openly praised by their coaches, fellow players and peers.