The Need Achievement Theory is one of the most-recognized theories of motivation and is of great relevance to performance environments. According to this theory, people have three basic needs that need to be satisfied to maximize motivation: The need to feel autonomous, the need to feel competent, and the need for social connection. While your players should learn to self-motivate and be in charge of fueling their passion for basketball you, the coach, can play your part in helping your players reach a level of motivation they will never reach by themselves.
Let’s have a closer look at each of the needs in reverse order. Social connection is perhaps the most obvious of the three needs and, hence, discussed here first. Research has shown that bonding with teammates is one of the primary reasons athletes join a team. Every single practice, you must make sure that your players are challenged to work together as a whole team or in smaller groups and units, thus deepening their relationships while combining their resources (i.e. skills) to solve challenges. Be creative in how you engage your players both on and off the court. A professional coach I know in Europe used to take his players to a ropes course during the pre-season—a bonding experience that gave the players a unique chance to get to know each other better while solving a challenging, unfamiliar task that required contributions from every individual and tremendous teamwork.
Feeling competent is one of the most obvious, yet most neglected, needs players at all levels have. Essentially, players must have experiences of success in practices and games in order to not only maintain but maximize their motivation. As coach, it is your responsibility to figure out how to challenge your players to elevate their game by getting comfortable with the uncomfortable and learning through mistakes (two great clichés!) while also allowing them to experience success at tasks that don’t insult their ability level. For example, rather than having college guards practice simple layups for 10 minutes, you might consider challenging them to demonstrate a variety of double-moves (given that they are competent at them) and layup-finishes.
This example ties in directly with the third need players must have met for maximum motivation: Autonomy. Providing players with the flexibility to choose what double-move they want to execute and how they want to finish at the rim involves them in the decision-making process. All too often, coaches habitually make every single decision for their players, never considering giving their players any input. San Antonio Spurs Coach, Gregg Popovich, has been known to occasionally put his players in charge of coaching timeouts and has even allowed his players to coach themselves throughout an entire game. Think about how you can provide your players with opportunities to experience more freedom and independence in practices and games. Their motivation will be maximized and, just as importantly, their ability to think and learn will be increased!