Motivation

motivational tactics, get around in a circle. but the best of course is the player able to push themselvs to be motivated despite any circumstance.
motivation to me is about personal strength and character and nth to do iwth the environment

Roy Keane: "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail" (Japan World Cup 2002)

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination.

Here's one of my favourite poems (Rudyard Kipling) which I use for when I need to motivate myself...

[IF]

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

If you do not attempt anything more than what you have already mastered, you will not improve.

you must relentlessly chase perfection. it will not be caught, but if you constantly chase it, you'll achieve excellence.

I have explained some motivation exercises on a different posting, look at the 'Motivation' posting by 'seven' in the same category.

Same as the technical / skill stuff you do with the team, I believe you can develop the mental aspects of the team as well. Lots of pointers in the posts but look at what works for your team and adapt and improve.

Focus the players on how and what they feel before kick-off and try to relate that to their performance. This will focus them more on match prep

"If you believe in yourself, have dedication and pride and never quit, you'll be a winner. The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards." Paul "Bear" Bryant (Late, great coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team)

"Hard training, easy combat; easy training, hard combat" Marshal Suvorov, famous Russian General

"You have to go into the jungle, find the lion, and spit in his face...then shoot him. You guys are not good enough to win on talent alone...you have to want it." Herbie Brooks- coach of the 1980 U.S. olympic hockey team (* Personally I think this is the best quote for sports teams*)

if you look on the EIS homeopage, (www.eis2win.co.uk), they have chaniging motivational lines each time you reach the home page.