The "tough/hardass" coaching model occasionally works on the HS/college level because athletes have no control.

It largely fails on the pro level because athletes have more autonomy & understand their value

Pro's want to be treated as people, not subordinates.

Why? A thread:

It's not that young athletes don't want the same things (autonomy) as older. It's that there's an inherent power differential and they are nearly powerless to escape it.

They "survive" the 'tough' training, they don't thrive under it.
Human motivation is very simple. Self Determination Theory boils it down to 3 basic needs:
1. Feel like you belong
2. Feel like you can make progress
3. Feel like you have some control over your life (autonomy)
Intrinsic motivation largely fuels the "obsession" you see from top performers to practice their craft over and over.

That doesn't come from a coach or someone dictating and directing. Over the long haul, it has to come from within.
As you can see, the "hardass" all the time approach runs counter to at least one of our basic motivational needs.

Over time, you erode self-motivation and have to replace it with something else, or else you lose people.

That something else if often more extrinsic motivation.
I like to think of extrinsic motivation as a temporary booster. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's like throwing lighter fluid on the fire. You may need some from time to time, but it burns quickly and burns out. You need something more sustainable over the long haul.
All of this is why the 'tough' all the time approach generally only works if you are consistently winning or there's a finite time in which an athlete has to tolerate it.

A high chance to win supplements some of the lost motivation, temporarily at least.
A short period to tolerate (i.e. college career) with a potential big payoff at the end (i.e. get drafted) helps athletes get through it.

But as I said, you have to replace that loss of motivation provided via autonomy with something. And that something often is short term.
If you think this if gibberish, consider a study a few years ago using NBA coaches/players.

They found that having an "abusive leader" as a coach changed the trajectory of players careers.

They had more technical fouls and worse performance over the trajectory of their career.
It's worth emphasizing that this didn't occur only while they were being coached by an "abusive leader," it impacted the rest of their career.

Players trajectories, in terms of player efficiency metrics, shifted downwards
https://t.co/dqpknRc3vc
All of the above is one of the reasons you see college coaches who have excelled at that level using a control/disciplinarian style fail at the pro level. It doesn't translate.

The style wears on you. It pushes you away from intrinsic motivation.
The same lessons apply off the court and field. If you have talented and driven individuals, the quickest way to turn them into complacent, "lazy" workers is to diminish their intrinsic motivation by taking away their basic psychological needs.
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The common understanding of propaganda is that it is intended to brainwash the masses. Supposedly, people get exposed to the same message repeatedly and over time come to believe in whatever nonsense authoritarians want them to believe /1

And yet authoritarians often broadcast silly, unpersuasive propaganda.

Political scientist Haifeng Huang writes that the purpose of propaganda is not to brainwash people, but to instill fear in them /2


When people are bombarded with propaganda everywhere they look, they are reminded of the strength of the regime.

The vast amount of resources authoritarians spend to display their message in every corner of the public square is a costly demonstration of their power /3

In fact, the overt silliness of authoritarian propaganda is part of the point. Propaganda is designed to be silly so that people can instantly recognize it when they see it


Propaganda is intended to instill fear in people, not brainwash them.

The message is: You might not believe in pro-regime values or attitudes. But we will make sure you are too frightened to do anything about it.
Wow, Morgan McSweeney again, Rachel Riley, SFFN, Center for Countering Digital Hate, Imran Ahmed, JLM, BoD, Angela Eagle, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Lisa Nandy, Steve Reed, Jon Cruddas, Trevor Chinn, Martin Taylor, Lord Ian Austin and Mark Lewis. #LabourLeaks #StarmerOut 24 tweet🧵

Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, launched the organisation that now runs SFFN.
The CEO Imran Ahmed worked closely with a number of Labour figures involved in the campaign to remove Jeremy as leader.

Rachel Riley is listed as patron.
https://t.co/nGY5QrwBD0


SFFN claims that it has been “a project of the Center For Countering Digital Hate” since 4 May 2020. The relationship between the two organisations, however, appears to date back far longer. And crucially, CCDH is linked to a number of figures on the Labour right. #LabourLeaks

Center for Countering Digital Hate registered at Companies House on 19 Oct 2018, the organisation’s only director was Morgan McSweeney – Labour leader Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. McSweeney was also the campaign manager for Liz Kendall’s leadership bid. #LabourLeaks #StarmerOut

Sir Keir - along with his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney - held his first meeting with the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM). Deliberately used the “anti-Semitism” crisis as a pretext to vilify and then expel a leading pro-Corbyn activist in Brighton and Hove

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