The question of how to motivate an athlete is one that all coaches must face on a regular basis. Historically it has been thought that the best way to motivate an athlete is to raise ones voice, threaten or even punish the athlete when they are not performing up to the coach's standards.     We all have been exposed to the images of the Lombardi-esque coach, pacing back in fourth along the sidelines or wrestling mat, brooding, spouting obscenities, all the while believing that the use of bravado will somehow cause an athlete to suddenly have a greater understanding of techniques that he is failing to perform properly or that this intimidation will somehow increase the athletes level of conditioning mid competition.     I've always questioned whether or not this is the best way to help an athlete stay motivated and focused, or whether or not that manner of coaching actually causes the athletes performance to decline. The purpose of this paper is to give a definition of motivation and to describe two modern, scientific methods of motivation as well as to give some suggestions as to how these methods can be used for motivating wrestlers.     I will also give some suggestion relating to proper goal setting as well what motivational strategies to avoid while coaching, hopefully helping to make the experience of being a wrestling coach more enjoyable for the coach and wrestler alike.    First off, I think it is important that we understand what the term motivation means. Alderman (1974) described motivation as the "tendency for the selectivity of behavior to be controlled by it's connection to consequences, and the tendency of this behavior to persist until a goal is achieved."      In down to earth terms this means that an athlete will have the drive to complete a task until it's completion because the reward is a worthwhile one. We as wrestling coaches must be able to help our athletes find the reward at the end of the tunnel is worth the tremendous sacrifices the sport of wrestling requires. Therefore the purpose of motivation is to prolong desirable feelings and actions of athletes.     To do this a coach must foster incentive in an athlete by pointing out specific ways in which certain behaviors can lead to goals and outcomes that the performer finds meaningful.  The method used to achieve these goals will vary depending on the individual wrestler; therefore I will explore different theories that we could use for many different wrestlers.    One characteristic of many successful wrestlers is their need to achieve; this need can be referred to as achievement motivation (Cox 1985). The focus of this theory is that select athletes attain great satisfaction from the achievement of success. This doesn't mean that only athletes who actually achieve success are motivated by the attainment of it.     Many athletes are achievement motivated, but have a low level of motivation due to a past history of failure. Some characteristics of achievement motivated athletes are that they usually experience more pleasure in success, feel responsible for their success, and prefer to know about their success or failure immediately after competition and prefer situations that contain some risk about the result.     I feel that many wrestlers fall within the confines of this theory, therefore it is important for wrestling coaches to have an understanding of how to motivate the achievement motivated wrestler.  Coaches should   1) Create challenging goals,   2) Teach skills that lead to performance improvement,   3) Give positive constructive feedback regarding performance while avoiding negative or derogatory remarks,   4) Create situations in which the athlete can feel successful, such as activities that emphasize skill development or mastery (Ansel 1994).     Not every wrestler will be able to become a champion, but if they are able to achieve many small successes we as coaches be able to ensure that they are motivated through the attainment of many small successes leading to a large success, such as a state championship.    Not all wrestlers participate in wrestling because they believe they will eventually become a state champion. Some wrestlers join the team simply for the enjoyment of being on the team, not for the external rewards of championships.     These individuals are what we would call intrinsically motivated athletes. (Deci 1985) Intrinsically motivated wrestlers will join the team to engage in the activity if they enjoy it and they desire to become competent performing it. This doesn't mean that intrinsically motivated athletes cannot be motivated by trophies or the possibility of winning a championship, however these types of rewards will work best if they recognize the demonstration of some type of skills mastery.      Wiess and Chaumeton (1992) give the following suggestions for improving intrinsic motivation  1) Guarantee success- Allow repeated attempts to perform the skill until success is achieved (practice room is the best place for this).   2) Give the wrestler a role in goal setting and decision making- A sense of self-control will directly improve IM, especially in older more experienced athletes.    3) Praise-It sounds simple, but one of the best ways to improve an athlete's motivation is to give positive, honest feedback. This will help the wrestler see that they are improving and help to foster the desire for continued improvement.   4) Vary content and sequence of practice routine- Practices don't always have to be concerned with improvement of skills, sometimes just playing games or engaging in non-sport tasks is just as effective.     The aforementioned suggestions are very important wrestling coaches at the high school and youth levels where not ever team member's ultimate goal is to become a champion, but if we can keep all team members motivated and working hard the success of the entire team will improve.     Need achievement and intrinsic motivation theories gave recommendations that made reference to goal setting. Therefore, I thought it was important to give some goal setting strategies based on those given by Ansel in his book Sport Psychology from Theory To Practice.   1) Use performance, not outcome- Goals should be performance based rather than dependent on the contest's outcome. An athlete should only set goals that relate to an outcome that they directly control. Winning is dependent on many factors that the athletes cannot control, goals relating to victories are more difficult to attain and therefore reduce the purpose of goal setting itself. An example of a performance-based goal would be " I will establish hand wrist control before attempting a standup" a poor example of performance based goal setting would be " I will win a state title" this is out of the athletes control and, therefore, will undermine motivation and focused effort.    2) Be realistic- Since the purpose of the goal is to provide incentive it must be within the wrestlers perceived reach. If it is not the wrestler will view the goal as unmeaningful and even reduce the athlete's effort towards the attainment of the goal.  3) Negotiate- Athletes should be involved in the setting of future performance expectations. If the coach and wrestler set the goals together the athlete will have a greater identification with the goal, causing greater commitment towards the attainment of the goal itself.  4) Make goals challenging- Just because the goal should be attainable doesn't mean it shouldn't be challenging. Athletes need to be challenged in order to foster growth, don't set the bar too high or to low. Goal should be made it just challenging enough where the wrestler feels that it is attainable but challenging enough where the wrestlers comfort level is tweaked a bit.  5) Make goals short term and long term- Short-term goals should provide immediate incentive to perform at optimum levels and experience early success. Long-term goals should allow a wrestler to compare his or her performance to the goals that were established before the season and the performance of opponents. This is where the goals relating to championships are far more appropriate.    The