How To Launch an Internal Competition with Your Team

by Emily Stiemsma, on Sep 21, 2020 10:40:00 AM

We love the idea of launching an internal team competition to encourage players to get up more reps or achieve something overtime. So, as a parent, coach or team captain what are a few ways for you to make this happen? Keep reading for some ideas.

Keep it Simple: Set a Goal and a Reward
A competition could be described as simple as setting a goal, and rewarding the player(s) who reach it over a certain amount of time. Maybe it is a a goal that is attainable in 1 week, 2 weeks, a month, or even a season. And the best part, is that you could set up multiple! It's like in life, it's good to have short-term and long-term goals.

Keep it Positive
You can probably think of many different situations where your behavior was directly influenced by the promise of a reward or punishment. I remember in one college practice, my coach removed a ball off the rack for every turnover the team made during a scrimmage. When the balls were gone, we ran for the remainder of the practice. While something like this can teach players to value the ball, we want this competition to be positive or reward incentivized. The incentive does not have to be high-end, and could even be home-made.

Keep it Effort-Based
We also recommend that the competition is not based on the opinion of someone. Meaning avoid challenges like such, "Coach will pick a player of the day who showed positivity and hard work". While this can also be successful, it can make players feel disappointed as it is not just related to their output and there could be other factors. Stick to goals that can be clearly achieved, such as "make 100 free throws this week".

Here are a few examples:
- Total Shots Taken: Any player who records 2,000 (or a different number) shots this month gets a 6-pack of gatorade. If you’re training on a Dr. Dish, recording shot totals over time is easy, allowing players to login in and save their sessions, all for Coach’s to see at their convenience. If you do not have access to a Dr. Dish, create a document in word that lists each day of the month and a spot for players to record their shots.

- Free-Throw Percentage: Once practice's resume, group your players into teams of 2. Have each player shoot 10 free throws 2 or 3 times throughout practice and have each team record their shots on a piece of paper. On the week, tally up who made the most and reward the team of two with a gift card or gatorade! Again, the prize does not have to be expensive, and often the recognition is enough.

- Scrimmage: With competitive sports at a some-what standstill right now, send up an internal scrimmage and score the teams based on multiple things. Make this as real as possible, with a score-keeper. Have the team compete more than just on "points-scored". Are you a fast-break team? Keep track of those. Are you big on boxing out? Record missed box-outs. Tally up each category that each team won, and reward accordingly.

Have any other ideas for turning REPS into REWARDS? Drop us a comment or tag us online @drdishbball!

This blog post is 1 article of a 4-part series geared to help players, teams and coaches Get Motivate and Stay Motivated! Check out the 3 other blog posts to keep the ideas flowing: