"Some players fought harder to win the last game of practice than their match." This is the observation of Jérémie Dussolier, technical director of the Servette Geneva women's academy, and the coaches with whom he spoke about an impossible-to-miss phenomenon on social media: the winning team photo. A simple end-of-practice snapshot has become a powerful motivational tool, and some coaches have made it a ritual. "I was surprised when players asked me for it one day, so at the end of the season, we implemented it every day and found that it no longer created the desired intensity. Worse still, it created an expectation, and the players could experience its disappearance as a punishment," analyses the former assistant coach of a French Women's Youth Centre. "The photo remains a tool for extrinsic motivation, which should not obscure the essential: the pleasure of winning and the desire to improve for oneself." It's up to the coach to find the right balance between "the carrot" (photos, bonuses, days off) and intrinsic motivation (playing, learning, progress) because a stimulating training environment must maintain engagement... even when there is no photo at the end.
Photo of the winning team at the end of training: ‘Beware of addiction!’ warns Jérémie Dussolier, technical director of the Servette Geneva women's academy (here the U20s) / ©DR