Do incentives have an effect on professional players and their performances on the pitch (field)?

Can you believe that everyone likes the feeling of being important? The incentive is a way of showing some individuals how important they are for the team, the organization, and the community. Grab a mug and a chair let’s talk about the effect of incentives on athletes' performance on and out of the pitch.

Well, one of our first questions would be what an incentive is really?

In current and easy English we would say that incentive is a reward before performing it tells individuals this is what you can get if you ever give you best on a pitch or anywhere necessary. In other words, we can even say that incentive is an external motivation, a factor influencing our goals for better results.

Some people think that incentive is destroying the pure love of the games. It transforms individuals into the machine's mode, that’s the goal. Teams want individuals to switch on the beast when it comes to results. The less human we are the more we can accomplish, one of the best motivational tools is the incentive. Some people might think that incentive is only money. Money is one type of incentive there are thousands of types of incentives that can be applied to individuals. The pride of parents can be an incentive, the love of someone can be an incentive, and the idea of participating in improving something can be an incentive. Those are the freshest ones coming in my head but there’s much more if we spend some time thinking about it. The last one could be the idea that an individual can be renown as the best in a field can be considered as an incentive.

That’s the reason why some teams hire motivational speakers to influence players’ performances on the pitch. They know the right words to help individuals thinking about reasons why they would perform at their highest level.

When some players or individuals win a trophy we usually see them thanking their partners, their loved ones. Those are the reasons why they fight so hard to get this trophy or award. But one of the most powerful incentives still remains a higher salary in the game. That’s the reason why those players with higher performances are those with the highest salaries in sports like soccer, basketball, tennis, football and so one. It seems like as more performant they are as higher their salaries tend to become.

Sport is entertaining; as well you perform on the pitch as much people want to see your performance. By attracting a higher attendance in the stadium you help the team in attracting higher profit.

So let’s get deeper into explaining the effect of incentives on players.

What if you say to your kid get a good grade in a class and I’ll buy you your dreamed boot? What do you think he will do? He will work harder than anyone to get a better grade. If every time you promise him to give him something better what will be his reaction? You’ll still have the same result. But some other parents use words to encourage their kids in performing. Some give hope to their kids. For example, if you tell your kid: “Work hard in school and you will become a famous person!” What do you think he will do? Unless if he does not believe in you and you didn’t set the example he won’t work and outwork himself.

 Do incentives always have a good effect on athletes?

This question is different from the previous one. Incentives always have impacts on players but those impacts are not always positive. Specifically in sports that require teamwork, sometimes there’s a feeling of being superior to the other players on the team. This can destroy the spirit of a team and break it apart. Some players who earn higher wages than others think that they are the most important and they have to do whatever they want in the team on and outside of the pitch. They might be right, in the case of those who have the best work ethic on the team that’s a good attitude. In the case of those who care about winning it’s still a good attitude. But for those who want higher salaries by performing for themselves, I don’t think they will last longer.

An incentive can be a two-edged sword in sports, specifically when we talk about money as an incentive. It creates a sense of personal care and no one else is a matter on the team. So that’s the reason why everyone on a team should have access to collective incentives and then individual incentive based on personal performances useful to the entire team.

 Widley