When discussing positivity, we want to be clear regarding what we are not talking about. This
includes blanket statements about being positive or hype type/feel-good scenarios.
World champion Novak Djokovic stated in a “60 Minutes" interview that “the difference between the [people] who are the biggest champions and the ones who are struggling to get to the highest level is the ability to not stay in those [negative] emotions too long.” 1 There is plenty of research showing that a positive mindset plays a critical role in athletic success. A meta-analysis out of Brigham Young University defines positivity as the idea of finding optimistic solutions and practices in all areas of life. 2 Numerous studies indicate that optimism is highly correlated to mental well-being and resilience to stress. 3 In the meta-analysis conducted by Peris-Delcampo, D., et al. (2024), published as “The bright side of sports: a systematic review on well-being, positive emotions and performance” in the peer reviewed journal BMC Psychology, the researchers found that, “Clear recognition that acting on intrinsic motivation continues to be the best and most effective way to motivate oneself to obtain the highest levels of performance, a good perception of competence and a source of personal satisfaction.”
The question becomes, then, how do we as coaches foster intrinsic self-motivation in our players and train athletes’ brains to stay in positive emotional states? Over the course of my 30 years of coaching, and building upon the expertise and contributions of other respected coaches in the field, I have developed a method that has yielded consistently strong results. I refer to the method as the question-based competitive character curriculum. This approach is devised to elicit critical thinking about who we are and what we are about. It is an organized learning approach to assist coaches and athletes in self-discovery of what they value, why they coach/play and to facilitate buy-in to their long-term investment in sport. From what we have observed, when athletes have a strong connection to their purpose and fundamental values, it increases self-efficacy. This results in a positive experience and positive mental states, ultimately leading to improved individual and team performance.
For the purpose of this article, I will discuss the question-based leadership portion of the curriculum. This part of the curriculum aims to discover the athlete’s motivation for participating in sport in order to reinforce the positivity in their approach. We have chosen to present this curriculum in a question-based learning (QBL) format, as QBL is an active, student-centered approach that has been shown to improve motivation, understanding, engagement, efficiency and effectiveness.4
To begin the process, we ask each athlete to agree or disagree with this statement: “I am inspired to play volleyball because I love to play volleyball.” By framing it this way, we set the stage for further questioning aimed at uncovering positive feelings associated with the sport. We are trying to guide the athletes towards discovering for themselves and understanding why they are doing what they are doing.
When the athlete agrees to the above statement (which, in our experience, they always do), we ask them to complete the following open-ended statement: “I perform at my best when…”. Through this question, the athlete begins to formulate why they play sports and what factors contribute to growth of personal performance. We implement this process through an anonymous Google sheet questionnaire, as we have found that anonymity allows for more honest answers.
The next step in the competitive character curriculum is to ask the following six questions:
- What is important to you?
- What are you about?
- What are you not about?
- What is your path to improvement?
- What do you want?
- What is holding you back?
These questions are organized to elicit critical thinking along a path of positive purpose built on
fundamental values.
“What is important to you?” – the first question – begins the process of defining what athletes value. Having an understanding of personal values highly impacts self-efficacy. Frequently, the outside world’s messaging to athletes can conflict with their personal values, which causes doubt in this self-efficacy. For instance, getting likes, being an MVP, getting a scholarship and playing time are not in the athlete’s control and can cause increased anxiety when focused on. Studies have found that athletes not getting angry and frustrated when things don’t go their way is the item of highest importance to mental toughness.5 These attributes can be correlated to athletes with high self-efficacy. When athletes focus on what they value, they focus on what is in their control. In turn, they can better control their emotions and reactions, and this boosts their self-belief.
One finding we consistently observe is the answers are primarily positive, process orientated, behavioral and interpersonal. Of 27 responses this season, we didn’t observe any answers associated with outcomes, negative reinforcement, hierarchy or self-centered approaches. From our findings, the players feel they perform their best when the environment promotes a positive, supported and unified interpersonal dynamic. After this phase of the process, we design practice, a feedback system, activities, etc. around the environment described by the athletes for best performance. We also have standards as coaches and have a discussion involving agreement about what this will all look like in the training environment.
By this point in the process, we have created a foundation of expectation from the athletes’ and coaches’ perspective that facilitates a positive approach and takes into consideration everyone’s ideas regarding best practices. When everyone feels part of the process, they have a tendency to be optimistic and inspired about the future. The questioning process provides insight into what is important vs. what is not important. For example, below are the top three responses from 25 athletes from this season regarding what is important to them. The bracket indicates the number of responses:
- Family (16)
- Friends (13)
- Health/Happiness/Joy (8)
Other answers included volleyball (6), collaboration (5), growth (2) and performance (1).
Before digging in more to the question-based curriculum, I want to briefly discuss the emotion of anxiety. In sport, anxiety is a critical influencer of performance. This phenomenon is defined in the Inverted U Principle, which explains the relationship anxiety has on performance outcome. The principle was originally developed by Robert Yerkes and John Dodson in 1908 to describe the relationship of arousal and performance. It shows that an optimal level of arousal is required to reach optimal performance. However, once an athlete exceeds this arousal or is below the peak arousal, performance will be reduced. Anxiety increases arousal.
Why is this important? When managing anxiety in sport, it’s very important to have a solid understanding of why one is doing what they are doing, and to have that behavior be based on a sound value system. Recall, a large part of our job as coaches is to create optimism and inspiration with our athletes. Ambiguity can rapidly lead to emotions and decisions getting out of control. Ineffective communication can do the same. Through the question-based competitive character curriculum, athletes gain understanding of what they value, why they practice every day, why they are committing so much time to this endeavor and who are the people invested in this process alongside them. Additionally, through asking these questions, the athletes are also shown that the coach cares about them and their lives in a more holistic way, which is possibly one of the most valuable outcomes.
The question-based competitive character curriculum always reveals interesting and important differences across players and teams. Uncovering differences in values and motivations is critical for how we as coaches tailor our approaches. For example, this season the main themes of the 14 group were family and health. The main themes of the 16 group were family and friends, with a slight focus on growth and future. What I took away from these answers was that my 14 team really wanted to focus on being connected and wanted this done in a healthy way. My 16s also value connection; however, they want to see some growth in the process with their personal or team development. By considering what is important to the players, the coach is creating a foundation in which decisions can be made to support these values.
Additionally, these answers provide important insight into how best to deal with struggle. When this particular team enters its storming phase (conflict and resolution), it will be very important to focus on family, friends, health, volleyball, growth, and collaboration to get the players back on track because this is what is most important to them. If I was to focus on working harder and getting better without the family, friends, and health pieces, the conversation would be lost on them.
A great example of this is our current situation. We are at the end of a long club season, and I can see the players are feeling anxiety. We had a conversation, and they let me know that there is a lot on their plates. We discussed ways to manage all the areas that were important to them. We reviewed their answers from the beginning of the season and saw there wasn’t alignment with what they were currently focused on. A lot of the discussion revolved around support of teammates (especially If someone is having a bad day), ensuring we are looking out for everyone’s health, how we can have effective practices, and ways to manage schedules with families and practice. I also asked them what they needed from me to be at their best. By having this discussion, we reconnected to positivity and showed support to their value of connection. In turn, this helped them feel more optimistic and inspired, and led them to work harder in practice. There has been a notable improvement in practices since the discussion. I have found it also brings a sense of joy to the practice because they seem to feel more inclined to be who they are. When, on the other hand, athletes are stuck in feelings of pressure and anxiety, I often see them start to become someone they’re not – which never works out well.
The last point I want to make about the values-oriented component of the question-based competitive character curriculum is this: Once the athletes begin to uncover their true underlying values and more explicitly connect with what is important to them, they begin to develop an understanding of the impact this has on performance. When this happens, we see an increase in positivity over time with the athlete and less up and down behavior. They seem to worry less about what others think, what they are not getting, what their position is, and what they are not good at. Instead, they seem to enjoy the game more, their coachability increases and they begin to find purpose regarding how they can best help the team.
For more on this subject, I recommend the following three books: “Peak" by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool; “Never Split the Difference" by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz and “Learn from the Legends" by Terry Liskevych, Russ Rose and John Dunning.
Keith Lundgren is a head coach and 17-18 coordinator at Academy Volleyball Club in California with 20 years of collegiate experience at the CCAA, U-Sport, NAIA and NCAA Div. 1 levels. He has excelled at talent identification, statistical analysis, individual athlete growth and program identity development. Keith places high value on relational leadership and inspirational approaches facilitating self-development.
Endnotes
1 YouTube. The Resistance; Red and Green; Novak Djokovic. December 13, 2023. 60 Minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv45JcECGAA&list=WL&index=265&t=2450s
2 Olsen, J. (2025) The Role of Positive Psychology within Professional Athletes’ Performance. ScholarsArchive Data. 76. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/data/76
3 Conversano, C., Rotondo, A., Lensi, E., Della Vista, O., Arpone, F., & Antonio Reda, M. (2010) Optimism and Its Impact on Mental and Physical Well- Being. Clinical Practice & Epidemiology in Mental Health(6), 25-29. DOI: 10.2174/1745017901006010025
4 Balter, O., Glassey, R., Jemstedt, A., & Bosk, D. (2024) Pure Question-Based Learning. Educ. Sci. 14, 882. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14080882
5 Cowden, R., Fuller, D., & Anshel, M. (2014) Psychological Predictors of Mental Toughness in Elite Tennis: An Exploratory study in learning resourcefulness and competitive trait anxiety.
