3 Methods to Motivate Your Student to Excel in the Classroom

The following is adapted from The Sport of School.

Our children can sometimes be amazing, yet frustrating contradictions. Outside of school, they show intense motivation for their activities and interests like sports or the arts. In their academics, however, they don’t have the same motivation. 

How can you take what motivates a student outside of school and use that to motivate them in school? After years of research and my own experience mentoring student-athletes to reach their potential inside and outside the classroom, I’ve found those who succeed have developed the same approach toward school as they use in their extracurricular activities.

If your student is struggling in the classroom, some of the motivational methods and insights I’ve found to work best might help turn things around. Here are a few of my favorites.

1. You Can Teach Work Ethic

During the preseason of my year as an assistant high school lacrosse coach, I helped one player, “Tim,” who said he wanted to gain ten pounds of muscle. So, on his first exercise in the gym he stopped after ten reps. I asked, “Why did you stop?”

“That was ten,” he replied.

“Keep going,” I said. He did three more.

“Keep going! You’ve got more in the tank.” Which he did. This happened a few more times until he stopped at 18 reps and couldn’t do another.

About a week later, Tim was running the 600 meters in indoor track. He told me after the race that when he was entering his fourth and final lap, he thought, “Uh oh. I’ve got nothing left.” Then he remembered our sessions in the gym and thought, “Wait, I’ve got more in the tank!” His previous personal record in the 600 was 1:37. This time, he ran it in 1:28, and placed first.

At the same time, he was starting to recognize that his grades weren’t good enough to get accepted into most of the schools that were recruiting him, so Tim started approaching schoolwork with the same strategy he had learned while lifting and running track.

Each day, he would push himself to study more, to stay more attentive in class, and to work harder on his papers. In the end, his GPA went from a 2.8 to a 3.9 during his senior year. He went on to flourish in college and now works as a successful analyst on Wall Street.

As Tim’s story shows, work ethic can be learned.

Unfortunately, instead of cultivating work ethic in our kids, parents and coaches often resort to extending extrinsic rewards—a new car or extra privileges—to a student in return for a better performance. But what happens after the rewards have been earned? The motivation is gone.

Instead, we need to cultivate intrinsic motivation in students. We need to think in terms of what works best for them, not what works best for us. This approach enhances motivation by helping students figure out what they want. This intrinsic drive will give them a way to solve problems, push themselves independently, and a defining purpose and personal vision.

2. Treat Homework Like Practice and Tests Like Games

Like in sports, the academic setting is an environment in which people are evaluated for their performance. The golfer is evaluated by score. The quarterback is evaluated on passer rating and completion percentage. The figure skater is evaluated on technique and form.

The student is evaluated in the exact same way. Tests, quizzes, papers, and projects are simply individual performances. A small quiz is similar to a game against a much weaker opponent. A final exam is similar to a state championship. Homework is like practice.

It’s one thing for students to recognize the parallels between working hard in sports and working hard in school, but it’s another thing entirely for them to actually do it. It’s important to  remember that this process is about their mindset, not ours. If we can help students overcome the bare minimum mindset, it will lead them to lifelong success in every aspect of life.

I once coached a student “Jared” who only did the bare minimum in school until we found a way to translate his competitiveness and work ethic from the lacrosse field to the classroom. Before our work together, he was satisfied with a B because to keep his parents content. 

As we started working together, he realized that each piece of homework or each paper would contribute to his end goal of enrolling in college. His perspective changed when he saw that the work he did at 16 could affect his lifestyle at 60. Things started to click for Jared when he visualized school as a game and his grades as the scoreboard. 

3. Be The Motorboat

I believe there are two types of people in the world: motorboats and corks. Motorboats create the wakes. Corks float around on them. Motorboats have fuel and they use that fuel to get places. The fuel allows them to drive toward something. Corks, on the other hand, just stay buoyant. They allow the tides to push them in whatever direction the current is flowing.

During my first three years of high school, I was a cork. I see that now. But during my senior year, I became a motorboat. I was driven to show that I was smart and could accomplish more than my GPA represented. Finally, I had a purpose for earning good grades. I realized that I wasn’t afraid of the hard work anymore; in fact, I embraced it.

Motorboats are driven toward a destination. In sports or other activities outside of school, your student may be a motorboat. How can you help them transfer that fuel toward school?

My goal when mentoring students is to help them find their own fuel that will propel them to another level of motivation and success. Like Tim and Jared did, it’s possible to take the work ethic that works within a student’s passion and apply it in school. 

It’s All About Motivation

As you try to reframe academics for your student who stays motivated about everything except school, remember to make it about the student, not you. What motivates you may not motivate your student. 

Speak their language and focus on teaching work ethic; position schoolwork as a performance; and find the fuel that will motivate your student. If you continue to be patient and persevere in working this system for success, your student will work hard too. 

For more advice on finding the motivation that helps your student in school, you can find The Sport of School on Amazon.

For ten years, performance consultant, Christian Buck, has worked with college teams from Brown, Harvard, Yale, and Amherst, some of which reached the NCAA Final Four and National Championship. Alumni of Coach Buck's academic coaching program, The Sport of School Academy, have gone on to elite schools such as Cornell, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Penn, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Tufts, Wesleyan, Michigan, Colgate, and many more. Coach Buck is also the author of Thinking Inside the Crease: The Mental Secrets to Becoming a Dominant Lacrosse Goalie. Learn more about Buck and his consulting work at www.ChristianBuck.com or on Twitter @CBuckConsulting.