How to Build Athlete Buy-In and Drive Training Intent

Takeaway: To drive greater intent and commitment from athletes, we must first identify the behavioral barriers preventing buy-in.

In our previous article, we discussed the importance of training with intent. If you haven’t read that yet, go check it out here.

Athlete buy-in is often a buzzword, but how do you actually achieve it? A common question we hear is: "How can we get more commitment from players to their physical development?"

Ben shared that he “used to think it was about going at it, as hard as possible.”

Coming from a boxing background, Ben initially believed all athletes were the same—willing to train hard with intent all the time. But after stepping into other environments, he found this wasn’t always the case.

As practitioners, it’s important to step back and understand that players aren’t always like us as coaches. Most physical development or strength coaches enjoy training, so it can be frustrating when we encounter players who don’t. Ben emphasized that it’s crucial to acknowledge that the vast majority of players are where they are because they love the game itself—not necessarily the training or everything associated with it.

Ben discussed his experiences across different environments. With GB Judo, everything was done with maximal intent. However, when he moved to GB Hockey and England Football, it was a different environment. There, he encountered some players who were hesitant to train with intent because they feared they would be left sore or fatigued, which would impact on their performance.

Understanding our athletes is crucial, but while many want to improve behaviour, they often lack a strategic approach to influencing it effectively. Instead, they tend to throw everything at the problem and hope something sticks. Ben, however, was introduced to the COM-B Framework, which he now uses to guide this process, as shown below:

• Capability refers to knowledge, skills, and experience. Do athletes understand why it's beneficial? Are they capable of completing what's being asked from a skill perspective? Have they truly experienced what training with intent and intensity feels like, and can they replicate it?
• Opportunity refers to the environment. Do they have the necessary facilities? While this may not be an issue for professional footballers, it could be in other environments. And within their environment, is it socially acceptable to train with intensity?
• Motivation involves the drive and desire to do the work.

These areas often overlap, but Ben acknowledged that he used to focus too much on the capability circle.

“I wrongly assumed athletes weren’t engaging because they didn’t know enough."

However, that’s not always the case. Education is straightforward: we can create presentations, posters, and graphics. But this approach assumes knowledge is purely intellectual, not experiential. Have the players actually experienced what it means to train with real intensity, and can they repeat it?

Opportunity and Motivation

Less attention is often given to opportunity—does the social environment support productive work? Does it foster success in both the gym and in maintaining motivation?

Ben discussed how he initially viewed motivation. Early on, he thought players who were often labeled as “lazy” just “didn’t want it enough.” But after diving deeper into self-determination theory, he developed some key questions:

• Do the athletes I’m working with know that what they’re doing is directly connected to them, rather than being too general?
• Have the players had any autonomy? Do they have a say in the training process and feel some control?
• Can they see themselves improving? Is the work they’re doing benefiting them?

It was a lightbulb moment for him. In many cases, he realized that “one of those three things was usually missing.”

Now, Ben goes through the following sequence:

• Problem: We want more intensity in the gym or pitch-based environment.
• Experience: Have the athletes experienced this intensity before? Do they know what’s expected?
• Social Environment: Does the social environment reward this effort? Is it viewed as productive, not just being “busy” or “too keen”?
• Autonomy: Do the athletes have a sense of ownership in what they’re doing?
• Progress: Can they see themselves improving?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, then we need to revisit how we engage with athletes to help them understand and commit to greater intensity.

Practical Task:

If you’re struggling with a particular player or group, try working through these questions and observe how it changes their engagement.