Based on insights from Zimmerman, Toering and McPherson
Preface
How do you teach athletes to improve themselves, even when there is no one by their side?
Self-regulation is about the ability to direct your own behavior, attention, and learning processes — essential for any athlete who wants to grow.
In this article we dive into what self-regulation is, why it is important in sports, and how you can concretely stimulate it in your team or training.
What is self-regulation?
According to researcher Barry Zimmerman, self-regulation consists of three stages:
- Preparation (forethought)
→ set goals, make plans, activate motivation - Execution (performance)
→ focus attention, use strategies, monitor yourself - Reflection (self-reflection)
→ review, assess, adjust
In sports this means:
- A player who chooses a learning goal himself
- Maintain focus during training
- And afterwards reflect on what worked or not
The younger you encourage this, the more independent athletes will become later in life — in technique, tactics and mental processes.
Why is this important?
Research (Toering et al., 2009) shows that successful athletes plan, monitor and reflect more consciously. These skills also appear to be trainable — especially in young athletes.
Self-regulation is therefore not a characteristic, but a learning process.
Self-regulating athletes:
- Take more initiative
- Cope better with setbacks
- Learn faster from mistakes
- Stay motivated longer
What it could mean for…
👥 Technical Committee
- Can self-regulation be included in youth education vision
- Can develop formats or tools for reflection and learning objectives
- Can support coaches in discussions with players
🧑🏫 Coach
- Can help athletes set goals (“What do you want to improve today?”)
- Can ask monitoring questions during the exercise (“What do you notice?”)
- Can integrate reflection into training conclusion
🧠 Coach
- Can guide players in recognizing thinking strategies
- Can provide feedback on learning process instead of just results
- Can help to make self-evaluations part of guidance
🧍 Player
- Can learn to direct his own development
- Can train mental focus during performance
- Can learn from own experiences by looking back systematically
👪 Older
- Can ask questions that encourage reflection (“What went well today?”)
- Can provide space for personal choices
- Can provide coaching feedback without taking over
In Summary
Self-regulation is like an internal compass: it helps athletes stay on course, make choices and learn from their own behaviour. By training this systematically — with questions, structure and space — ownership and motivation arise that is not dependent on others.
Sources
- Zimmerman, BJ (2000). Attaining self-regulation: A social cognitive perspective
- Toering, TT et al. (2009). Self-regulation of learning and performance level of elite youth athletes
- McPherson, S. L., & Kernodle, M. W. (2007). Mapping two research programs in expertise development
