Snyder: We coach because that is who we are

Snyder

Newly minted NMSA Coach of the Year Dr. Ron Snyder wants a mulligan for the “rambling” acceptance speech he delivered last April 19 during the 2021 NMSA Annual Sports Banquet at the Kensington Hall of Kensington Hotel Saipan.

The CNMI National Athletics coach said being named NMSA Coach of the Year has gotten him thinking about a couple of things.

“The first is that I am not a great impromptu public speaker. So, apologies to everyone who had to suffer through my rambling remarks. But it has also gotten me thinking about the coaches I have had in my life.”

One coach in particular that had a profound impact in his life is Al Wilson.

“He was one of my high school cross country coaches, a great runner. and a police officer in my hometown. One day coach Al said, ‘I am a coach first, a runner second, and a police officer third.’ That statement really resonated in my young mind but I don’t think I really understood it until I started writing my doctoral dissertation.”

Snyder’s dissertation was grounded in Self-Determination Theory. He said it’s a macro theory of human motivation that identifies a person’s innate psychological needs and growth potential. He added it also has a much more sophisticated view of motivation than is traditionally taught.

“Most of us have heard of the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. But what SDT does is look at extrinsic motivation as a continuum of motivations that can be more controlled or more autonomous. For example, at the most controlling, behaviors are regulated based on rewards and punishments. But moving toward more autonomous forms, we find identified and integrated regulation. We have probably all taken a class that didn’t interest us but put effort into it because we knew that getting good grades there might lead to a goal we wanted. That is an example of identified regulation, the desire to accomplish the task is still outside of us but we have identified it as important to our goals. Integrated regulation is the closest thing to intrinsic motivation in the continuum. It is when the task is fully aligned with our inner goals and selves. It is who we are.”

In relating SDT to his old high school coach, Snyder said when Wilson said “he was a coach first, a runner second and a police officer third,” he wasn’t saying that he would shirk his responsibilities as a police officer in order to coach.

“I am sure if an emergency came up, we wouldn’t have seen coach Al at practice that day. But what I think he was saying was that being a coach was aligned with his inner self. It is who he was at his core. Coaching a bratty Ron Snyder at 15 years old might not always have been intrinsically motivating to him. But he did it because that is who he was.”

Snyder believes this is also true of all of the NMSA coaches present at the 2021 NMSA Annual Sports Banquet.

“We coach because the relationships with our athletes bring meaning to our lives. We coach because the successes of our athletes are our successes. We continue to coach when we are feeling sick or are just tired because coaching is aligned with our inner selves and desires.

We coach because that is who we are,” he said.