Athletes who are any good in this country tend to be put on pedestals from about middle school onward. For these people, it isn’t about how much they win. They’re just winners by nature, especially in their own minds. When things are going their way they’re on top of the world, but they can almost throw temper tantrums when things don’t go their way.
Ultimately, the idea of making athletes work properly comes down to doing more than just trying to intimidate them. When you give them praise that they have to earn, it causes them to respect you. When you yell they just yell back, as is the nature of people ruled by their egos. But when you speak quietly to them, they tend to reply in kind. When you deal with egos that have had too much air pumped into them, you need to let them deflate with a dose of reality.
One way some coaches take their players down a peg is to introduce them to areas where they aren’t known and let them interact with the opposite sex as regular people instead of sports heroes. With a lot of athletes, this can knock them back a ways as they remember that off the field or the court they’re not that special. They’re people just like everybody else. This additional humility allows them to focus on the game itself, and forget about all the ridiculousness that most athletes haul around in their daily lives. To keep their egos in check, take them out of where they know things and are known.
