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Expert Advice for Sports Coaching Success

To a Coach with a Hammer, Every Athlete is a Nail: Creativity in Sports Coaching.

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Creativity

Coaching in the Century of Entertainment

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Hot Topics

“Enter-Training”: “Entertained, not just trained”

Coaching in this century is more about entertainment and enjoyment than just education and athletic excellence.

Coaches, teachers and instructors around the World are experiencing frustrating times coming to terms with the rapid changes in society and the impact these changes are having on the learning behaviors of kids. Read more

The future – who will get there first?

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Leadership

By Wayne Goldsmith

In business and in elite sport there are three basic types of people.

Those who are innovative, creative, rule breakers, risk takers – leaders: people who have a vision of what’s possible and make the future theirs.

Those who watch the leaders and innovators and copy them.

Those who don’t care about the future – they just keep repeating what they do now over and over and over and over and over…

Which one are you?

Read more

Five World Wide Trends in Sport which you ignore at your peril.

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Hot Topics

Having visited more than 30 countries in four continents in the past few years and spent time with sports leaders, coaches, athletes, sponsors, sports scientists, sports academics, sports medicine practitioners, sports administrators, government funding agencies and other sports professionals in many of the world’s leading sports systems, five world wide trends in society
(and by extension in sport) have become very clear and are screaming so loud that they can no longer be ignored.

Ignore them at your peril. Read more

Drugs, Alcohol and Elite sport: a real life approach

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Hot Topics

Every time a professional player or elite athlete tests positive to drugs or is caught abusing alcohol, you can guarantee three things will happen:

1. Newspapers and other media will over react and claim an isolated incident is evidence of an inherent drug and alcohol abuse culture in the club or sport (or all of sport);
2. The club or sport will over react and ensure a drugs and alcohol education program is put in place as soon as possible;
3. Everyone associated with the incident will over react, deny responsibility and blame someone else.

 What’s the reality?

Read more

Great Coaching – Great Coaches: How to Be the Best of the Best.

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Hot Topics

Whilst all great coaches are unique and very special individuals, there are some common factors – some common championship coaching characteristics that they all share:

1. A commitment to continuous improvement.
2. A belief that anything is possible.
3. An understanding of where your sport has been (history of the sport), where it is now and most importantly a vision for where it is going.
4. The confidence to be yourself – to be unique.
5. The energy to work hard consistently.
6. The strength and courage to not compromise.
7. Outstanding communication abilities.
8. An understanding of who you are, what you value and what motivates you.
9. A passion for winning – a desire to be the best.
10. The capacity to persevere and persist and continue to fight hard no matter what obstacles you face. Read more

The Accountability Myth – Why the current Leadership models in High Performance Sport are failing (badly).

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Hot Topics

Time to be honest about this whole Leadership concept in high performance sport – it is not working.

And why?

It’s not working because of the Accountability Myth: The Accountability Myth is the reason why the current Leadership models in High Performance Sport are failing (badly). Read more

The Psychology of Winning: How to Develop a Winning Attitude in High Performance Sport

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Performance Psychology

World Cup Final Day.

The team gathers in the locker room.

This is an intense, high pressure environment that few experience and even fewer survive.

A former player – one of the nation’s greatest – walks into the change room. There is a respectful hush as he starts to speak.

He talks about pride.

He talks about spirit.

He talks about commitment – about attitude.

He talks about winning - the history of the nation at the world cup.

With tears in his eyes he begins to recite the names of the great players who have gone before.

He asks players to stand and link arms and to join him in the national anthem.

He has done a great motivational talk.

This is the perception many people have about the word motivation as it applies to high performance sport: a one off emotion charged lecture from a professional speaker or motivator or sports psychologist. Read more

Evolution of Coaching Rugby Teams – from Coaching the Team to Coaching Today

By Wayne Goldsmith | In High Performance Coaching

This morning I received an email from a Rugby coach in New Zealand about the evolution of leadership and coaching in rugby. Thought it would be of interest to everyone who coaches any football code – or any team sport for that matter:

Email to www.sportscoachingbrain.com

Hi Wayne,
 
I coach a 1st XV rugby side in New Zealand that has a history of finishing at the top. However in recent years we have come up short when the pressure has taken it toll on the side and I have been trying to find the point of difference to change this.
 
Thanks for this piece. We are at play-off time now and this is a good refresher going into the business end of the season.
 
Ownership for one’s self in all that he or she does is vital for young athletes in 2010. That is my summary of your last piece.
 
Regards
 

www.sportscoachingbrain.com response to the Coach:
 
Thanks for the email.

Basically in the old days we coached the whole team the same way.
Then we moved to coaching backs or forwards.
Then it became units - i.e. inside backs / outside backs, front three etc.
Then we moved to coaching each position – i.e. all wingers, all back rowers, all tight heads etc had their own program by position.
Now it is about the optimal preparation of each individual in the team and training each person to realise their own personal peak performance potential.
The evolution means that each individual player has to accept the responsibility for their own performance and be consistently as professional off field in all aspects of their life as they are when they train and play.
We don’t coach at players – we work with them collaboratively to achieve the possible and impossible.
 
Any rugby coach still coaching the whole team the same way with one big team program is 30 years behind the times and doomed to failure.

The future is about collaboration, sharing, growing, partnering and ensuring everyone in the organisation is working consistently to their full potential. Then…anything is possible.
 
Thanks,

WG

What’s all this Leadership by Empowerment stuff about?

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Hot Topics

Leadership groups, leadership teams, player leadership teams, team councils………

What’s going on here? Players making decisions? Players leading? Players taking ownership of their training and playing programs?

• What’s all this empowerment stuff about?
• What does engagement mean? Is someone getting married?
• And what the hell is a leadership group?

I thought coaches coached, managers managed, fans cheered, doctors doctored and players played.

All of sudden every AFL, rugby, football, cricket, netball and rugby league team has embraced a player empowerment leadership model. Five years ago, most of us couldn’t even spell it.

Let’s have closer look at what’s going on. Read more

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• About this Blog

  Expert advice, ideas, innovation and inspiration for all sports coaches and team managers - from 'grass roots' through to elite and high performance levels. All posts are written by Wayne Goldsmith, AKA the "Sports Coaching Brain". If you have a question or comment about any post, please add it to the comments section.

• Recent Posts

  • To a Coach with a Hammer, Every Athlete is a Nail: Creativity in Sports Coaching.
  • Coaching in the Century of Entertainment
  • The future – who will get there first?
  • Five World Wide Trends in Sport which you ignore at your peril.
  • Drugs, Alcohol and Elite sport: a real life approach

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