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Hot Topics

Exploding the Home and Away Myth

All professional team sport competitions around the world are based on the “Home and “Away” philosophy, i.e. that it is more likely a team will win at “Home” that it is when they are “Away” (from home).

The central theme of the philosophy is that by giving teams the chance to play each other at “Home” and “Away” they have an equal chance of winning over the season without favouring one team over the other.

There was a time that everyone involved in professional sport more or less accepted the “fact” that is was more difficult to win “Away” than it was to win at “Home”.

But now is the time to challenge the whole “Home and Away” concept and expose it for the myth that it really is. Read more

Sports Coaching in 2030 – Future (coach) Shock – Where will Sports Coaching be in 2030?

What will sports coaching look like in 20 years?

How will a training session differ in 2030 to a training session in 2010?

How will our coaching have changed, improved and evolved over the next 20 years?

It will have changed so much that it will be barely recognisable.

The future is already here. And it is a scary place for those living in the past.

Are you ready for it? Will you race towards it? Will you resist it?

Read on. Read more

Recovering from Recovery: Recovery in Perspective.

 

The sporting world has gone Recovery Crazy.

Over the past ten years, Recovery has gone from being something you did when you got tired, to an integral aspect of every training session, every day, all year round.

First it was massage.

Then came all the countless variations of hydrotherapies: spas, saunas, ice baths, contrast showers, high-flow shower massage, wading pools, hydro pools…….

Then the recovery nutrition stuff: creatine, sports drinks, gels, bars, Slushies….

Now the focus is on sleep: sleep research, quality of sleep, quantity of sleep, timing of sleep, power naps, managing sleep, monitoring sleep and even the genetics of sleep.

It is now at the point where many coaches and athletes are making Recovery a higher priority than actual hard training! (The only time this should happen is in the dictionary).

So it’s time to Recover from Recovery: let’s consider Recovery in Perspective. Read more

Top Ten Talent I.D. Tips for High Performance Sport – The T.O.P. Approach

So much of the world’s high performance sports dollars (or Yens or Yuans or Euros or Pounds or Pesos or Rands depending on where you come from), time, energy, focus and attention is spent on three things:

1. Talent identification;
2. Talent recruitment;
3. Talent development.

Or if you like, find them, sign them, refine them.

And most of the world has still got it wrong. There is a better way. Read more

Ten Tips to Make Sure Your End of Season Re-view is a Pre-view for Success for Next Year

Typically the end of season means a well earned rest, a few quiet drinks with team mates, some time with family and then… the end of season review.

Every team does some kind of season reflection or review – in most cases motivated by one or more “P” – Performance, Politics, Pressure.

• The Performance Review: is one motivated by a drive to improve the performance of the team – players, coaches and staff – for next season.
• The Political Review: is a review often driven by the Board or Executive to achieve a political agenda or philosophical shift in the club.
• The Pressure Review: is one forced on a team by media, fans, club, Board or other stakeholders as a result of a poor performance.

By far the most effective review is one that is deliberately and strategically placed in the team’s “performance cycle” each year and is embraced by coaches, players, staff, Management and Board as being an important and positive aspect of progressive performance from season to season. Read more

Recruiting a Head coach – how NOT to do it.

 

The issue of hiring the right head coach is a hotly debated topic in all the newspapers, television sport shows and Internet sporting sites.

So how do you go about finding the right head coach for your team?

Because there are thousands of ways of doing it right - let’s start with how NOT to do it!

Read more

Coaching and Mental Toughness

There have been many attempts to define and measure mental toughness in coaching textbooks, academic literature and even in the popular media.

Words like “persistence”, “perseverance”, “determination”, “commitment”, “resilience” and “uncompromising” seem to be used to describe mental toughness: something which clearly means different things to different people.

For some people, mental toughness is about being able to maintain composure, calm and control in difficult situations.

For others, mental toughness is related to physical “hardness” and the ability to endure pain, fatigue and stress in competition conditions and still prevail.

There has been a lot of work from the academic sector to attempt to define and measure mental toughness, with most of the recent literature discussing mental toughness in terms of “situations” and that mental toughness is a complex set of different attributes expressed differently by people in different situations.

Coaches all agree however, that for competitive athletes, mental toughness is a highly desirable athletic quality: one which is as prized as outstanding physical abilities, excellence in skills and technical knowledge.

But how can you coach an athlete to be mentally tough? Read more

What’s the difference between Medicine and Sports Medicine?

I was recently asked to talk to a group of students about high performance sport. We discussed all the “usual” topics: talent identification, sports science, elite coach development and sports medicine.

One of the students asked me, “Is there a difference between Medicine (as in general practice medicine) and Sports Medicine as it exists in high performance sport”? Read more

Boards and Sporting Organisations – The Ten Commandments of Being a Great Sporting Board Member

 

Boards can be the greatest asset to a Sporting Organisation….they can also be the biggest liability.

Lots of articles and books describe what a Board member is supposed to do from a statutory, legislative perspective but in general that’s not the problem.

The biggest problem in sporting Boards stems from Board members trying to influence the operational side of the Club.

Read this to learn why people often become Bored with Boards……….

 

Read more

The Culture Combination: 5 People and Positions You Must Get Right to Build a Winning High Performance Culture in Your Sporting Organisation

There is no one thing that you can do which will guarantee success: no single change which, in isolation will create and sustain a winning culture in high performance sport.

There are however a combination of things that you can do to increase the likelihood of success: “The Culture Combination”: 5 People and Positions You Must Get Right to Build a Winning High Performance Culture in Your Sporting Organisation.

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

  • Exploding the Home and Away Myth
  • Sports Coaching in 2030 – Future (coach) Shock – Where will Sports Coaching be in 2030?
  • Recovering from Recovery: Recovery in Perspective.
  • Can You Guarantee Winning in High Performance Sport?
  • Making Sense of Testing Athletes

• Links

  • Business Coaching Brain
  • Changing NSW State of Origin Culture – Article Sydney Morning Herald June 2010.
  • Coaches Info Service
  • Evolution of the Athlete Conference
  • Excelsior Group
  • Inner Tactics
  • Mental Games – AFL Grand Final Reply 2010
  • Moregold Performance Consulting
  • Performance Science: Integrated Sports Science.
  • Rugby League State of Origin- Article Sydney Morning Herald
  • Skill for Kids – A great innovation in educating sporting kids, coaches and parents
  • Sporting Parents Twitter
  • Sports Coach Tips Twitter
  • Sports Performance Science
  • Sun-Herald article on Mental Myths
  • Swim Coaching Brain
  • The Genius of Inigo Mujika
  • The Science of Sport
  • The Sporting Brain Twitter