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Posts Tagged ‘Coaching’

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

Making Sense of Testing Athletes

A renowned swimming coach was walking up and down the side of the pool working with a world record holder. A younger, relatively inexperienced coach who was eager to learn, asked, “How do you know how your swimmer is going?” “How do you know when she is ready to do her best?”

The senior coach replied, “I just know”.

Testing does not replace the skilled eye or instinctual feel of an experienced and talented coach. It aims to provide measurement and objectivity to some of the elements of performance that coaches “see” and “feel” and “know”.

This article discusses some of the current issues in the testing of high performance athletes and looks at the crucial aspects of the measurement and evaluation of elite sports performance. 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

It’s not the workout that wins…you have to win the workout.

One of the greatest myths in sport is that it is the workout that wins.

That is, that the secret to sporting success lies in how you manipulate volume, intensity and frequency.

Coaches spend years and years crafting their workouts, building invincible programs and creating the perfect combination of work and rest that will deliver them and their athletes the success they dream of.

And it is largely a myth.

It is not the workout that wins…you have to win the workout. 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

Ten Golden Rules about Presenting Sports Science information to Coaches

I have been to hundreds of coaching courses, coaching workshops, coaching conferences and coaching seminars. Invariably, the course convener invites a guest speaker with a specialist sports science background to talk about physiology, biomechanics, nutrition, psychology or another sports performance topic.

And, in all of the hundreds of courses, workshops, conferences and seminars I have attended, I have seen the same mistakes being made by the guest speakers. So I decided to do something about it.

The problem stems from the differences between the “two worlds” – the sports science world and the coaching world.

In the sports science world things are based on facts, research, validity and reliability measures, measurement, accuracy and evidence.

In the coaching world the key focus areas are results, performance, communication, instinct and “feel” – the art of coaching.

It is vital that the two worlds come together and share ideas and information but it just as vital that the two groups communicate appropriately and effectively.  Read more

Hiring and Developing a Winning Coaching Team

Gone are the days of the “GURU” coaches.

Sure, the great names of coaching have all been “one man bands” – strong, decisive, authoritarian, leadership focused head coaches who controlled every aspect of the team’s performance.

However, elite sport has developed at an incredible rate over the past twenty years and the knowledge and skills required to win an elite sporting competition are greater than any one person can bring to the table.

Think of the advances in sports science, sports medicine, analysis, IT, nutrition, psychology and technology since the 1980s.

How can we expect that any one person can be THE expert in all performance areas plus coach the team, deal with the media, work with Club Board and Executive, recruit new players, talk to sponsors, meet the fans etc etc etc?

So – the Coaching Team and Performance Team concepts are born.

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

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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