Posts Tagged ‘Olympics’

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

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

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

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

A New Head Coach is No Longer the Solution in High Performance Sport.

There was a time when a new head was the solution to all problems in a high performance sports team.

Team not winning - get a new head coach.

Team’s culture not rightget a new head coach.

Team’s attitude and commitment flagging – get a new head coach.

Times have changed.

A new head coach is no longer the solution in high performance sport. Read more

A Fish Rots from the Head: Solving Problems in High Performance Sport.

In High Performance Sport, experience is important.

Knowledge of the sports industry is critical.

An understanding of the culture of high performance is vital.

But ultimately, success is high performance sport comes down to possessing exceptional talent and ability in five core areas:

  1. Problem solving;
  2. Crisis management;
  3. Creating and sustaining a high performance environment, i.e. change management and continuous improvement;
  4. Finding, training and retaining the right people;
  5. Quality, consistent leadership.

And of these five skills, problem solving is perhaps the least understood – primarily because it hard to measure, hard to define and next to impossible to teach.

Here is Problem Solving in High Performance Sport 101. Read more

Coaching without Periodisation

 

Coaching 101.

Plan.

Plan.

Plan.

Buy a copy of Bompa’s classic text on Periodisation, get out there and plan, plan, plan.

You just can’t coach without first developing a written down, detailed, systematic periodised annual training plan.

There is another way. Read more

The Sports Science Scorecard: Has sports science delivered on its promises to sport?

Sports science: many consider it the driving force of high performance sport.

Some would consider it responsible for most of the breakthroughs in high performance sport.

But has sports science actually delivered on its promises to high performance sport?

Read more

After the Games:Let the Games begin….50 Things You Must Do After a Major Competition…if you want to win the Next One!

 

So the Games are over. Let the Games begin.

Win, lose or draw, there are 50 Things You Must Do After a Major Competition…if you want to win the Next One (if you seriously consider yourself a high performance coach).

Read more

Sports Psycho-physiology: The Way Forward in Successful Coaching and Sports Performance.

Want to know about the latest breakthrough in thinking in sport?

Want to learn about how to coach more effectively and get more out of every training session?

Want to hear how to enhance the performance of your athletes?

Here it is: the latest thing – Psycho-physiology (more specifically sports psycho-physiology): The way forward in successful coaching and sports performance.

And guess what?

This revolutionary breakthrough in sports performance is so new that it has only been around for 5000 years….. Read more

Winning and Losing: Outplayed or Out-talented?

High Performance sport is founded on a relatively simple equation: you either win or you lose.

And when you lose, it is natural to look for the reasons “why” through performance reviews etc.

A critical aspect in understanding the “losing process” is to find the answer to this question….were you outplayed or out-talented? Read more

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