Posts Tagged ‘Training’
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
January 5, 2012 | 14 Comments
Tags: AFL, American Football, Athletics, Baseball, Basketball, Coach education, Coaching, Cricket, Cycling, Diving, Football, Gymnastics, High Performance, Hockey, Netball, Performance Science, Rugby, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Soccer, sports science, Swimming, Tennis, Training, Triathlon
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
January 5, 2012 | 4 Comments
Tags: AFL, American Football, Athletics, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Coach education, Coaching, Cricket, Cycling, Diving, exercise, Football, Gymnastics, High Performance, Hockey, Netball, Performance Science, Rugby, Rugby Union, Soccer, Sports coaching, sports science, Swimming, Tennis, Track and Field, Training, Triathlon
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
December 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment
Tags: Coaching, Performance Science, Sports coaching, sports science, Training
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:
- Talent identification;
- Talent recruitment;
- 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
December 6, 2011 | 10 Comments
Tags: AFL, American Football, Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Coach education, Coaching, Cricket, Cycling, Diving, Football, Gymnastics, High Performance, Hockey, Netball, Olympic Games, Olympics, Performance Science, Rugby, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Soccer, sport, Sport and Parenting, sporting parents, Sports coaching, Sports Management, sports science, Swimming, Tennis, Track and Field, Training, Triathlon, Weightlifting, Wrestling
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
December 6, 2011 | 2 Comments
Tags: AFL, American Football, Athletics, Baseball, Basketball, Coach education, Coaching, Cricket, Cycling, Diving, Football, Gymnastics, High Performance, Hockey, Lawn Bowls, Netball, Rugby, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Shooting, Soccer, Sports coaching, Swimming, Tennis, Track and Field, Training, Triathlon
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
October 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment
Tags: AFL, American Football, Athletics, Baseball, Basketball, Coach education, Coaching, Cricket, Cycling, Diving, Gymnastics, Hockey, Netball, Rugby, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Soccer, Swimming, Tennis, Track and Field, Training, Triathlon
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
October 20, 2011 | 2 Comments
Tags: AFL, American Football, Athletics, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Coach education, Coaching, Cricket, Cycling, Diving, Football, Gymnastics, High Performance, Netball, Olympic Games, Olympics, Rugby, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Soccer, Sports coaching, Swimming, Tennis, Track and Field, Training, Triathlon
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
October 5, 2011 | Comments Off
Tags: AFL, American Football, Athletics, Baseball, Basketball, Coach education, Cricket, Cycling, Diving, Football, Gymnastics, Hockey, Netball, Performance Science, Rugby, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Soccer, Swimming, Tennis, Track and Field, Training, Triathlon
How to Develop World Class Coaches
OK. Let’s talk about how to develop world class coaches.
Grab a piece of paper. On one side of the paper, write down the characteristics of a great coach.
Does your list include any or all of the following:
- Outstanding communicator
- Visionary
- Leader
- Innovator
- Negotiator
- Conflict resolver
- Media manager
- Public relations genius
- Team developer
- People manager
- Technical / tactical / strategic skills of the highest order
- Philosopher
- Politician
- Futurist
OK - now turn the page over and write down a list of all the coach education programs which cover the above?
Is this side of the paper blank? Yes? Then we can begin. Read more
October 5, 2011 | 1 Comment
Tags: AFL, American Football, Athletics, Baseball, Basketball, Coach education, Coaching, Cricket, Cycling, Diving, Gymnastics, Hockey, Netball, Rugby, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Soccer, Swimming, Tennis, Track and Field, Training, Triathlon
Sustaining success! The Coach’s Holy Grail.
Many coaches will say they want to be successful.
No they don’t. Not really.
They want to be successful again and again and again and again and again. They want to Sustain success and Always have a competitive program, winning athletes and quality players.
So how do you it?
How do you Sustain Competitiveness And Sustain Success? Read more
October 5, 2011 | 1 Comment
Tags: AFL, American Football, Athletics, Baseball, Basketball, Coach education, Coaching, Cricket, Cycling, Diving, Football, High Performance, Hockey, Netball, Rugby, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Soccer, Sports coaching, Swimming, Tennis, Track and Field, Training, Triathlon











