Comments on: Why Bench – marking is a waste of time in High Performance Sport.

By: Wayne Goldsmith

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 20:17:37 +0000

Thanks JP.

Agree – learn, be inspired, grow your knowledge but in the end, if you want to win build something unique, dare to be different and lead: copying kills.
Thanks,

By: Jeremy Pryce

Jeremy Pryce — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:29:50 +0000

I like the term: “Learn from many but copy no one”.

Jer

By: Wayne Goldsmith

Wayne Goldsmith — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 06:22:10 +0000

Thanks Cliff.

I am a fan of benchmarking only when it is used a starting point for coaches and athletes to then improve upon.

I am dead against benchmarking exercises – usually organised by sports administrators – who will copy things out of context, then try and make them work outside of the culture that created them. Recipe for failure.

Copying kills!

Thanks for the great story about Craig Lewis. I will read more about him.

By: cliff bailey

cliff bailey — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 07:48:05 +0000

Hi Wayne,

I was lucky enough to work with New Zealand’s best performance coach Craig Lewis.He has produced regional champions, national and world champion athletes over the last 20 years of working with High Performance Athletes .He was performance coach for the Kiwis alongside Bluey McClennan when they won the Tri Nations beating Great Britain and then the Kangaroos 24 nil in the final along the way breaking numerous records. First time they beat Australia in Sydney in 45 years first time they had won a series between Australia and Great Britain. The first lesson from the coal face of sport he teaches his athletes is benchmark off number one for the Kiwis he used New England Patriots and LA Lakers two completely different cultures with huge success i guess it was the way he delivered his material that resulted in his success because he certainly has plenty of it.

By: Wayne Goldsmith

Wayne Goldsmith — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:43:38 +0000

Thanks for the great comments guys.

I think my biggest issue with benchmarking is when people go and do it, then come back, try to apply stuff out of context and get frustrated when nothing changes.

The smart ones have a clear strategic vision for what they want to achieve out of benchmarking, go looking for solutions to specific problems but then enhance the new ideas by engaging the hearts and minds of their own team to make the new ideas even better.

Copying = losing.
Replicating = defeat.
Duplicating = failure whereas…
Creating = winning.
Innovating = success.
Taking risks = performance.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:50:23 +0000

I Coach Diving and the usdiving orginzation is in love with the chinese way of doing things and has been for a number of years, and ever sense we have tried to mimic the way they do things our medal count in the olympics has dimished. Well i’m not opposed to cherry picking a few drills that I notice and changing them up to fit my style, I often find that there isn’t much new under the sun and thing still go back to the basics. I find found this true with Summer Camps that the athletes while having a good time and lots of fun meeting new people come back saying that they were being told the same thing there as they were learning at home. (expensive way to hear something being worded slightly different)

By: Marg

Marg — Sat, 23 May 2009 00:48:18 +0000

I love benchmarking against what our team decides are the measures they want to work towards! The creativity of achieving them is where the coach kicks in along with the athletes – more heads better than one.

By: Stacie

Stacie — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:55:20 +0000

This point is proven on a smaller scale even with your OWN organization. What works one year doesn’t always yield the same result when used again the following year/season (especially when you’re dealing with a team which may have slight personnel changes – or simple have a group of athletes who simply have grown/learned/developed/gained experience from the year before). Knowing that makes it seem kind of silly to think that the exact techniques or methods from an entirely different team/organization will have the same results on your organization as it did on the one you got the idea from.