Author page: Wayne Goldsmith

In professional sports where teams are subject to a “draft” system, it is common to talk about a “window of opportunity”, i.e. a year or two when the team has the realistic opportunity to win the title owing to the talent, maturity and experience of their players. For many teams “outside the window”, coaches and management will often talk about the “rebuilding phase” – a period where the team is re-building their playing ranks with the aim of giving them the opportunity to win again sometime in the future. This article looks at the concept of “rebuilding” and challenges it as a valid philosophy in professional sport.

There is no doubt that developing self-confidence is one of the hottest topics in sports coaching. Coaches universally agree that helping athletes to develop a strong sense of self-confidence: one which is resistant to the pain, pressure and fatigue of preparation and performance is at the core of what sports coaching is all about. So how do coaches help athletes to develop self-confidence? This article presents some practical ideas for helping athletes to develop a strong, real sense of self-confidence: self-confidence which is built on a solid foundation of evidence rather than on hollow rhetoric, shallow praise and cheesy motivational sayings.

Testing athletes has become a multi-million dollar industry. Coaches and athletes can buy testing programs, testing equipment, testing manuals, testing systems and testing tools to test any athlete, anywhere, anytime and for any reason. But, it’s not the testing that’s important: it’s how the testing applies to enhancing the competition performance of the athlete that really matters. This article discusses testing from a holistic perspective and challenges coaches, athletes and sports science professionals to think before they test.

The secret to success. The one thing that will turn your life around. The one thing that when you do it will make all your dreams come true. And what is it? You already know what it is. This article points out that everyone knows the secret to success – but we just aren’t prepared to actually commit to putting into practice.