As the new decade starts, it is time to face the realities of the sports experience around the world.
The last decade, saw the most significant changes in society, in learning, in education, in technology and in social change that the world has experienced.
And, in general, sport has not kept pace with the extent or speed of the changes.
New Sport: Old Sport. The Decade of Client Focused Sport is Here.
Mental toughness is something everyone talks about in sport. But what is it? Mental toughness is the capacity of an athlete to do their job – i.e. to do the things they’ve trained to do – no matter what happens to them or what’s happening around them. Once you understand what mental toughness is – the good news is – you can coach it.
There is a tribe in the highlands of Papua New Guinea who have never seen modern technology, who could not even imagine using the latest electronic tools, who can not comprehend western society concepts of computing, social media, high speed Internet links, laser technology or satellite navigation.
This tribe, believes that the best way – the only way – the way everyone must adopt to cut down a tree is to make an axe by lashing a sharp rock to a piece of wood. This knowledge has been passed down from generation to generation for centuries….this tribe knows for certain that the only way to cut down a tree is to use a hand made stone ax.
And then, one day, through the forest, comes a man from the USA carrying a chain saw…….
People with unique needs. People with unique attitudes. People with unique identities. People with unique motivations. People from different cultures – some of them with different languages and faiths.
The most important three things you need to make your organisation successful are all the same – people, people, people.
Leadership has changed. It’s not about being a great orator. It’s not about where you got your MBA from. It’s about learning how to inspire others – to create the environment and the opportunity for people to express their potential and their talent and to in turn helping people to lead themselves and others. Leadership has changed so much that it might be more appropriate to call it Leading – without Leading.
Coaching the Un-coachables is what coaching is really all about. Anyone can learn to coach the coachables: those basic skills and techniques of sport. They can be learnt by anyone, anytime, anywhere and for free. What really matters are the things that can’t be measured, are hard to see and often impossible to define. But, success and winning in sport is determined by the un-coachables: Desire, Desperation, Hunger for success, Determination, Resilience, Passion, Motivation and Unbreakable self-confidence.
One of the greatest challenges many traditional Olympic sports face is how to achieve the same or better results in less time. Kids and parents have very little spare time and for sports like swimming, track and field, rowing, diving, gymnastics, tennis and cycling, finding ways to optimise athletic development and enhance sports performance efficiently: i.e. achieving better performances in less time has become an increasingly important aspect of coaching around the world.
The concept of Talent Identification – TID for short – makes sense.
Do some standardised testing and screening of lots of kids, find the ones who can run faster, run further, jump longer, stretch better than the rest and bingo- you found talent!
It all grew out of the now “mythical” talent identification systems of the old Eastern Block (and more recently China) – and the countless stories we have all heard for the past 30 years about how the centralised government systems put every child in the nation through a series of TID testing protocols and then funnelled them in to the specific sports where their talent was most likely to be developed to its full potential.
But in the western world, in spite of the hundreds of millions of dollars thrown at TID in Australia, the US, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and Western Europe, with the exception of a few minor and specialised sports – it has failed and failed badly.
In the old days it was easy. You needed a job filled. You advertised. Someone came along, filled in a form, showed you their certificates, degrees and awards, maybe did a psyche test, an interview and voila – instant employee. In the old days you searched for qualifications, for skills, for experience and for knowledge.
Ever wanted to know what’s holding you back as a coach? Ever wanted to know why you are not realising your potential?
This post, “The Top Ten Reasons Why Coaches Fail” outlines the ten biggest mistakes coaches make, discusses how you can avoid them and in doing so ensure your coaching becomes everything it could and should be.
There is no doubt that successful sports performance is multi-disciplinary in nature. Athletes and coaches need to be aware of the physiological, biomechanical, psychological, nutritional, medical and immunological and other issues that can impact on their competition performances.
It – performance – is rarely – if ever -about one thing in isolation!
