Coaching = Engagement.
We have all done it.
We have all been involved in debates, discussions and deliberations about what coaching is.
Some people say it is about teaching and learning skills. Others say it’s about sports science and applying a scientific method approach to planning and periodisation. Others say it’s about communication and caring. Still others believe coaching is about emotions like passion or it’s about values like commitment, honesty, integrity, humility, courage and discipline.
To add to the confusion, you get the coaching “zealots” who are promoting one type of coaching philosophy over another (in an effort to create a commercial success from their theories about coaching) who are convinced coaching is about the ABC Technique of Coaching or Homer Simpson’s Guide to Effective Coaching or some whiz bang made up word like Coaching Readiness for Accelerated Performance (I hope you spotted the acronym)!
Coaching is about one thing above all others…engagement.
High Performance Culture – Do you have what it takes?
Lots of sporting teams and professional sporting Clubs talk up having or wanting a “High Performance Culture”.
Do you have what it takes to create and sustain a High Performance Culture?
Think you’ve already got one??
Why? Because you’ve got a new gym and lots of expensive equipment? Because you’ve got some really talented players? Because you’ve just recruited a world class coach?
Think again………………..
Ten Tips for Keeping your Relationship Healthy when you work in High Performance Sport
The term “Sporting Widow” (or widower) is almost a cliche in high performance sport as many, many relationships have fallen apart in the industry due to the demands and pressures of travel, preparation, competition, training camps etc etc.
This article is for all my coaching, sports science, sports medicine and sports management colleagues (and their long suffering partners and families) written after many years chatting over beers and lamenting the challenges of working on the road, away from loved ones trying to balance success in high performance sport with a successful relationship.
Coaching in the Century of Entertainment
The question is the same all over the world…”what’s wrong with athletes today?” Coaches from Australia to Alaska, from Germany to Guam and from Tanzania to Turkey are all asking why kids today don’t seem to work as hard as past sporting generations. Coaches want to know “how do I coach Generation Y” and the even more unpredictable “Generation I” (as I-phone, I-Pod, I-Pad and It’s all about what I want). This article looks at coaching in this century and suggests practical coaching strategies for coaches to coach effectively in century of Enter-trainment.
Don’t Count the Repeats:Make the Repeats Count.
I know, I know, I know.
This sounds like an advertisement for a new sporting product or new piece of sporting training equipment…the sporting equivalent of the “knife that cuts through a shoe” or the “miracle mop” that does everything around the house including walking the dog, cooking dinner and putting the kids to bed.
But no….this is serious. You can achieve More with Less…this is how to do Less but get a Better result.
Mental Toughness: What is It and How to Coach It
Start talking about mental toughness in sport and you’ll soon find out that everyone’s got an opinion about it. People will start using words like “hard” and “tough” and “mean” and phrases like “never quits” etc to describe their views about mental toughness. But what is mental toughness? Can it be measured? Can it coached? And if mental toughness can be coached, how can it be coached? This post and podcast discuss mental toughness in sport and suggests a new way of looking at measuring and coaching mental toughness.
High Performance Sport: What are the “non – negotiables?”
There seems to be a high performance program or high performance system in every country in the world….but what is high performance sport?
You can’t buy a Football Premiership.
By Wayne Goldsmith |
Read the title of this article.
Now read it again.
Read it one more time.
Now, just to be sure you get it – You can’t buy a football premiership!
Here’s why.
Many, Many Football Clubs all over the world in all codes have tried to “buy” a premiership over the years. In fact one the main reasons some football codes have put a salary cap in place is to ensure one club can not “buy” a premiership by recruiting the majority of the best players available.
However, if the Football Administrators did their homework and studied their history, they would realise putting a salary cap in place to stop one team dominating a competition is unnecessary – you just simply can’t buy a football premiership.
Olympic Mistakes: The Top Five Dumb Things Athletes and Coaches do heading into an Olympic Games.
Lots of athletes go to the Olympic Games – very, very few come back with a medal or even a personal best performance.
Why?
Lack of Talent? Maybe.
Poor Skill? Possibly.
The wrong parents, i.e. Genetics? Could be.
But the main reason most of them don’t win a medal is that they made five dumb (and avoidable) mistakes in the period between their selection for the Olympic team and their Olympic Games competition.
Olympic Mistakes: The Top Five Dumb Things Athletes and Coaches do heading into an Olympic Games.
Building Boards: How to Build a Brilliant Board for a Sporting Organisation.
One of the most critical initiatives any sporting organisation can undergo is the Building of the Board.
As the Board provides strategic direction, leadership and vision to the organisation, it is essential to consider the P-P-P of the Board, i.e.:
- The quality of the People who sit on the Board – who they are;
- The Professionalism of the people who sit on the Board – what skills, knowledge and experience they bring to the Board;
- The Practices of the people who sit on the Board – what they do and how they do it.
Seems simple enough, but why do so many get it so wrong?
Tough Training – Ten Reasons Why Training has to be Tougher than Competition
Have you ever sat around and wondered why you didn’t win that race? Or even pondered how come you didn’t win the big game? Guess what……in a lot of cases the reason why you didn’t win was that you didn’t prepare to win. The fundamental reason you train is to prepare to meet the challenges and demands of every competitive situation you find yourself in. To do less, is to prepare to fail. This article discusses the concept of winning and explains why it is essential that your training must be tougher than the competition you are preparing for.