Tag: Coaching

By Wayne Goldsmith |

The Jersey. The Strip. The Colors. The Jacket. The Jumper.

Doesn’t matter what you call it – the “jersey” is dead.

Gone are the days when a bunch of blokes could train two or three days a week, have a poor diet, skip training sessions, enjoy a few beers and then, come Saturday, suddenly get Amazing Super Powers because of the magic of putting on the “jersey”.

In those days, poorly prepared players relied on the emotion of the jersey for their performance. Putting on the old “black and green” colors – usually incorporating a “rev-up” by a former player about the “pride of the jersey” etc was enough to fire the spirit and inspire the soul.

That’s not to say that tradition is wrong or respecting and celebrating the past is a bad thing. The point is that the jersey is just that – a jersey – a piece of clothing (usually made in China) – and, as a performance enhancement tool in 2008 – it is dead.

Why do I say the jersey is dead?

There’s a great phrase that goes”real talent is harder to hide than it is to find”. Athletes with real physical talent stand out – their physical talent is obvious and it will be demonstrated at training and in competition in many ways. But to realise your full potential as an athlete, it’s about so much more than muscle. It’s about all the mental, emotional and character qualities like passion, commitment, dedication, determination, drive, desire and toughness. This podcast and post discusses the concept of talent identification in sport and challenges coaches to look for more than obvious signs of talent – to look past the physical aspects of talent and to adopt a more holistic approach to developing talented athletes: one that focuses on the less tangible areas and harder to measure aspects of performance.

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.

It takes 20 years to become an overnight success. Successful coaches have by a combination of experience, skill, education and practice, developed ways and means of getting the best out themselves and their athletes.

Here are 101 Coaching Tips to help you achieve your coaching goals.

1. Plan.
2. Develop communication skills and never stop trying to improve them.
3. Learn to effectively utilise the Internet, social media and email.
4. Never stop learning. Learning is for life.
5. Be open-minded. Never say, never.
6. What you may lack in knowledge, make up for with enthusiasm, desire and passion.
7. Be a role model for your athletes.