The biggest mental load in performance, that an athlete must cope with, is in dealing with failures – both in the moment and after the fact. Yes, it’s the obvious ‘failure’ associated with a loss. Yet, more significant, and less obvious, are the micro ‘failures’ that accumulate over the course of a game (and even season). …
DISCLAIMER: This is not what you want to hear… It is, however, what you need to hear. Who am I kidding? It wasn’t what I wanted to hear (erm… accept) – either! We’re human. We make mistakes. We think A leads to B, so more A gets more B. Yet, A and B may have …
Every coach has been in the frustrating situation where their athletes don’t do, in a game, the things that they worked on during practice. There’s the common refrain bellowing from sidelines throughout the basketball world: “C’mon! We worked on that!” If you’re looking for a solution, start with you… Is This A Game-Like Drill? This is …
Here’s an insightful peek into the practice philosophy of the NFLs Seattle Seahawks. Head Coach, Pete Carroll, shares some golden nuggets that any coach can benefit from. Takeaways: Tap In(to) Practice Before a Seahawks practice, players ‘tap in’ (i.e. hit the “I’m In!” sign) to make a positive – an active – affirmation of what …
How often do you pause and reflect on what’s behind a skill? What I mean is: what are the unseen (cognitive) processes that precede the execution of the skill? If you haven’t given it a ton of thought, meet someone who has… Garth Smith, a soccer coach, who attempted to capture the myriad of variables – consciously and subconsciously …
Here’s how you end up with a dysfunctional team culture: Someone points out that one of the team members is negative and a real problem. And the coach says, And here’s how you end up with a toxic environment on your coaching staff: Someone points out that people are afraid to contradict this person. And the …
Read this quote today by Luke Walton (Head Coach, Los Angeles Lakers) on building a winning culture and developing basketball IQ: Let’s Go Deeper… I agree with the basic premise of the quote; yet, I think we can go deeper. Think about replacing freedom with responsibility. As the saying goes, ‘with freedom comes responsibility’. (I don’t think Luke will be …
Did I get your attention with that headline? Man, I hate to have to use ‘click-bait’ headlines to get you to perk up. Yet, I’ll do what’s necessary to stimulate conversation. I’m really passionate the debate that centres around drills versus games. Turns out I’m not the only one… Stuart Armstrong, from The Talent Equation, has a strong point …
#thankthepasser: @JohnStoszkowski has a timeline full of zingers and #foodforthought.
Let me be perfectly clear about my position on this: Youth sports participation is not “a job”. If you come across someone who’s slinging that nonsense, walk away. (Better yet, run!) The PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE does require a massive amount of sacrifice. It does take an enormous amount of work and training (both physically and …