Bill Walsh, the legendary coach of the San Francisco 49ers, had a concise approach towards leading a successful organisation the 1980s. A successful Coach, or Leader, had to "Listen, Learn, Lead". Given how successful he was as a Coach (winning 3 Superbowls - the first less than two years after the team had only won [...]
How Might We Get Clubs to Work Together for the Benefit of our Sports?
In the long history of humankind, those who learned to collaborate most effectively have prevailed. However, in the world of competitive sport, there is often a fear of allowing competitors to see how you go about your business, in case they steal your ideas. Clubs, athletes and coaches are often convinced their way of doing [...]
Do We Have the Right People Coaching Our Talented Young Athletes?
In sport, we have heard some version of the adage "your best coaches should work with your youngest athletes". My view is that we need a different way of judging whether a person has the skills to work with talented young people, because the skills required to be a UKCC Level 4 / Pro Licence [...]
Coaches Should Speak More About Their Failures.
In my experience, there are many ego-driven coaches. It's difficult to have a short conversation with some of them without being told what club they work for, or how many champions they have produced. However, what concerns me at a grassroots level is that coaches are quick to share their successes, but often tight lipped [...]
Coaching: Listening Is The Real Super Power.
It is interesting to me that a quiet, introverted person will often be accused of lacking in social skills. However, by listening to others talk without the need to speak, we are actually practising the most important social skill of all. We carry an image of what a coach should do, and this is often [...]
Developing Talented Football Players: Facilities Are Not The Answer
The FIFA World Cup 2018 is over and France have been crowned World Champions. Football Associations across the globe will now conduct the usual post-tournament dissection of the Champion's success. What are they doing better than us? No doubt, someone somewhere will infer that the lack of quality players being produced in Scotland is related [...]
Getting Better at Sport: Not Just a Job For Athletes.
As someone with a vested interest in sport coaching and sport development, it continues to amaze me how many of us are not living by the same rules that we demand of the groups we work with. We turn up, we do our work and we go home - but other than that, what are [...]
Mental Health: Share Stories, Not Stats.
One of the most pleasing trends in sport development is the recognition of how sport can improve a person's mental health. For as long as I can remember, we have tried to persuade people into sport and physical activity by using the physical health argument - it will increase our "fitness" / reduce our chance [...]
