The ability to question a coach can be there difference between doing things "the way" and doing things "the best way". Benjamin Franklin believed that it was every citizen's responsibility to ask questions of power; it is the serious athlete's responsibility to ensure they and their coach are working out the most effective path together. …
Great Coaches Learn From Other Sports
One of the fundamental differences between a good coach and a great coach is openness to learning. Good coaches are happy with what they know - their sport, their methods, their people. Great coaches are restless learners and seek knowledge from outside their area of expertise. The reality is that to be a great coach, …
Sports Clubs – The Healers Our Communities Need
Right now (end November 2020) there have been almost 1 million confirmed cases of coronavirus here in the UK, and over 50,000 deaths. Even if we have managed to stay safe and healthy, It is impossible not to have been affected by COVID-19. For many of us, our mental health and well-being has suffered. According to …
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Good Coaching Is…
Sport is not complicated... but too often we, as coaches, complicate it. In my experience, this happens in different ways. In individual sports, some coaches get mired in technical intricacies, and demand techniques are executed in a particular way. In team sports, it can be an over-focus on team tactics or strategy during training to …
Coaches – We Need To Listen Better
When it comes to coaching, we are too often judged by our ability to talk. We believe that we need to take the knowledge out of our head, give it to our athletes, and watch them improve. We talk about about team selection, athletes, tactics and strategies, what we would do in a certain situation, …
Book Club – June 2020
Most of these books have been discussed in our email Book Club, which recommends about 3 books per month. These are usually based around sports, coaching, leadership and personal development.If you are fortunate enough to find yourself with a little bit of time on your hands at the moment - perhaps you are not having …
Coaches – Are You Growing With Your Athletes?
In sport, we can get too bogged down with the roles and responsibilities of the coach. Sometimes we can get too academic or philosophical about what their job is. However, I think we can agree that they are responsible for helping an athlete get better (and we will all have diverging opinions of what "helping", …
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Coaches – Empathy Is Vital When Working With Young People
Working in sport, I often see really good coaches who are really bad at working with young people. Some believe that content is King; that we can deliver the same training, in the same way, to adults and children and expect to see the same improvements in performance. To truly be a great coach of …
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Sports Clubs – Why Do You Exist?
Over the past 9 years I have been so fortunate to work with a large number of sports clubs in a variety of different sports. Regardless of the sport, many of these clubs share something in common. That is, they don't know the answer to a simple question: Why do you exist? Now, I am …
Coaches – Stop Using Your Qualification As A Shield
"What are you doing to get better?" is one of my favourite questions to ask coaches. Most often the answer is based around the number of hours they are putting in every week, or the number of different athletes they are working with. Although time on task is important, it can often be a false …
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