Sports Coaching Brain

From One Size fits All to One Size fits One: The Future of Coach Education.

Wayne Goldsmith — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 00:49:38 +0000

Remember the old days?

Coaches would come along to a Level One course or Beginning Coaching Workshop.

They would sit there for a few days listening to hours and hours of information about “the art of coaching” and the “physiology of sport” and “the biomechanics of sport” and “the psychology of sport” and “periodisation and planning for sport“ while watching hundreds and hundreds of blue slides with yellow text as a seemingly endless procession of presenters droned on and on and on about their experiences in coaching and how “if you ever want to be a good coach you must always…..” and “to be a good coach you must never, ever……”

Well, those were the old days. They have gone forever. And good riddance.

From One Size fits All to One Size fits One: The Future of Coach Education.

It ain’t working.

The way we have done coach education is not working. It just isn’t.

And how do we know?

The Big Four: Commencing, Completing, Continuing, Climbing.

Around the world and in practically all sports, the numbers of coaches doing the “Big Four” is declining:

There are fewer people commencing coach education courses.
The percentage of people who complete coach education courses is lower than ever.
The numbers of coaches who were once accredited or licensed then continue to coach by renewing their qualifications is very low.
And the number of coaches who upgrade their accreditation, e.g. climbing from a Level 1 to Level 2 is also very low.

So what does that tell us?

It tells us very clearly that what we are doing isn’t working.

The Coach Education ”Restaurant”

Imagine you were running a restaurant that was showing all the signs coach education around the world is currently showing.

You have very few customers and your customer numbers are declining.

The customers you do have, don’t finish their meals or stay for dessert.

And once they leave the restaurant they never come back. And they certainly wouldn’t recommend your restaurant to anyone else.

You have three choices:

Keep doing what you are doing and go broke.
Change a few items on the menu or the decor and hope for improvement.
Listen to your customers and ask them what dining experience they want from you.

The McDonald’s Lesson

Think back ten years ago. McDonald’s were, for the first time their history, at risk of failure. As the messages about healthy eating, obesity, diabetes, heart disease etc started to make a big impact on the community and the fast food restaurant options (their competitors) increased dramatically, McDonald’s needed to make some serious changes or risk losing their dominant world wide market share.

So what could McDonald’s do?

Keep their menu the same and go broke.
Change an item or two on the menu and hope for improvement.
Listen to their customers and offer a wide range of new products, (salads, fruit, juices), McCafe (fresh coffee, muffins, breakfast choices), better value for money and better product labelling (kilo-joule / calorie data and fat content).

Regardless of your view about McDonald’s and their core business, the lesson is clear: the customer is king! To survive in any business, you need to listen to your customers (i.e. the people in your sport who are considering commencing or continuing coaching) and respond to their needs.

Value Added Coach Education

The single biggest question all coach educators have to ask themselves is “what am I offering that adds value to my customers and clients (coaches)?”

The answer is NOT in delivering more information or content. Anyone can get anything anywhere anytime and for free. Coach education is not about delivering content – not anymore and never again.

The answer is NOT putting information or content on line. Hundreds of sports all over the world have made the same mistake of converting their hard copy coach education materials to electronic format and uploading it to a web site or information portal. All this does is make the same content that people don’t want more accessible. And again – anyone can get anything anywhere anytime and for free.

So what is the answer?

From Content Based to Context Relevant

Forget the days of delivering content at coaching courses. Those days are over. Gone. Kaput. Over. Finished. Dead. Forget it.

Content (information) is the easiest thing in the world to get: for the third time – anyone can get anything anywhere anytime and for free - so the coaching courses based on power point presentations, 300 page workbooks and two day classroom data-delivery-fests are a thing of the past.

What people want now - what people demand now - is learning which is specific and relevant to them as individuals and to help them coach more effectively in the coaching environment in which they coach.

Now, the coach education “game” is about context: about helping individuals coaches access quality, relevant, reliable information they need when and where they need it and in a way which directly impacts on them, their coaching and their athletes.

Does this really surprise you?

Ask anyone who has coached for a year or two this question….“how do you as a coach, learn?”

What will their top five answers be?

“I learn…..

By coaching;
By working with and learning from my athletes;
By observing and working with other coaches;
By accessing the specific information that I need when and where I need it, i.e. by problem solving;
By thinking and reflecting on my coaching and striving to do it better.

How many will answer, “By attending one of my sport’s coaching courses”?

And that’s why we are in the mess we are in.

For too long we have relied on training, educating and developing coaches the “old way” – through courses, clinics, seminars, conferences and workshops and not provided them with the opportunity to learn the way they wanted to learn. Is it really any surprise that the numbers of coaches in the “The Big Four”: Commencing, Completing, Continuing and Climbing has declined so dramatically in recent years?

We - those responsible for training, educating and developing coaches, knew the “old-ways” were failing but we didn’t do anything to change them.

So you want to change your coach education system from Content based to Context relevant…….what’s the next step?

So you want to change the way you GTR coaches???? That’s Gain, Train and Retain! What’s the next step?

Ask your coaches what they want and need from you.
Design, develop and deliver a coachTED program (coach Training, Education and Development) which consistently delivers what your coaches want and need.
Make a commitment to continuously change, improve and enhance your coachTED program to meet the changing needs of your coaches.

Sounds simple doesn’t it! So what are you waiting for?

Summary:

The race is on!

Sporting organisations all over the world are desperate for qualified, experienced, well-trained, committed and talented coaches. Coaches are in short supply and ways of gaining, training and retaining them are being debated, designed and developed everywhere.

Who will come up with the best solution? That’s simple.

The best solution to the coaching conundrum will be the sport who listens to their “clients” (their coaches) and delivers a coachTED program (coach training, education and development) program which meets their clients needs.

Are you listening?

Wayne Goldsmith

Finding the Right Head Coach

Wayne Goldsmith — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:30:19 +0000

With all the movements and changes in the head coaching ranks these days, it is worth having a closer look at how to go about finding the right head coach.

The most important step for any club, is to first clearly understand what they want from a head coach!

Do they want a leader - an inspirational head coach?
Do they want someone who is an expert in change management - someone who can make hard decisions and radical changes to the Club’s culture and performance environment?
Do they want a technical expert - someone with great skills in one element of the game, e.g. attack?
Do they want a coach skilled with dealing with the media?
Do they want a hard nosed, disciplinarian with a strong work ethic and uncompromising nature?
Do they want someone who can build effective teams and get people working together towards a common goal?
Do they want someone with knowledge and skills in sports science and performance enhancement?
Do they want someone who has played the game at the highest level and has an understanding and empathy for the playing group?
Do they want someone who can create leaders in the player group and create a player driven culture?
Do they want aninnovator? Someone who can accelerate change and implement new ideas?

The answer most clubs will give is - “all of the above”.

Most clubs will seek a single person who can meet all of these expectations and more – and they are very, very, very hard to find.

However, most clubs do not need a head coach with all these attributes.

The head coach needs of a club will vary over time depending on a range of factors.

A young club may want an experienced coach who can establish a winning culture, systems and structures to help the club get started.

An older club with a more established culture may want the injection of new ideas and energy to revitalise the club, players and program and recruit someone with a new, fresh approach to winning.

Regardless of the needs of the Club, there are some common principles to put in place to increase the likelihood of recruiting the right person.

Five essentials for recruiting the right head coach:

1. Clearly determine what your club needs right now:

Don’t go on the coach’s reputation alone or what the coach has done for another team. Think about the unique needs of your club right now. A coach who has been successful at one club may not be able to replicate that success in the new environment because of differences in the player group, Club culture, resources, management structure, location etc. The key question you are trying to answer is “Can this coach deliver the outcomes we want at this club now and in the future”.

2. Think about the Total Coaching Skill Set you want.

Instead of looking for one man to deliver the “entire world”, look to employ a coaching team who can deliver high quality, consistent coaching to the club. For example:

A strong, inspirational, leadership focused head coach plus “attention to detail” type, methodical, systematic assistant coaches.

A younger head coach with a strong background as a player plus a quality, experienced, older assistant coach with a long coaching background to play a role of guide or mentor.

A head coach with an outstanding knowledge of defensive plays, systems and structures plus assistant coaches with outstanding attacking knowledge and skills.

Think about the total balance of skills, knowledge, character, personality and experience of the coaching and performance enhancement team rather than trying to find one person to do it all.

If you had a very skillful player, but then asked them to be captain, organise the tactical plays, lead on the field, do all the media commitments, be the player responsible for scoring all the team’s points and meet all sponsor commitments, it is highly likely their playing performance will suffer.

Head coaches are the same. Expecting them to be all things to all people at all times will eventually result in a compromised coaching performance.

3. Establish the appropriate Interview and Recruitment process.

If you are looking for a coach with a strong technical background, have the candidates present detailed technical plans and programs at interview and have someone on the interview panel who can ask challenging technical questions.

If you are looking for someone with a new direction for the Club, ask them to present a detailed “VISION” for the future which covers critical areas such as recruitment, player development, playing styles, etc etc.

Match the interview and recruitment process to the outcome you want!

If you were recruiting a goal kicker – you would ask them to kick a few goals before signing them! Same principle!

4. The six C’S – Clarity / Composure / Confidence / Credibility / Character / Communication.

The six principles of recruiting a quality head coach are:

CLARITY – Are they clear in their thinking, decision making, vision and direction?
COMPOSURE – Do they deal with pressure? Can they provide leadership in tough times?
CONFIDENCE – Do they believe in themselves and what they say?
CREDIBILITY – Can they get players, coaches, staff, management, sponsors and fans to buy in to what they are trying to do?
CHARACTER- Does who they are as a person enrich the club? Are their values (honesty, integrity, sincerity, humility, work ethic etc) consistent with you want for the head coaching role?
COMMUNICATION - Does the coach communicate well? Can they communicate effectively with players, coaches, staff, management, media, fans, sponsors? Do they communicate well in groups and one on one?

As it is with most organisations, poor communication is at the heart of the majority of problems experienced by sporting clubs.

5. Establish clear expectations, time frames and deliverables.

It is vital that the head coach, the Board, the Management, the staff and of course the players have a clear understanding of what the vision for the club is, the time frame that has been established to achieve the vision and the specific goals and objectives for everyone involved in the program.

From the outset establish clear policies, principles and rules so that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities, the standards they are expected to maintain and the time frame to achieve them.

Summary:

The Head Coach role is an important one for any club. They are often the public face of the organisation and the person held responsible for winning, losing and dealing with the implications of both.

It takes a special person to do it well – and an intelligent, thoughtful organisation to find that special person.

Wayne Goldsmith

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The Performance Clock – The Most Important Concept in High Performance Sport.

Wayne Goldsmith — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:30:18 +0000

I often get asked, what’s the difference between sport and high performance sport.

Read the next 800 words and find out.

What is Winning all About?

Winning is rarely about doing it once and walking away. Winning is about Sustaining Performance: Sustaining Competitiveness: about getting to the top and Staying There.

Lots of people, teams, coaches, athletes and companies win once – but very few are able to adopt the thinking, systems and practices that enable them to sustain competitiveness year after year after year.

Why is Sustainable Competitiveness so important?

No one goes from being Uncompetitive to Winning. Being Competitive means you can launch a winning campaign or grand final winning plan from a position of relative strength. It is almost impossible to go from last (or near last) to first in a single year or season.

Sporting teams – particularly football teams – are notoriously BAD at sustaining competitiveness. They blame the draft. They blame salary caps. They blame the Governing body. They blame injuries. They blame not having enough money. They blame everything except the thing that really makes the difference: their ability to seriously commit to continuous improvement and accelerated change.

The Performance Cycle.

With very few exceptions, around the world, most teams feel the need to (unnecessarily) go through the Performance Cycle:

Stage One: Non Competitive: The organisation is failing to perform and struggling to survive;
Stage Two: Striving For Success: A passionate person and / or motivated team ignites the desire to succeed and inspires the organisation to strive for success. The acceleration of progress comes from embracing change and learning and the commitment to turn learning into action;
Stage Three: The Right Culture. The right people and the right environment are in place and the opportunity has been created for the Club to be successful;
Stage Four: Success: The organisation gets to the top but then loses momentum by ceasing to change and learn at the same rate. They adopt a “secret formula” mentality, i.e. “we know what it takes to win, therefore all we have to do is repeat what we did last year and we will keep winning”. In the meantime the competition is accelerating their learning and performance – determined to become the next No 1;
Stage Five: The Fall: Things start to fail. Management and staff get sacked, reviews, reviews and more reviews are commissioned, finally the Board is overthrown, there is public brawling and the organisation is at the brink of collapsing altogether…… And we are back at STAGE ONE again.

I did some work with a top professional football team who was highly successful in the 1960′s. Now, almost 50 years later, many of the players who starred on the field in the golden days of the club were running the Board, the Management committees, and even had a hands-on role in the coaching.

The biggest problem the club faced was that these people – with the welfare of the club in their hearts and only the best intentions, kept looking for ways of taking the club back to the 60′s – because “that’s the way we do it here”.

My reply was, “So your way is to fail to perform for 50 years?” After some heated discussion came the realisation that they needed to retain their proud traditions but embrace effective and meaningful change. Respect the past:but embrace the future.

The Cycle of Cycles.

Most businesses, sporting organisations and even people perform in cycles.

There are times when they are performing well – and times when they are performing poorly.

The performance cycle of a sporting team can be compared to a CLOCK: the Performance Clock.

At 10 o’clock, the organisation is hungry for success and changing rapidly. They are accelerating their rate of change by learning fast and by being innovative, creative and committed to success;

At 11 o’clock, the team is close to their best. They are consistently playing well, making the final series and they are continuing to strive for success. Most importantly, they have created a culture which has a high likelihood of succeeding;

At 12 o’clock – the team wins the premiership or the World Championship etc – they are at the peak of their performance cycle;

Then a funny thing happens……and no matter how many times I present this concept to organisations it just keeps happening….

Often when a team is at the top of its Performance Cycle it stops doing many of the things it was doing to make it successful.

1 o’clock and the team stops being creative and open minded. They start believing that their way is the only way and that they have the infallible secret formula for success. This is the beginning of disaster! The teams who have to make the greatest commitment to change and improvement are the ones who are successful – why……….

Because your resistance to change is greatest when you believe you have all the answers and that’s why most teams fail to repeat success!

So, what happens????? The team starts losing.

2 o’clock……3 o’clock……..the coach gets sacked. The club starts spending money on new players, new equipment, new coaches in a frantic attempt to stop the decline in performance;

The team keeps losing. If they are in a relegation / promotion competition, they get relegated to the next league;

4 o’clock…..5 o’clock….the CEO and Management gets sacked. The organisation is in disarray;

6’clock. The team cannot win a game. The fans and the sponsors have deserted it. It appears that the team may never ever experience success again;

But then…..

7 o’clock – Someone decides things have to change. They put together a plan and find some people and money to make it happen;

8 o’clock…..9 o’clock – People start believing that things can change. New players, new coaches, new staff, new ideas……..there is enthusiasm and energy and passion in the Club;

10 o’clock and 11 o’clock – The cycle is complete and the team can look forward to a short period of success as their Performance Cycle is at its peak once more.

The reality for most sporting teams is that they spend one or two seasons at most between 10 o’clock and 12 and then often spend many many years between 1 o’clock and 6 o’clock! And for no reason! There is no reason for sporting organisations to spend years at the bottom of competitions.

So What are we trying to do?

The aim is to create a Sustainably Successful High Performance Environment – and to ensure your organisation is always competitive.

Winning once can be luck – sustainable competitiveness comes from good planning, good management, good vision and hard work.

Success is not a destination - success is a moving target and your aim must continually be adjusted if you want to keep it in your sights!

So the difference between sport and high performance sport is this…if you understand this post – congratulations! You have a long career in high performance sport ahead of you.

If you don’t understand it, enjoy a game of golf or tennis with friends and family now and again but stay out of the pointy end of sport. Please!

Wayne Goldsmith

The One Tip to Rule Them All……..”Competition Plus” training.

Wayne Goldsmith — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:30:17 +0000

Last year I was asked by a regular reader to list my all time Top Ten Tips to enhance sports performance.

Naturally I obliged.

The same reader just sent a new challenge, “Wayne, if you had to pick just one tip: one thing that above any other was the single most important concept or idea or principle to enhance the performance of athletes and coaches what would it be”.

Pretty simple really………………The One Tip to Rule Them All is…………..

Make Training More Challenging and More Demanding than the Competition you are preparing for.

Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it? Make training more challenging and more demanding than the competition you are preparing for. Sounds so obvious. Almost so simple it is laughable.

Make your training harder and tougher than the competition you have targeted. Really? That’s it? It’s too easy! It can’t be that!

But, this one idea is behind most of the world’s greatest coaching achievements and athletic performances.

It is so simple, so obvious and so common sense, that it makes you want to ask why so few people actually understand it and why almost no-body does it: no body that is, except people who actually win when it matters.

“Competition Plus” training

One reason so few people get this incredibly important principle is that it doesn’t have a fancy name or cool acronym. So how about we change the name of the most important sports preparation and performance principle you will ever learn to “Competition Plus” training, i.e. training that is more challenging and more demanding than the athlete will experience in the targeted competition. It’s all the demands and requirements of the competition environment PLUS an extra level of challenge on top.

Now that we have a cool name for the concept, let’s try to understand what “Competition Plus” training is all about.

It’s not just about doing more work

“Competition Plus” training is not just about doing more work. It’s about ensuring that the preparation environment, i.e. the training field, the gym, the pool, the court, the field, the rink, the ring and the track is more challenging and more demanding – physically, mentally, emotionally, technically, tactically, environmentally and every other possible way than the competition environment.

Still confused? Let’s look at a few examples.

Some Examples of “Competition Plus” training in action.

Boxing / Martial arts

If the format of the competition is three x three minute rounds, practice should include three x three minute thirty rounds, four minute rounds and even longer and spar for four, five, six or more rounds.
Practice over three rounds but change training partners every round.
Practice with a partner who has a longer reach or with a partner who has more experience or with a partner who is in a weight division or two higher.
Take shorter rest breaks between rounds in training, i.e. shorter than the rest breaks that are provided in competition.
Adjust the “scoring” system you use in training to make it harder and more technically difficult to score points, e.g. smaller target areas.

Tennis

Play longer games than those to be experienced in your next tournament, e.g. first player to seven points instead of first player to move through 15, 30, 40 and win the game.
Play longer sets than those to be experienced in your next tournament, e.g. first player to 10 games with a two game break wins the set, i.e. 10-8.
Play one player against two or three players rotating those two or three players every game so that player one is always facing fresh and unfatigued opposition.
Have one player play to the singles court and the other player to the doubles court.
If there is the possibility that matches will finish late at night, schedule practices to start and finish late in the evening.

Football (all codes)

In practice use “un-even” match ups, e.g. four defenders against nine attackers or three attackers against seven defenders.
Schedule skills practices and demand technical excellence when fatigued, e.g. at the end of training.
Practice for the same period as the game, e.g. Rugby 80 minutes, Soccer 90 minutes, then schedule ten-twenty minutes of hard physical training to prepare for extra time demands should they occur.
Practice skills from a performance perspective, i.e. technically excellent at high speed under fatigue and pressure situations.
Deliberately create high pressure situations in skills practices, e.g. extra players, higher speeds, demand shorter decision making time etc.

Swimming

Practice swimming personal best times early in the morning, i.e. as is often required in competition to make the next round.
Aim to not just swim fast in training but to swim fast, with minimal breaths and minimal strokes at maximum speed.
Attack every start, dive, turn and finish as you would if they were in the Olympic final.
Race older, faster and more experienced swimmers in training every day.
Schedule time trials when tired, fatigued and at the end of training as often Finals are late in the evening, i.e. when you are fatigued.

Any why is this so important? Why is this the One Tip to rule them all?

Again – it’s pretty logical when you think about it.

All the great achievements in sport come from confidence. It is a precious commodity and a vital ingredient for success in sport at all levels.

And confidence comes from knowing. Knowing that your training has prepared you for whatever the competition environment throws at you.

Heat, humidity, a well prepared opposition, a late change in competition rules, poor refeering decisions, extra time….whatever the competition demands are, you are ready and can face them with confidence, knowing that you have done everything possible in your preparation to not just meet those demands, but to overcome them and to even thrive in them.

Confidence is like the economy. Lots of people talk about. Many people think they know about it. Very, very, few people actually understand it.

Confidence does not come from a motivation talk, a new piece of equipment, a special diet or someone telling you “you can win today”: all these are shallow, hollow and meaningless when tested in the uncompromising world of high performance sport.

Confidence, real confidence, confidence that provides real resilience and the capacity to perform under pain, pressure and fatigue, comes from knowing that your preparation was more challenging and more demanding than the competition could ever be.

Summary:

Stop buying all those self-help books at the airport book shop, going to “Miracle Mindset” seminars and “guaranteed to succeed” leadership training programs. To quote another great sports coach, Yoda, “Already know you that which you need“. Make a serious commitment to “Competition Plus” training and apply it consistently in your coaching environment.
“Competition Plus” training is not for every coach or every athlete – but only for those who are serious about winning when it matters.
There are lots of “feel-good” tips and hollow slogans in the sporting world and very few of them make any real difference to performance. Competition Plus training is one coaching principle you can rely on and trust when it comes to winning.
Ask yourself one question, “Does my preparation prepare me to just do the sport or does it prepare to win when it really matters?”

Wayne Goldsmith

All the posts on this blog are subject to the same copyright laws governing hard copy text, books, articles, papers, magazines and other reference sources. No part of this blog can be used without the expressed written consent of the author.

Thanks again to the great Bill Sweetenham for his inspiration.

The Greatest Assistant Coaching Article Ever Written (i.e. because we think it’s the only one): 50 of the best Tips on how to be a World Class Assistant Coach.

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:52:33 +0000

By Lindsay Gaze, Michael Foley, Dave Claxton, Craig Tiley, Scott Johnson, Bill Sweetenham, Andrew Friend, Keith Davies, and Wayne Goldsmith

Foreword:

Leading international Rugby Coach (and former Wallabies Assistant coach) Scott Johnson and I were exchanging emails about coaching. Scott said, “You read a lot about coaching and plenty about being a head coach, but where is there something written about being a great assistant coach”.

I accepted the challenge, contacted some coaching friends and colleagues and this is what we came up with.

Sincere thanks to Lindsay, Michael, Dave, Craig, Scott, Bill, Andrew and Keith for their ASSIST-ANCE.

Communicate – communicate – communicate.
Don’t be afraid to be in conflict with the head coach, (in the appropriate forum), if the issue you believe in can help grow the program and improve performance.
Have an open mind to change, no comfort zones, no complacency and accept no compromise.
Have an outstanding knowledge of the sport and be prepared to share that knowledge.
Publicly share the same philosophy as the head coach and together develop, enhance and grow that philosophy.
Be prepared to assume the head coaching position in case of non attendance of the head coach but convey the same message with the same intent as if the head coach was still present.
Collaborate with the head coach on a partnership basis in the development of the team strategies and individual player development.
Accept and understand that no coach of any sport competing at the highest level can manage all tasks without specialist assistance in a number of elements and as such encourage the expression of the views, ideas, beliefs and contributions of players, coaches and staff.
Be prepared to accept and welcome the contribution made by other additional assistant coaches within your team structure and do not assume that your role is superior in importance.
While financial rewards are important, be more committed to the progress and performance of individuals and the team rather than be dollar driven.
Be aware that if the Club management decides to fire the head coach and you might be an unfortunate victim of the decision, you should still support the head coach.
If offered a head coaching position with another organisation do not seek or accept such a position without first consulting with your current head coach (and club management).
Strive to learn more about coaching, your sport and your role, recognising that no matter how much you might know there will always be more to learn.
Meet with the Head Coach regularly (daily) to make sure you are always on the same page.
Clearly define and understand your role, your responsibilities, accountabilities and limits.
Discuss, argue, relate, disagree on anything and everything with the head coach but develop a relationship where you can challenge each other to find the common ground, new ideas and move forward.
Attack everything you do with a united front. If you can, the effect on the players will be double pronged and more effective. Players will be more likely to develop confidence in the overall coaching team’s methods and philosophy if they see consistency.
Develop a vocabulary and culture of key similarities that all coaches in the team use consistently to reinforce your methods and so that players understand and respect that a strong professional relationship exists in the coaching group. Players will then feel comfortable in approaching any of the coaching team for the answers to their problems.
Resolve conflicts quickly and appropriately. Don’t leave the coaching environment with issues unresolved and conflicts left hanging.
Coach using the 8 “Cs” of coaching - composure, clarity, communication, certainty, confidence, compassion, creativity and calm.
Because you are an assistant under one particular head coach, it doesn’t mean you have an excuse to stop learning from any appropriate source. You probably got where you are by communicating and learning from hundreds of sources: never lose that basic instinct, the passion and desire to learn.
Be a good listener/observer to players but only report what is relevant and necessary to the Head Coach.
Be the best prepared Assistant Coach in skills development.
Be friendly with players in social gatherings but retain an appropriate professional distance – and know where the limits are.
Support the Head Coach in public at all times regardless of the pressure or media scrutiny of the situation.
Do not allow club administration or sporting bureaucracies to compromise you and to destabilize Head Coach.
Have excellent working relations with all support staff.
Have good synergy with all players in particular the younger athletes and emerging stars.
Have a strong interest and knowledge of player’s outside interests, family/education etc.
Keep up with the latest technology in computing, communications, sports science and sports analysis.
Develop outstanding recruiting skills – help the head coach sustain the competitiveness of the team.
Have an excellent current knowledge of all opponents’ individual and team strategies to allow you to have intelligent, informed input to your own team game plans.
Don’t offer “passive” support – be active in your support of decisions and philosophies.
Maintain unquestionable trustworthiness – trust is the cornerstone of any great relationship.
Dress professionally and appropriately at all times.
Publicly and privately be positive and always put the organisation first – no public or private personal player or coach criticism.
Manage and administrate as if it’s your own money.
Pay great attention to detail: the head coach has a strategic overview of all team issues – you are the person he / she relies on for detail.
Develop sport specific skills and knowledge that are world class and even beyond global standards.
Maintain in depth knowledge of medical & strength & conditioning profiles of each player, to assist in player development, training planning, strategy development and tactical plays.
Be innovative and creative: help create the future.
Develop strengths where the programme or Head Coach has weaknesses.
Write workouts and training sessions every day for yourself and offer them to the Head Coach for comment, feedback, learning, growth and development.
Develop a programme that is superior in every way possible and help to incorporate policies and protocols of the Head Coach and programme.
If you want to be a Head Coach, set yourself a goal and a time frame to achieve it. Be the best assistant coach you can be, learn, grow and take on the challenges and opportunities of leadership on your own when the right opportunity presents.
Offer appropriate positive comments to the Head Coach if he / she does something very well – head coaches are human too yet rarely receive positive praise from anyone.
Do more listening than speaking.
Be the eyes and ears for the head coach and alert him / her to potential issues before they develop.
Recognise the times that the head coach is under pressure and look to take some of his / her workload.
Live the team values- don’t just talk about them – and set an example for the players to follow.

Wayne Goldsmith – with a lot of help!

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Why Bench – marking is a waste of time in High Performance Sport.

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:52:32 +0000

Benchmarking.

It has become one of the Buzz words in high performance sport.

Benchmarking means that someone in an organisation decides to find out what the best people in the industry are doing, learn from them and usually copy what they are doing.

For example, coaches in professional football codes will sometimes visit successful programs in other codes – maybe even in other nations – to try and learn what they do and how they became successful.

Institutes and Academies of Sport and Government sporting authorities often send people to other countries to benchmark systems, structures, programs and innovations.

It seems like a good idea. Travel to see another program, get some instant solutions to problems and some new ideas to help enhance performance - seems like a great idea.

However….

It’s a waste of time:
It’s a waste of money;
Even if you have the time and the money it doesn’t work.

There is a simple reason why benchmarking is a waste of time in high performance sport – it’s someone else’s bench!

One mistake that has been repeated over and over and over and over in high performance sport is the benchmarking exercise - people looking for answers and breakthroughs in other places.

Here’s ten reasons why NOT to benchmark the way we currently do it:

Programs, systems and structures do not work outside of the culture that created them. The best example of this is Talent Identification. The mass TID models that were developed in Eastern Europe in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s have been subsequently copied by every other sporting nation in some way and……with the exception of China and Cuba…..it has failed. Why? Because there was a unique set of social, political, cultural, economic and ideological factors in Eastern Europe when their TID model was developed which do not exist anywhere else in the world. Successful high performance sporting systems are culturally specific;
Ideas, innovations and benchmarks are everywhere. However, ideas, innovations and benchmarks do not make a sustainable impact on an organisation unless supported by a systematic, holistic approach to change management and the implementation of the new ideas. Going on a benchmarking holiday, coming back with a bag full of tricks, gimmicks and ideas and throwing them into the organisation without a systematic, strategic approach to their evaluation, assessment, implementation and review is insanity;
Benchmarking is not an end point. It is the starting point. It is only to give you an idea of where other people are – not so you can copy them – only so you know where to START and then proceed to do it better than they could ever dream. One of the silliest habits people get into is to do the benchmarking junket, come back to the Club or Country and say, “The Americans are doing xyz, so we have to do it that way here”;
You assume the people, programs, and systems you are benchmarking are telling you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Think about it. If you had a cutting edge, ground breaking idea, would you give it away to another nation, club or coach for a couple of cappuccinos and a sandwich over lunch?;
Ideas are not political. Finding the ideas is easy. Fighting and winning the fights to get those ideas accepted by the political forces in your organisation….now that’s the problem. It’s not Ideas that are the issue – it’s the implementation of those ideas;
At 6 am every Monday, one thousand consultants leave New York for a week of consulting in Los Angeles. At the same time, one thousand consultants leave Los Angeles to work in New York for seven days. Now the New York and LA consultants have the same stuff to teach but being from out of town gives them credibility, and the respective groups are lauded by their audiences as being innovative and possessing genius. The lesson is – genius might be living next door - have you bothered to listen?;
There are no absolutes in sport, in life, in business or in sport - (I needed to say sport twice). People often come back from benchmarking tours with a list of things that must be implemented because some other nation or team is doing it. If history has taught us anything it is that there are no “musts”, no “always”, no “nevers” and no “onlys”. In fact, if someone else is doing it, it probably is a good reason NOT to do it;
A fundamental reason why benchmarking does not work is that if you and your people are any good, you are working at benchmark levels all the time and as such, your own rate of change and rate of improvement is faster than anything you will find. You are the benchmark;
A really great way to stifle creativity, ingenuity and innovation in your own organisation is to spend thousands of dollars looking for new ideas in others. In the end, your own people give up trying to be creative and innovative and just give you the minimum standard – which in high performance sport - is suicide;
You never find out the whole story. History – and benchmarking in sport - is written by the winners. So you may be benchmarking at an organisation and be talking to someone who will explain their success is being due to ABC. Someone else in the organisation believes it is due to XYZ. Someone else believes that ABC cancelled out XYZ and success was actually due to something completely different. One important reason why benchmarking does not work is that you can never be sure if what you find out is the real reason behind the success.

Learning Organisations: Learn Faster..Improve Faster:

So, benchmark if you have to. Sure it’s a great way to waste some time, meet some cool people and spend some professional development funding which allows you to tick the “professional development box” each year!

However, you are far better off looking within the organisation, examining the way you do what you do now and tapping into the genius and expertise in the people you already have rather than trying to copy something that can not be copied or attempt to repeat something that can not be repeated.

Peter Senge - the great Systems thinking author reminds us that organisations flourish when people are provided with the opportunity to be creative and to accelerate their own rate of learning. This in turn helps to create a Learning Organisation - and a learning organisation can achieve anything.

Benchmarking does the opposite – it stifles the creativity of your staff, dampens enthusiasm and curtails real innovation by telling people – “they do it better somewhere else”.

Guess what? They don’t!

Be yourself – be unique – and above all believe in yourself.

Wayne Goldsmith

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

High Performance on a Budget – can you create a high performance environment without spending any money?

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:52:31 +0000

When clients ask me to work with them, it is usually to help them become the best they can be in one or both of these two areas:

1. Help them to create a sustainable winning culture and / or:

2. Help them to create a world class high performance environment, (i.e. the things you can build and buy).

Although most of the time I get to work with professional sports and elite level Olympic teams, I am regularly asked to work with schools, amateur sporting clubs and part time coaches on a range of performance related issues, athlete attitudes, motivation techniques, leadership development, coach development exercises and sports performance enhancement programs.

Recently a client from an amateur but highly successful sporting Club asked me, “Wayne, we hear what you say about the best high performance environments in the world and about tools like GPS systems, ice baths, recovery centres, the latest video analysis systems and having a sports medicine team available 24 / 7. But we are all part timers. We gladly donate our time to coach the team and we have to fit our coaching around our jobs and our family. Our budget is minimal. Can we still create an effective high performance environment without spending any money?“

Yes, you can.

The first step…Prioritise.

The first step in doing anything where money (or the lack of it) is an issue is to establish priorities- if you can’t afford to do everything you would like to do (optionals), spend time, effort and money on the things you have to do (essentials).

In sport, there are millions of things you could do – look at the long list of sports products and services available to choose from: equipment, nutrition supplements, clothing, sports science equipment, technology, software……in fact it is harder to decide what not to do then what to do!

With so many choices to make and so many potential purchases possible, it is critical to think rationally and intelligently about what you spend your high performance dollar on and to establish a clear rationale for spending money in the high performance area.

Start with a simple High Performance Prioritisation exercise:

Priority One: Essential: must do;
Priority Two: Important: should do;
Priority Three: Desirable: could do;
Priority Four: Optional: would like to do.

Priorities will be based on what the team is trying to achieve at the time – on what the team’s core philosophies are all about. For example, a team who decides to enhance their performance by increasing the size, strength and power of all players in the off season might score gym work as Priority One.

Another team that has decided to enhance their performance by learning faster and improving their skill levels might score video technologies and feedback tools as Priority One and gym work as Priority Two.

Clearly, not everything in a high performance environment can be Priority One at all times.

One exercise I have found that works well is to bring the key drivers of the high performance program together – senior athletes, coaches, sports science, sports medicine and strength and conditioning staff together and have them work collaboratively on establishing priorities for the team. Ideally this exercise is completed for four specific periods:

Off season;
Immediately pre season;
In season;
Immediately post season.

Priority One: Things that are essential.

This is the toughest part: deciding what you absolutely can not do without. Everyone will argue that their particular area or skill or philosophy is the most important. Strength and conditioning coaches will argue that spending time in the gym is essential. Physiotherapists will argue just as passionately that injury management is essential. Coaches will argue that the most essential element of all programs is coaching time spent working with athletes on the technical, tactical and strategic skills of the game. Clearly not everyone is right or wrong – the process is dynamic.

The simplest way to resolve these arguments is to ask this question: “Can we be competitive without “xyz” (where xyz is one aspect of the performance environment)?”

In a sport like football for example:

Can we be competitive without regularly training together to our full potential? Answer: No.
Can we be competitive without taking sports supplements? Answer: Yes.
Can we be competitive without consistent hard physical training? Answer: No.
Can we be competitive without using heart rate monitors, lactate analysers and GPS tracking systems? Answer: Yes.

It is funny! Having gone through this prioritisation exercise with many sporting teams over the past ten years, inevitably the things that consistently score Priority One are “people” factors – i.e. coaching time, player attitudes, cohesion and communication across the organisation, player behaviour issues, on field / off field leadership etc. The lesson here is that ultimately- even in professional sporting teams, people, their attitudes and their passion to perform are the real difference between winning and losing, and most importantly…..

Attitude is free;
Desire costs nothing;
Passion has no price tag;
You pay zero for Commitment.

Amateur sports can think like, act like, perform like successful, winning teams if they build their culture around people factors.

Conversely, a professional team with the money to buy and build the world’s best performance environment will fail unless the right people with the right attitudes are driving the program.

Priority Two: Things that are important.

Priority two issues are those which are important but not essential. Having a world class gym with the latest equipment is important for a sport like rugby, AFL, American Football and basketball but when money is an issue, a good gym with reasonable standard training equipment will suffice.

Priority Three: Things that are desirable – “perfect world” things.

For example, in a “perfect world” all players would have access to a one hour massage three times a week. But, when it comes down it, most players are OK with one massage and taking responsibility for implementing their own recovery program.

Priority Four: Things that are optional.

In the optional category are quite often time saving devices and technological advantages: things that can potentially save time and reduce inconvenience but in a tight budget situation, they can be overcome by a little hard work, improved communication and learning some new skills.

Summary:

Unless you have an unlimited budget – (and there is no one in the world who can honestly say that their budget is unlimited) – building and sustaining an effective high performance environment comes down to choices: to prioritising how, when and where you will allocate resources;
Priorities will change from season to season (and even within seasons) depending on the situation and the challenges the team is facing at any time;
Create a high performance priorities system that works for you – one that compliments the overall direction and philosophy of the high performance program;
Invariably, people drive performance! If you only had one single dollar to spend, spend it on enhancing the performance of your people – it is the one high performance program investment that returns ten times what you spend.

Wayne Goldsmith

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Where is leadership in sport going: the future of leadership.

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:52:30 +0000

First…there were the LEADERS. The autocratic, dictatorial, “my way or the highway” type leaders.

Then came the Leadership groups, leadership councils and leadership teams.

So what’s next?

There is a revolution in leadership coming: the way we think about it, the way we talk about it, the way we develop it is all about to change.

Read on………………….

Let’s look at it this way:

Sport is one small part of society and as such is subject to the social trends and changes being experienced in other areas of life.

The way society is going, it is highly unlikely the old style, dictatorial, autocratic, “bully boy” head coaches will re-emerge as the dominant leadership style in sport. Their time has come and gone. They were a product of the times and of our limited understanding of leadership in the past. But things have changed: everything changes.

Business learnt this about 30 years ago. Sport has been a little slow on the uptake but we are getting there.

Then the concept of “decentralised” or “shared” leadership become popular – and again sport started a little behind the business community in embracing this idea, but over the past 10 years has grabbed the concept enthusiastically with the introduction of the now ubiquitous “leadership team or leadership group”.

Leadership Groups in Sport.

The “leadership teams” model which has become “the” trendy thing for all professional sports to put in place is becoming increasingly under challenge for several reasons including:

Players not in the leadership team, will often pass the responsibility for their own standards and behaviours to the leadership team;
Clubs rarely invest any where near enough time or money into developing the leadership abilities of all the individuals in the leadership team;
Inevitably, some individuals on the leadership team find loopholes in the system with the end result of feeling they do not have to play by the same rules as the rest of the team;
There is no evidence that having a leadership team makes a difference to on field performance. Sure it makes sense to have players “leading” as decision making on field in the heat of battle is an important part of all team sports. But teams have won and will win titles without the benefit of a great leadership group.

And let’s face it – the leadership team model has not worked.

Look at the newspapers – we still have problems with discipline, alcohol, drug abuse (social and performance enhancing), violence, sexual harassment in all professional sports every where in the world.

The leadership team model has given a voice to some players – maybe even provided a forum for some players to raise important issues and “play” leader but in the majority of cases the real leadership in the team is still the Board, the Owners, the CEO, the Sponsors and the Head Coach.

So where to next?

So what’s left? What possible direction could leadership go if it isn’t based on the old “Military General” style leadership model or the trendy “leadership teams” model?

Answer: leaders…..there won’t be any!Well, not in the traditional sense.

Think about it.

What we are seeing in society and particularly from the generation Y and generation I athletes and players is a distinct “my way” approach. It is the era of individualisation.

In the past we have talked about teams in terms of WE not ME.

Now we are looking at a prevailing attitude of ME and WE – the maximisation of the potential of each individual and the combining of individuals operating at their full potential into a functioning team.

In the past a team could carry an individual with weaknesses or frailties.

Now with the emphasis in professional teams on analysis and review, teams can not afford to carry any players who have weaknesses which can be exposed in competition under pressure situations.

It is the responsibility of every player to be operating consistently at their maximum possible potential: as players, as athletes, as people and as leaders – at training, on the field and in society.

Team sport is a thing of the past.

There are no true team sports at professional level left in the world.

At professional level with the emphasis on finding and exploiting every possible advantage, football, AFL, cricket, basketball, rugby, American football, baseball……all of them – have become individual sports wrapped in a team environment.

The critical leadership area now is for every player to be leading themselves – on and off the field -to the best of their abilities and to the limits of their potential.

How many times have we seen members of a club’s leadership team, in trouble?

Have a look at the back pages of your morning newspaper today. The press is currently full of them.

How can someone lead a team if they can’t lead themselves?

The way we have looked at the concepts of leadership and team has to change considerably: we are at the threshold of some revolutionary changes in how we think about both areas.

The challenge of course is how to best embrace this new leadership direction and enhance the leadership abilities of each individual whilst fitting it into a team environment and…..most importantly…ensure that it makes a measurable impact on performance.

Let me know what you think.

Wayne Goldsmith

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Sports Psycho-physiology: The Way Forward in Successful Coaching and Sports Performance.

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:52:29 +0000

Want to know about the latest breakthrough in thinking in sport?

Want to learn about how to coach more effectively and get more out of every training session?

Want to hear how to enhance the performance of your athletes?

Here it is: the latest thing – Psycho-physiology (more specifically sports psycho-physiology): The way forward in successful coaching and sports performance.

And guess what?

This revolutionary breakthrough in sports performance is so new that it has only been around for 5000 years…..

What is Sports Psycho-Physiology?

Sports Psycho-physiology (and let me be the first to introduce the inevitable acronym SPP) is a fancy name for the integration of mind and body in the effective training, preparation and performance strategies of athletes. It is about helping athletes to perform better through using their mind and body in harmony in training and competition.

Everything old is new again: Psycho-physiology through the ages.

Before someone steps up and writes a book claiming to be the guru of sports psycho-physiology and that they invented it, this stuff has been around for a long, long time. The Ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Chinese and many other great civilizations all have written about, spoken about and lived the integrated mind-body philosophy.

So it has been around for a long time, but only now are coaches and athletes starting to think about how to apply psycho-physiology to enhancing the effectiveness of training and preparation for sports competition.

The only three really new things about (sports) psycho-physiology are:

Sports scientists and coaches are finally waking up to the understanding that you can’t train the body without simultaneously training the mind IF you want to achieve optimal results;
We now have the techniques and the technologies where we can measure the changes in the brain that occur through the introduction of mind-body integration techniques, e.g. CBT, mindfulness, meditation;
We have finally got to the point where we can integrate (sports) psycho-physiology in the Daily Athlete Training Environment (D.A.T.E.) through smart coaching.

What is being done in (Sports) Psycho-Physiology?

There is a lot of exciting work being done around the world in this “new” breakthrough area: here are just three examples:

In the field of cardio-vascular disease, researchers are looking more and more at the physiological impact of mental and emotional stresses and mental illness, e.g. anxiety, bi-polar disorder and depression. As a result, we now better understand how mental and emotional states can effect the body (e.g. changes in heart rate, blood pressure, adrenalin levels and platelet formation) all of which has enormous implications for competitive sport;
Researchers are looking closely at the impact of introducing mental skills training techniques like “mindfulness”into training programs including measuring pre (mindfulness) / post (mindfulness) performance of athletes with fMRI technology;
Many professional teams are using psycho-physiology by measuring brain wave activity as one indicator of over-training, over-reaching and fatigue.

It all adds to up to one thing…………Sports Psycho-Physiology is here and it promises to be bigger (and better) than Pilates, Swiss Balls and Creatine Supplements - the difference being….psycho-physiology actually works!!!

So What does this mean to Athletes.

For athletes, SPP offers unlimited potential for enhanced performance. Traditionally we have prepared athletes for the most part from a physiological standpoint: speed, strength, endurance, power, agility, flexibility…..and then sent them out to “battle” in great physical shape. The “mental” side of preparation we have left to a few war crys, the pre-match psyche up and the ubiquitous (but generally useless) motivation speech. We have laboured under the misguided view that getting the body ready is enough.

However, this is the equivalent of strapping a Ferrari engine to a bicycle frame! An athlete who is well prepared physically but who does not possess an understanding of how to integrate their mind and their “Ferrari engine” together in training and competition can not realise their full potential.

So for athletes…..you have the best ever opportunity to see your dreams become reality.

What does it mean for Coaches.

The key for coaches is to integrate SPP into their training and preparation environments by the addition of a mental component in their planning, periodisation and exercise prescription.

So, in practical terms, it means adding a mental element to every training set, every skill practice routine, every fitness activity: to change your programming tools from just volume, intensity and frequency to volume, intensity, frequency AND a mental factor.

Once you make this fundamental philosophical step of incorporating a mental aspect into your physical training routines and practices your coaching will achieve new heights.

(Watch for a future post: Programming with Sports Psycho-physiology).

What does it mean for Sporting Institutions, Universities, Academies, Coach Educators etc.

For sporting institutions, the Sports Psycho-physiology revolution means four things:

Integration- of physiology and psychology resources, staff, research and departments;
Innovation - solving performance problems which incorporate mind / body solutions;
Inspiration – seeing this new direction as a limitless opportunity to find performance breakthroughs through integrated research, different thinking and as an incredible opportunity to help athletes and coaches achieve new levels of excellence;
Illumination - changing the way we educate coaches about sports science right from their first day in the coach education system.

The Silo System is Dead.

Now that the “silo” (i.e. single discipline, reductionist) approach to applying sports science to athlete and coach performance is finally being seriously challenged around the world, more and more of these “inter-disciplinary” breakthroughs will emerge….

So what’s the next inter-disciplinary breakthrough likely to be?

Bio-physiology:(i.e. bio-mechanics and physiology): Imagine what we could achieve by integrating the fields of bio-mechanics and physiology so that when we make a change to an athlete’s technique or skills, we simultaneously consider the impact on physiological efficiency, energy cost, oxygen dynamics etc.

Psycho-mechanics: (i.e. psychology and bio-mechanics): Imagine what we could achieve if we incorporated a mental component into bio-mechanics so that when we work on improving, changing and enhancing an athlete’s technique, we also include things like relaxation, flow, feeling, focus, concentration and mindfulness.

Now that the shackles of the single discipline silo approach to sports science have been removed, so too have the limits to human performance.

Question….Where will it end?

Answer….It wont!

Wayne Goldsmith

Exploding the Home and Away Myth

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:52:28 +0000

All professional team sport competitions around the world are based on the “Home and “Away” philosophy, i.e. that it is more likely a team will win at “Home” that it is when they are “Away” (from home).

The central theme of the philosophy is that by giving teams the chance to play each other at “Home” and “Away” they have an equal chance of winning over the season without favouring one team over the other.

There was a time that everyone involved in professional sport more or less accepted the “fact” that is was more difficult to win “Away” than it was to win at “Home”.

But now is the time to challenge the whole “Home and Away” concept and expose it for the myth that it really is.

Exploding the Home and Away myth: a Process of elimination.

To try and figure out why sporting teams still find it harder to win away from home, let’s work through the most commonly held beliefs around the Home and Away myth and eliminate them as possible causes.

The problem solving framework for sport: S.T.A.M.P.S.

When trying to solve a problem in sport, it is useful to use a framework to help systematically analyse the variables which could explain why the problem is occuring and in turn lead to a possible solution/s.

In sport, the S.T.A.M.P.S. framework is very useful for this purpose:

S – Strategic (i.e. the tactical and strategic aspects of playing the game);
T – Technical (i.e. the technical aspects of the game, e.g. technique and skills);
A – Attitudinal (i.e. the attitude of the players, their commitment to success etc.);
M- Mental (i.e. the players’ mental skills, e.g. mental toughness, visualisation, relaxation etc);
P – Physical (i.e. the players’ physical preparedness, e.g. speed, strength, endurance, power, agility, flexibility etc);
S – Settings and Situations (i.e. the environment and culture of the team and Club).

So let’s apply the S.T.A.M.P.S. problem solving framework to the Home and Away Myth.

The Home and Away Myth….is it??????

Is the Home and Away Myth a Strategic problem? No. Coaches design strategies and tactics to defeat opposition teams not the places they live in.

Is the Home and Away Myth a Technical problem? No. Techniques and skills are the same regardless of when, where or who the team is playing.

Is the Home and Away Myth a Physical problem? No – not now. In the “old-days” when teams travelled long distances to complete they had to deal with issues such as jet-lag, travel-stress, dehydration etc. However, over the past ten years so much time, energy and resources have been invested into mastering travel management, sleep management and environmental stresses that only players who are poorly prepared and unprofessional fall victim to the perceived additional physical demands of Away games.

So if the Home and Away Myth isn’t Strategic or Technical and it isn’t Physical…..what does that mean the Home and Away Myth really is????

Home and Away – A Myth of the Mind (and a Product of the Culture).

The Home and Away Myth is a Myth of the Mind. It has nothing to do with travel stress, with heat stress, with altitude, with opposition fans, with hostile media – it has everything to do with preparation, attitude and culture.

You can win anytime and anywhere if you prepare to do so. The Home and Away Myth is not real: unless you allow it be.

Sports Need the Home and Away Myth…Coaches and Players don’t.

Sport’s Governing bodies like the NFL, Premier League Football, the AFL, the NBA etc, etc. have a vested interest in promoting the Home and Away Myth. They need to build and grow a competition which has the potential for uncertainty in the outcome of games and therefore maintain real interest in the competition itself.

Ask yourself this: Who would watch the games on TV, gamble on the games or go and see the games live if the result of the game was already known?

Answer….No body! And with no body watching the games on TV, gambling on the games or going to see the games live there is no competition!

Coaches and players must see the Home and Away Myth for what it is and strive for excellence in all aspects of preparation and performance regardless.

Five Strategies for Winning Away from Home.

Out-prepare, in every detail and in every aspect, your competitors. Every player must have the confidence of knowing that their preparation (on and off field) is better in every detail than the player they will be “marking” or playing against;
Make training more challenging and more demanding than the game you are preparing for. Ensure that every player adopts an attitude of making their Home training environment more challenging and more demanding than their Away playing environment. They will then be ready for whatever challenges the game throws at them;
Strive for professionalism in preparation across all aspects of your organisation. Team management and staff need to work hard to ensure that the Away environment has the same level of professionalism as the Home environment in every detail;
Treat Home and Away Games the same. Stop talking about Home and Away games – there are just Games: Games to be fought and won regardless of where and when they are played;
Ignore the Home and Away hype promoted by the sport’s governing body. They have a vested interest in maintaining the Home and Away Myth which is rooted in the very survival of the sport (and the governing body itself).

Winning is winning.

If you had to write a one line position description for a professional coach or player it would be this:

FIND A WAY TO WIN.

Difficulty is an excuse history does not accept: find a way to win – Home or Away – it doesn’t matter: Just Do It.

Wayne Goldsmith