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.

1. 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;
2. 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;
3. 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;
4. 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;
5. 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

© 2012, Wayne Goldsmith. All rights reserved.

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What are we all chasing in high performance sport?

What is high performance coaching seeking to achieve?

Why do we focus so much on player leadership?

Why do we spend so much time talking about professionalism, standards, attitudes, commitment and passion?

Because we want to achieve one thing: we want to create an environment where our athletes’ Passion to Prepare is equal to or greater than their Potential to Perform.

It’s the key question in high performance sport.

How do I create an environment where the athletes’ passion to prepare – their commitment to preparation, training, off field professionalism, etc is equal to or greater than their potential (talent) to perform?

In some way, we grapple with this question and the many related questions everyday:

1. Do I recruit on talent or on attitude, personality and passion to succeed? Answer - in a perfect world, we want talented athletes with the commitment to succeed: aptitude plus attitude.
2. How can I create an environment where each individual athlete is competing to their full potential? Answer – create an environment where each athlete consistently demonstrates a passion to prepare.
3. How can I help my athletes realise their performance goals? Answer – by ensuring each athlete prepares better - more consistently – than anyone in their event (or role or position) in the competition.

All these issues have the same basic philosophy – matching ability with attitude, talent with tenacity, genetics with grit and potential with performance.

It’s the key element in quality coaching – engaging the athlete fully - mind, heart, body and soul with their program so that they embrace excellence in everything they do.

Talent is not enough…it never has been.

This is critical to anyone who wants to succeed at the top level: talent is not enough – unless that talent is driven by an unrelenting desire to be the best and that desire is supported by an uncompromising commitment to excellence in all aspects of preparation.

There are basically four different types of athletes: the PALTS, the PAHTs, the GALTs and the GAHTs.

• PALTs: Poor on Attitude – Low on Talent: PALTs lack both the attitude and aptitude to be successful in high performance sport and therefore don’t make it much past schools level competition – (and usually then they are only involved in sport because they have been forced to be involved);
• PAHTs: Poor on Attitude – High on Talent: In many ways, PAHTs are the most challenging and demanding athletes to coach. They have the physical talent and natural physical abilities to succeed but their lack of commitment, determination and professionalism bring more frustration than fun for coaches.  Many of the issues involving team discipline come from PAHTs. Often, PAHTs have been early maturers or athletes who demonstrated a precocious talent when they were young and never learnt the key preparation fundamentals of discipline, hard work, commitment and perseverance: they had too much – too soon – too easy.
• GALTSs: Great on Attitude – Low on Talent: The vast majority of elite athletes, even at professional level are GALTS – athletes with some talent (otherwise they could not have got to professional level) but whose great strengths are their attitude, their dedication, their discipline, their values, their off field professionalism, their honesty, their desire to play the game and their passion to prepare. Coaches are usually great at working with these athletes…they have to be…because they see so many of them;
• GAHTs: Great on Attitude – High on Talent: Possessing the complete package – GAHTs are the champions, the world record holders, the Olympic Gold medalists, the All-Stars players, the MVPS, the best of the best. GAHTs are harder to hide than to find - and will succeed regardless of the situation, the challenge, the environment, the adversity or the difficulties they face.

The big question then is can you turn a PALT, PAHT or GALT into a GAHT? And if so, how?

Without doubt, when I work with coaches and teams, this one issue dominates all others: “how do I ensure every player in my team is preparing – consistently – to the best of their ability – so that their passion to prepare is equal to or greater than their potential to perform”.

You can’t buy a premiership or a gold medal or a world record or a title.

Investing in a world class high performance environment (i.e. anything you can build or buy), gym facilities, sports science, recovery centres and similar high performance tools is useless without also investing in the human factor – investing in creating a culture where each player takes full advantage of the high performance environment through their passion to prepare.

Which would you rather have? A brand new gym, with the best of the best machines, training equipment and power training devices but where the players arrive late, perform their routines with poor technique, cut reps out of their programs and finish early….

Or an older gym, with ten year old machines, equipment and devices but where every player works to their full potential every time they walk in the gym door?

The answer is of course…..we want both: we want the latest in high performance training tools and we want a winning attitude to drive them.

Can we have both?

What do you think? Let me know.

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2012, Wayne Goldsmith. All rights reserved.

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What will sports coaching look like in 20 years?

How will a training session differ in 2030 to a training session in 2010?

How will our coaching have changed, improved and evolved over the next 20 years?

It will have changed so much that it will be barely recognisable.

The future is already here. And it is a scary place for those living in the past.

Are you ready for it? Will you race towards it? Will you resist it?

Read on.

Where is the world heading?

To see where Sports Coaching is going – look at where the world is going:

1. People can access just about any information, anywhere, anytime and for free;
2. People are happy to share ideas, information and innovations with their colleagues, friends and the public on line for free;
3. People have unprecedented access to learning tools, articles, on-line video, slide presentations, audio files and research journals – and mostly for free;
4. People are adopting a “do it yourself” approach to many things – look at the abundance of TV shows, web sites, blogs and on line information available on any topic – average, ordinary people are becoming experts at all things;
5. People are happy to work cross disciplinary and “have a go” at things, rather than seek the opinions and views of experts and professionals.

Coaching knowledge - is – for all intents and purposes – worthless.

When what you have is easily and freely available to everyone – it is worthless.

How much would diamonds be worth it you could find them anywhere, anytime and they were as common as ordinary pebbles? They might still look great, sparkle in the sun, be incredibly useful but they would be worth nothing.

And your coaching knowledge – all those “secret” training sets, all those “unique training systems”, all those “miracle plays” that you have built your coaching career around….are also worth nothing. Scary.

Don’t believe me?

Go to YouTube – www.youtube.com  and search for videos demonstrating the skills of your sport. Off you go – I’ll wait right here.

OK – you’re back. What did you find out?

That many of the techniques, strategies and ideas of your sport are now available free on-line, anytime, anywhere for anyone and for free?

Funny about that. Don’t say I didn’t tell you.

Even very traditional sports like martial arts – where techniques have been kept within a close circle of experts and handed down through traditional teaching methods and structured learning environments are freely available in video form at YouTube. And people are using YouTube to learn martial arts – and piano and Greek and Tennis and how to build a fence and how to service a car……………..the knowledge you need to be an expert is everywhere - and it’s free.

So you might counter my argument with a yesbut – a “Yes, but…” and try to convince me that your sport is different, that athletes need coaches, that the people doing the free YouTube videos about your sport are not the best people, that your sport is a people sport…..yada, yada, yada – I have heard them all.

People don’t care what or who is providing the information – only that they can get it right now and for free.

The average person does not care about the quality of the source or their qualifications or the University they studied at – they just want the information, they want it now, they want it to look good, they want to feel it is pitched at a level they can understand and they don’t want to pay for it.

If you want to know where sports coaching will be in 20 years – the starting point is to ask yourself these three questions:

1. What do I have to offer my clients (athletes, players) other than knowledge of the sport, e.g. skills, drills, tactics, strategies, physical preparation techniques because anyone get these things anywhere, anytime for free!
2. What will my clients need in 20 years that only I can provide, i.e. accepting that your knowledge is no longer what your clients will need.
3. What unique talents, gifts and abilities do I possess that will ensure my coaching future - again apart from what I know?

OK, OK – there will be some of you thinking, “That’s all very interesting, but that will not happen in my sport. My sport is different”.

Try to get your head around this then.

Sport…..it’s only one very small part of a very big world.

Sport – as an institution and as an industry – represents about 1% of that big box we call society.

And the most popular sport in the world – football (soccer) makes up the vast majority of that 1%.

So your sport – particularly if it is one of the traditional Olympic sports like swimming, track and field, field hockey, rowing, cycling etc makes up a fraction of the institution which is sport.

We know that trends in some of the big institutions like health, like education, like the environment, like energy and like communications are all heading towards the open sharing of ideas, collaborative research methods and the collective sharing of knowledge, information and experiences.

So hanging to the “my sport will not change” thinking is like trying to hold back the Ocean with one grain of sand…..it is futile.

This has enormous implications not just for sports coaches but for sport coach educators. Coach education needs a total re-think and re-structure.

And the reason is simple.

All sports coaching education and training programs are content based. We bring coaches together for a day or two, we throw lots and lots of content, ideas, information and sports specific knowledge at them, assess their ability to learn and apply that knowledge and call them “coaches”.

Now think about Sports Coaching 2030 - If knowledge is worthless and ideas and information are available anytime, anywhere and for free, who is going to go to a coaching course? No one! No one unless sports coach educators completely change they way they go about educating and developing coaches.

Summary:

1. To steal a line from the environmental warriors -“think global; act local”. Be aware of world wide trends in communication, in education and in the way ideas, information and innovations are being discussed and shared but make it relevant to your own program, your own coaching and your own philosophies;
2. You can’t change the world – but you can change your world – and you can achieve this by being open to the possibilities and embracing of the new opportunities provided by the acceleration of learning that is currently possible;
3. Imagine a world where knowledge is worthless and your current beliefs about gaining a competitive edge being in “what” you know are wrong…..how will you be a successful coach? How will you continue to find a performance edge for your athletes and players?

In future posts I will discuss the amazing opportunities that the future presents..for those who are ready for it.

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2012, Wayne Goldsmith. All rights reserved.

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The sporting world has gone Recovery Crazy.

Over the past ten years, Recovery has gone from being something you did when you got tired, to an integral aspect of every training session, every day, all year round.

First it was massage.

Then came all the countless variations of hydrotherapies: spas, saunas, ice baths, contrast showers, high-flow shower massage, wading pools, hydro pools…….

Then the recovery nutrition stuff: creatine, sports drinks, gels, bars, Slushies….

Now the focus is on sleep: sleep research, quality of sleep, quantity of sleep, timing of sleep, power naps, managing sleep, monitoring sleep and even the genetics of sleep.

It is now at the point where many coaches and athletes are making Recovery a higher priority than actual hard training! (The only time this should happen is in the dictionary).

So it’s time to Recover from Recovery: let’s consider Recovery in Perspective.

What is Recovery?

A good practical definition of Recovery is the deliberate use of interventions aimed at enhancing an athlete’s capacity to adapt to the physical and mental demands of preparation and performance.

In other words, doing something which is likely to help an athlete recover more effectively from their training and / or competition loads.

How can you enhance an athlete’s recovery?

A good way to remember the different recovery techniques is to remember WASHUP :

Water: the use of different forms of water, e.g cryotherapy (ice), hydrotherapies (contrast showers, “hot-cold” baths, spas, saunas, swimming pools etc).

Active Rest: doing something physically active other than the primary training and competition activity, e.g. walking, swimming or cycling instead of running.

Sleep: ensuring adequate quality and quantity of sleep.

Hydration and refueling: drinking the right fluids and eating the right foods at the right time, in the right quantity and of the right type to enhance recovery.

Unwind mentally: mental and emotional recovery is just as important as the physical aspects of recovery.

Physical Therapies: including massage, physiotherapy, stretching and Yoga.

So is Recovery important?

Absolutely. There is no doubt that Recovery is critical for athletes: to train hard then to dedicate energy, effort and enthusiasm to their recovery program.

The one thing we know for certain about succeeding in high performance sport is that you need to consistently train hard.

And using WASHUP recovery techniques means that athletes can recover faster and more effectively and therefore they can train harder more often.

So how did all this Recovery stuff start?

In the “old days” the pathway to sporting success was primarily focused on hard, physical preparation. The culture of most sports, particularly the Olympic sports where physiology is such a critical aspect of performance, e.g. running, swimming, rowing, gymnastics, diving, triathlon and cycling, was to work and work and work until you couldn’t work any more.

With the growth of the sports science industry and the deeper understanding of applied sports physiology, people began to realise that an important limiting factor in the physical aspect of sports performance was the athlete’s ability to recover.

This led to some athletes, coaches and even nations to try and find ways of enhancing an athlete’s recovery ability – by any means necessary in some cases - and the unfortunate rise of the use of substances such as anabolic steroids and other artificial and illegal recovery enhancing substances and techniques.

In more recent times however, the race has been on to find better, smarter (and importantly safe, ethical and legal) ways of accelerating an athlete’s capacity to recover.

And what’s the bottom line?

The bottom line is….the reason athletes and coaches would introduce a smart recovery program is so the athlete can work harder.

And this is where the whole Recovery thing has got out of control.

Too many athletes and coaches have misinterpreted the Recovery principle and have decreased training loads whilst at the same time increasing their emphasis on Recovery.

Again, at the risk of labouring the point, the reason an athlete or coach would introduce a smart, WASHUP based recovery program is to accelerate the athlete’s rate of recovery and therefore provide the opportunity to work harder more often.

The Recovery / Hard Training Matrix

When it comes to managing training and recovery, you have four options:

1. Don’t train hard and don’t introduce a WASHUP based recovery program – doesn’t make any sense if success is your goal.
2. Train hard but don’t introduce a WASHUP based recovery program – works for a while but eventually illness, injury and fatigue will limit your potential for success.
3. Don’t train hard but introduce a WASHUP based recovery program – unlikely to produce anything but a well-rested but under-prepared athlete.
4. Train hard and introduce a WASHUP based recovery program – work hard, recover well, do it consistently and success is practically inevitable.

Summary:

1. Recovery is one of the buzz words around sport at the moment but like all ”fads and fashions” it needs to be considered in balance with all other aspects of your training and competition program. Keep it in perspective!
2. The key to Recovery is remembering that its purpose is to accelerate an athlete’s capacity to adapt to the physical and mental demands of their training and competition schedule…faster recovery means that an athlete can work harder, more often.
3. Whilst the research around the impact of a smart Recovery program on the competition performances of athletes is still very sketchy at best, there is some evidence that systematically introducing a smart recovery program incorporating the WASHUP techniques can enhance an athlete’s capacity to rest, restore and regenerate and be more ready for their next training and competition activity.

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2012, Wayne Goldsmith. All rights reserved.

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Yes you can!

The Big Issues:

Without doubt, the biggest impediment to success in all sporting teams involve leadership, personalities and politics.

When clients ask me to come in and undertake a review of their high performance programs, they usually begin with a “brief”.

The brief gives me an idea of the scope of the review, what the outcomes will be, what specific areas they would like me to look at and time-frames for completion.

And time and time again, in spite of the brief outlining that the clients perceive that the problems with the team revolve around money, recruitment, player depth, coaching, sports science and injury management, the solutions to their high performance problems very often reside in leadership (or a lack of it), personality issues and political conflicts.

The Five Assumptions.

Here are the five assumptions I have developed to underpin the process of reviewing and then enhancing high performance programs in sport:

1. Money is unlikely to be the real problem;
2. Most people don’t really understand the two core concepts in high performance sport – a. how to create and sustain a high performance environment and b. how to create and sustain a winning culture;
3. People are unlikely to reveal the real truth – mainly because most of the time they don’t know what it is;
4. People will blame things and other people for a lack of performance before they are prepared to look honestly at their own performance – ego extinguishes excellence;
5. A fish rots from the head- most of the problems in sporting organisations are due to poor leadership, a lack of vision and the inability of the leaders (be that the Board, the Executive Management team or the Head Coach) to see beyond leadership, personality and political issues.

Amazing but True.

It never ceases to amaze me. People will claim they are all about high performance, that they understand how to create and sustain a high performance environment, spend lots of money on recruitment, facilities, equipment, sports science, sports medicine and all the “tricks of the trade” but fail to look honestly, clearly, sincerely and professionally at the most influential high performance “tricks” of all - leadership, personalities and politics.

And why? Human nature! Buying an instant, quick fix solution is always easier than creating and growing a more difficult, long term solution from within.

It is easy to think “if we were fitter we would win more games” and then go  buy better training equipment.

It is easy to think “if we had some better players we would win more games” then go on a recruitment spending spree.

It is easy to think “if we had a better recovery program, we would win more games”, then build a recovery centre.

It is not easy to think,”the best way for us to win more games is to consistently embrace excellence in everything we do, to work hard and to our full potential every day, to manage relationships with honesty and openness and to lead with integrity, humility, courage, vision and passion without succumbing to the limitations of personality conflicts and political squabbles”.

Here’s a common scenario.

The team has great facilities. They have excellent players. They have professional, well trained, experienced staff. They have a strong coaching team. But they are not winning – why?

They will tell the press and the fans,“we are in a rebuilding phase”or “we are focusing on the future” or some other such rubbish.

In reality the only thing they are “re-building” is a bull%&@ story that they think will keep the media, the fans and their sponsors happy while they hope things improve.

Imagine you had a Formula One Car with the latest in engineering, technology, fuel, tyres, braking and a world class support team: the best of the best equipment, facilities and people. And it didn’t perform. Who is responsible? The team manager, the driver and the (lack of) cohesion between the various performance areas.

And here’s the good news….fixing leadership, personality and political problems costs nothing, takes very little time but is worth everything.

Five useful tips.

Here are five tips for solving most problems in high performance sporting organisations;

1. Build and grow solutions to performance problems from within; don’t look to buy solutions from outside;
2. Focus on people – their potential, their leadership abilities, their motivation, their talent first – then worry about everything else;
3. Accept that money is rarely the real problem: money only solves problems when you have real, practical, effective solutions to spend it on – and that means innovative, creative and intelligent leadership;
4. Personality and political problems in high performance sporting organisations are like open wounds. Do not allow them to fester and hope they will get better by themselves. Diagnose them quickly and then treat them immediately, aggressively and consistently until they heal;
5. Don’t just look at the parts – look at the “whole” - regardless of the skills, experience and knowledge of individuals in the team, it is their ability and desire to work collaboratively and cohesively as a high performance team that  makes the difference.

And – um – call me if you get stuck!

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2011 – 2012, Wayne Goldsmith. All rights reserved.

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A renowned swimming coach was walking up and down the side of the pool working with a world record holder. A younger, relatively inexperienced coach who was eager to learn, asked, “How do you know how your swimmer is going?” “How do you know when she is ready to do her best?”

The senior coach replied, “I just know”.

Testing does not replace the skilled eye or instinctual feel of an experienced and talented coach. It aims to provide measurement and objectivity to some of the elements of performance that coaches “see” and “feel” and “know”.

This article discusses some of the current issues in the testing of high performance athletes and looks at the crucial aspects of the measurement and evaluation of elite sports performance.

The testing process: Not a one off event!

Testing is not a one off event – it is a process that begins and ends with a test.

The testing process sequence includes:

• Coach determines the need for testing and discusses the test protocols with a sports science / sports medicine professional.
• Testing is scheduled and logistics, equipment, personnel etc. are organized.
• Pre test athlete education session organized (if appropriate).
• Testing is conducted.
• Results and data collected, collated and managed.
• Results and data evaluated.
• Results and data discussed with coach and athlete.
• Coach considers results and data and makes training program decisions based on the information.
• The next test date is scheduled.
• Athlete is retested to determine progress.
• Process repeats!

Testing is a useful coaching tool but it is one part of the overall process of athlete preparation and development.

Competition based testing

Of course, the best form of testing for high performance athletes in elite sporting programs is competition.

Competition provides the unique combination of factors that are only found on the pitch, on the track, on the court, in the pool or on the water during actual games and events.

However it is often difficult for the coach to be effective in competition based testing as he / she is focused on observing the athlete in competition conditions and perhaps even making strategic / tactical decisions based on those observations.

Therefore, it is essential that the coach identifies a reliable, experienced support team of professionals who can manage the details of competition based testing leaving the coach free to coach.

After the competition or perhaps even during rest periods, the support team can provide the coach and athlete with the detailed analysis of the performance and together work towards a strategy to improve competition results.

Success in Competitive Sport: Defined

The obvious measurement of success in competitive sport is winning!

However what is winning? It is said that the person who aims at nothing is sure to hit it! Therefore before designing a testing program, it is important to try and ascertain what coaches are trying to “hit” – what are they trying to achieve?

Successful competitive sport could be described as:

“The ability to maintain excellence in skills and consistently make the right decisions at high speed, while fatigued and in pressure situations” – Skills plus speed and decision making under fatigue and under pressure.

Winning often comes down to the players’ / athletes’ ability to perform basic skills effectively when they are tired and under pressure.

From this simple definition, it is possible to develop and effective testing program.

Why Test?

There are many reasons why a coach would want to test an athlete.

Once training and competition goals have been clearly established, a coach would test athletes:

• To provide information and feedback on the progress of the training / preparation of the athlete. Are we on track to achieve our goals?
• To provide information on specific elements of the athlete’s capacities and abilities. Is the athlete developing and improving?
• To determine areas of weakness or limitation: Are there problem areas or issues that need to be overcome?

How to Test

The perfect test is one where the athlete is accurately evaluated in the precise conditions likely to be experienced in competition and the results of the test directly relate to competition performances.

This is invariably difficult to achieve as there are numerous factors experienced in competition which are near to impossible to replicate in a training or testing environment.

For example:

How do you measure a goal kicker’s ability to kick a goal under game pressure when the only time they face game pressure is during a game?

How do you know if your players can execute attacking moves against opposition in pressure situations when the only time they get to experience these conditions is against an opposition in the pressure of a game?

Game / event simulations can provide athletes with the opportunity to learn how to execute skills in competition “like” environments but even these practices lack the real pressure experienced in actual competition.

Typically, testing protocols and methods are single discipline perspectives of one element of performance, e.g. tests based on physiology or biomechanics or psychology or nutrition or medical. The challenge for the coach is to effectively manage this narrow perspective to gain an overall understanding of the athlete’s abilities and capacities at the time of testing.

Who to Test?

Practically any athlete can be tested. Even young athletes can be tested for skill development and technical progress.

Young athletes can also be educated on how to develop the skills necessary to perform the testing protocols they are likely to experience as senior athletes.

For example, many tests require the ability to accurately maintain a precise speed, power output, pace or time. These skills can be taught to relatively young athletes as part of their development process and to prepare them to complete senior testing protocols as they mature.

Where to Test?

Field or Laboratory – the toughest question in the testing puzzle. Both have advantages and disadvantages.

Field testing can be simple, easy, inexpensive and meaningful to the coach and athlete but can be difficult to control owing to environmental factors and a wide range of other complicating variables experienced in the training and competition setting.

Laboratory testing is often expensive, requires complex equipment and trained personnel to operate it and in many cases has the considerable challenge of making the test results meaningful and specific to the actual sports environment.

Tests for oxygen exchange dynamics (e.g. VO2 max) have generally been performed in laboratories as the availability of precision equipment allows for more accurate testing. However, the limitation in laboratory testing is in the capacity to reproduce actual sports specific training and competition conditions.

For example, the measurement of VO2 max on a treadmill, cycle ergo-meter or rowing machine in the lab is based on well established testing protocols. However, the lab cannot exactly reproduce the external environmental factors (run and bike – road conditions, weather, hills, wind resistance: rowing – water conditions, current, weather, wind, boat friction / water resistance) that athletes experience in training and playing.

A useful field test alternative to lab based endurance testing is the shuttle run or “beep” test.

In football for example, laboratory based VO2 max tests are of questionable value as it is rare that any player runs at high speed (without the ball) in a single direction for sustained periods of time without the added complication of dealing with opposition players. However, the lab based VO2 test may offer a useful measure of the underlying fitness characteristics of the player and perhaps provide an indication of their injury/illness status.

In the end, a combination of regular field based testing (because of the practical, easy and immediate nature of the testing) together with occasional laboratory testing (because of accuracy, reliability and quality) is a good option for most sports.

What to test?

Selecting what to test for is a complex issue for every coach. Universities and other professional organizations can provide the coach with a “lolly shop” of tests and toys all with the promise of quick easy solutions to performance challenges.

One of the biggest problems for coaches is that many do not clearly identify what it is they want to test. As a result, when a sports science professional suggests what is possible, the coaches respond like the kid in “lolly shop” and want a little of everything.

Deciding what to test starts with a simple philosophical question for every coach:

“What do I believe are the key determinants of successful performance in my sport?”

In all sports, successful competition performance is determined by the effectiveness of the coach and athlete to optimise their preparation in four key areas:

• Physical
• Mental
• Technical
• Tactical

For example, as a coach of marathon runners you decide that the key determinants for success in your sport are oxygen exchange dynamics and biomechanical efficiency at 80-90% of maximum speed. Once you have made this philosophical decision, finding the right tests to evaluate the athletes is relatively easy.

As a coach of a football team, your philosophy may be that the best players are skillful at high speed. Again the choice of tests is a simple matter once you have decided what you want to look for.

Another advantage of establishing your own testing philosophy is that “unless you stand for something, you will fall for anything”.

Sometimes coaches fall for promises of magic pills and quick fixes from sports science professionals looking for subjects for a study or research project. The testing program should be a reflection of and consistent with the overall goals and philosophies of the coach, athlete and training program.

When to test?

Effective testing can be done at any time during the training or competition program depending on what you are looking for. Tests of maximum capacity or peak abilities are generally best performed when the athlete is rested and unfatigued. Traditionally this has meant testing during or at the end of a rest or recovery microcycle.

Ideally, testing should be scheduled during each phase of training: pre season, mid season and late season to provide feedback on the athlete’s progress throughout the training program.

However, if you as a coach have determined that you would like to assess the impact of physiological fatigue on skill and speed, then testing tired athletes is consistent with your overall program philosophy.

Summary: The Ten Golden Rules of Testing for Coaches

1. Test for things that make sense. Testing VO2 max in lawn bowlers is not logical.
2. Test because you believe it will make a difference. Just testing for testing’s sake or because the equipment is available is not the most effective use of training time.
3. Test with a performance focused goal. Test elements of performance that you believe will make a direct impact on performance. Try not to get trapped in testing just to try and get a progressively better test result unless it is directly related to actual competition performance or the development of more effective training protocols.
4. Don’t ask for a single test – ask for a series. If you make the commitment to be involved in a testing program, ask for more than one test. One off tests rarely tell the whole story.
5. If you are working with sports science / sports medicine professionals, request that any test results are provided within 24 hours and that the professional allocates time to explain the results and their relevance to your program. This applies particularly if you have agreed to allow your athletes to be involved in a research project.
6. Think multi disciplinary. If the athletes are being tested through lactate analysis, also measure and observe technical changes to assess the impact of fatigue on technique and skills. If they are being evaluated using heart rate, note speed, technique and if possible assess psychological skills at the same time. Performance is multi disciplinary in nature – testing is generally single discipline in focus. Coaches need to see the wider picture.
7. Be visionary. If you as the coach see the need for a test to evaluate an element of performance which you believe is crucial to the success of the athlete, develop your own test! Ask a sports science / sports medicine professional to help you with the measurement side of things, but many great coaches use simple field tests that are meaningful to them but which may lack absolute scientific validity. Many scientific tests were originally ideas inspired by visionary coaches.
8. Keep records. Try to record all test results. Have assistant coaches, parents of athletes, injured players, reserve team players – anyone – trained to record (accurately) test results.
9. Measure what is measurable, control what is controllable, what can be measured and controlled is likely to be meaningful.
10. Take time to educate athletes about testing. In time, senior athletes can learn to do some or most testing protocols themselves. Athletes can learn to monitor their own heart rates, take their own times, count their strides, record their feelings…..and the better educated your athletes are to self manage / self monitor their own testing, the more meaningful the results are to them. Having educated athletes who can self monitor means the coach has the freedom to coach, observe and learn during the testing process.

As it is with your overall program, testing is athlete-focused and coach-driven. Manage the testing process so that you can provide your athletes with the best possible opportunity to achieve their performance goals.

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2011 – 2012, Wayne Goldsmith. All rights reserved.

Related posts:

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So much of the world’s high performance sports dollars (or Yens or Yuans or Euros or Pounds or Pesos or Rands depending on where you come from), time, energy, focus and attention is spent on three things:

1. Talent identification;
2. Talent recruitment;
3. Talent development.

Or if you like, find them, sign them, refine them.

And most of the world has still got it wrong. There is a better way.

First item on the Talent Identification agenda…can we please change the name!!!

Let’s all agree to call it the ”Talent Management” Program or the ”Targeting Success” Program or something catchy like T.O.P. (Talent Optimization Program) but the term T.I.D. should be killed off, given a nice funeral and buried by the world’s sporting community once and for all.

Calling the overall process of finding, recruiting and optimising the performance potential of athletes “talent identification” is like calling a game of football “the kick off”. Finding talent is just the first step in a long, long process to turn potential into performance.

Number 2: Adopt an integrated approach.

There is too much focus on physical talent and physiological factors in all T.O.P.s all over the world. Success in high performance sport comes about from the integration and blending of physical, mental, technical, tactical, cultural / family and genetic factors or…my “big six”:

• Physical abilities;
• Personality characteristics;
• Playing skills;
• Performance abilities;
• Pedigree (i.e. genetic makeup);
• Preparation ((i.e. environment, family, culture).

Number 3: Invest ten times more money on talent optimisation and talent development than talent I.D because Real talent is harder to hide than it is to find: Finding talent is not hard.

Open your eyes! It is not hard to find kids who are bigger, stronger, faster or more skillful than their peers. Finding them is not the challenge – it’s what to do once you have found them that is the tricky part. The protocols used to screen athletes for “talent” have been around for over 60 years – test protocols are not the problem. It’s creating an optimal, integrated talent development pathway to turn potential into performance that’s the problem.

Number 4: Make your objective measurements of talent more subjective and your subjective measurements of talent more objective:

This the real trick in all applied sports science. There are no totally objective, research proven, evidence based methods of testing which can measure the “talent” and potential of an athlete and guarantee their elite level competition performance success. And similarly, the old days of just looking at an athlete and using some mystical “eye” or instinct to accurately predict their elite level competition performance success are over. It’s the blending of the objective with the subjective that gives the best results in any T.O.P. process.

Number 5: Any investment in a T.O.P. for athletes must be matched by a T.O.P. for coaches:

Governments and sporting organisations will spend millions on mass T.I.D. screening programs and implementing T.I.D. testing protocols then allocate pittance to educating and developing the people charged with developing that talent to its full potential: i.e. coaches. That just does not make any sense.

Number 6: Educate parents and the talented athlete’s immediate cultural influences:

You play like your place! Athletes – no matter how talented – need people and places around them which nurture them, support them, nourish them and love them. It is critical to influence, support, educate and help the parents, partners and peers of talented athletes so that they can better create an environment which enriches the athlete’s real performance potential.

Number 7: Stop beating around the bush with genetic testing- just get on with it:

We all know its coming – let’s face it – it is already here and the whole industry of Sport Genetics is an unstoppable force. Once we get around the ethical, religious and philosophical zealotry surrounding the genetic testing of athletes, everyone will be doing it. My advice – do it now. Just get on with it or risk being left behind by your competition.

Number 8: You need to learn to recognise genius, uniqueness and difference:

Sport is about health, fitness and lifestyle. It’s about providing opportunities for people to play sport through the implementation of standardised systems, structures and programs. High performance is completely different! High performance is about providing unique opportunities for unique individuals to realise their full potential. Too many T.O.P.s fail because they fail to recognise genius. They spend millions finding and recruiting talented athletes, then force them into standard programs to fit a funding model or some mythical all encompassing athlete development system. High performance means being different, being unique, being an individual and thinking, talking and acting outside the box.

Number 9: It has to be a“non-system” system:

As per number 8 – there is no system you can create which will guarantee the success of your team, your sport, your club or your nation in high performance sport. That’s because greatness and uniqueness are intimately entwined and uniqueness does not flourish in a system. That’s why the best win – they do it their way, they do it uniquely, they do it differently to the rest….and any high performance sport system which discourages difference will fail.

Number 10: There has to be multiple entry (and exit) points:

Too many teams,  sports and even nations miss talent because of stringent rules about T.T.T. – Talent Testing Timing. Some of the biggest mistakes here include:

• Setting an age range – i.e. “we test kids aged 12-15″ years;
• Creating elite junior development pathways which are rigid and inflexible (i.e. “you are either in or out”);
• Testing for now and not for the future – i.e. looking for talent and potential to sustain the team’s current style or system of play without thought of evolving it over time;
• Relying on historical data to provide a framework for the future, i.e. using test data from talented athletes from the past to evaluate the performance potential of athletes to be successful in the future.

Conclusion:

• There is no doubt that an effective T.O.P. is important for the success of every sporting team, organisation and nation.
• However, the way it has been done to date lacks real sophistication, practicality and effectiveness and it is time the whole concept of T.I.D. was revisited, revamped and re-developed.

There’s my Top Ten Talent I.D. Tips for High Performance Sp0rt – the T.O.P. Approach….what’s yours?

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2011 – 2012, Wayne Goldsmith. All rights reserved.

Related posts:

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One of the greatest myths in sport is that it is the workout that wins.

That is, that the secret to sporting success lies in how you manipulate volume, intensity and frequency.

Coaches spend years and years crafting their workouts, building invincible programs and creating the perfect combination of work and rest that will deliver them and their athletes the success they dream of.

And it is largely a myth.

It is not the workout that wins…you have to win the workout.

It’s not what you do….it’s how you do it.

The “secret’ set, the “wonder-workout”, the “magic-session” – it all means the same thing…that coaches are convinced that all it takes to be successful is to come up with the magic formula based on training physiology. The on-line coaching industry is full of this: “Buy our unique workouts and you will see amazing results” etc etc.

A well crafted workout, with a lot of thought behind the physiology of the training sets, reps, drills, etc that is performed poorly is a bad workout.

Whereas, a workout which may lack the precision of a finely tuned training activity designed by someone with a strong knowledge of sports science but is a workout which engages the heart and mind of every athlete so that all activities are performed with passion, precision and perfection is a great workout.

Of course, the ideal situation is to create an effective workout based on sound physiological principles but one which also engages the athletes so that they give their best to the full extent of their potential: i.e. the science and the art of coaching working in harmony.

The big assumption behind all workouts.

There is an underlying assumption in all workouts: the one premise that all workouts are designed on: that the athletes will complete the training session as it was written.

When coaches write a workout, they write it assuming that the athletes will complete the workout with same intent behind it’s design. No coach writes a workout thinking, “This is what I want the athletes to do but I know most of them will not do it this way”.

Example:

A coach writes a workout for a track sprinter. On paper, the workout reads:

• Warm up: 1000 metres easy
• Drills: 8 x High knee drills with walk back recovery
• Run throughs: 6 x 40 metres increasing in speed from 400 metre speed to 100 metre speed progressively over the set. Walk back recovery.
• Main set: 4 x 80 metres at 200 metre pace on 3 minutes. 5 minute rest. 4 x 120 metres at 200 metre pace on 3 minutes 30.
• Cool down: 1000 metres easy.

The underlying assumptions are:

• Warm-up: Completed with relaxation and rhythm, focusing on breathing and ease of movement.
• Drills: Each stride completed with technical excellence and rhythm and flow.
• Run throughs: Each repeat done with technical excellence and at precisely the target pace.
• Main set: All efforts completed with technical excellence, rhythm and flow with a focus on breathing and ease of movement as the distance increases, i.e. technique under fatigue.
• Cool down: Completed with relaxation and rhythm, focusing on breathing and ease of movement.

It is not the workout that determines the success of the athlete: it is how the athlete is intrinsically driven to complete every activity in their training program to the best of their ability.

And this is why the concepts of engagement and motivationare so important: without doubt the two most important concepts in effective coaching.

Engagement and Motivation: The Coach’s Best Friends.

All the things that are written about sport science, exercise physiology, training aids, fitness equipment…all the “what” stuff are of limited value without understanding engagement and motivation.

Engagement can be defined as the ability of a coach to create a performance environment where every athlete wants to give more than can reasonably be expected.

Motivation is the desire: the fire that drives an athlete towards a goal or achievement.

So, the key to great coaching is not sports science and it’s not actually coaching per se: it’s providing athletes with the environment and opportunity to express their engagement and motivation through their training: through the way they complete their workouts.

And this lays the foundation for a critical concept in successful coaching….win the workout.

Win the Workout philosophy:

The logic of the Win the Workout philosophy is pretty simple:

1. If you want to be the best in the world or the best in your competition;
2. You must be the best in your own Club or training squad and
3. Therefore you must be the best in each training session and workout.

Think about this for a moment. It makes sense.

You can’t be the best in your football competition or the best in the national swimming championships or the best in the state school athletics championships without first being the best in your team or lane or squad or group.

Sorry coaches….but the truth is you are all doing pretty much the same things.

Not many coaches who read this bit will accept it but, the truth is, you are all doing pretty much the same things.

Whether it be consciously or sub-consciously, the reality is that with so much free information available through the Internet, books, conferences, workshops, seminars, coaching courses etc – everyone in your sport more or less knows what everyone else in your sport knows. Your workouts are no longer your “magic-secret” to success because everyone in your sport has either seen them, has heard about them, knows about them, has tried them and in some cases has even improved on them.

And this means…..it is not your workouts that will determine the success of your athletes, your team, your program or you!

Your success, now, more than ever, is totally reliant on your ability to create an environment where win the workout, i.e. an environment built on athlete engagement and motivation is the core philosophy of your athletes.

This is what a Winning Culture is all about.

Many people talk about wanting to create a Winning Culture. They spend a lot of time and resources trying to create it, build it, grow it and sustain it.

Having a Winning Culture means that every athlete – and for that matter every person involved in your program – is totally, uncompromisingly and completely engaged with the program and is motivated to complete everything they do consistently to a higher standard than anyone of their competitors.

Your coaches want to out-coach every coach in the competition.

Your team manager wants to out-manage every manager in the competition.

Everyone strives to be the best in their role….the cumulative effect resulting in excellence across every aspect of your organisation.

Winning cultures grow when one person or a small group of people make the commitment to consistently out prepare, in every way, their opposition.

You can’t force a winning culture. You can’t run a motivation session and make it happen. You can’t buy t-shirts with slogans on them and turn your culture into a winning culture.

All it takes is one person.

It starts with one person: one person with a complete sense of engagement and the absolute motivation to do whatever it takes to be the best.

In other words, it starts with you, coach.  It starts with your own engagement and motivation and with your ability to provide the environment for others to be similarly engaged and motivated: it starts when you make the commitment to “win the workout”.

Summary:

1. Workouts do not win: athletes win by winning the workouts.
2. Winning the workouts is a culture: a core philosophy which, if embraced by everyone in your program, is an unstoppable force.
3. Creating and sustaining a winning culture: one which is built on the win the workout philosophy begins and ends with the coach and the coach’s ability to create an environment where engagement and motivation are the central, driving forces behind success.

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2011, Wayne Goldsmith. All rights reserved.

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Typically the end of season means a well earned rest, a few quiet drinks with team mates, some time with family and then… the end of season review.

Every team does some kind of season reflection or review – in most cases motivated by one or more “P” – Performance, Politics, Pressure.

• The Performance Review: is one motivated by a drive to improve the performance of the team – players, coaches and staff – for next season.
• The Political Review: is a review often driven by the Board or Executive to achieve a political agenda or philosophical shift in the club.
• The Pressure Review: is one forced on a team by media, fans, club, Board or other stakeholders as a result of a poor performance.

By far the most effective review is one that is deliberately and strategically placed in the team’s “performance cycle” each year and is embraced by coaches, players, staff, Management and Board as being an important and positive aspect of progressive performance from season to season.

The Performance Cycle: The review is a key part to the overall performance cycle of the team.

Every team – every club – every coach – every player – is seeking one thing -Sustained Competitiveness: the ability to be competitive year after year after year.

A well structured review process ensures that by systematically reviewing and evaluating all aspects of performance, the opportunity to sustain competitiveness is integrated into the culture of the club.

Here are some tips to help make this year’s RE- view and PRE-view of success next season.

Review with next year in mind – don’t waste time looking back in anger

Reviews can make people very nervous and many coaches and players see it as a negative process. A well planned and well implemented review can be THE most critical element of planning for the next season and is an opportunity to move forward. It can be one of the most positive and productive times of the year. It is the time when feedback can be given and received with real positive energy and enthusiasm.

Don’t waste the review time by looking back and micro-analysing every aspect of every game, tackles missed in game one etc. This has all been done through the season. Use the RE-view as a PRE-VIEW: use it as an opportunity to get your best people together and work co-operatively and honestly to improve next season.

Benchmark against the best, whoever and wherever they may be

All sports are close communities and secrets do not stay secrets for long. It is safe to say that everyone knows what you know. In this closed environment, teams need to look outside your sport for the best solution – not just the AFL solution or the baseball solution or the swimming solution……the BEST solution!

If you were looking to improve the individualisation of player’s preparation, the answer might lie in one of the Olympic sports. If you were looking to improve on field endurance, the answer might lie in soccer or Rugby league. If you were looking to improve player leadership skills, the answer might lie in the corporate sector, business community or even politics! Once you have identified the problems, look for THE best solutions.

Keep the things that you do well, change the things that aren’t working – 10% rule

One of the biggest mistakes teams make at review time is to throw everything out and start again. Most clubs do far more right than they do wrong. If your car’s gearbox is broken, fix the gear box – don’t replace the engine, tyres, brakes, steering, cooling system and stereo. Build on the things that work well and change or eliminate the things that don’t. Try to adopt this simple three step review process of each area:

• What do we do that works? – What should we keep doing?
• What do we do that doesn’t work? – What do we do that we should stop doing?
• What are things that we can introduce that will positively impact on performance? – What should we start doing?

Make sure you know what the budget is for next season BEFORE you start planning

Before you start planning for next season, make sure you are clear on what you can and can’t do from a budget perspective. Everyone has millions of ideas and suggestions of things that might work but in a real world, most clubs are working on a tight budget and it is a matter of prioritising.

• Start with the things you must do – e.g. train hard, eat well, sleep and recover well, manage and minimise injuries.
• Then start to look at things you want to do – e.g. introduce new equipment, new specialist coaches and staff, training camps, new facilities.
• Then look at things you wish you could do – e.g. altitude camps, individualised diet management, specialist coaching services for individual positions.

Be Systematic: Look at everything: little things can make a big difference

At the beginning of the review process, write down a list of everything in your program that can make a difference. The easiest way to do this is to ask each person – coaches, sports scientists, medical team, team manager and players to review their own performance using the Keep, Stop, Start method and to highlight the key factors of their specialist areas.

Aim to make everything subject to a genuine 360 review process, i.e.

• Each person reviews their own performance
• Each person is reviewed by their peers
• Each person is reviewed by their immediate report, i.e. the person they report to
• Each person is reviewed by the people who report to them

For example, a team defensive skills coach would be reviewed by himself, the other team skills coaches, the head coach and the players.

Start with a philosophy: If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.

With the review process comes a flood of ideas, innovations, new technologies, new supplements, gym equipment and gimmicks. Everyone will have great ideas and new products that will “guarantee” success next year.

Start the review with a philosophy. This keeps you grounded and keeps you focused on improving the right things. The process starts with understanding what you are about as a team and club.

Ask yourself three questions:

• What do we stand for? Who are we? This will help you clearly identify what it is about the team and the club culture that is unique, special and worth keeping.
• What are things we do well that will sustain this culture?
• What do we need? Who can we recruit to add value to this culture?

The real trick in program reviews and strategic planning is deciding what not to do – finding new ideas is the easy part – finding out what will work and add genuine value to the team is the real art.

Get someone independent to help with the review process – take personalities, politics and emotions out of it.

In the majority of cases, reviews are commissioned on political grounds. Someone in the club has decided that the performance of the coach, players and team is an issue and commissions someone to review the program. In many cases, the reviewer may also have political connections to the club and an agenda for change that may not be in the best interest of the team and the team’s performance next season.

Find someone independent, objective and politically neutral to co-ordinate the review process. Aim to identify someone who will establish a professional process – one that systematically analyses and reviews all key performance areas and is focused on improving the performance of the team, players, coaches and staff without any political or personality bias or prejudice.

Do it sooner rather than later. A season’s memories fade quickly

The ideal time to do a review is 3-5 days after the end of the season. Doing it immediately is often a bad idea as there is too much emotion, fatigue (and maybe hangovers) for it to be effective. Waiting until after players and staff have a long break is less than ideal as the accuracy of memories can fade quickly at the end of the season and a lot of detail forgotten.

The key is to build the review into the season and that the review is seen as integral to the overall team performance cycle rather than something distinct, separate and unrelated.

If you have to change personnel. Do it soon.

Unfortunately, sometimes reviews come up with a solution that results in the need to change coaches, players, staff or management. If this happens, make the changes quickly – fairly, honestly, with integrity and compassion, but quickly. The outgoing people need time to find new employment opportunities before the next season and the new personnel need the maximum possible time together to form an effective team and to provide the best possible performance environment for the team to succeed.

The aim of the review process is to ensure that the rate of acceleration of improvement in your team is greater than that of your opposition.

No one goes backwards in this business. There are too many great people working 24/7 in every team for performance to actually regress. Everyone is improving – it is the rate of improvement that is the key issue.

The aim is to progress at a faster rate than your opposition. And to do this means you have to be:

• Honest – about where you are now
• Clear – about where you want to go
• Committed – to getting there faster than anyone else
• Consistent – in doing the things that will make the difference better than anyone else, everyday.

Summary:

• A review is a positive, constructive opportunity to improve performance, sustain competitiveness and progress from season to season.
• It should be systematically planned and scheduled into the overall performance cycle each year.
• Keep it simple – look at it through a simple Keep Doing, Stop Doing, Start Doing perspective.
• Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater – a well thought out, intelligent 10% change in key areas is usually enough to significantly improve performance.

About the author: Wayne has worked at the highest level of elite sport for 15 years and has worked with some of Australia’s leading sports, clubs, coaches, players and teams. He specialises in working with people and organisations to help them develop peak performance environments and cultures designed to achieve success and sustain competitiveness.

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2011 – 2012, Wayne Goldsmith. All rights reserved.

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The issue of hiring the right head coach is a hotly debated topic in all the newspapers, television sport shows and Internet sporting sites.

So how do you go about finding the right head coach for your team?

Because there are thousands of ways of doing it right - let’s start with how NOT to do it!

How not to recruit a head coach.

1. Make recruitment decisions based on the coach’s coaching reputation alone; Lots of sporting organisations make this mistake. Often reputation – particularly in professional sport – is artificially created by media and marketing professionals, public relations staff, professional management groups and press agents. It is critical that the people charged with recruiting the new head coach go behind the rumour and rhetoric and complete a detailed, professional, thorough, rigorous recruitment process – one which identifies who the potential head coach really is – not what his / her management agent wants the world to think he / she is.
2. Keep the players out of it; Huge mistake! Particularly in these times of player empowerment and engagement. Players have a big stake in the selection of the right head coach – in some cases their own careers depend on the head coach recruitment process. At a minimum, the captain and another senior player should be invited to be part of the selection panel – in a perfect world, all players will play some  role in the process and have their views listened to and respected.
3. Allow the Board to make the decision behind closed doors without an objective, professional recruitment process; Another very common mistake made by sporting organisations. Think about hiring a head coach like employing a carpenter or builder to build you a new home. You will have strong views about the finished product. You will want to have some input into the design. You will want to choose materials and paints. But then, once you have expressed your opinion, you would step back and let the professionals do the actual building. For some reasons most sporting Boards do not get this last bit.
4. Start the recruitment process without understanding what it is they are looking for; Another biggie! Often sporting organisations will start looking for a head coach before they have clearly identified what they want from the role or even where they are heading as an organisation. The first step in any journey is to decide where it is you want to go. Then all it takes is for someone to develop a process to get there. But if you don’t know where you are going, then it doesn’t really matter who you get for head coach.
5. Put a Coach Recruitment Panel together who do not understand coach recruitment. Typically Boards will do one of two things – put together a Head Coach Recruitment Panel of people from inside the Club, Board members, the Executive, former players etc or hire an external recruitment company to organise the recruitment process on their behalf. Neither option is ideal. The “inside” model often ends up with an introspective process and an appointment which reflects “the way we have always done it here”. Hiring a professional recruitment company might give you a great process but often they lack understanding of sport and the unique role of head coach.
6. Make the decision on coaching record alone without any consideration of personality, cultural fit, leadership, team development ability or communication skills; Many companies make this mistake – promoting the best mechanic to be Manager of Engineering or promoting the best teacher to be Principal. Being a great skills coach or hands on coach is a very different role to that of head coach. The skills set for being a great skills / assistant coach are based very much on possessing a detailed knowledge of the skills, techniques, tactics and strategies of the sport. The skill set for a head coach can include public relations, team development skills, leadership, public speaking, Board and Executive level communication skills, resource management, financial management and conflict resolution. Coaching record by itself does not usually distinguish a great head coach from a great skills coach. Sometimes great assistant coaches are just that – assistant coaches whereas real leaders may emerge from a different pathway.
7. Offer the coach a five year commitment; Some sporting organisations get bullied into making long term commitments by the coach or their management team but in the majority of cases, long term coaching contracts lead to complacency and a lack of urgency. Not only that but if things are not working out, and you have a five year commitment to the coach it could cost a lot of money to get out of the contract. Keep coaching contracts to three seasons maximum with a possible option clause if the coach achieves the clear deliverables stated in their contract.
8. Offer unproven coaches total control over the performance environment; In the old days, sporting organisations recruited head coaches then stood back and allowed them to change everything - people, systems, structures, players, staff, management, policies and operations. Now – hopefully – sporting organisations are much smarter and they recruit coaches to give them the technical expertise they need to take the next step. The head coach is like any other employee – they are recruited to help the organisation achieve it’s corporate objectives and business goals – not to change everything. Think of it this way – do Coca Cola hire a new CEO and tell them to change the flavour? Does Apple hire a new CEO and ask them to change the brand?
9. Offer proven coaches total control over the performance environment; What we do know about sport is that success rarely repeats. A huge mistake sporting organisations will make is to recruit a head coach based on their coaching record with another team, then allow the head coach to change everything in the organisation to make it like their former Club. What has worked in another Club is almost guaranteed NOT to work somewhere else. Sporting systems – no matter how successful they appear to be – do not work outside of the culture which created them.
10. Offer the coach a guaranteed income regardless of the performance of the team; Name one thing in the world that works well where failure is rewarded equally to success. Some sporting organisations commit to coaching contracts where coaches receive annual pay increases regardless of the performance of the team. So what you are saying is, “We recruited you to help us win games but even if you don’t win games we will give you more money each year” – is it just me……..or is this on the left side of insane?
11. Sign a contract with the coach without doing detailed, thorough systematic research about their previous appointments; There is nothing dumber in sport than seeing sporting organisations recruit coaches who failed badly in their previous positions and believing things will be any different now the coach is with another team. Do your homework! If a coach has been sacked for their lack of communication abilities and their poor anger management, chances are these personality flaws will resurface under pressure or in similar situations at their new Club.
12. Sign the coach without clearly and precisely agreeing to outcomes, deliverables, how and when performance will be measured, roles and responsibilities; The majority of problems arising in sporting organisations as far as the head coach is concerned are due to a lack of role clarity. Get professional, legal advice when designing a coaching contract and make sure all parties clearly understand it. Build a detailed, independent, objective review process into each season and review the head coach’s performance on an ongoing basis.

Summary:

Recruiting the right head coach is a critical step for any sporting organisation.

The head coach is not only the technical leader of the organisation but in many cases is the public face of the Club or even the sport. Whereas recruiting the right head coach can impact positively on the performance culture of the organisation for many years, the wrong coach can spell the end of the organisation’s opportunity for success for two or three generations of athletes.

With such an important decision, sporting organisations need to adopt a clear, professional process and be rigorous, thorough and methodical with research and background checks.

The head coach recruitment process is not the place for rumour, anecdote, “mates mates”, old boys clubs, media pressures or uninformed pub opinion – it can be the most important decision made by a sporting organisation and as such must be supported by professional thinking, detailed research and a forensic approach to understanding who the coach is, what they stand for and what they can potentially add to your performance environment.

Wayne Goldsmith

© 2011, Wayne Goldsmith. All rights reserved.

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