“Communication is not just words, it’s people.” It goes without saying that a good coach needs good communication skills. After all, it doesn’t matter how knowledgeable you are if you can’t pass on that knowledge in a way that makes sense to others, right? However, the difference between good coaching and great coaching is not […]
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
“There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be…” ― John Lennon You don’t need to have been around in the 1960s to know who the Beatles are. They took the music industry by storm and became the biggest-selling band of all-time. But, here’s the question: what motivated them to become one […]
People Centered…Outcome Driven…Performance Focused ”No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings” William Blake Standing at the bottom of a snow covered hill in Lofer, Austria, I was working with the GB Alpine ski team. The team were training for the next set of competitive races and my role was to […]
One of the most common hurdles facing coaches of youth players is “Performance Anxiety” Why is it that some players appear to rise to an occasion yet others appear to fall apart? Excessive nerves can be the result of a lack of confidence but this is often overlooked when the player in question seems to […]
Jesse Owen “A runner must run with dreams in his heart” – Emil Zatopek What motivates you to run? If you’re someone who just loves running for the sheer “fun” of it, that may seem like a daft question, but think about it for a moment − is every run you go on a fun […]
Mental Toughness “Ask yourself: ‘Can I give more?’ The answer is usually: ‘Yes’” – Paul Tergat Top level athletes across all sports have mental toughness, but it’s a term that conjures up images of power lifters or heavyweight boxers psyching themselves up − or psyching their opponents out − in an outward display of “don’t-mess-with-me-cold-hard-stares”! […]
Roger Bannister Breaks the four-minute mile “We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves” – Roger Bannister If you have experienced running in a state of flow, you have experienced a sensation of “doing without doing” or running effortlessly without thinking about it. […]
Visualisation, also known as mental rehearsal, is a technique that has been used for many years and to great effect by many top professionals in sport. Listen to how English soccer player Wayne Rooney prepares and visualises the night before a game ” Get Good thoughts,good moments , in my head . Visualise scoring goals “ […]
“I need to get away because, as I often tell my players, life isn’t just soccer and BlackBerries.” Pepe Guardiola Reading about Pepe Guardiola’s decision to leave Barcelona FC got me thinking. After an amazing 13 titles in 4 years in charge of the club, his subsequent comments about how exhausting he found his time […]