Great Speeches

Enter the lions den,

Head Coach of the British Lions, Ian McGeechan gives an inspirational speech to his men before the battle begins in the second test against South Africa at Kings Park Stadium, Durbin SA. (1997).

Final Score – SA-15 BL 18.

British Lions Forwards Coach Jim Telfer pre game talk to his chargers before the first test in 1997.

Score SA-15 BL-25.

MIA: Motivation In Action.

 

 

 

Coaching Insights Part 1.

A guide to better coaching.

Coaching is not rocket science, however, it knowledge of the game, a vision for where you are heading and ideas on how to get their!  

1. Learn, develop and apply. 

Coaches are secret buggers some times. Asking questions to a competitive coach can be like talking to your in-laws. Thiers coaching methods are their currency and most likely their security. What you can do is learn from coaches outside your field and mentors with in it. Now I know you may think what can coaches from varying sports contribute to your coaching practices. The answer just may be found in the physiological and mental demands of their chosen sport and can be adapted into your program. For example;

• Football-Rugby Union, Tennis, Boxing (agility drills, explosive sprints, mental skills, game sense methods)
• NFL-Rugby Union, Rugby League, AFL,  Football (strength, power, speed, defence and attack methods).
• Cricket-Baseball, Athletics, Pilates and Boxing ( fielding, first up quickness, core strength, balance, footwork)

You never know by communicating and analysing other coaches you may just find a competitive advantage! Otherwise, the coach education system is always a good place to learn sport science and technical information. Sport Science is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the understanding and enhancement of human movement and is a key weapon in a coaching arsenal. It is, therefore an essential ingredient, however, not the be all or end all. Furthermore, great informative websites like istadia, coachinginfo and pithchvision (cricket) to name a few are great resources and easily accessible. Coaching is a dynamic process. Learning, developing and applying your coaching skills for better coaching practices should lead to greater performance outcomes for all involved.   

2. Coaching Philosophy

Your coaching philosophy forms the framework for your coaching methods, process and success. In addition, your CP has a direct relationship with your immediate and past environments. Life lessons, experiences and processes that you have learned to be successful will help form your philosophy. If you haven’t established your CP at this stage do not panick!  

One method to create an understanding of the above is to analyse your own personal history, psychology and physical qualities. In short your philosophy will reveal itself to you if you take the time and effort to investigate the area’s mentioned. My own CP is shaped by my own playing and coaching experience but more importantly by the many insights my father (an athlete, a coach himself, ex army) and grand father (ex federal police, navy) taught me. Such as;

• Analyse your landscape (players, systems, opponents, organisations- the works!)
• The mind is your athlete
• Knowledge is great yet futile without its appropriate action
• Plan to succeed, plan to contain and do not plan to fail
• Hard work pays off

You can draw your own conclusion on the above!  A CP will underpin everything you do and stand for as a coach!  

3.  Review, Redirect and Record Results

The ability to review and critically analyse your own coaching program is vitally important to your goal orientated outcomes. A review, examines  what needs to stay, what needs to be implemented and what needs to be binned so to speak. A method you can utilise is called SWOT analysis (strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats).  A review process may take a couple of days or a couple of weeks dependent of the level of complexity. The findings leads to base line measurements for your coaching program. Make sure the information is recorded as it will be utilised at a latter date. Once the review process is over it is time to redirect your coaching program to the key performance indicators established. Your results will determine how effective your initial review was. However, change is inevitable and learning to adapt your program is one of the key’s to successful coaching.  Make sure results are recorded and compare them to your base line measurements to see if progress is being made.

4.  Be Innovative

Today technology is moving at an ever expansive and rapid rate. Innovation of materials, technology and manufacturing has and continues to have an immense impact on sport. Dartfish (video analysis), Speedo’s Racer swim suite (37 world records since its inception) and real-time GPS tracking of players physical and physiological demands in sport (performance analysis) plays a critical role in sports performance today. Innovation is a key ingredient in building and sustaining success. As coaches we have an endless array of resources to draw upon, however, our imagination and our ability to be the architect, designing and critical analysing the physical, psychological, technical and tactical demands of our chosen sport is one of the most important components in a coaches arsenal. If you want to enhance your ability to coach successful, look outside the box and be innovative.  

5. Successful Coaching Techniques

1. Initially lead from the front. Make no mistake about it, athletes need effective leadership, they also desire it!

2. Articulate what you are trying to achieve.What is your mission statement? Instil the mission!

3. Learn. The japanese call this kaizen-an attitude to continuous improvement.

4. Utilise External Resources. Sport science, leadership and communication professionals are a vital resource for better coaching practices.

5. Preparation is the key to victory. 

6. Simulate match conditions in training.

7. Pay attention to details.

 

Expert Performance: The 10, 000 Hr, 10 year Rule.

Academics from leading universities have recently investigated professionals in various  fields such as music, sport, the law and financial sectors that revel a number of interesting and co-dependent factors . The focus of the studies is on how to achieve expertise.

Erickson et. al (1993) reported that expertise emerges as a result of intense and specific practise for a minimum of 10 ooo hr or 10 years. Although the length is relevant, a more important and co-dependent factor is the specific type of practice a person needs to achieve expertise and is relevant to their field. The specific type of practice is defined by deliberate practice.

Deliberate Practice refers to ”individualised training tasks especially designed by a coach and or teacher to improve specific aspects of an individuals performance (Erickson & Lehman 1996). During this type of practice, the person receives optimal instructions, as well as engaging in intense specific practice that has a distinct purpose and intended outcome to it. Literally millions of trials and re-trials and years of competitive experience are needed to attain expertise. Where this rule really comes alive is in the book authored by Malcom Galdwell.

Outliers ” The Story of Success”. As Gladwell describes; ” Outliers is a scientific term that describes things that lay outside normal experiences”. Gladwell in essence, dispels the myth that innate talent alone is good enough to get you where you want to go and that deliberate preparation and provided opportunity (training and competition) is the key to world-class expertise. As we are aware practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It is the thing you do that makes you good.  If you get a chance to read this book please do so it is worth the read.

The key coaching points to take away from the above,

1. Analyse and re-direct your coaching program to utilise the deliberate practice principles.
2. Train your athletes under intense, game like conditions to better prepare your athletes for competition.
3. Innate talent is a key ingredient, however, not the essential one.

All the best.