All sports people require some of the same attributes: speed, power, balance, agility, co-ordination. Some need additional things like higher levels of fitness and endurance. The key ingredients are the first five.
There are many ways to develop these attributes and sports science has come along way with their research. Telling us which exercises are best for which movement. This is all useful stuff but where I think a lot of sports coaches fall down is that they don’t know how to put it all together properly. There are some coaches out there that are still living in the dark ages; boxing in particular. These guys believe that weight-training slows you down. Nonsense! A lot of basketball players and even some golfers have realised the benefits of using weight-training as part of their competition preparation.
How do you put it all together properly? Drills. You need to analyse the particular sports movement / technique that you wish to improve and, with a bit of creativity, devise a drill or set of drills that will ‘naturalise’ your movement / technique. I’ve watched some football (soccer) and rugby training sessions in the past and most of their training just looks like a circuit class that you would find in any local sports centre. I think that one of the main reasons for this is because a lot of the coaches and trainers are just ex-football or rugby players. Nothing wrong with this if they posses an ever learning open mind. But, most of these guys are only training the team in the same way that they were trained. A case of the blind leading the blind. One of the main problems with this type of training / coaching is that only the very talented will shine and get the most benefit from it. There will be very little possibility of developing any new talent. Anyone can learn anything if it is taught to them in the right way. Some people may need different drills from others. Or the drills adapted for them. The coach must have an open mind. He must, obviously, have the sports person’s main goal as a priority focus. But he must be intelligently flexible in his approach to achieving that goal. For some it’s still a case of; “Well this is what worked for me”. It is now gospel and they won’t budge on it. They only see failure to do something as failure instead of feedback. Feedback is the breakfast of champions. There is no such thing as failure. Only feedback. If the recipe sucks, it doesn’t matter how good a cook you are. At this point what I’ve noticed that works best is not all the; “We’ll have to get you hooked up to the sports science computer, check your form”. So called ‘modern’ way of doing things. It needs the personal touch. As a coach if I can’t see for myself where you are going wrong then I shouldn’t be there. Why should I need a computer to tell me what I should be able to see for myself? Thing is, how does it feel to you? What do you think? Boredom could be the enemy, not some abstract ‘failure’.
As we are now being told; it’s mental as well as physical. It’s a mind game. Sports psychologists and some hypnotherapists are cashing in on this gap in most coaches arsenal. But it’s not new. It’s always been a mind game. It’s the attitude that’s developed through proper preparation to prevent piss poor performance, as they used to tell us in the army. If your training isn’t on par, then neither is your mind. I’ve noticed this myself in the past. This is where good drills can make all the difference. With drills you can break stuff down into more manageable chunks.
Some of you might have been thinking; “But what if my mind isn’t on the training session? “I might have problems at home to deal with”. “I might be feeling less than good about myself,…..for whatever reason”. I know. I have deliberately left this for now. That’s a whole article of it’s own. Suffice to say that I just don’t understand why ant serious trainer or coach hasn’t bothered to take the time to go on courses for EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) or even some form of sports psychology or hypnotherapy course in order to ‘be there’ for all of his / her people. And all blocks in their training. Whether mental or physical I believe that if you are going to work in this type of area you should be a ‘Jack of all trades’ and pretty damn good at all of them as well. Your students and clients trust and rely on you. Don’t let them down.
Paul Smith.
This is a pretty controversial article but all the more right for it. At http://www.PeopleMaps.com we see how personality affects every decision you make and how you respond to every scenario. The physical body cannot be separated from the personality.
A good friend of mine http://www.Alicampbell.com goes a step further and with small tweaks on the mind, makes enormous changes in performance.
The “tried and tested” approach isn’t good enough. Huge leaps in understanding have appeared over the last few years and if coaches aren’t using them, then they are letting their athletes down.
This is a pretty controversial article but all the more right for it. At http://www.PeopleMaps.com we see how personality affects every decision you make and how you respond to every scenario. The physical body cannot be separated from the personality.
A good friend of mine http://www.Alicampbell.com goes a step further and with small tweaks on the mind, makes enormous changes in performance.
The “tried and tested” approach isn’t good enough. Huge leaps in understanding have appeared over the last few years and if coaches aren’t using them, then they are letting their athletes down.