The traditional model of a leader that is presented to us is one of someone in a perceived position of authority who can control people and also inspire them by what they do and say, though that has now become an outdated form of leadership, for a different model of being a true leader is…
If one wants to become a better coach, or a teacher in any form, one thing that needs to be done is to begin the process of Learning about Learning. And a question to really ask is, how many sports courses actually cover the topic of Learning? For to begin learning about Learning, one must…
The secret to any learning is in expanding your knowledge and knowing more information, but the question to ask is, why is knowing more information important. In knowing more information, patterns begin to emerge and through those patterns, principles can begun to be understood and learned. And that’s it, because through understanding principles the ride…
In the sports world, everyone is grasping with wanting to improve and get better and they look for many ways to do it, but until one starts looking at principles, you’ll never get to the true heart of how things really work and thus how to get true improvement. Principles are simply a guideline of…
If anyone wants to read an excellent book, one can do no better than reading Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson. In it he explores the conditions that are associated with creating more ideas and good ideas and the common link between it all connection. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3Ce3Vs0Ec0 And it’s through the collision of connection…
People have an inherent curiosity for learning and as we get older, unless we hold onto that inherent curiosity, the learning process fades and this is the challenge for anyone who coaches is in coaching players to learn. You want to tap back into this inherent curiosity and kick start the learning process, regardless of…
One of the most fascinating things I find about what I am doing is how my questions evolve over time, especially to do around the coaching concept. And it’s only by doing stuff that the questions evolve out of what I’m doing and as I gain more knowledge, the questions evolve even further. The original…
Questions are some of the greatest things ever invented though they do have a double edge sword aspect to them and that is dependent on the type of individual on the receiving end of them. For without the asking of questions, clarity in understanding and progress won’t occur because if you ask questions of an…
At the moment the world is in a state of flux, and nowhere is this more evident than in the sports world and the future coach is going to be a facilitator in their approach to get the best out of their players, in other words, they are going to become a facilitator coach. With…
There are many things that goes into creating learning environments and not one factor works on its own, it’s in how they interact which creates the learning environment. And the concept in creating learning environments revolves around 3 aspects with them being: Vital Behaviours Needy People Words With the two vital behaviours in any learning…
Today I have a list of what I consider to be influential coaching books and every individual who becomes involved in coaching at any level should read. And there are two interesting aspects to these books and see if you can spot them. In Sheep’s Clothing – George Simon Jr https://www.bookdepository.com/In-Sheep-s-Clothing/9781935166306 Puzzling People – Thomas…
If you’ve been around the coaching scene for a while and been to multiple coaching course, sooner or later just learning about the general skills, techniques and tactics is not enough, and eventually you get into the asking of some important coaching questions. These coaching questions develop over time because you begin to realise that…
When you first get your team together, all the Learners & Improvers, Needy People and Psychophic People will all be shuffled together like a well-used pack of cards. And as a coach, the first thing you must do, in cultivating curious minds, you must figurative sort out the pack of cards into the black colours,…
Recently I was watching a talk and someone mentioned the concept of the beginner’s mind, so I looked around and basically found out that at its heart was about retaining curious minds. It’s an eastern philosophy and as usual when people explain this stuff through the eastern philosophy they make it this mysterious concept. I…
Even though I talk a lot about sport, pretty much everything discussed applies to all aspects of life and so it is with the types of players you want and want to develop also applies to people within society. If you want to progress your team, the type of individual that you want is this:…
If you don’t understand concepts or pattern recognition, you miss the big picture and guess what we’re not taught at school. That’s right: Concepts Pattern Recognition Because: A concept is the underlying idea being work to and or from A pattern is the same events reoccurring Because: If you begin to understand concepts and recognise…
There is a very good reason for understanding concepts, whether that be in sport or life, and it’s simply this. Because: Once you understand the concept, you understand the game. And by extension, once you understand the concept, you begin to understand the thinking that goes on. And once you understand the thinking, then you…
A crucial aspect in coaching, and in fact anything in life, is in finding your concept to work from and to. But it’s a little explored area and yet is such an important part of the process, for once you have your concept everything you do and work towards stems from it. And there are…
If you’ve followed my writings for a while, you’ll notice I spend very little time on the tactics of sport, and the answer is very simple, in reality there isn’t that many tactics. So the following is a quick summary: When you get the ball you are going to do one of either 3 things:…
When looking at the different areas we’ve been discussing about sport and you start looking at the percentage that they make up in the coaching process an interesting picture begins to emerge. For the breakdown of approximate percentages work like this: Concept – 2% Behaviours – 40% Core Key Skills – 10% Keys – 40%…
