What if my players do not want to learn?
If your players do not want to learn, the chances are that they are Needy People.
What do successful coaches work from that isn’t being taught?
Successful coaches are able to keep people’s neediness at bay and gets them focused on becoming Learners & Improvers so they get their needs fulfilled through their own improvement and that of the team.
What is a key skill?
A key skill is a skill which allows one to become both effective & efficient on the playing field, in other words, play better.
Why do I need an aim?
An aim is what one uses to focus on and achieve an end target and acts as a guidance to get there, for without an aim you have no focus and with no focus, you get no strong results.
There are moments whilst competing that my perception of space and time changes, what is going on?
What is happening is that you are entering something called the playing zone, those times in sport where the balls appear larger, the gaps appear bigger, time appears to slow down and one appears to have an abundance of energy.
Who are your coaching inspirations?
Two people in particular, Bob Paisley who coach the Liverpool football team in the 70’s and 80’s and Arthur Lydiard who coached Peter Snell and Murray Halberg in the 50’s and 60’s and even though one may not rise to their heights of achievement, one can still use their principles.
Why did you start looking into all of this information?
I’ve always asked questions and been curious about things and I had done all the coaching courses I could do, many of them twice, and I asked a question because I wanted to further my own knowledge and understanding of the coaching process, and the question I asked was simply this, “Was there anything being done for the likes of myself, who wants to stay where they are and keep improving themselves, their players and their teams?” The individual I asked the question of, thought about it for a moment, then the answer came back, “I guess not” so I decided, if they’re not going to make the information available, I’m going to find it out myself and as usual, I always find out more than they would have told me.
Coaches and those in the sporting area usually keep their cards close to their chest, why are you putting all of this information out there?
Ultimately there are no secrets in coaching and all the information is out there and available. It’s in how you interpret the information, put it together and how you present it to your players. A lot of the times, it’s also not what you present, it’s what you leave out that matters more, so you have to know your stuff to know what to leave out. Also, the type of game that I want to see played by my team may and will be different to what you want to see played, so how you interpret the information for what you want to do will be different, and a lot of it depends on your aims of what you want to achieve.
If this a sporting blog, why are the topics covered so varied and diverse?
Through life I’ve found that I’ve learnt many things away from the main topic because there are valuable lessons to be learned in everything, and these lessons can be applied across many areas, because everything is connected in one way or another, plus I’ve also found that I learn better from people who didn’t stick to the curriculum and reading from a sheet. Also by covering so many different topics and subjects one becomes more knowledgeable, a more well-rounded individual and discussions when had with others become much more varied and interesting.
If you love learning so much, why did you not go to university?
Because the subjects I look at is all over the place, as you can tell from my blog and university wouldn’t suit my learning style. Plus, some subjects I learn faster in, others slower and some subjects and areas I drop because I realise it’s not where I want to go, plus, my main form of learning is Concepts, Keys and Principles, not detail, detail, detail, though by learning Concepts, Keys and Principles I learn the details.
Also, by self-education I have no affiliation to any anyone, can have access to any topics and resource material I choose and have no educational reputation to maintain so if what I’m putting out there is against the current status quo, it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s logical, makes sense and more importantly works, and just as important there is more than one way of learning and more than one path for getting there, for ultimately there are many paths that will lead us to the top of the same mountain.
Will you ever run out of topics to discuss and write about?
The short answer is no, for there is so much information out there that you soon learn that the more one learns, the more there is to know, and you realise how little that we actually do know. Also, your understanding of the written word changes as you gain more information, knowledge and understanding and how you present that information also gets better.