• Subscribe to site feed

  

• Get the latest posts by email

  Enter your email address:

  Get fresh posts sent straight to your email inbox. We will never share or spam your email address.

• Categories

  • Announcements
  • Coach education
  • Coaching Tips
  • High Performance Coaching
  • High Performance Sport
  • Hot Topics
  • Leadership
  • Performance Psychology
  • Performance Science
  • Presentations
  • Sport and Parenting
  • Teams Development
  • Training

Expert Advice for Sports Coaching Success

Training Based Research Studies: the Biggest Con in sport since the Muffin.

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Performance Science

Remember how when we were kids everyone liked to eat cupcakes.

Then when we got older and a bit more health conscious we were told to give them up because of the sugar and flour and other stuff in them.

Then along comes a sports nutritionist who said “Muffins are a great food for athletes – nutritious, high carbohydrate energy foods”. So we all started eating them again even though they are basically still just big cupcakes.

What a big con.

Almost as big a con as Training Studies in Sports Science Research. Read more

Creating a Winning Culture in High Performance Football: the Building Blocks of Brilliance.

By Wayne Goldsmith | In High Performance Sport

Regular readers of this blog will recognise the phrase “High Performance Environment” - it something that has appeared many times in SCB blog posts and discussions.

A High Performance Environment is more or less things you can buy to increase the opportunity for athletes and coaches to perform to their full potential, e.g. facilities, equipment, sports science support, supplements etc etc ad infinitum.

However, creating and sustaining the worlds best high performance environment is of little meaning if your team is not winning.

A high performance environment: i.e. having the fundamental elements of best practice in high performance sport, is merely the framework – the skeleton on which to hang a winning culture.

You need both: the high performance environment provides the opportunity for athletes, coaches, management and staff to perform to a high standard: a winning culture drives the standards and behaviours that take full advantage of the high performance environment.

A high performance environment provides the potential for success: a winning culture turns potential into victory.

Check out this great Prezi I just presented at the AFL National Coaches Conference – let me know what you think.

Click on the Full Screen Icon on the bottom right of the Presentation screen to get the full effect.

WG

Sports Psychology: Integrating Mental Skills Training in Effective Coaching.

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Performance Psychology

We all agree that developing mental skills is an essential part of being a successful athlete.

The ability to perform under pressure, the capacity to remain confident and resilient when competition conditions get tough, the skill to be able to relax and stay focused when feeling pain and fatigue in competition, concentration, visualization……coaches and athletes are unanimous that spending time developing mental skills is time well spent.

However, figuring out the best way to develop mental skills – particularly mental skills which can directly enhance the competition performance of athletes is another matter.

We all think working with a Sports Psychologist is a good idea but Sports Psychologists are like life partners……we know that having one is probably a good idea but it is next to impossible to find a good one. Read more

Can you achieve the same or better performance results with reduced training volume? More with Less Part Two.

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Hot Topics

All coaches have five things in common:

1. A love of the sport they coach;
2. The passion and drive to be the best they can be;
3. An unquenchable thirst for knowledge and learning;
4. A desire to see every athlete they coach realise their full potential;
5. An unbreakable devotion to their philosophy on training volume.

Why this obsession with volume of training? Why do coaches resist any attempt from sports scientists and others to reduce their training volume? Why do coaches resent any implication that they are training their athletes too hard?

Because, in spite of all the research and all the literature and all the advances in sports science, sports medicine and performance technologies, the ONLY thing that is proven – beyond doubt – to improve performance is consistent hard training. Read more

Sporting Parents: Supporting Sporting Kids. Follow me on Twitter!!!

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Announcements

Owing to the huge number of requests I get for posts, articles and ideas from Sporting Parents, I have started a new Twitter Account called…Yes – you guessed it….Sporting Parents.

I will be adding a Sporting Parents Tip every day and will use Tweets to educate, inform and help parents of kids who play sport.

WG

The Five Stages of Coaching: Going from Beginner to the Best Coach You can Be.

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Coaching Tips

There are coaching courses, coaching workshops, coaching programs, coaching presentations and coaching seminars.

There are mentoring programs for coaches, professional development programs for coaches, training programs for coaches and a million and one degrees, certificates and accreditation programs for coaches.

But what is coaching and what does it take to get really good at it?

What is great coaching?

And would you even recognise it even if you met it over a nice red wine and dinner? Read more

High Performance Sports Systems – The Non System System.

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Hot Topics

So Great Britain has an outstanding high performance sports system.

Australia had one a few years ago…and they hope to have it again.

The “Eastern Block” had some brilliant high performance sports systems – systems which influenced the development of high performance sport all over the world in the three decades since.

The Chinese have a huge one driven by State money and a very large population.

The French are doing some great things in theirs.

The US has a strong high performance system driven through the College system.

South Korea, Japan and India are growing theirs. Canada is re-building theirs.

The South Americans will be working hard to make their high performance systems the best in the world now that Rio has been announced as the host city of the 2016 Olympic Games.

South Africa is building one on the back of the Football World Cup.

Seems like every nation in the world has to have three things – a flag, a carbon policy and a high performance sports system.

Here’s the thing…..none of them do what they are supposed to do….none of them actually produce winners. Read more

Sports Management: The Ten Top Tips of Great Sports Management

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Presentations

Another Sportscoachingbrain Presentation: Sports Management: The Ten Top Tips of Great Sports Management.

Yours to read, enjoy and use.

Wayne Goldsmith

Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010 Checklist – Are you ready to Win?

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Hot Topics

With the 19th Commonwealth Games in Delhi less than a year away, people are starting to get excited about the opportunity for high level competition and the potential to win medals and glory for their nations, their teams, their sports and themselves.

There will be three types of athletes, coaches (and even nations) at the Commonwealth Games next year in Delhi:

1. Those who have planned and prepared poorly and have no chance of winning;
2. Those who have done some basic planning and preparation and with a little luck have some chance of winning;
3. Those who have planned and prepared professionally, thoroughly and systematically and with an uncompromising attention to detail and who will win.

The question you have to ask yourself is…..which one am I? Read more

Crawford Report on the Future of Australian Sport – What does it mean for you?

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Hot Topics

Well – the wait is over.

The Crawford Report on the Future of Australian Sport has been released.

Check it out at http://www.sportpanel.org.au/internet/sportpanel/publishing.nsf/Content/crawford-report

(While you are there, check out my own submission – which if I don’t mind saying so was about 90% right): http://www.sportpanel.org.au/internet/sportpanel/publishing.nsf/Content/Wayne+Goldsmith

So….what does it all mean? Read more

Next Page →

• 
• Search for:

• About this Blog

  Expert advice, ideas, innovation and inspiration for all sports coaches and team managers - from 'grass roots' through to elite and high performance levels. All posts are written by Wayne Goldsmith, AKA the "Sports Coaching Brain". If you have a question or comment about any post, please add it to the comments section.

• Recent Posts

  • Training Based Research Studies: the Biggest Con in sport since the Muffin.
  • Creating a Winning Culture in High Performance Football: the Building Blocks of Brilliance.
  • Sports Psychology: Integrating Mental Skills Training in Effective Coaching.
  • Can you achieve the same or better performance results with reduced training volume? More with Less Part Two.
  • Sporting Parents: Supporting Sporting Kids. Follow me on Twitter!!!

• Links

  • Coaches Info Service
  • Moregold Performance Consulting
  • Rugby League State of Origin- Article Sydney Morning Herald
  • Sporting Parents Twitter
  • Sports Coach Tips Twitter
  • Swim Coaching Brain
  • The Science of Sport
  • The Sporting Brain Twitter