Coaches Corner

Enron was named America's most Innovative Company 6 years in a row. Just sayin'. ( Photo Credit )

According to Gary Lineker, parents are responsible for the lack of success of English football . Specifically, due to the parents' support for a style of play that can be successful at a younger age, but that ultimately limits senior elite success. Note, this not exclusively about 'ugly parents', about whom Linker recommends a "cultural parental revolution". This is about parents cheering for their kids and kids in their teams who play a style of play which will not be successful at a higher level. In this case, the long ball to the forwards. A very interesting article about Old School Coaches  makes a similar point. The writer focusses on the coaches, but also discusses a variety of different parenting styles which make her scared. The essence of the article is that yelling isn't a bad thing. That with 'old school coaches' it is a sign that they care about the long term development of the children they are responsible for. I'm not comple

I was reading this article on Placebos by Chris Todd  and started thinking about the evolution of placebos in High Performance sport.  I won't rehash the blog post, I will just say that in this context a placebo is something that in theory won't affect athletic performance, but somehow might, so people do it. In High Performance sport placebos have been used for, well, I'm assuming as long as it has existed. I'm sure that well meaning coaches have given athletes Vitamin tablets and told the athlete they have special properties. I remember when I was 13 and playing my first National Championships the team Manager came to me during warmup for our Bronze medal game and secretly gave me a tablet. He said I should take because it will help me, but to be careful not to show the other team. Unfortunately I don't know what placebo properties this tablet might have given me as I didn't get onto the court at any time during that game. In my subsequent career I'