Coaches Corner

One of the best coach development activities I've ever attended was a seminar/talk with Bill Sweetenham. The session was very straight forward. He wasn't selling anything and he wasn't trying to convince anyone he was right. I'm pretty sure he was so confident he was right he simply didn't care if anyone believed him! But at the same time, he is a coach who was largely self educated, and coached multiple Olympic Champions and World Record holders. So he had every right to think that.

One of the many many notes I took was his philosophy on competitions:
Experience is nothing if it is not Winning Experience. BUT the winning HAS to come from 'equal' opponents. Therefore there should be a range of competitions:3 'Equal' competitions, where you make corrections2 'Below' competitions, where you make mistakes and take risks (and still win)1 'Above' competitions', where you praise them regardless of the outcome While this philosophy is p…

As a coach, do you find it easy to be at your best every moment of training?

Do you find it easy to be focussed on doing everything perfectly at every training?

Is it easy for you to completely change something that you feel comfortable doing, from one moment to another?

When you do change things, do you sometimes revert back to how you used to do it?

Do you ever lose concentration for a while during training?

Do you ever make bad decisions during competition?

Remember, coaches are people and athletes are people too. If you find it hard, the athletes probably do as well.

(Photo Credit)