Positive attitude

[James Park]

I attended an interesting presentation this morning.
It was given by Stan Alves, past Captain of the Melbourne Football Team, and past Coach of St Kilda Football Team. A very good and interesting speaker.
His key messages:
- A positive approach is vital. A coach (and the athlete) should not think negatively, even if all around you are negative.
- Always believe you have something to learn and can do better.
- Don't place artificial limitations on your performance, accept that you may just be able to do better than you imagine.
- Understand what is important to you or your athletes.

[Marcus]

I find that my performance is tied to my confidence levels which is oten tied to whether I am positive or negative towards my shooting.
Going into the Nats I had a very negative attitude regarding my shooting after some setbacks in the weeks leading up to it. This showed in my result, since then I have made changes and my attitude is very positive and I am now shooting better.

If I shot well all the time this would not be an issue. ;)

[clever_guy]

Sounds kind of bland, typical team sport rah-rah "lets all think positive, and win one for the gipper" sort of thing..

;)

-CG

[James Park]

Sounds kind of bland, typical team sport rah-rah "lets all think positive, and win one for the gipper" sort of thing..

;)

-CG
Actually it was quite good. (I am well aware of the other sort that can indeed be as cg notes).

[clever_guy]

I went to one from the then coach of the Calgary Flames (NHL) a few years ago that was pretty...motivating, as well as informative, I guess you could say...it was focused on managing team dynamics.

Personally I think coaching is more an art than a "science", there are as many flavours of coaches, methodologies, and personalities as there are coaches. I think the trick is to inspire athetes while at the same time providing a well managed realistic goal-oriented plan. Not every athlete responds well to every coach, chalk it up to differing outlooks, personalities, etc. - but sometimes it just doesn't gel - in that case the best you can do is just be positive with them.

-CG

[Marcus]

I agree with you CG there (but not that Age thing) some people are 'uncoachable' in my book, which doesn't mean that no one can coach the,, just means I can not. This is usually a personality thing. Either an unwillingness to do as asked or inability to comprehend what is being asked of them.

[clever_guy]

"some people are 'uncoachable' in my book, which doesn't mean that no one can coach the,, just means I can not. This is usually a personality thing. Either an unwillingness to do as asked or inability to comprehend what is being asked of them."

There are also those high-level coaches that are real butt-heads (for lack of another word) who still manage to run successful programs, in spite of how the athletes feel about them. They can manage to coerce, brow-beat, and prod an athlete (or team) into better performance. Sometimes this is due more to what the athlete is putting into the their efforts and their own self-motivation rather than what the coach contributes. Mind you the interaction between coaches and athletes can vary greatly in different sports, and levels within sports. For instance in some sports, some "head coaches" aren't very interested or particularly involved in any particular athletes development (perhaps the "star" performance at best), they are interested in the team performance and are in more of a "political" position of managing team performance and resources. Athletes on the team will have personal coaches or coaches for certain skill sets, and are expected to train on a professional level regardless of whether they like or dislike the coaching.

This is one reason why I take any "advice" or "sporting philosophy" from a head coach of a professional sporting team with a grain of salt. What they are likely to be feeding you is a very idealized and simplistic version of what the actual "group dynamic" in their experience/organization, and usually it is highly politicized to either highlight themselves (or their methodologies) or their team. If you had the realistic perspectives of a number of the other "insiders" that are involved in the team, you may find a completely different or contradictory picture...

But hey, rah-rah team ;) :lol: :lol:

-CG

[clever_guy]

I still think one of the better books for "coaching" is Leadership Is An Art by Max DuPree

-CG