coaching

The Jersey is Dead: Long live the Players

By Wayne Goldsmith |

 

The Jersey. The Strip. The Colors. The Jacket. The Jumper.

Doesn’t matter what you call it – the “jersey” is dead.

Gone are the days when a bunch of blokes could train two or three days a week, have a poor diet, skip training sessions, enjoy a few beers and then, come Saturday, suddenly get Amazing Super Powers because of the magic of putting on the “jersey”.

In those days, poorly prepared players relied on the emotion of the jersey for their performance. Putting on the old “black and green” colors – usually incorporating a “rev-up” by a former player about the “pride of the jersey” etc was enough to fire the spirit and inspire the soul.

That’s not to say that tradition is wrong or respecting and celebrating the past is a bad thing. The point is that the jersey is just that – a jersey – a piece of clothing (usually made in China) – and, as a performance enhancement tool in 2008 – it is dead.

Why do I say the jersey is dead? (more…)

By Wayne Goldsmith, ago
football

You Can’t Buy a Football Premiership.

By Wayne Goldsmith

Read the title of this article.

Now read it again.

Read it one more time.

Now, just to be sure you get it – You can’t buy a football premiership!

Here’s why.

Many, Many Football Clubs all over the world in all codes have tried to “buy” a premiership over the years. In fact one the main reasons some football codes have put a salary cap in place is to ensure one club can not “buy” a premiership by recruiting the majority of the best players available.

However, if the Football Administrators did their homework and studied their history, they would realise putting a salary cap in place to stop one team dominating a competition is unnecessary – you just simply can’t buy a football premiership. (more…)

By Wayne Goldsmith, ago

Olympic Mistakes: The Top Five Dumb Things Athletes and Coaches do heading into an Olympic Games.

 

Lots of athletes go to the Olympic Games – very, very few come back with a medal or even a personal best performance.

Why?

Lack of Talent? Maybe.

Poor Skill? Possibly.

The wrong parents, i.e. Genetics? Could be.

But the main reason most of them don’t win a medal is that they made five dumb (and avoidable) mistakes in the period between their selection for the Olympic team and their Olympic Games competition.

Olympic Mistakes: The Top Five Dumb Things Athletes and Coaches do heading into an Olympic Games. (more…)

By Wayne Goldsmith, ago

End of Season Performance Reviews – Making a difference or Making a mistake

Spring is the season of re-newal, re-birth and re-generation.

And for many Australian sports – AFL, Rugby League, Netball and Rugby – spring is also the season of the Performance Re-view.

That time when players, coaches, management and staff sit down together and try to work out what went wrong, what went right and how to do it better next time around.

How do you make certain your end of season Performance Review makes  real difference to next season and is not a waste of time, energy and money?

(more…)

By Wayne Goldsmith, ago