great-coach

The Fourth Element – Athlete Engagement!

 

Training Load Lecture Number 1 of every coaching course in the world starts with the 3 standard variables in load management and exercise physiology:

  1. Volume – How much to do
  2. Intensity – How hard to do it
  3. Frequency – How often to do it.

But, once you have coached for a few years and actually worked with athletes, the fourth and perhaps the most important variable of all becomes apparent as the critical determinant of exercise and training:

4. Athlete engagement – How completely the athlete is engaged in doing the activity.

(more…)

By Wayne Goldsmith, ago

Sports Science MDID – the Multidisciplinary / Interdisciplinary Approach to Performance Science.

These are the most common arguments for why the MD/ID approach to sports science will not work: However, the single counter argument to refute all these is this: Performance is multidisciplinary and multi-factorial by nature. Performance is the balanced integration of physical, mental, technical, tactical, cultural, genetic and other factors. Nothing Read more…

By Wayne Goldsmith, ago

Performance Science and Why it’s time has come.

 

“In short science has its limitations. Western science is characterised by
reductionist principles; but we reach a point at which the reduction becomes
disassociated from the phenomena it is trying to explain” P.Jones 1998

It’s time.

It’s time for the Sports science industry to seriously change the way we do business.

It’s time we let go of  the outdated, simplistic single cause / single effect model of research and embraced a genuine integrated, multi disciplinary approach to solving performance problems.

It’s time for Performance Science to come of age. (more…)

By Wayne Goldsmith, ago

What’s all this Leadership by Empowerment stuff about?

Leadership groups, leadership teams, player leadership teams, team councils………

What’s going on here? Players making decisions? Players leading? Players taking ownership of their training and playing programs?

  • What’s all this empowerment stuff about?
  • What does engagement mean? Is someone getting married?
  • And what the hell is a leadership group?

I thought coaches coached, managers managed, fans cheered, doctors doctored and players played.

All of sudden every AFL, rugby, football, cricket, netball and rugby league team has embraced a player empowerment leadership model. Five years ago, most of us couldn’t even spell it.

Let’s have closer look at what’s going on. (more…)

By Wayne Goldsmith, ago