sports-skills

Mental Toughness: What is It and How to Coach It

Start talking about mental toughness in sport and you’ll soon find out that everyone’s got an opinion about it. People will start using words like “hard” and “tough” and “mean” and phrases like “never quits” etc to describe their views about mental toughness. But what is mental toughness? Can it be measured? Can it coached? And if mental toughness can be coached, how can it be coached? This post and podcast discuss mental toughness in sport and suggests a new way of looking at measuring and coaching mental toughness.

By Wayne Goldsmith, ago

Talent Identification and Development: So Much More Than Physical Ability

There’s a great phrase that goes”real talent is harder to hide than it is to find”. Athletes with real physical talent stand out – their physical talent is obvious and it will be demonstrated at training and in competition in many ways. But to realise your full potential as an athlete, it’s about so much more than muscle. It’s about all the mental, emotional and character qualities like passion, commitment, dedication, determination, drive, desire and toughness. This podcast and post discusses the concept of talent identification in sport and challenges coaches to look for more than obvious signs of talent – to look past the physical aspects of talent and to adopt a more holistic approach to developing talented athletes: one that focuses on the less tangible areas and harder to measure aspects of performance.

By Wayne Goldsmith, ago

Sports Psycho-physiology: The Way Forward in Successful Coaching and Sports Performance.

There is nothing new about integrating the Mind and the Body to realise successful sports performance. However, what is new is integrating Mind and Body in all aspects of sports coaching and athletic performance every day. This article discusses Sports Psycho – Physiology and challenges athletes, coaches, sports scientists and sporting organisations to reassess how they go about applying the integrated Mind-Body concept in their daily athlete training environment.

By Wayne Goldsmith, ago

How to Develop World Class Coaches

OK. Let’s talk about how to develop world class coaches.

Grab a piece of paper. On one side of the paper, write down the characteristics of a great coach.

Does your list include any or all of the following:

  • Outstanding communicator
  • Visionary
  • Leader
  • Innovator
  • Negotiator
  • Conflict resolver
  • Media manager
  • Public relations genius
  • Team developer
  • People manager
  • Technical / tactical / strategic skills of the highest order
  • Philosopher
  • Politician
  • Futurist

OK – now turn the page over and write down a list of all the coach education programs which cover the above?

Is this side of the paper blank? Yes? Then we can begin. (more…)

By Wayne Goldsmith, ago

News Flash: Olympic Cycle Changed to Six Years.

News Flash, Lausanne, Switzerland. Here is the latest news.

The IOC today announced that effective immediately there will be two Olympic Cycles.

The first one, known from this date forward as the “Pretenders Cycle” will run on the traditional four year Olympic cycle.

The second cycle, announced today as the “Contenders Cycle”, is a six year cycle. It is expected that the majority of Olympic medal winners will be using the new six year cycle.

Our Olympic reporter Wayne Goldsmith has more….. (more…)

By Wayne Goldsmith, ago