Getting Better at Practice: decision-making

Playing sports at any level requires making decisions. Sometimes they are tactical decisions such as when and where to pass the ball. Sometimes they are training decisions such as which technique to prioritise or how much weight to lift. Players need to be allowed to make decisions in order to develop and succeed. The sooner…

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Coaching the coaching continuum

I had the pleasure of coaching sports coaches at the Heinrich-Heine Gymnasium in Kaiserslautern, Germany this weekend. The focus was on the coaching continuum. Many of us rely on just a few methods of coaching, according to our personal bias or habit but there are many ways that range from Direct, controlling to free play.…

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Four takeaways from GAIN 2019

GAIN 2019

‘Make GAIN 2019 a personal audit’  were the opening remarks from Vern Gambetta at the GAIN conference in Houston last week.  He set out a vision for the conference that I took to heart. What are you currently doing? What do you want/need to do? Gap analysis: what is necessary to close the gap? I…

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Making Sport Better with Wayne Goldsmith

Coaching course devon

Coaching the Art and the Heart Yesterday we hosted the Making Sport Better workshop with Wayne Goldsmith in Willand. He gave two great presentations on coaching today’s generation of athletes, plus answered many questions at the end. Here is a brief summary. “Coaches are the masters of change”. Nobody changes by being yelled at or…

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Doctrines of the Great Educators

doctrines of the great educators

Coaching is teaching. It is just applied in a different context. Whilst we can get caught up in the Xs and Os, or the latest buzzwords- “constraints led coaching!”, if we look back, we can learn from those that preceded us and find out what truly stands the test of time. In the book “Doctrines…

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The Quest for Ultra Performance

ultra performance

“Each man delights in the work that suits him best”

odysseusHomer, The Odyssey

Odysseus had his 10 year journey home to Ithaca, Jason his search for the Golden Fleece, Percival his Grail Quest and Frodo had to destroy the One Ring.

All these Heroes had to:

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IFAC Reflections Part 3

leg strengthening

Finding the failure point in athletes My final thoughts on IFAC, reviewing Jerome Simian’s leg strengthening exercises and progressions. “If the structure is weak, it won’t allow the nervous system to show what it can do.” Regular readers and our athletes will know about Structural Integrity, Simian uses a different phrase, but the meaning is…

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IFAC Reflections Part 2

Jerome Simian workshop

A review of Jerome Simian’s workshops on physical preparation for sport. I had to choose between different “strands” of coaching topics at the IFAC conference in Loughborough. A difficult choice, not wanting to miss out on some excellent speakers. I chose to attend Simian’s because of a quote I heard on the HMMR podcast: “I…

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IFAC reflections Part 1

IFAC athletics conference

A review of the middle day of the IFAC conference in Loughborough. I spent the first Saturday of 2019 at the EAAC event held at Loughborough University. Finding good conferences in the UK is hard, so I wanted to make the most of this opportunity. I shall give an overview of what I learnt, plus…

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