Grant explained that accumulative knowledge of the delegates is
greater than any one presenter, it is imperative that we arrive
willing to share and discuss ideas, concepts and philosophies. The
night was squarely aimed at Coaches and I hope that the next time
one of these come available one or two of our coaching team will
be able to attend one of these very informative sessions. I did
however take some scribbly notes and hope that I might be able to
transcribe them with some accuracy, here goes:
Presenter 1:
Grant Jenkins from propelperform shared with us that most
conferences, seminars and symposiums are mostly top-down, one
way, lecture based, with minimal interaction with the
presenter. Most don’t have enough interaction with other
delegates, many of whom have significant experience that could
help solve the very issues that you are dealing with. Most are
theory based, usually presented with the ‘ideal’ and not the
‘real’. With this in mind, they decided to create the Junior Sports
Symposium and have a unique gathering of individuals who have
the power, influence and drive to make change in their respective
environments.
Grant had us consider what are Hard Skills vs Soft Skills with hard
skills being the Science and the soft skills being the art. Types of
soft skills we might consider important are things like: Empathy,
Communication, building rapport, ethics and emotional intelligence
along with many more offered up by the group. Grant had us
pondering the When, Why & How.
Presenter 2:
Chris Gaviglio has coached AFL (Gold Coast Suns), rugby union (Bath
FC) and is currently the head strength & conditioning coach for the
Queensland Academy of Sport. Chris discussed what he looks for in
athletes entering the professional sporting environment. He gave a
practical approach for strength & conditioning success and also
demonstrated how you can provide a great training stimulus for
your athletes on a budget.
Chris discussed Movement Screening, who currently does this and
reports on it in our own environment. The importance of having a
base which in turn strengthens your product. An example of
screening might be:
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Single Leg Box Squats
Walking Lunge
O-Head Squat
3-Hops for distance left – right ratio
Core – Planks front 4 min side for 2min
Chris explained that it may not be done well or strong enough and
corrective measures may need to be put into place to correct the
weakness. Some send their athletes to a Physio to get assessments
others do tests like the one above and record the session for
review. We were encouraged to think about Technical Cues,
Modifications and Corrective Exercises.
Presenter 3:
Wayne Goldsmith www.wgcoaching.com stimulated our thinking
and no doubt had us questioning our methods as we went on the
journey with him for best practice in Coaching, Compliance,
Collaboration, Commitment & Compromise using phrases like:
‘Copying Kills’, ‘You never defend a Title you go in to Win’ and ‘To
Be a Winner you have to be Different’. Wayne asked us to consider
what the winning formula is if it isn’t knowledge anymore as this
can be obtained by simply taking your phone out of your pocket
and you have access to all the information you need. If knowledge
is not your advantage what is? After a pause words like,
INNOVATION, ADAPTING and LEARNING FASTER THAN YOUR
OPPOSITION were offered up. Wayne wanted us to understand
that COACHING is CHANGE and the ones most resistant to change
are those at the top.
Wayne talked about how it is not enough to coach the technical you
have to connect. He wanted us to consider how people forget what
you say but they never forget how they felt. Wayne invited us to
think hard on this: TO MOST PEOPLE WE ARE NOTHING MORE
THAN A PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTIC eg., that man with the red shirt
and glasses or that person with the long sleeves. To understand, be
understood and have an emotional connection. Wayne talked
about the layers you have to get through:
Layer 1 – What they show the public/press
Layer 2 – What they share of themselves to their team mates
Layer 3 – Who is the real person. The one who can see your vision
for them and see the same vision for themselves.
Wayne talked about the culture needs to be inside and
out. Kindness/pleasant rated high alongside words for High
Performance athletes were honest, direct, hard and tough. He
talked about Coaching as change and the difference being the
ACTION. ‘WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS DONE’,
‘THINK/SAY/ACTION’. He talked about onsite training, Competition,
Off Track Training and Self-Management. Do not be a slave to
physiology – free your mind. Do it with the intent it is
written. Working in with what had been said earlier Content vs
Intent, content being the science and intent being the art. You can
have the same content but it must be done with the intent as it was
written.
Wayne wanted us all to get over our obsession with
facilities. Quality as a human being first, marry that with a nice
facility and you will be a world beater. Too many times Wayne has
seen the excuse that if the facility was better the athlete would be
better. An example he gave was walking in a facility and seeing
rubbish all over the place, tape discarded on the floor and when
they did get a flash facility the culture came over with it.
Wayne asked us not to worship talent as this on its own is a
gamble. He would sooner support the athlete with the full
commitment, don’t try and convert those with low commitment.
He put it in a table:
Has Talent
Has talent
No commitment
(this one is a gamble)
No talent
No commitment
(usually kids)
Has commitment
(Winner)
Potential talent
Has commitment
(Winner)
Wayne talked about kids with commitment and how they have
strong confidence, Wayne believes that the formula is:
CONFIDENCE=BELIEF X EVIDENCE. Fill the bucket with evidence by
training, past performance and improvement.
Success comes in a can:
I CAN
WE CAN
YOU CAN
Kids need to be taught commitment usually between 6-10yr olds it
all comes down values, virtues and character and the parents that
foster these. Parents role is to have acceptance, unconditional love
so confidence becomes strong. Wayne had us think about what we
say to kids like THIS IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH what the kid hears is I
AM NOT GOOD ENOUGH. The job of an athlete is to do everything
to the best of their ability and the job of a coach is to find a way to
win. The job of a parent is values, virtue and time management.
Success comes with Volume/Intensity/frequency & engagement.
Success is giving more than can be reasonably expected. Most
people do not give 100%. The one giving 100% will not only be
crawling over the line but encouraging others along the way. Mostly
you get those who only do what is expected when they are being
watched and then run to the end of the line to show others how
good they are when everyone else is tired. (that’s me by the way )
. We fall in to A, B or C, A gives 100%, B gives 85% and C only gives
when someone is looking. Tools for greatness is inside of us. Train
more and out prepare in every detail.
Wayne finished by to succeed at sport we must have commitment
in life if we choose the easy way you will not succeed always choose
the hard way. The alarm goes off at 5am we can hit the snooze
button, that’s the easy way or we can get up, get ready. Always
choose the hard way. Performance = Potential x Commitment.
WHERE YOU CAN GO IS LIMITLESS!
The Junior Sport Science Symposium is a gathering of individuals
who are looking to improve the coaching, training and retention of
young athletes in organised sports.