Are you engaging all of your team?

If you coach a team it is inevitable that you will be faced with a group of people who have different preferred styles of learning. That fact presents the coach with a challenge. That challenge is how to engage all of the group by using all of the learning styles. Failing to do this could result in failing to fully engage the group, resulting in some of your team not learning what it is you intended them to learn.

The educational psychologist Dr Bernice McCarthy found that we fall into four different categories when it comes to learning. Here’s a very simple overview:

Type One: The “Why” people.

The ‘why’ group prefer imaginative learning through feeling and watching, seeking personal associations and meaning through involvement. They are the sort of people who learn by making connections and particularly like the question, “why?”.

Type Two: The “What” people.

These are the analysts amongst us. They like facts, processing information and thinking through concepts before formulating ideas and opinions. These guys like to ask the “what?” questions.

Type Three: The “How” people.

This group likes to learn by doing. They prefer common-sense learning and are not concerned by theory, they just want to try things out.  They learn by thinking and doing, by experimenting, and tinkering. They are very good at applying ideas and love the question “How?”.

Type Four: The “What if” people.

The final group is particularly interested in the consequences of learning something and what would happen if they did something or didn’t do something. They seek hidden possibilities, explore ideas, learn by trial and error and self-discovery. They are excellent at creating original adaptations and modifications. The key question for these guys is “what if?”

To be a really effective coach it is important to cover each of the learning types. The way to do this is by planning your coaching session accordingly. For each skill or drill you want to teach, prepare the session in a way that it answers the questions “Why?”, “What?”, “How?” and “What if?”. To be most effective it is important to then deliver the session in that order.

People who prefer to know why? tend to switch off until they are given a good reason for listening, so start with this style first. The next stage is to tell people the details. This is the what? phase and covers the facts, instructions and tactics. The next stage is the how? part and probably signals the start of the practical part of the session. The final part of the session should be looking at the consequences of learning the skill or drill and what possibilities it opens up.

Following this system is a great way of structuring your coaching sessions and provides a very useful framework to work from.

You can find out more about Dr McCarthy’s learning system by visiting: www.aboutlearning.com

Enjoy the game!

Stuart.

How To Perform Under Pressure

One of the real tests that all sports performers face is being able to perform in high pressure situations. It doesn’t matter at what level you play because pressure is always present in some capacity. To win a game, beat your personal best, score a goal, make a putt or achieve whatever result you are aiming for, you sometimes have to over-come intense pressure.

Pressure is really a product of our own perception and where we place our focus. Pressure can arise from both internal cues (our own thoughts, feelings and emotions) or external cues (the crowd, the scoreboard, the conditions etc.) but most importantly it can be controlled. You only have to look at the penalty shoot-out at this weeks Champions League semi-final between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich for examples of this. Some players missed badly and some scored with ease.

So how do some players overcome pressure when others crumble? Well there’s no magic formula that will cure all of our pressure situations but here are five key steps that you can take to gain control of your thinking and your actions when you have to perform under pressure:

• Make a crystal clear decision on what you want to do.

• Once decided, connect fully with what you need to do to perform it. Break it down into a series of key steps and visualise performing them perfectly.

• Block out all distractions so you can focus purely on your performance. Concentrate on each step of the process so your actions flow like you plan them to. Complete connection with your performance is the only place to be, let nothing get in the way.

• Remind yourself that you are fully capable of performing to your best ability and free your body to do what it is capable of doing

• Use verbal and visual cues to trigger positive thoughts and feelings and free yourself to perform with relaxed intensity.

Do you have any special methods for coping with pressure and performing to your best?

I’d love to hear about any examples of situations where you’ve excelled under pressure, or maybe when you’ve cracked!

If you have any thoughts, then please leave them in the comments below.

Thanks and enjoy the game!

Stuart.

The Problem with Positive Thinking

As the young cricketer left the practise nets after a difficult session, he looked dejected and close to tears. He had endured a torrid time in the nets. He had been bowled several times, struck more than once in unprotected areas of his body and when he did manage to get bat on ball it was generally mis-timed and poorly executed.

What was the cause of this? Well, this youngster had just taken a step up from junior level to senior level and he was struggling to cope with the extra pace and skill shown by his new teammates. He had shown a lot of promise at junior level but with the seniors he looked out of his depth.

“I’m just not good enough” he told his coach as he trudged off, “I may as well give up”.

That sort of thinking is commonplace in sport and is usually the trigger for coaches (especially mental training coaches!) to start working on the athlete’s “positive thinking skills”. Teaching them to pick out the positives in their performances, visualise great technique and mentally rehearse excellence. Seeing yourself in a positive light is certainly better than the other alternative but there is a big problem with positive thinking. Take the example of our young cricketer. No matter how much he used positive thinking he was still going to lack the skills he needed to play at this new level. No amount of positive visualisation and affirmations will deliver this for him, only proper, structured batting training will enable this to happen.Without the necessary batting training, positive thinking will only lead to an increase in what psychologists call Cognitive Dissonance. This is an uncomfortable feeling people get when their beliefs and perceptions do not match up with the outcome of their actions. So in essence by focussing solely on positive thinking with the young cricketer, we would probably have just added another negative emotion to his already fragile state.

The solution to the young cricketers situation (and many other sports performers) is for him to work on his technical skills. Skill development training can be supported, and even accelerated, by the use of good mental training techniques but sometimes there is no alternative to just developing your craft.

Enjoy the game,
Stuart.

If you want help with a performance problem you can contact me on 07956 615 517 or email me stuart.chambers@athleticmind.co.uk.

Conquering Fear

I was recently approached by an equestrian event rider because her performances had begun to nosedive due to what she described as a “paralysing fear”. Now many people would probably be paralysed with fear just by the thought of getting on a large, powerful horse, riding at high-speed across undulating ground and jumping fixed obstacles that are often larger than an average sized family car. But it wasn’t the fear of injury or any aspect of actually ‘doing’ her sport that was causing her fear. It was the fear of ‘failing’ that was causing her problems. The fear of not doing well, of putting in a bad performance, the fear that she just wasn’t good enough.

Fear is one of the most powerful of human emotions, regardless of what causes it. Fear has a very strong effect on your mind and your body, and it’s generally not a good thing. So how can we conquer fear and stop it from holding us back?

1. Set appropriate expectations levels
   Your first step towards conquering the fear of failure is to mentally prepare knowing that you’ll make mistakes. Once you’ve accepted this fact you will stay in control when those mistakes happen. There is no such thing as a ‘perfect performance’ so if you expect a zero-mistake performance, you actually set yourself up for failure. Why? Because the moment you make a mistake, you think you’re under-performing or ‘failing’ and your confidence can be shattered. 
2. Focus on your strengths
   Forget the philosophy that says you have to identify your weaknesses to improve your performance. By doing that you are mentally reinforcing the things that cause you to lose confidence. Start focusing on what you do well and build your confidence instead because rock solid confidence kills the fear of failure. 
3. Put your performance into perspective
   Ask yourself three questions: What’s the absolute worst thing that could happen during your next performance? What’s the absolute best thing that could happen? What’s the most likely thing to happen? By exploring your performance from these perspectives, things don’t seem to be as bad as you first imagined they might be. That feeling frees you to perform in a more relaxed and positive mindset.

Enjoy the game!
Stuart.

What Do You Believe You Can Achieve?

Nearly sixty years on, this event remains one of the most iconic events in sport. This is the famous race in May 1954 at Oxford University’s Iffley Road track that saw Roger Bannister become the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.

Roger Bannister set his sights on breaking the four-minute mile barrier two years earlier after just missing out on the medal places at the 1952 Olympics. This failure spurred Bannister on and he became determined to be the first to break the record. But it wasn’t for another year that he actually believed it was possible to do. That realisation, and consequent belief, occurred when Bannister broke the British record in May 1953 achieving a time of 4:03.6. Bannister said after the event:

“This race made me realize that the four-minute mile was not out of  reach”

And so it transpired that 12 months later in May 1954 Roger Bannister, with help from his pace-makers Chris Brasher and Chris Chattaway, broke the four-minute barrier in a time of 3:59.4.

There are a lot of myths and stories told about the magical four-minute-mile barrier and many of those myths were debunked by Bannister himself in his memoirs “The Four Minute Mile” (1955) but what Bannister does say about his success is the importance of beliefs, determination and the will to succeed. What was incredible about Bannister’s feat was that in 1952 when he set his sights on breaking the four-minute barrier, Bannister’s training regimen was just three half-hour sessions per week! He did increase that after his 1952 Olympic failure but it was still very light compared to his peers.  Bannister was a natural athlete with great physical and mental abilities and provides a great example of what individuals can achieve when they truly believe in themselves.

Watch the video below and listen to Bannister’s comments on what was going through his mind during the race. It’s an incredible insight into the mind of an elite athlete. Once you’ve watched the video ask yourself this: “What do you believe you can achieve?”

Roger Bannister – The First Four Minute Mile – VIDEO

Enjoy the game!
Stuart

The Communication Challenge

I was watching a junior hockey match recently from a position where I was able to hear one of the coaches giving his pre-match instructions. As I listened to the coach talk I began to notice the reaction of his young players. Some were engaged, some looked a little confused and some looked completely detached.

The players reactions were easy to spot and they hadn’t escaped the coach’s attention. His response was to repeat his instructions only more loudly, more directly and more bluntly, especially to the players who looked confused and detached.

This was an important game between two rival schools and the bragging rights that would go to the victors was a highly valued prize. Teamwork was going to be a critical factor in the outcome of the match but by giving the instructions in the way he did, the coach had compromised team cohesion and promoted dysfunction instead. His team strategy was good but he had failed the communication challenge. He had failed to get his strategy understood, remembered and ultimately applied on the pitch.

His team lost the match and the bragging rights.

So what do you need to consider when communicating your thoughts to others?

There are 6 key factors to consider:

What do I want to say?
When we think, we create ideas, images and thoughts in great detail and in many different contexts. Our thoughts form a constantly changing flow of images, emotions, dialogue and sensations that our verbal skills could never keep up with. It is essential therefore that we focus on and clarify exactly what it is we want to say before we even consider uttering a single word.

What am I actually going to say?
Our brains work faster than our mouths and it often happens that our thoughts move on before we have time too finish explaining them. This causes incomplete communication. We can also find it difficult to express our thoughts in words because our verbal skills are poor in comparison to our imagination and thinking skills. This dilutes our message and makes it more difficult for others to understand what we want.

What do others hear?
Whenever we communicate with others you can be certain that their brain will be unconsciously filtering what you say and how you say it. That filtering mechanism is extremely useful to them because it helps them to make sense of the communication but as the communicator you must be aware that their state of mind, experience and beliefs will dictate what they actually ‘hear’.

What they are going to understand?
What makes sense to you might not make sense to someone else. We all have our own individual way of interpreting words and creating thoughts and images. Even simple words like ‘teamwork’ and ‘effort’ can mean completely different things to different people. It is all about personal perception.

What they are going to remember?
The brain only has a limited attention span and we all have different capacities to remember things. As the communicator you cannot do anything about their ability to remember things but you can help by keeping what you say short, concise and interesting!

What will they apply?
What someone does with the information you’ve just communicated to them is largely out of your control. If you’ve considered the previous points above then you’ve significantly increased the chances of the final outcome being close to your initial intentions. It’s always worth doing a sense-check at this point by simply asking questions like “What do you think about this?” or “What is it I want you to do?” The answers you get will give you a great insight into how effective your communication has been and a good way to avoid mishaps.

Enjoy the game!
Stuart.

Are You Up For It?

Every week it is fascinating to read and listen to pre-match forecasts and predictions and compare them to the actual results and the post-match reports. What’s really interesting is how often expectations do not match reality. Team’s expected to play well, dominate and win, end up losing to a ‘lesser’ team.

A common explanation given for this type of result is that the winning team “wanted it more”, they were more “up for it”. This special ingredient can deliver great results but how do you get it?

Team coaches and managers use many methods to get their players in the right frame of mind and the right level of arousal for a game. One of the most commonly used techniques is the team-talk. But like any verbal communication, it can be either effective or ineffective. Perhaps the most important element of a team-talk is it’s ability to engage all the individuals in the team.

Within any group there will be a variety of personality types most of whom will have their own individual methods of preparing for a performance. Some will silently visualise, some will listen to powerful music and others will use relaxation exercises to calm pre-game anxiety.

Given the mix of personality types, emotional states and pre-match routines present within any team, it is not surprising that team-talks sometimes fail to have the desired effect they were intended to have.

When deciding to use a team-talk, coaches and managers should include a variety of elements:

Focusing the players on their part of the game plan.

Positive statements

Positive stories

Voice inflections

Personal challenges

Reasoning

Silence

There may well be other elements that should also be included that are relevant for the team and individuals within it. Those elements should be known by the coaching team because of their
knowledge of what makes their team tick.

Before you take the field ask yourself “do I want this and am I up for it?”

Enjoy the game!
Stuart.