Four Easy Steps to a Sensible Selection Process
http://www.sirc.ca/
======================
This is an excerpt from a larger document dealing with selection for the Canadian Teams for Olympics, Commonwealth Games, World Cups,World Champs etc
Preparing selection criteria is not an easy task, and therefore should be an ongoing process within any sports organization. We would like to suggest a four ﴾4﴿ step process to help you develop a fair selection policy. The four steps are: Background and Research; Development; Validation; Communication and Implementation. For each step, we propose a list of factors that should absolutely be kept in mind ﴾The Musts﴿ as well as a list of practical ideas to guide you through the process ﴾Best Practices﴿. We believe that following these steps will reduce the risks of disputes arising from the selection process. Remember, these are suggestions, it is up to you to decide whether to use any or all of them.
Step 1 – Background and Research
This step allows you to canvass the performance criteria and other conditions that will be applied to your athletes by other organizations. Other conditions may include restrictions that are not linked to performance, from age categories to time limits for registering the athletes. Time is a major component of the selection process. It is therefore crucial to keep certain deadlines in mind in order to achieve your objectives.
THE MUSTS
Identify the organizations that have authority in admitting an athlete to the competition in question ﴾e.g. the international federation, the competition organizing committee, an international or national Multisport organization, etc.﴿ and obtain the document﴾s﴿ outlining the conditions for admission.
Identify the time limits imposed by these organizations. For example, these can be the deadline for registering with the event’s organizing committee; the qualification deadlines of your international federation in accordance with established criteria; and in some cases, internal and external appeal deadlines for team members.
Identify the conditions that are unrelated to performance that define what group of athletes will be admissible according to these organizations ﴾e.g. citizenship status, age groups, weight categories, membership status, etc.﴿ These conditions may come with a time limit as well. For example, the athlete must be born after such date, or be a registered member in due form on such date.
Identify the minimum performance criteria that will be imposed on all athletes in order for them to be eligible to participate in the event. These should become the minimum at which you base your own criteria.
BEST PRACTICES
Based on the time limits imposed for registering your athletes, define precisely the “qualifying period”, or the timeframe during which athletes will be evaluated.
This period should end early enough before the registration deadline to allow appeals to be conducted in a fair manner. It should also give athletes sufficient time to prepare properly and, if required, travel to the competition.
Step 2 – Development
This step is the responsibility of the experts, the coaches and high performance staff, within your organization. They are in the best position to determine WHEN and HOW your athletes should be evaluated in order to decide WHO should be selected. The technical knowledge and expertise they have must now find its way onto paper in a clear and concise manner.
THE MUSTS
Take into consideration at all times the selection criteria and conditions that are imposed on your athletes by other organizations such as determined in Step 1.
Ensure that the team responsible for preparing the selection criteria has the recognized authority for this task under the regulations of your organization.
Ensure that the selection policy is respectful of other applicable agreements or policies that your organization may have adopted, such as its appeal policy, athletes’ agreements, etc.
BEST PRACTICES
a﴿ Process
Define the objectives you wish to attain through your selection criteria, such as the pursuit of excellence, team cohesiveness or athlete development.
Along with a good representation of coaches, administrators and officials, invite athletes targeted by the pending selection criteria to provide you with their input, as applicable.
Investigate previous errors and sticking points in team selection criteria to ensure they are not repeated; analyze past experiences of your organization to understand which methods work well and which to avoid; consult the lessons learned from team selection cases in the SDRCC Jurisprudence database.
b﴿ Technical Content
To the extent possible, try to establish selection criteria that is objective to prevent potential perception of unfairness ﴾e.g.: results in certain competitions or events, ranking, scores, statistics and other performance measurements commonly used in your sport﴿.
If it is unrealistic to base yourselves on objective criteria only, clearly determine the subjective factors that will be considered when the selection is made, such as skills or the athletes’ contribution to the team, and propose an evaluation grid to allow for as detailed an analysis as possible of the established criteria.
Of greatest importance is that the final choice not be random, negligent, arbitrary, or made out of favouritism.
When looking at potential qualifying events during the qualifying period, you may consider multiple events or a single event. Either way, you should be able to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of opting for qualification through multiple events or for a single qualifying event.
Notable Observation About…
Single Qualifying Event:
They are usually simple to conduct, however one bad day for your best athlete may mean that he or she is not going to the Games;
Strong candidates may be injured at the time of the single qualifying event thereby excluding them from the Games, even though they may recover on time for the Games;
Choosing a qualifying event too close to the Games will require your best athletes to peak twice in a short period of time;
To hold your event too early before the Games carries the risk of athletes’ relative performances changing by the time the Games come along.
Multiple Qualifying Events:
They are likely to help you select athletes who are consistent in their performance over a certain period of time, but it also make the entire process a lot more complicated;
It may be more costly for athletes when they have to fund their own participation in the various qualifying events;
Admissibility criteria to those competitions should be similar to those of the Games so that you do not exclude potential athletes from qualifying; may require weighing the results of the various competitions to reflect differences in field size and quality, or to give more value to events held towards the end of the qualifying period.
Use foresight, and establish steps to follow should exceptional circumstances present themselves ﴾e.g.: injury outside of competition, injury during a qualifying event, faulty equipment, unexpected illness, disqualification of another athlete due to a doping infraction, etc.﴿.
If your criteria may lead to athletes tying determine in advance on the basis of what criterion or criteria such a tie would be broken; make sure that this criterion is precise enough that it cannot lead to another tie.
c﴿ Administrative Content
Decide who will be responsible for applying the criteria. We suggest that it would be prudent to assign more than one person to this task, for example a selection committee, in this way you may prevent possible conflicts of interest and other issues related to unfairness.
Establish in advance the parameters and procedures that will be followed should amendments to the selection criteria become necessary after the criteria have been adopted. A sound communication plan for this will be in order as is highlighted in the fourth step.
Amendments are common, but they should take certain factors into account, such as possible disruption of athletes’ preparation, the impact these changes have on the current status of athletes in the selection process, etc. The amendments should take into consideration the time that has passed since the adoption of the selection criteria and the time remaining to the qualification period. Ensure that your athletes have a fair chance to reach their objectives and that your amendments do not create any injustices.
Determine how and when athletes will be advised of the candidates selected. Again, keep in mind that the date chosen must provide athletes time to appeal, if they so choose and should therefore include an appeal deadline, as appropriate.
Plan an appeal process specific to this criteria or refer to your general appeal policy, if applicable.
Step 3 – Validation
Once a draft policy is complete, it is essential to evaluate it. We really can learn from past experience. Do not hesitate to use your human and statistical resources to validate or change your draft selection criteria.
BEST PRACTICES
Test your criteria against performance results from previous years and look at what would have happened had this selection policy been in place. Would it have yielded the best team possible?
Test your criteria by asking a neutral but experienced person in the domain to evaluate them. This person can be a former athlete, coach or technical director in your sport. He or she could also have experience in a different sport, such as one that uses similar competition formats or scoring/ranking schemes. What is important is that the individual have no vested interest in your selection criteria in order to review the criteria objectively and constructively.
Once the selection criteria have been drafted, communicate them to your athletes, and allow them to comment on what you are preparing to adopt; after all, they will be the ones who will have to understand what is expected of them in order to make the team. If your criteria and process are clearly laid out and understandable from an athlete’s perspective, you will reduce the risks of disputes later on.
Compile the comments received and, if you judge it appropriate given the circumstances, provide a formal response ﴾in writing or in person﴿ to the individuals whose suggestions were not retained. Let these individuals know of the attention given to their recommendations, and explain why they were not included.
Step 4 – Communication and Implementation
This step is one of the most important in your process. There is no value to having the perfect selection policy if your athletes don’t know about it and therefore cannot apply it correctly. It is also the step from which many disputes emerge.
Communicating your criteria to athletes is one of the keys to your success. Spare no effort!
THE MUSTS
Translate your documents to ensure that they are in both official languages ﴾English and French﴿. Be wary of cheap translators. They may save you a few dollars at that stage, but a badly translated selection policy increases the risks of the criteria being misunderstood, misapplied, or simply yielding different results than intended.
Prepare an effective communication plan to reach all of the athletes affected by your selection criteria; a plan that goes beyond simply posting it on your website. Go down your hierarchy one step below the level that you think is targeted by the policy. You never know when an athlete will surprise you!
Clearly advise your athletes of any changes made to the initial criteria by phone, in person, via emails, etc… Obtain confirmation that they have received your advice and understand its content. Post changes clearly on your website.
Apply the selection criteria as intended and as communicated.
BEST PRACTICES
Use all methods of communication judged pertinent: website postings, mailings, faxes, emails, meetings during training camp, annual general meeting or other meetings, telephone calls; Involve your athlete representative and coaches in the communication process; they can help you find the best channels to transmit information to targeted athletes.
Prepare a guide or quick reference document containing highlights of the policy ﴾e.g.: mandatory training camps and qualifying competitions﴿.
Have all athletes potentially affected by this selection policy sign a document confirming that they have read, understood, and agreed with the criteria and the process. This will be an incentive for athletes to actually read the policy!
Allow them to contact a designated resource person ﴾like a coach or a high performance director﴿ to ask questions and clarifications if they are unsure of what the criteria mean. Be sure to keep a record of any interpretation and ensure consistency in the answers provided. If one element of your policy
appears to generate many questions, do not hesitate to publish an addendum to clarify its meaning.
Once your team has been announced according to the established rules, athletes who were not selected may want to learn the reasons for this without having to file a formal appeal. You may provide them with the opportunity to understand the selection process that took place and how best to succeed the next time. Do not hesitate to plan a meeting or discussion with these athletes and let them know that, while they were not selected, they are important to your organization and were considered.
Conclusions
In short, the responsibility of the NSO is to establish a selection process that is as simple and precise as possible and to ensure that its athletes ﴾and other team members﴿ are evaluated in a uniform and fair manner, to avoid any possible conflicts of interest. Widely communicate the criteria and any changes in as many ways as possible; this will prevent misunderstandings, or worse, disputes that will have to be resolved by the SDRCC.
Writing and publishing a well thought out selection policy long in advance of the start of the selection process will inspire trust and confidence among the athletes. Never underestimate the power of consultation and collaboration in order to get buy in.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Friday, March 7, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
“TOP TEN” Guiding Principles for Mental Training
USOC Sport Psychology’s “TOP TEN” Guiding Principles for Mental Training
By Sean McCann, Ph.D. USOC Sport Psychologist
From Olympic Coach Fall 2007. Vol 19 No. 3
---------------------------------------------
1. Mental training can’t replace physical training and talent.
We haven’t seen any Olympic Athlete who succeeded without doing the physical and technical work, even though we have worked with some of the most mentally talented athletes in the world. The reality is that even an exceptionally talented athlete who has not prepared well physically loses confidence and is vulnerable in competition. The best and easiest confidence is that which comes from the knowledge that you are as prepared, or more prepared, than your competitors, and that you are physically capable of a winning performance.
2. Physical training and physical ability isn’t enough to succeed consistently.
On the other hand, we have worked with a number of athletes whose coaches called them “the most talented athlete on the team,” yet these athletes never achieved international success. These physically gifted athletes were not able to manage the mental demands of the sport. Some athletes can’t handle the focus and discipline of training, where others can’t handle the pressure and stress of competition. If you are lacking in either of these areas, you may succeed at times, but you will not succeed consistently.
3. A strong mind may not win you an Olympic medal, but a weak mind will lose you one.
It is very difficult to predict that a mentally strong athlete will win an Olympic medal, due to all the factors that play into winning a medal. There are so many variables—training, health, finances, coaching to name a few—to properly account for, that success for any athlete is never certain. On the other hand, one of the easiest predictions to make is who will fail under Olympic pressure. Athletes with an obviously weak mental game virtually never win at the biggest competitions.
4. Coaches frequently don’t know what their athletes are thinking.
While all great coaches pay close attention to behavior of their athletes on the field of play, very few coaches have a similarly detailed knowledge of what their athletes are thinking or should be thinking. Few coaches know enough about the specific mental “demons” all athletes have, so they are often unable to intervene when they need to at competition. We have come to the conclusion that like politics or religion, it is an area many coaches are afraid to ask about. While some coaches know that “psychological factors” were the cause of an athlete failing in competition, many of these coaches are not aware of the athlete’s mental state before they compete.
5. Thoughts impact behavior. Consistency of thinking = consistency of behavior.
It is a simple but powerful idea that all sport behavior starts with a thought. While much of coaching focuses on making sport behavior more consistent and controllable, much less of coaching focuses on making thinking more consistent and controllable. Because of this, many coaches are surprised by not only the difference between their athletes’ practice behavior and competition behavior but that the reason for that difference is due to how their athletes are thinking. One goal of sport psychology is to understand and control the thinking process, therefore understanding and controlling behavior.
6. Coaches often have a different view of changing technical mistakes vs. mental mistakes.
As sport psychologists, we are optimistic about the ability to work on mental mistakes. Thus we are often surprised when coaches are willing to write off an athlete as a “choker” when they repeat mental mistakes in competition. These are often the same coaches who will work literally for years with an athlete on a repeated technical mistake. To a coach who says, “I don’t think they’ll ever do it”, we ask, “How many times have you specifically worked on changing the mental mistakes? What drills have you tried? How do you give the athlete feedback on his mental mistake? Does the athlete know exactly how she should think? Have you had this discussion?”
7. Coaches must be involved in the mental training process.
Historically, in sport psychology, we have heard coaches say after a strong period of training before the season “Well, now it is all mental. Now it is up to the sport psychologist!” While it is nice to feel important to a team’s success, we have learned from hard experience that it is all wrong for coaches to “outsource” mental training and sport psychology to a sport psychology consultant. We have learned that many elite coaches feel out of their comfort zone when dealing with in mental training issues, and fear asking probing questions about how an athlete thinks and feels. We have also learned to push coaches to go past their fears and get used to coaching the mental as well as the physical athlete. If coaches don’t become the prime provider of sport psychology for their teams, all kinds of teaching opportunities and chances for excellence will be missed. At worst, coaches who are unaware of their athletes’ mental skill building will coach in ways that oppose or undermine the mental skills acquired. The bottom line is that coaches must be involved in mental training for it to be successful.
8. Sometimes it is ok to force athletes to take the time do mental training.
The USOC’s Sport Psychology Department’s philosophy on this topic has evolved over the past ten years. In the past, we were unwilling to say that all teams should do some form of mental training. We had been fairly passive, waiting for coaches to approach us with requests for service. Unfortunately, many of those requests came from coaches who had seen their athlete melt down in the biggest competition of their life. Obviously, it is too late at that point!
Surprisingly, many coaches seem willing to accept an athlete’s reassurance, “My mental game is just fine.” Why, when you wouldn’t ask the athlete to determine if his technique is “just fine”, do you let the athlete avoid working on their mental game for years until a crisis forces them to admit they need work? At the USOC, we are now quite comfortable pushing athletes into doing the mental training work, even if they don’t always see the value at first.
9. Like any other skill, mental skills need to be measured in order to maximize performance of those skills.
“What gets measured, gets done.” This old expression from business writer Peter Lynch is useful for coaching as well. Just as ski coaches time training runs, or basketball coaches calculate free throw shooting percentages, application of mental skills can be measured. Moreover, they MUST be measured if they are to change. Once you think of mental skills as behaviors to be measured, you can begin to use your own coaching creativity to teach, modify, and increase the use of, mental skills.
10. Coaches need to think about their own mental skills
Most coaches can readily see that the same skills they are teaching their athletes are also useful for their own work in coaching. With the amount of pressure coaches face, for example, the ability to manage emotions, control arousal, game plan, and simulate pressure are all useful for coaches.
This is an excerpt from the Coaches Guide –Mental Training Manual, USOC Sport Psychology staff. This manual is available from the USOC for $24.95, call 719.866.4517 for more information.
By Sean McCann, Ph.D. USOC Sport Psychologist
From Olympic Coach Fall 2007. Vol 19 No. 3
---------------------------------------------
1. Mental training can’t replace physical training and talent.
We haven’t seen any Olympic Athlete who succeeded without doing the physical and technical work, even though we have worked with some of the most mentally talented athletes in the world. The reality is that even an exceptionally talented athlete who has not prepared well physically loses confidence and is vulnerable in competition. The best and easiest confidence is that which comes from the knowledge that you are as prepared, or more prepared, than your competitors, and that you are physically capable of a winning performance.
2. Physical training and physical ability isn’t enough to succeed consistently.
On the other hand, we have worked with a number of athletes whose coaches called them “the most talented athlete on the team,” yet these athletes never achieved international success. These physically gifted athletes were not able to manage the mental demands of the sport. Some athletes can’t handle the focus and discipline of training, where others can’t handle the pressure and stress of competition. If you are lacking in either of these areas, you may succeed at times, but you will not succeed consistently.
3. A strong mind may not win you an Olympic medal, but a weak mind will lose you one.
It is very difficult to predict that a mentally strong athlete will win an Olympic medal, due to all the factors that play into winning a medal. There are so many variables—training, health, finances, coaching to name a few—to properly account for, that success for any athlete is never certain. On the other hand, one of the easiest predictions to make is who will fail under Olympic pressure. Athletes with an obviously weak mental game virtually never win at the biggest competitions.
4. Coaches frequently don’t know what their athletes are thinking.
While all great coaches pay close attention to behavior of their athletes on the field of play, very few coaches have a similarly detailed knowledge of what their athletes are thinking or should be thinking. Few coaches know enough about the specific mental “demons” all athletes have, so they are often unable to intervene when they need to at competition. We have come to the conclusion that like politics or religion, it is an area many coaches are afraid to ask about. While some coaches know that “psychological factors” were the cause of an athlete failing in competition, many of these coaches are not aware of the athlete’s mental state before they compete.
5. Thoughts impact behavior. Consistency of thinking = consistency of behavior.
It is a simple but powerful idea that all sport behavior starts with a thought. While much of coaching focuses on making sport behavior more consistent and controllable, much less of coaching focuses on making thinking more consistent and controllable. Because of this, many coaches are surprised by not only the difference between their athletes’ practice behavior and competition behavior but that the reason for that difference is due to how their athletes are thinking. One goal of sport psychology is to understand and control the thinking process, therefore understanding and controlling behavior.
6. Coaches often have a different view of changing technical mistakes vs. mental mistakes.
As sport psychologists, we are optimistic about the ability to work on mental mistakes. Thus we are often surprised when coaches are willing to write off an athlete as a “choker” when they repeat mental mistakes in competition. These are often the same coaches who will work literally for years with an athlete on a repeated technical mistake. To a coach who says, “I don’t think they’ll ever do it”, we ask, “How many times have you specifically worked on changing the mental mistakes? What drills have you tried? How do you give the athlete feedback on his mental mistake? Does the athlete know exactly how she should think? Have you had this discussion?”
7. Coaches must be involved in the mental training process.
Historically, in sport psychology, we have heard coaches say after a strong period of training before the season “Well, now it is all mental. Now it is up to the sport psychologist!” While it is nice to feel important to a team’s success, we have learned from hard experience that it is all wrong for coaches to “outsource” mental training and sport psychology to a sport psychology consultant. We have learned that many elite coaches feel out of their comfort zone when dealing with in mental training issues, and fear asking probing questions about how an athlete thinks and feels. We have also learned to push coaches to go past their fears and get used to coaching the mental as well as the physical athlete. If coaches don’t become the prime provider of sport psychology for their teams, all kinds of teaching opportunities and chances for excellence will be missed. At worst, coaches who are unaware of their athletes’ mental skill building will coach in ways that oppose or undermine the mental skills acquired. The bottom line is that coaches must be involved in mental training for it to be successful.
8. Sometimes it is ok to force athletes to take the time do mental training.
The USOC’s Sport Psychology Department’s philosophy on this topic has evolved over the past ten years. In the past, we were unwilling to say that all teams should do some form of mental training. We had been fairly passive, waiting for coaches to approach us with requests for service. Unfortunately, many of those requests came from coaches who had seen their athlete melt down in the biggest competition of their life. Obviously, it is too late at that point!
Surprisingly, many coaches seem willing to accept an athlete’s reassurance, “My mental game is just fine.” Why, when you wouldn’t ask the athlete to determine if his technique is “just fine”, do you let the athlete avoid working on their mental game for years until a crisis forces them to admit they need work? At the USOC, we are now quite comfortable pushing athletes into doing the mental training work, even if they don’t always see the value at first.
9. Like any other skill, mental skills need to be measured in order to maximize performance of those skills.
“What gets measured, gets done.” This old expression from business writer Peter Lynch is useful for coaching as well. Just as ski coaches time training runs, or basketball coaches calculate free throw shooting percentages, application of mental skills can be measured. Moreover, they MUST be measured if they are to change. Once you think of mental skills as behaviors to be measured, you can begin to use your own coaching creativity to teach, modify, and increase the use of, mental skills.
10. Coaches need to think about their own mental skills
Most coaches can readily see that the same skills they are teaching their athletes are also useful for their own work in coaching. With the amount of pressure coaches face, for example, the ability to manage emotions, control arousal, game plan, and simulate pressure are all useful for coaches.
This is an excerpt from the Coaches Guide –Mental Training Manual, USOC Sport Psychology staff. This manual is available from the USOC for $24.95, call 719.866.4517 for more information.
11 Guidelines for Winning Coaching
Peak Performance under Stress: 11 Guidelines for Winning Coaching
http://www.competitivedge.com/ppg/ppg01.html
--------------------------
INTRODUCTION
Stress is a direct result of an athlete or team focusing on, and trying to control the "uncontrolables" within their sport (i.e., officiating, play of opponents, playing conditions, crowd, etc.). When an athlete focuses on these uncontrollables he/she is more likely to tighten up and "choke." The following are some brief guidelines to follow to help you train your athletes to better manage competitive stress.
STEP ONE
COACH THE PROCESS, NOT THE OUTCOME When an athlete focuses on the importance of the game, winning and losing, or anything to do with the outcome of the performance, he/she is in big trouble. This focus distracts the athlete from a performance focus, tightens them up physically and insures that play will be tight and tentative. Get your athletes to focus on specifically what they have to do to win, not on winning.
STEP TWO
TEACH AN AWARENESS OF THE STRESS/PERFORMANCE CURVE If you can help your athletes understand the relationship between their level of nervousness and how well they perform you will have taken a major step towards helping them to better handle pressure. If an athlete can "read" their nervousness preperformance and can tell the difference between "good", "bad", and "not enough" nervous, then they will be in a better position to be able to do something about their arousal level before it's too late.
STEP THREE
TEACH COPING SKILLS, DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME YELLING AT YOUR ATHLETES TO "RELAX" This is not how to teach relaxation. Instead, spend a small amount of time preseason providing your athletes with a number of mental skills that they can use to help them to better relax under pressure. Not all members of your team will need these, but you'll do far more good than not by investing a small amount of practice time offering 2-3 relaxation techniques (progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic training, breathing exercises, etc.) to everyone. Armed with ways of cooling down, your athletes will be less likely to fall apart under stress.
STEP FOUR
TEACH REFRAMING IN PRACTICE Reframe adversity teaches your athletes how to use whatever adversity comes their way to boost confidence rather than erode it. Help your players see that poor weather conditions, bad call by the officials, unsportsmanlike play, fatigue, etc., can work for them. There is always an advantage in a disadvantage. Train your players to find it.
STEP FIVE
USE HUMOR The surest way to get your athletes to tighten up and play poorly is by being too serious. Peak performance comes out of having fun. You play your very best when you are enjoying the competition; regardless of the level. By using humor as a coach, you can help your at-athletes stay loose, keep the game in perspective and perform like champions. An athlete that is too serious is an at-athletes who has a tendency to choke under pressure.
STEP SIX
PROVIDE A PERSPECTIVE If you make the competition "bigger than life" your athletes' performances will suffer. If the game is built up too much, or if that "must win" situation becomes too important, then chances are you will not get a good game from your team. Helping in helping them handle a highly pressured situation. An athlete that chokes usually has lost his/her perspective and made the competition much too important.
STEP SEVEN
USE SIMULATION DAILY Practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. It's the quality of your practices that is ultimately responsible for how much your athletes get from practice tune and how well they handle highly pressured situations. Integrate competitive elements into your practices to help your athletes better adjust to the actual pressure of game day. The more your practices resemble competitions, the less chance your athletes will have of falling apart under pressure. If your athletes have trouble with bad calls, certain playing conditions, being down early, etc., simulate these elements as closely as possible in your practices.
STEP EIGHT
CREATE A GO-FOR-IT ATMOSPHERE In practice create an atmosphere of "nothing to lose" or "free to fail". When athletes are not concerned about making mistakes they perform their best. If your players are worrying about messing up they will be distracted enough and tight enough to indeed mess up. Encourage your players to let their mistakes go immediately and to focus on what they want to have happen, not what they are afraid will happen. Reward mistakes when an athlete has truly gone for it, when they have given a winning effort. If you can teach your athletes to become oblivious to failure and mistakes (i.e., that they learn from them and that they are useful only for feedback on how to improve), then they will perform well for you.
STEP NINE
SEPERATE SELF-WORTH FROM PERFORMANCE At every level of play, athletes get stressed out when they attach their self worth to the quality of their performance (i.e., "I played well so therefore I am a winner", "I was awful and therefore I am a not a good person"). You set the tone for this in how you coach and interact to your athletes. Do not make the mistake of equating their performance with how you feel about them. If you do not make this separation, then they will not be able to understand and their performance will suffer. If your ego is on the line every time you compete you have a lot to lose. When you play with a lot to lose, you will most likely get stressed out and play poorly.
STEP TEN
CHALLENGE YOUR ATHLETES, DON'T THREATEN THEM When an athlete or team is threatened with consequences should they not perform well, they will consistently fall apart when the game is on the line. Threats only serve to distract the athlete from the task at hand and get them to worry about the consequences for failure. Focusing on the "what if's" of losing is the last thing you want your athletes to do before and during an important game. Instead, challenge them. Give them the message, which is implicit in any challenge that you think that they can do it, that you believe in them. Athletes will most frequently rise to your challenges and respond poorly or inconsistently to your threats.
STEP ELEVEN
FOCUS YOUR PLAYERS FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE UNDER PRESSURE Most stress related performance problems are a direct result of faulty concentration. The athlete that gets easily psyched out or intimidated does so because he or she is focusing on the wrong things (i.e., the actual or imagined prowess of the other player or team). Help your athletes concentrate on specifically what they have to do to play well. Teach them to "control their eyes and ears", to only look at, or listen to things that keep them composed and performing their best.
http://www.competitivedge.com/ppg/ppg01.html
--------------------------
INTRODUCTION
Stress is a direct result of an athlete or team focusing on, and trying to control the "uncontrolables" within their sport (i.e., officiating, play of opponents, playing conditions, crowd, etc.). When an athlete focuses on these uncontrollables he/she is more likely to tighten up and "choke." The following are some brief guidelines to follow to help you train your athletes to better manage competitive stress.
STEP ONE
COACH THE PROCESS, NOT THE OUTCOME When an athlete focuses on the importance of the game, winning and losing, or anything to do with the outcome of the performance, he/she is in big trouble. This focus distracts the athlete from a performance focus, tightens them up physically and insures that play will be tight and tentative. Get your athletes to focus on specifically what they have to do to win, not on winning.
STEP TWO
TEACH AN AWARENESS OF THE STRESS/PERFORMANCE CURVE If you can help your athletes understand the relationship between their level of nervousness and how well they perform you will have taken a major step towards helping them to better handle pressure. If an athlete can "read" their nervousness preperformance and can tell the difference between "good", "bad", and "not enough" nervous, then they will be in a better position to be able to do something about their arousal level before it's too late.
STEP THREE
TEACH COPING SKILLS, DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME YELLING AT YOUR ATHLETES TO "RELAX" This is not how to teach relaxation. Instead, spend a small amount of time preseason providing your athletes with a number of mental skills that they can use to help them to better relax under pressure. Not all members of your team will need these, but you'll do far more good than not by investing a small amount of practice time offering 2-3 relaxation techniques (progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic training, breathing exercises, etc.) to everyone. Armed with ways of cooling down, your athletes will be less likely to fall apart under stress.
STEP FOUR
TEACH REFRAMING IN PRACTICE Reframe adversity teaches your athletes how to use whatever adversity comes their way to boost confidence rather than erode it. Help your players see that poor weather conditions, bad call by the officials, unsportsmanlike play, fatigue, etc., can work for them. There is always an advantage in a disadvantage. Train your players to find it.
STEP FIVE
USE HUMOR The surest way to get your athletes to tighten up and play poorly is by being too serious. Peak performance comes out of having fun. You play your very best when you are enjoying the competition; regardless of the level. By using humor as a coach, you can help your at-athletes stay loose, keep the game in perspective and perform like champions. An athlete that is too serious is an at-athletes who has a tendency to choke under pressure.
STEP SIX
PROVIDE A PERSPECTIVE If you make the competition "bigger than life" your athletes' performances will suffer. If the game is built up too much, or if that "must win" situation becomes too important, then chances are you will not get a good game from your team. Helping in helping them handle a highly pressured situation. An athlete that chokes usually has lost his/her perspective and made the competition much too important.
STEP SEVEN
USE SIMULATION DAILY Practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. It's the quality of your practices that is ultimately responsible for how much your athletes get from practice tune and how well they handle highly pressured situations. Integrate competitive elements into your practices to help your athletes better adjust to the actual pressure of game day. The more your practices resemble competitions, the less chance your athletes will have of falling apart under pressure. If your athletes have trouble with bad calls, certain playing conditions, being down early, etc., simulate these elements as closely as possible in your practices.
STEP EIGHT
CREATE A GO-FOR-IT ATMOSPHERE In practice create an atmosphere of "nothing to lose" or "free to fail". When athletes are not concerned about making mistakes they perform their best. If your players are worrying about messing up they will be distracted enough and tight enough to indeed mess up. Encourage your players to let their mistakes go immediately and to focus on what they want to have happen, not what they are afraid will happen. Reward mistakes when an athlete has truly gone for it, when they have given a winning effort. If you can teach your athletes to become oblivious to failure and mistakes (i.e., that they learn from them and that they are useful only for feedback on how to improve), then they will perform well for you.
STEP NINE
SEPERATE SELF-WORTH FROM PERFORMANCE At every level of play, athletes get stressed out when they attach their self worth to the quality of their performance (i.e., "I played well so therefore I am a winner", "I was awful and therefore I am a not a good person"). You set the tone for this in how you coach and interact to your athletes. Do not make the mistake of equating their performance with how you feel about them. If you do not make this separation, then they will not be able to understand and their performance will suffer. If your ego is on the line every time you compete you have a lot to lose. When you play with a lot to lose, you will most likely get stressed out and play poorly.
STEP TEN
CHALLENGE YOUR ATHLETES, DON'T THREATEN THEM When an athlete or team is threatened with consequences should they not perform well, they will consistently fall apart when the game is on the line. Threats only serve to distract the athlete from the task at hand and get them to worry about the consequences for failure. Focusing on the "what if's" of losing is the last thing you want your athletes to do before and during an important game. Instead, challenge them. Give them the message, which is implicit in any challenge that you think that they can do it, that you believe in them. Athletes will most frequently rise to your challenges and respond poorly or inconsistently to your threats.
STEP ELEVEN
FOCUS YOUR PLAYERS FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE UNDER PRESSURE Most stress related performance problems are a direct result of faulty concentration. The athlete that gets easily psyched out or intimidated does so because he or she is focusing on the wrong things (i.e., the actual or imagined prowess of the other player or team). Help your athletes concentrate on specifically what they have to do to play well. Teach them to "control their eyes and ears", to only look at, or listen to things that keep them composed and performing their best.
Playing Favorites
Playing Favorites
By John Leonard
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One day a few years ago, a club board member accused me of "having favorites" on our club team. Several other parent board members nodded their heads in agreement The implication was that this was a terrible sin. When I was a younger coach, I thought it was terrible also. And he was right. I did have favorites. My favorites were those athletes who most fervently did what I asked of them. Those that did, I gave more attention to. I talked to them more. I spent more time teaching them. I also expected more of them.
The implication that he was making was that my favorites got better than the others because they were my favorites, and that was somehow unfair. He mistook cause for effect.
The fact is, that the athletes who came to me ready to learn, ready to listen, ready to act on what they learned and try it my way, even if it was more challenging, more difficult than they imagined, were ready to get more out of our program. And they were my favorites.
As a coach, I have only one thing to offer to an athlete. That is, my attention. Which means that I attend to their needs. The reward for good behavior should be attention . . . attending to their needs. The consequence of inattention, lack of effort, unwillingness or unreadyness to learn or just plain offensive or disruptive behavior is my inattention to that athlete.
How could it be other than this? If you have three children, and you spend all of your time and energy work working with the one that is badly behaved, what does that tell your other two children? It tells them that to capture your attention, they should behave badly. What we reward, is what we get.
As a coach, I want athletes who are eager to learn eager to experiment to improve, eager to work hard. I want athletes who come to me to help develop their skills both mental and physical, and are willing to accept what I have to offer. Otherwise, why have they come to me. And I am going to reward that athlete with my attention. In so doing, I encourage others to become like the athlete above. If I spent my time with the unwilling, the slothful, the disruptive, I would only be encouraging that behavior.
The link I want to forge is between attention and excellence. Excellence in the sense of achieving all that is possible, and desired. My way of forging that, is to provide my attention to those who "attend" to me. This does of course result in increased performance for those that do so. I am a professional coach, and when I pay attention to a person, that person is going to improve. Over time, this makes it appear that my "favorites" are the better swimmers. Not so at all. The better swimmers are those that pay attention, and thus become my favorites.
What Dad didn’t realize is that you must have favorites if anyone is to develop in a positive fashion. The coach’s job is to reward those who exhibit positive developmental behaviors. Those are my "favorites," and they should be.
By John Leonard
----------------------
One day a few years ago, a club board member accused me of "having favorites" on our club team. Several other parent board members nodded their heads in agreement The implication was that this was a terrible sin. When I was a younger coach, I thought it was terrible also. And he was right. I did have favorites. My favorites were those athletes who most fervently did what I asked of them. Those that did, I gave more attention to. I talked to them more. I spent more time teaching them. I also expected more of them.
The implication that he was making was that my favorites got better than the others because they were my favorites, and that was somehow unfair. He mistook cause for effect.
The fact is, that the athletes who came to me ready to learn, ready to listen, ready to act on what they learned and try it my way, even if it was more challenging, more difficult than they imagined, were ready to get more out of our program. And they were my favorites.
As a coach, I have only one thing to offer to an athlete. That is, my attention. Which means that I attend to their needs. The reward for good behavior should be attention . . . attending to their needs. The consequence of inattention, lack of effort, unwillingness or unreadyness to learn or just plain offensive or disruptive behavior is my inattention to that athlete.
How could it be other than this? If you have three children, and you spend all of your time and energy work working with the one that is badly behaved, what does that tell your other two children? It tells them that to capture your attention, they should behave badly. What we reward, is what we get.
As a coach, I want athletes who are eager to learn eager to experiment to improve, eager to work hard. I want athletes who come to me to help develop their skills both mental and physical, and are willing to accept what I have to offer. Otherwise, why have they come to me. And I am going to reward that athlete with my attention. In so doing, I encourage others to become like the athlete above. If I spent my time with the unwilling, the slothful, the disruptive, I would only be encouraging that behavior.
The link I want to forge is between attention and excellence. Excellence in the sense of achieving all that is possible, and desired. My way of forging that, is to provide my attention to those who "attend" to me. This does of course result in increased performance for those that do so. I am a professional coach, and when I pay attention to a person, that person is going to improve. Over time, this makes it appear that my "favorites" are the better swimmers. Not so at all. The better swimmers are those that pay attention, and thus become my favorites.
What Dad didn’t realize is that you must have favorites if anyone is to develop in a positive fashion. The coach’s job is to reward those who exhibit positive developmental behaviors. Those are my "favorites," and they should be.
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