The consistency question

How many sports teams have we seen that do well one week, or play the game of their lives, and then the very next week look like a shadow of their former selves. In reading an interview with a top schoolboy coach the other day, he spoke about how this was one of his biggest battles from a coaching point of view. Some teams get it right, whilst others don't. The Australian cricket side is probably one of the most consistent sports teams in recent history.

I think I would be foolish to think I had the cure to inconsistency, but obviously there are things that I believe can assist in guarding against it.

1. The Dream
Often one game in isolation can serve up little motivation to a team, and this is where you often see inconsistency in the quality of play. I believe that any team needs a dream, a bigger picture or vision that serves as motivation and direction for them to perform to the best of their ability. Every person has it within them to want to achieve something, and this is the same with a team. If they can paint their own picture or dream their own dream of what they want to achieve, that game in isolation becomes more important, as they are aware that it is part of a bigger 'dream'. This dream then needs to be reinforced before every game, and the context of the game then becomes more important. This can guard against inconsistency.

2. A Value set
Just as a dream is set for the team, so should a set of values and behaviours be set that are desired throughout. These could include humility ( to guard against complacency) as well as belief (to guard against the fear of strong opponents). If these values are entrenched in everything the team does, you may find that those slip ups become less. The more ingrained values are, the more likely the desired behaviours are to occur.

3. The Brutal Facts
I believe too often we gloss over those 'easy' games, with the comments like ' every game is a tough one' or 'they are a wounded animal'. Tough games are often met with, 'We believe we can compete well', 'We have improved a lot this week in practice'. All of these cliches do not serve to address the true feelings that the players have. Many players have been in siutations before where they were fearful or complacent and the outcomes were poor. They should have learned from this, and the team should be encouraged to talk through these and find a solution before it happens. I would encourage teams to admit openly that the side they are playing against is weak for example, but then I would ask them to come up with goals for the game and how they propose to achieve them. Be brutally honest about a game, and you will see results.

4. Remember the game
Tim Goodenough in "In the Zone" , speaks about 3 things that create significance to a game. Opponent, Occasion and Venue. These three things need to be weighed up when thinking about how to get your team into the best state of mind for any game. If the occasion and opponent is one that brings pressure, for example, then it is best to make sure that the players are as relaxed as possible, and aware of the goals for the game. If for example, you are at home, and you are playing an easy fixture, it is crucial to emphasise the importance of the dream, to re-emphasise the values set, and to set challenging goals for the players. The key is to identify the significance of each of the three factors, then to weigh up how you can go about creating the best environment for that game taking those factors into account.

There are definitely more solutions to inconsistency and I'd be keen to hear comment, but these are just a few that may indeed help in keeping the team at a desired level for as long as possible.

Cheers
T

Research on Mental readiness

I came across a great web site called, 'The Zone Of excellence', written by an experienced man in the field of sports performance, called Tim Orlick. There are some fascinating articles there on the field, but I thought I'd include his summarised thoughts on the mental links to excellence. The article is well worth a read and I've posted the link, but here are the summarised thoughts based on his interviews with numerous elite olympian athletes. http://www.zoneofexcellence.ca/free/excellence/mental%20links%20to%20excellence.pdf

1. Mental readiness is an extremely important factor influencing an athlete's
performance. In fact, of the three major readiness factors rated by the
athletes-mental, physical, technical-mental readiness provided the only
statistically significant link with final Olympic ranking.
2. A large percentage of Olympic athletes did not perform to potential at the
Olympic Games because they were not prepared well enough for the distractions
they faced.
3. Mental readying is derived from a number of learned mental skills that must
be continually practiced and refined for an athlete to perform to potential and on
a consistent basis.
4. Attentional focus and the quality and control of performance imagery were
the most important statistically significant athlete skills directly related to high
level performance at the Olympic Games.
5. The following common elements of success were operational for the
best athletes (i.e., Olympic medalists and world champions) in virtually all sports: (a)
total commitment to pursuing excellence, (b) quality training that included
setting daily goals and engaging in regular competition simulation and imagery
training, and (c) quality mental preparation for competition, which included a
refined competition plan, a competition focus plan, an ongoing postcompetition
evaluation procedure, and a plan for dealing with distractions.
6. The three major performance blocks that interfered with high level
performance at the Olympic Games were (a) changing patterns that work, (b) late
selection, and (c) an inability to refocus in the face of distractions.
7. Coaches could play a more meaningful role in helping athletes with their
mental readiness for major events.
This study gives a clear indication of the mental components of excellence that are
necessary for performing to potential at high profile events such as the Olympic
Games. It pinpoints the mental skills that need to be developed and refined for
consistent high level performance.

Which comes first?

I have just completed a leadership course at SACS high school where I took a group of leaders through the basics of leadership for 3 weeks. I attempted to open their minds to what is possible and to get them to see how best to lead people. An interesting debate cropped up and it reminded me of a few things that I had learnt from Professor Tim Noakes as well as from various other readings. What comes first, Confidence or success?

The debate in my opinion offers two distinct paths. 1. Positive perceptions in your mind = good attitude = productive preparation = confidence = success. This for me, would seem the best method or approach as it is completely reliant on self and the discipline of your own thoughts. You control your perceptions and thoughts which in turn leads to a positive attitude to practice and play, which then instills confidence in your play which should then in turn, according to anecdotal evidence lead to increased success. The thought that confidence comes through great preparation is widely thought to be true, but this only works if the preparation is all-encompassing (covers physical and mental prep), and the player actively applies positive thought to the work that he/she has put in. This model should also work in the case of early season, where no 'prior success' has taken place, or in the case of a lean spell of form, where you attempt to get yourself back into successful times through your mental processes and approach. A top rugby player for example may be sturggling but through sheer mental effort continue to see himself in a good light, to put in the hours on the practice field, knowing that this will pay off eventually.

The second way of thinking, which some of the leaders agreed with is 2) success= confidence = good practice due to being happy = positive attitude = good perceptions of self. This could also be said to be true, and I believe is the way it works for most sportsmen. We rely on success to create an increased confidence and then added motivation to practice effectively which will keep us having a positive attitude and great self-perceptions. An example would be the cricketer who scores runs and then feels confident to score in the next innings, and enjoys his training and feels good about himself all due to his previous innings and not due to his mental efforts to prepare himself well.

The ideal way in my mind, is a mixture of the two, whereby we apply option 1 and create a positive attitude ourselves which leads to quality practice and increased confidence. Then we success does come about, we ensure that that success then leads back to increased confidence, positive attitudes and practicing etc. Sportsmen need to guard against success leading to arrogance or complacency and then decreased quality if practice as so often can be the case. Success therefore will lead to increased perceptions of self, according to the model, but it should not serve as the only leader to good perceptions of self, as that becomes dangerous and extremely reactive.

Confidence comes through quality preparation and past successes, but it is up to the sportsman to decide how much emphasis he places on each one and how he manages to balance between the two. A lovely true story goes that a top college basketball player in the States was playing in the state final. He was by far their top points-scorer, and the plays had been deisgned around him by the coach. In the final, he missed 4 shots in a row and the team was on the verge of losing the game. The coach called a time-out and said that he would re-design the next play (the final one) to ensure someone else took the shot. The player would have none of this, he said give me the ball and I'll score. He did. When asked afterwards why he was so sure that he'd score, he said, "I have a 80 % success rate at goal and I've practiced all week at that rate. Now I have missed 4 in a row which means I was bound to make the next shot!". He went on to say that he made up his mind that he should make the next shot and therefore creating his own perception, which then in turn led to the confidence, which then created that success.

I have just put some thoughts out there and welcome thoughts or feedback and this is a debate that I think is difficult to conclude.

The need to coach!

In the present world of sport, it seems that just as much gets written about sports men and women’s private lives as it does on their sporting activities. John Terry, Tiger Woods, Ricky Januarie are just a few to mention, but there have been many in the past as well as many more to come in the future. This brings me to two different points that I would like to make, one concerning the coaching that takes place for these players and the second is the role models that exist for our up-and-coming players. Executive and Life coaching has become a multi-million rand business worldwide, and although some see it as a fad, there is no doubt that there is tremendous value in the service they provide. Top business men and women are using them to try and optimize their own performance, to bounce ideas off, to help them keep a work-life balance etc. This all happens in the fast-paced corporate world. Which leads me to ask the question as to how much of this should be taking place with elite sportsmen? Mental coaches are being used, but are they being used enough to help sportsmen cope with 1) the tremendous amount of pressure they are put under to perform and 2) all the things that can act as temptations such as money, sex, drugs etc. Is there not a need for life coaches to work with sportsmen and women to help them work through these pressures, to advise them on how to keep a balance and therefore to help them focus entirely in their own sporting performance, which is essentially what the world wants. Morne Du Plessis was used to work with a care-free Herschelle Gibbs some time ago. A happy and focused employee is often a performing one, and this is exactly the same in sport. More attention to the ‘person’ is needed and not just 100% on the skills and physical attributes needed to create top performers.

As someone who has been involved with sport at youth level I often think to myself, do we have great role models out there for the youth to look up to, and also, are we doing enough to prepare and assist them with the pressures they experience as young sportsmen and women? When a youngster sees a golfer’s sex scandal sprawled all over the back pages what goes through his/her mind? Of course there are plenty of top role models out there but unfortunately when something negative happens it gets huge airtime as opposed to all the good many of them do. And for this reason, young up-and-coming sportsmen who are put under pressure from their folks, their peers, themselves or even their schools also need to be given the support structures to help them cope and reach their own potential. Coaching needs to go further than just showing someone how to pass and kick and progress to true life coaching and mentoring. This will not only help the players but will also lead to better performances.

The sportsmen and women of today therefore need to be nurtured and supported, for us to truly get the best out of them, as a happy focused player is a good and performing one. Let’s also try prevent the sporting scandals from happening before they do.

A little perspective

This article has been written by John-Joe Dawson-Squibb. He is a clinical Psychologist who has worked, whilst doing his thesis with a professional soccer academy. He has a huge interest in sport and the psychology surrounding it, and I trust that his article will be of major interest to you.

- Changing the focus

‘Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing’
Vince Lombardi
Sir Clive Woodward, rugby guru and general know-it-all, is not a man whose thoughts can be quickly dismissed. Apart from his World Cup medal and thoughtful autobiography he has, despite a dismal foray into football and a (chaotic) Lion’s tour, much respect from the majority of rugby’s elite – no easy feat in itself. Having read a recent entry on this blog outlining some of his points on excellence I began to think the former England coach might be brilliant, but perhaps his vaunted focus on perfection is a red herring for the large majority of players not involved in professional sport. Rather than disagree with him I am taking a different route to see where an alternative focus of thought might lead.
I’m keenly aware that readers of this website are likely to have more than a passing interest in the world of sport. I wonder though how many are actually professional sportsman? To go further, how many realistically (and not after a few drinks or a well-timed square cut in the nets) have aspirations of being paid to play? Few I would suggest over the age of sixteen could admit to having such thoughts. The cold facts are that the Ronaldo’s are on a different planet, and more soberingly it is a tiny percentage of sports men and women who are able to make a living from playing sport.
In contrast then is the amount of coverage professional sport garners from the media (broadly the more elite the competition the more coverage dedicated to it). There is very little interest or focus in the media on your average sportsman, on the majority of participants. I am not suggesting it should be anything other. But what does interest me is the impact of such a myopic focus on those watching.

Myths and Middle school
It’s possible that this excessive interest in professional sport has led to an equally excessive focus on winning. This has fuelled the myth that you can’t have fun or enjoy the game if you have lost. An equally destructive and related idea is that everyone’s dream, if not goal, should be to play professional sport. What rubbish! These myths, it could be argued, are used by key players for cynical purposes. Encouraging unrealistic expectations and goals is the business of sport brands (to sell products), administrators (to increase a games popularity and swell numbers) and the media (to create hype and sell stories). Children are particularly vulnerable. A recent survey in America revealed that 2.7% of Middle school athletes (ages 12-15) had used anabolic steroids (2007, Steroid Nation). That tells of a severely misguided attempt to win at all cost. Of a culture that has become fixated on winning at the expense of health, life and enjoyment. What will happen to those many children whose self-esteem, confidence and dreams are shattered as they, inevitably, don’t reach these impossible goals?
More prosaically I would add that such a focus on professional sport is a hindrance to our enjoyment of the game. I can understand that professional sportsmen and women need to take the game seriously as their income is at stake, but the same surely cannot apply to the majority of participants. Yet too often that seems to be forgotten. By concentrating on the end result, with the increasing emphasis on excellence and perfection, is there not a danger that we miss out on being ‘in the moment’, enjoying the game, just having fun. As Al Pacino’s character, coach Tony D’Amato, said in Any Given Sunday – ‘There’s got to be more to this game than winning and losing’. It is one thing to learn from professional players how to play the game but are they the best people to remind us why we play the game?

Learning from the right people
There is often learning to be had from those who have had things taken away. Those who have recovered from serious illness or life threatening injury are often the best at reminding us of the brevity of our time here. Remembering what it is to play tennis at all, to ride a bike, be on a field with ten buddies on a Saturday afternoon. Perspective is everything. I wonder that too often our focus is in the wrong place and we forget to appreciate, or even remember, how great it is to play sport.
To pre-empt those unimpressed with such a shift let me add that this change in focus doesn’t mean you don’t take sport seriously. There are any number of reasons why we participate and multiple documented benefits of playing have been reported under the headings of ‘social’, ‘physical’, ‘psychological’ and ‘emotional’. All of these remain. A change in perspective does not mean you can’t be competitive, have goals or do the best you can. But it does mean you take stock every now and again and have sport in it’s right place. It’s not about winning and losing - living and dying.