Last week at Woodward Camp I had the honor to meet Dr. Alison Arnold, PhD. She is a mental toughness coach for several Olympic teams in the US and Australia. She also runs her website on mental toughness training. She did a clinic that involved athletes' participation. She first handed out a string with a fishing weight tied on to the end. She asked everyone to hold the string with their index finger and thumb. The athlete had to relax and stay focus on how they wanted to move the weight on the other end without moving thier arm, wrist, and fingers.
The athletes was able to move it in small circles and large circles in either counter clock-wise and/or clock-wise movement. The participant were surprised how it ever happened. She explained how the brain send electrical signals by the nervous system that runs through the fine muscles in their fingers causing it to vibrate through the string making the weight move. The point of this experiment was that proves that the body respond by what you think.
She tells a story to the athletes about a grandfather who was telling his grandson about the 2 wolves that were constantly battling and butting heads. One wolf was a bad wolf. The bad wolf was always angry, uses negative reinforcement, depressed, and lacking self confidence. The second wolf was happy, using positive reinforcement, and self confidence was high. The grandson ask about which wolf won. It was obvious that the second wolf won. The athletes was then to ask to write down 5 feeling about gymnastics using the bad wolf thoughts then write 5 things about their gymnastics using the good wolf thoughts. She tells the athletes to read the bad thoughts and the good thoughts. They were asked of how they felt reading the bad thoughts, most responded that their body feel bad and lazy. When they ask how they felt reading the good thoughts, most responded that their body feel good and feel more confidence and powerful believing that they can conquer their fears to get over the bad thoughts of why they don't do the skill they hated most.
Having much thought about mental toughness, I like to use the movie Star Wars when Luke Skywalker was training to be a Jedi but had a few challenges along the way. Like his trainer, Yoda, he says to focus, feel the force, and let the force be with you and he can be a good Jedi. I see the force as a positive reinforcement. The force can be viewed to believe, positive reinforcement, increase self confidence, increase self esteem, and to conquer your fear. The force was also the use of mental imagery of yourself doing the skill. Darth Vader comes in and wanted to recruit Luke to be on the dark side. Darth Vader was angry and uses negative reinforcement thinking he would be best to take over the Empire. I see the dark side as a negative reinforcement that kills the self confidence, self esteem, and not believing in yourself to conquer your fear.
Luke is a powerful Jedi all because he was patient with his training, has positive attitude, never gave up hope, and his self-esteem grew stronger increasing his self-confidence to believe in himself. As of for me is was important to be patient when learning a new skill. Learning a new skill requires patient. At times I felt frustrated not be able to do the skill and takes me to the dark side of negativity and not believing in myself to conquer the skill. The more I battled myself to be on the positive side of thing by worry about making the bit and pieces of the skill better rather than the whole skill. I felt better thinking about it that way. My confidence grew stronger and knowing one day my time will come knowing that I finally won the battle to get that new skill. I also use the mental imagery of myself doing the skill. Not only I could see myself doing it, I could feel my body as if it was doing it. It was the greatest feeling in the world to have much appreciation of how much work I had to put into it regardless of the ups and downs I went through. I never gave up!
During training, we all have our darkside in us. It is our choice what we do with those dark side feelings. We can either fight the darkside or we quit. Luke Skywalker did once felt the darkside but he never gave up and fought through the darkside and use his power to feel the force. Like Yoda said "Do or do not, there's no try". Mistakes do happen and make you feel on the darkside at times. Remeber that mistakes are for learning not for quiting so fight the darkside.
We all need to have that mental toughness and fight the dark side and start feeling the force. So try writing 5 of your darkside feelings and then find ways to fight it and write the 5 force feelings. Once you have that, rewrite your goals of how you will achieve them.
Tip: Always look on the positive side of things regardless of the outcome. No matter how small or big the improvement is, it is always an improvement. You may not get win a medal but look at your score and realized you have beat your personal best score. Winning a medal should not be your goal becuase you can't control it. You only control what you can do to make improvement by beating your personal best score, learning a new skill, adding a new skill in your routine, and moving up a new level. Winning medals or not doesn't make you who you are. Your attitude toward yourself makes you who you are.
May the force be with you through out the season.
You can checkout Dr. Alison Arnold, PhD Mental toughness training website at www.HeadGamesWebCamp.com to learn to banish fear and doubt, remove mental blocks, and create an unshakeable mind.
"Remember this taste no matter how many times you go through it because when you finally get it you appreciate it more." - Ray Lewis, Baltimore Ravens.
Good Luck!
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
What make you a great coach?
A great coach should be flexible, understanding, knowledge of the sport, reliable, and communication. I believe these are important when it comes down to the chararistic of a great coach.
Flexibility: Coaches should be flexible in ways that they can adjust their coaching based on the child's learning curve. No one learn the same way. Everyone learn differently but still get the same outcome at the end. Some kids are visual learners, auditory learners, and kinetic learners. A coach should be flexible to adjust those types of learners. I have coaches claims they teach the same way all the time and reality is that they don't. If we are learn differently it is impossible to teach the same way. Coaches should be flexible and find other methods of teaching the skill. Keep in mind there are more than one way to teach the skill and get the same outcome.
Understanding: A coach should be understanding that not all athletes are created equal from a personality and development stand point. They should be able to identify the personality and development of their athletes. Boys are different than girls and I don't coach boys the same way I coach girls and vise versa. I don't coach a 12 year old the same way I coach a 5 year old and vise versa. Some athletes like to be pushed hard and like their coaches to be hard on them and some athletes rather have their coaches be nice and friendly and not be so hard. So as a coach I look and to identify those personality and development of each athletes.
Coaches should always be understanding the child feelings and work those out accordinly. Not only you have to understand them physically but also understanding thier minds on the pychological aspect.
Knowledge: Coaches should be reading the rules, looking for drills ideas, and improving coaching and spotting skills. Nothing more frustrating to go to a meet and realize your athlete did the wrong thing or missing a special requirement because these coaches didn't read the rules throughly. As a coach its my job to do my homework to look for resources and take full advantage of them. The USA Gymnastics University has many courses and great staff to help you gain more knowledge. Other resources you can learn is by attending USAG National Congress, Regional Congress, and even attending a gymnastics camp such as Woodward Camp in Woodward, PA. I may know a lot but I don't know everything or ever claim I know everything. So more tools I have the more resources I have to help make my program better. So you never stop learning or ever too old to learn more. The more knowledge the bigger my fire! Knowledge is power!
Reliable: Coaches should be reliable at all times. They should be able to make all practices, spend time working with each individual athletes regardless of level of ability. Favoritism is not tolerated when being reliable.Coaches should be consistent on rules and practices. Most importanly being reliable is dressing professionally. Coaches should also be prudent of their own behavior even on a bad day.
Communication: Communication is very important and its critical to have good communication. Without proper communication everything falls apart in your program and the relationship you have with you clients. If I don't know the situation due to lack of communication then I can't help. Nothing more worst than someone to accumulate the problem by holding on to it for months. This causes problems because the person that holds on to it tends to make excuses or not seeing the reality of the situation clearly. The simple way I put it, is speak of your thoughts or concerns otherwise forever hold your peace.
What makes you a great coach?
Good Luck!
Flexibility: Coaches should be flexible in ways that they can adjust their coaching based on the child's learning curve. No one learn the same way. Everyone learn differently but still get the same outcome at the end. Some kids are visual learners, auditory learners, and kinetic learners. A coach should be flexible to adjust those types of learners. I have coaches claims they teach the same way all the time and reality is that they don't. If we are learn differently it is impossible to teach the same way. Coaches should be flexible and find other methods of teaching the skill. Keep in mind there are more than one way to teach the skill and get the same outcome.
Understanding: A coach should be understanding that not all athletes are created equal from a personality and development stand point. They should be able to identify the personality and development of their athletes. Boys are different than girls and I don't coach boys the same way I coach girls and vise versa. I don't coach a 12 year old the same way I coach a 5 year old and vise versa. Some athletes like to be pushed hard and like their coaches to be hard on them and some athletes rather have their coaches be nice and friendly and not be so hard. So as a coach I look and to identify those personality and development of each athletes.
Coaches should always be understanding the child feelings and work those out accordinly. Not only you have to understand them physically but also understanding thier minds on the pychological aspect.
Knowledge: Coaches should be reading the rules, looking for drills ideas, and improving coaching and spotting skills. Nothing more frustrating to go to a meet and realize your athlete did the wrong thing or missing a special requirement because these coaches didn't read the rules throughly. As a coach its my job to do my homework to look for resources and take full advantage of them. The USA Gymnastics University has many courses and great staff to help you gain more knowledge. Other resources you can learn is by attending USAG National Congress, Regional Congress, and even attending a gymnastics camp such as Woodward Camp in Woodward, PA. I may know a lot but I don't know everything or ever claim I know everything. So more tools I have the more resources I have to help make my program better. So you never stop learning or ever too old to learn more. The more knowledge the bigger my fire! Knowledge is power!
Reliable: Coaches should be reliable at all times. They should be able to make all practices, spend time working with each individual athletes regardless of level of ability. Favoritism is not tolerated when being reliable.Coaches should be consistent on rules and practices. Most importanly being reliable is dressing professionally. Coaches should also be prudent of their own behavior even on a bad day.
Communication: Communication is very important and its critical to have good communication. Without proper communication everything falls apart in your program and the relationship you have with you clients. If I don't know the situation due to lack of communication then I can't help. Nothing more worst than someone to accumulate the problem by holding on to it for months. This causes problems because the person that holds on to it tends to make excuses or not seeing the reality of the situation clearly. The simple way I put it, is speak of your thoughts or concerns otherwise forever hold your peace.
What makes you a great coach?
Good Luck!
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Got Fun?
What is the number one reason for kids to stay in their sport? Study and research has shown that fun was the number one reason kids stay in their sport. Having fun is a motivator for kids to starve for more attention to learn more and get better on their skills each time they come back. I love my sport and I remember the fun I had in my career. It is important that I have fun with the kids. I want the kids to have every opportunity to have just as much fun as I did.
While at Woodward Camp in Woodward, PA, I know the kids are having fun. They continue to ask the staff for a spot or asking for more tips to get better or to learn new skills. The kids enjoy learning new things and challenging their own limits. Nothing more fun to watch these kids having fun achieving new skills and going farther than their own expectations. I believe if the kids weren't having fun they wouldn't be coming back for more.
So how do we put the fun in the sport and be able to achieve good results in your program? I have learned from a friend who came up with three divisions of fun. The three divisions includes the intermediate fun, short term fun, and long term fun.
Intermediate Fun: This is best describes as playing fun games and activities. These games and activities can be related to what they are learning or non-related to help keep their minds off of their own sport (nice to learn something different once in a while). This can be a warm-up or an an award for having a great practice. I know some kids like to show up late for practice so they can skip the traditional warm-up. So I use the intermediate fun as a warm-up and of course the kids who showed up late missed out the fun. Over time, kids were showing up on time for practice to find out what the fun was all about! Yes, we randomly still did our traditional warm-up.
At times kids hate conditioning. You can make conditioning fun by playing a game with the muscles you want them to work on. Example in doing V-ups, I have my kids hold the block between their ankles and have them pike up to grab the block. The idea is how many times can you transport the block back and forth with out dropping it. You can also challenge them how many times can they transport the block in such amount of time (20 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, or 60 seconds).
Short Term Fun: Short term fun is not just about playing games and activities its more about achieving through hard work. Its not about how you fall, its about how you get up. Day in and day out kids are working hard and they are starving to want it bad. Nothing more rewarding for the kid to achieve a new skill and watching them jump for joy! It is also rewarding and fun for the kid to get on the award podium regardless of the placement. It not always about the podium but it is also about beating their own personal achievement by increasing their own performance scores. I believe that this short term fun is often overlooked when coaches only see success at the highest level of achievement while everything else is failure.
Long Term Fun: After many months and years, kids makes sacrifices and determination to stay in the sport. Kids show they have fun achieving things such as moving up a level, competing nationals, world age group, world championships, collegiate level, pro level, and the Olympics games. The kids have fun traveling around the world and learning different cultures in the world they live in.
"Remember this taste no matter how many times you go through it because when you finally get it you appreciate it more" - Ray Lewis (Baltimore Ravens)
Best of luck!
While at Woodward Camp in Woodward, PA, I know the kids are having fun. They continue to ask the staff for a spot or asking for more tips to get better or to learn new skills. The kids enjoy learning new things and challenging their own limits. Nothing more fun to watch these kids having fun achieving new skills and going farther than their own expectations. I believe if the kids weren't having fun they wouldn't be coming back for more.
So how do we put the fun in the sport and be able to achieve good results in your program? I have learned from a friend who came up with three divisions of fun. The three divisions includes the intermediate fun, short term fun, and long term fun.
Intermediate Fun: This is best describes as playing fun games and activities. These games and activities can be related to what they are learning or non-related to help keep their minds off of their own sport (nice to learn something different once in a while). This can be a warm-up or an an award for having a great practice. I know some kids like to show up late for practice so they can skip the traditional warm-up. So I use the intermediate fun as a warm-up and of course the kids who showed up late missed out the fun. Over time, kids were showing up on time for practice to find out what the fun was all about! Yes, we randomly still did our traditional warm-up.
At times kids hate conditioning. You can make conditioning fun by playing a game with the muscles you want them to work on. Example in doing V-ups, I have my kids hold the block between their ankles and have them pike up to grab the block. The idea is how many times can you transport the block back and forth with out dropping it. You can also challenge them how many times can they transport the block in such amount of time (20 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, or 60 seconds).
Short Term Fun: Short term fun is not just about playing games and activities its more about achieving through hard work. Its not about how you fall, its about how you get up. Day in and day out kids are working hard and they are starving to want it bad. Nothing more rewarding for the kid to achieve a new skill and watching them jump for joy! It is also rewarding and fun for the kid to get on the award podium regardless of the placement. It not always about the podium but it is also about beating their own personal achievement by increasing their own performance scores. I believe that this short term fun is often overlooked when coaches only see success at the highest level of achievement while everything else is failure.
Long Term Fun: After many months and years, kids makes sacrifices and determination to stay in the sport. Kids show they have fun achieving things such as moving up a level, competing nationals, world age group, world championships, collegiate level, pro level, and the Olympics games. The kids have fun traveling around the world and learning different cultures in the world they live in.
"Remember this taste no matter how many times you go through it because when you finally get it you appreciate it more" - Ray Lewis (Baltimore Ravens)
Best of luck!
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