When a crisis occurs during the year, the players are ultimately responsible for the resolution. Coaches can recommend actions but players must execute these actions. Sometimes, the players must pull themselves together and move forward on their own. Adversity occurs during every minute of every game and practice: there are always battles between you and an opponent (or you and yourself) that present opportunities to set a personal best. Adversity also occurs every day of your life. How we make decisions under pressure decides how we handle adversity. Decisions made under pressure in sport will recur under pressure in daily …
Teaching Self-Evaluation
The Globe and Mail posted a curious article regarding how humans learn (and perform) complex skills. Initially, we learn each skill separately and combine the individual actions as we progress. Instead of thinking “jab-step, explosive first-step, jump-stop, and pull-up jumpshot” great players think “make an open shot” and execute all the components together. If told to go slowly, an expert will deconstruct the movement in their mind and make it harder for themselves. On the other hand, a novice needs to consider each skill distinctly in order perform the entire action successful. The article illustrated the point with a putting …
Mistakes Worth Making
Aside from the priority placed on planning and reviewing – briefing and debriefing – as espoused by Robert McNamara and others, the main message of Mistakes Worth Making is that coaches must deal with the emotions of players, in addition to their skills. As evidenced by the title, there are some mistakes which lead to improvement and others which are desultory. As coaches, we aim to manage mistakes so that we (and athletes) learn from the positive errors and control the negative ones. A theme which is repeated through the book is that the emotions of athletes are as important …
Skills We Should Teach More, Part IV: Taking the Clutch Shot
Trailing Phoenix by one with twelve seconds to play, Toronto called timeout to set up the final shot. The Raptors inbounded to Hedo Turkoglu, who endeavoured to penetrate, lost the handle, and forced a fadeaway jumper. The poor shot was the result of Turkoglu’s slip, not the set but the shot still lacked viable alternatives to the primary option. Posting Chris Bosh against Amare Stoudamire would have been definitely feasible but how could coach Jay Triano better incorporate the Raptors’ young players into these pressure situations? During climatic moments, mental and somatic anxiety heightens. The latter can be controlled by …
Sisyphus and Starbucks
According to a Starbucks’ cup that I read recently (The Way I See It #76): “The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating — in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around a rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life.” On the subject of the Greek myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus wrote: “Je laisse Sisyphe au bas de la montagne! On retrouve toujours son fardeau. Mais Sisyphe enseigne la fidélité …
What I Hope to Learn this Summer, Part III
The new Roger Federer – the one who makes mistakes, occasionally fails, and realizes his limitations – is much more interesting than the old one. Last year’s Wimbledon between Federer and Nadal featured superior tennis but this year’s match between Federer and Andy Roddick was equally as tense. To complete the French Open-Wimbledon double, Federer needed to honestly re-evaluate his game in order to improve it. At Roland Garros, his improved ability to slide on the baseline was paired with a new drop shot; at the All England Club he was forced to serve impeccably and persevere as his best …
What I Hope to Learn this Summer, Part I
I hope to improve my ability to deal with people and egos, to better motivate student-athletes and demonstrate more empathic leadership. I recently read Competitive Fire by Michael Clarkson and learnt many facts that I hope to apply in the coming year. We often discuss how it seems that teenagers have a “fight or flight” mentality but there is a scientific basis to the argument. Under pressure, the brain releases hormones, such as adrenaline or noradrenaline, that can cause aggressiveness, increase feelings of fear, and inspire the body to perform faster, higher, or stronger. All people, including athletes, need to …
Why Not?
One can record a maximum break in snooker in less than five and a half minutes. So why not make 147 every time? Since the balls are always arranged identically, how did the first player in this clip botch the break so badly, without potting any balls, so that Ronnie O’Sullivan was able to easily run the table, averaging one shot every nine seconds? Why does a curler slip pushing off the hack at the Brier and therefore compromise their release? How does a collegiate wrestler lose their first match against an unranked opponent when expected to win the national …
Fate Helps Those Who Help Themselves
Smokey the Bear persistently preached that “only you can prevent forest fires.” He understood that he could preach until he was blue in the fur about fire safety but he could only succeed if everyone did their part. A coach can make speeches, review game tape, prepare scouting reports, or employ coaching gimmicks but the team can only succeed if every player on the court contributes. After a Toronto High School Senior Boys Basketball championship game, a West Hill player was heard to remark that the game was “easy.” One teammate concurred but another remarked that “wait, we lost.” Some …
The Path to Olympic Success
Donovan Bailey said that while athletes participating in the 100m dash share genetics and other physical characteristics, it’s entirely mental when they arrive in the stadium for the final heat. Swimmers and other athletes would be remiss not to take the 1996 Olympic Champion’s advice. Self-confidence, technique, overcoming fear (of success and failure) are among the essential skills possessed by an Olympic Champion. Michael Phelps won eight gold medals in a single Olympics. He is an amazing athlete. But Phelps also performs consistently and never wavers from his game plan. He’d only have six medals if the competition were as …
Seconds
Circulation Restreinte Carlos Sastre won the 2008 Tour de France. Cadel Evans was second, for the second consecutive year. Evans had a chance to claim the yellow jersey during Saturday’s time trial but he did not capitalize on his superior potential against the clock. Either he hurt himself more than he let on when he fell in the Pyranées or he can improve upon his mental training. Last year, the Australian had a chance to pass eventual winner Alberto Contador in a similar situation – one stage left, short time to make up – and could not. This year, Evans …
Wimbledon 2008
Rafael Nadal finally beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon. After five consecutive championships, Roger relinquished the crown in five sets. Even McEnroe finally beat Borg in 1981. Pour toute la gloire du monde… Nadal’s game has the sense of inevitability about it: his athleticism, the longer rallies, Federer’s unforced errors, the sense he gets the ball back (with a lot of power and spin) and the opponent screws up…. Eventualy, it all caught up to Federer. Had he taken advantage of his break points, he would have been in a much better position. But he needs to develop new strategies to …
The Right…What’s that Stuff?
Kobe Bryant said that if he’d been told in training camp that Los Angeles would have to win three straight games to claim the Association title, he’d take it for sure. On the other hand, Phil Jackson felt that the Lakers hadn’t grasped the significance of their situation between Thursday and Sunday. In a sense, both were right. Boston was laying their bodies on the line, playing through pain. Doc Rivers told them to play every minute of Game 5 like it was their last. The Celtics had bought into a season-long philosophy of team play and personal sacrifice for …
Best Seat in the House
Spike Lee’s “basketball memoir”, Best Seat in the House, provides a unique perspective on the sport and frank commentary. Despite his film background, Lee is tremendously knowledgeable about basketball and how it is intertwined with New York City’s culture. He has attended hundreds of games, from Game 7 of the 1970 Finals when Willis Reed emerged from the locker room to deflate and defeat the Lakers to Game 7 of the 1994 Eastern Finals when the Knicks returned to the Finals for the first time in twenty years, and he describes the city’s euphoric reaction to these moments. Thousands of …
Nurturing Nature
Last week, during a Cleveland win over San Antonio, Mike Brown and Gregg Popovich left three timeouts each on the table. Confident in the ability of veteran players to execute quality possessions, the coaches allowed the play to flow back and forth. The Spurs lost 90-88 but Manu Ginobli released a steady, open, and transition jumper from the foul line as time expired. After a 6-5 shootout win over Pittsburgh, Bruce Boudreau commented that one of the first moves that he became Washington coach was to make the Capitals a four-line team. Rather than over-emphasize match-ups – dumping the puck …
I Wrote this While Watching House on DVD
The Trailer Park Boys Movie featured a major new character: Sonny, owner of the nearby Gentlemen’s Club. The Simpsons Movie introduced Russ Cargill of the Environmental Protection Agency, who appeared far too frequently. These prominent characters could have been replaced easily (Cyrus and Ten-Gallon Hat Man are two possibilities) and should have been excised from the films because they fell flat in their roles (whether furthering the plot or attempting to make a joke.) When asked to explain his team’s recent success on the road (five points in three games), Alexei Kovalev said that, “On the road, [the Montreal Canadiens] …