Touch stones
I was going to write a criticism on those who are criticism head football coach Bruce Arians of the Arizona Cardinals for his comments about his place kicker, but I've decided to step further back than that, and offer some insight and thought into my own coaching philosophy.
But, just for the record, I believe the criticism of Bruce Arians mainly comes from the comparison of his reaction to that of coach Pete Carroll after his place kicker missed. Yes, it's a night and day difference, but they are also different coaches, with - most likely - different coaching philosophies. Thus, different reactions, and I believe it's wrong to draw too many conclusions or make inferences based on those reactions alone.
I digress.
I just picked up this book titled, "Mind Gym," by Gary Mack on the recommendation of a friend of mine who coaches for a highly successful volleyball club. I haven't yet cracked the cover, but the book is about building mental, "muscle," and how mentality influences your athletic performance as much as physical preparation does.
I believe this. My core coaching philosophy, the one that sums up everything I believe in as a coach, is that I try and be relentless, but authentically positive.
What does this mean?
Relentless: I find the positive in every situation, regardless of what the outcome was. It's extremely easy to find the positive on a good day. "Everyone PR'd," "We hit a new speed record," "We just won this race," - easy. The difficult days are the ones where it seems like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, and then life rubbed in a few more wrongs just to drive home the point. Maybe it's a lack of focus because we've had some good days, or we hit a new speed record. Maybe we had an awful race on Saturday, and it's Monday, and we are still digesting it, and we've carried the, "hangover," from the weekend. Maybe it's the middle of January, and it's cold, and wet outside, and the first race seems like it's years, not weeks away.
Or maybe the season is simply not progressing the way we'd hoped, and that light at the end of the tunnel seems to be fading.
Those are the hard days. But I believe you still have to find the positive in those moments. I don't think you necessarily need to dig deep. I believe that there are days where the best thing you can say is, "Tomorrow is another day."
And with that statement, that's a good place to go a bit deeper.
First, building mentally tough, or mentally resilient athletes, and second, making sure your culture fits your messages.
Let's address the second one first. Your team culture, the one you and your staff work to build, and maintain must reflect the messages you are sending. If you've built a culture where success and failure are black and white, you don't have a lot of room for the, "Tomorrow is another day," speeches.
I do not consider athletics to be, "life or death." Athletics are here to enrich your life, not define it. I believe in the saying that tomorrow is another day because I don't view any of what we do as a, "make or break," moment. I also like to use athletics as a metaphor for life, or more importantly, as a training ground for life. Learn how to take the punch, and then learn from it, and move on again. Whether you believe life has, "make or break," moments or not depends on how you view life. If you view success and failure as absolutes then yes, I believe life is, "make or break." If you view success as a response to failure, and that failure on exists if you learn nothing, then no, life doesn't have those moments.
In order for your messsage to carry weight, your message must fit your culture, and vice versa. There's hardly any room for tomorrow if there's only success or failure.
I do not know how to develop mentally tough athletes. I cannot give you a roadmap for how I build resiliency in the athletes I coach. What I can tell you is that I believe my philosophy and approach play a role in their development.
My philosophy of being positive, and finding the positive gets down to building a, "no failure," environment. How? By defining failure as a situation you encounter where you learn nothing. If you've learned something, then you've succeeded. If you've learned something, then you're a step closer to succeeding the next time you make the attempt.
Example: You want to break 7:00/1:45 minutes on your 2k, and your PB is 7:20/1:50 - I'm picking these because the numbers are easy.
So you set out to do better by going out hard, getting well under the number you need and then reality strikes about 750 meters in, and by the 1500 mark, with 500 to go, you're spent, and the test becomes a real battle to see if you pass out or die first. Drama, and something that I see year after year with novice athletes.
7:13. 13 seconds off where you wanted to be. A new PB, but disappointing given what you'd hoped for. But did you learn? Yes, I learned that in order to accomplish my goal I need to have a better plan of attack than rushing it in the first 500. I know that I need to push myself a bit on the longer pieces to build greater aerobic capacity. I know that going faster means taking five seconds off per 500, not 20 seconds off per 500.
And now when that athlete goes back, they've got a better idea of what they need to do.
This is where being positive comes into play. That athlete, who didn't get what they wanted, feels supported because you're there with them. "Hey you didn't get it all, but you improved. Let's find a way to improve again." By not building a, "make or break," culture where success is simply black and white - did you make it or didn't you - they are more apt to taking risks because the risk doesn't come with punishment.
I know that I'm simplifying things a bit, but I believe the point I'm attempting to make is clear. When I look to build resiliency in the athletes, rightly or wrongly, I don't have a piece of paper with a plan that reads, "To build mental toughness, do the following." What I have is my philosophy and the culture I like. Encouraging risk, supporting the athletes for taking those risks, and building plans with them in order to help them achieve the successes they want, and supporting the athletes when they don't quite reach their end goals. Creating a culture where risk is rewarded with encouragement, and not blunted by absolutes.
But, just for the record, I believe the criticism of Bruce Arians mainly comes from the comparison of his reaction to that of coach Pete Carroll after his place kicker missed. Yes, it's a night and day difference, but they are also different coaches, with - most likely - different coaching philosophies. Thus, different reactions, and I believe it's wrong to draw too many conclusions or make inferences based on those reactions alone.
I digress.
I just picked up this book titled, "Mind Gym," by Gary Mack on the recommendation of a friend of mine who coaches for a highly successful volleyball club. I haven't yet cracked the cover, but the book is about building mental, "muscle," and how mentality influences your athletic performance as much as physical preparation does.
I believe this. My core coaching philosophy, the one that sums up everything I believe in as a coach, is that I try and be relentless, but authentically positive.
What does this mean?
Relentless: I find the positive in every situation, regardless of what the outcome was. It's extremely easy to find the positive on a good day. "Everyone PR'd," "We hit a new speed record," "We just won this race," - easy. The difficult days are the ones where it seems like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, and then life rubbed in a few more wrongs just to drive home the point. Maybe it's a lack of focus because we've had some good days, or we hit a new speed record. Maybe we had an awful race on Saturday, and it's Monday, and we are still digesting it, and we've carried the, "hangover," from the weekend. Maybe it's the middle of January, and it's cold, and wet outside, and the first race seems like it's years, not weeks away.
Or maybe the season is simply not progressing the way we'd hoped, and that light at the end of the tunnel seems to be fading.
Those are the hard days. But I believe you still have to find the positive in those moments. I don't think you necessarily need to dig deep. I believe that there are days where the best thing you can say is, "Tomorrow is another day."
And with that statement, that's a good place to go a bit deeper.
First, building mentally tough, or mentally resilient athletes, and second, making sure your culture fits your messages.
Let's address the second one first. Your team culture, the one you and your staff work to build, and maintain must reflect the messages you are sending. If you've built a culture where success and failure are black and white, you don't have a lot of room for the, "Tomorrow is another day," speeches.
I do not consider athletics to be, "life or death." Athletics are here to enrich your life, not define it. I believe in the saying that tomorrow is another day because I don't view any of what we do as a, "make or break," moment. I also like to use athletics as a metaphor for life, or more importantly, as a training ground for life. Learn how to take the punch, and then learn from it, and move on again. Whether you believe life has, "make or break," moments or not depends on how you view life. If you view success and failure as absolutes then yes, I believe life is, "make or break." If you view success as a response to failure, and that failure on exists if you learn nothing, then no, life doesn't have those moments.
In order for your messsage to carry weight, your message must fit your culture, and vice versa. There's hardly any room for tomorrow if there's only success or failure.
I do not know how to develop mentally tough athletes. I cannot give you a roadmap for how I build resiliency in the athletes I coach. What I can tell you is that I believe my philosophy and approach play a role in their development.
My philosophy of being positive, and finding the positive gets down to building a, "no failure," environment. How? By defining failure as a situation you encounter where you learn nothing. If you've learned something, then you've succeeded. If you've learned something, then you're a step closer to succeeding the next time you make the attempt.
Example: You want to break 7:00/1:45 minutes on your 2k, and your PB is 7:20/1:50 - I'm picking these because the numbers are easy.
So you set out to do better by going out hard, getting well under the number you need and then reality strikes about 750 meters in, and by the 1500 mark, with 500 to go, you're spent, and the test becomes a real battle to see if you pass out or die first. Drama, and something that I see year after year with novice athletes.
7:13. 13 seconds off where you wanted to be. A new PB, but disappointing given what you'd hoped for. But did you learn? Yes, I learned that in order to accomplish my goal I need to have a better plan of attack than rushing it in the first 500. I know that I need to push myself a bit on the longer pieces to build greater aerobic capacity. I know that going faster means taking five seconds off per 500, not 20 seconds off per 500.
And now when that athlete goes back, they've got a better idea of what they need to do.
This is where being positive comes into play. That athlete, who didn't get what they wanted, feels supported because you're there with them. "Hey you didn't get it all, but you improved. Let's find a way to improve again." By not building a, "make or break," culture where success is simply black and white - did you make it or didn't you - they are more apt to taking risks because the risk doesn't come with punishment.
I know that I'm simplifying things a bit, but I believe the point I'm attempting to make is clear. When I look to build resiliency in the athletes, rightly or wrongly, I don't have a piece of paper with a plan that reads, "To build mental toughness, do the following." What I have is my philosophy and the culture I like. Encouraging risk, supporting the athletes for taking those risks, and building plans with them in order to help them achieve the successes they want, and supporting the athletes when they don't quite reach their end goals. Creating a culture where risk is rewarded with encouragement, and not blunted by absolutes.
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