Welcome back to the regular reader, and greetings to anybody finding the Prepared Blog for the first time. Highlights from this past week included a visit to the Tennis Canada regional training centre for the province of British Columbia on Vancouver’s North Shore. On that note, the theme I chose to focus on this week is engaging with coaches, albeit I was also tempted to go down either the talent identification or talent development rabbit hole… I will save that for a future post!

For some context, the Vancouver site is one of four Tennis Canada regional centres across Canada that supports the national centre in Montreal, where selected players aged 15-18 graduating from the regional squads continue their schooling whilst training full-time as they prepare to make the transition to the professional circuit. The most high profile product of the system to date is Bianca Andreescu, who recently won the US Open Grand Slam title.

FACILITIES VERSUS ENVIRONMENT…

I recently connected with the head coach for the Vancouver centre, the exceptional Oded Jacob. Following that meeting and conversation over coffee, a former colleague and I were invited to come along and check out a training session. On the surface the facilities are no more or less what you would expect to see at any indoor tennis centre. As I have learned to expect, the real point of difference are the less tangible aspects of the environment, which is predominantly created by the coaching staff.

My travels around the world have taught me that beyond meeting minimum requirements to run a viable programme, facilities and equipment do not confer ‘high performance’ status. That said, one court at the Vancouver centre does boast the innovative and very impressive SmartCourt technology, which automatically captures and catalogues players’ movements and shots in each rally, via multiple cameras mounted around the court, supported with ‘smart’ machine learning algorithms.

Gadgets aside, and returning to the important stuff, I was most impressed to see young players practicing intelligently, and watching Oded work with the athletes certainly reinforced my initial impression that he is a coach of the highest pedigree. Exceptional coaches are a rare breed, and throughout my journey I have gone out of my way to connect with such individuals and spend time interacting with them and observing their work with athletes. On a personal and professional level these have been some of the most worthwhile experiences of my career.

ENGAGING WITH COACHES…

Conversely, a trait that these individuals have in common is an enduring curiosity, and this characteristic makes them receptive to the ideas and input of others, assuming they have deemed the source to have legitimate knowledge and expertise to share. I have always found this striking, and is part of what separates these individuals from lesser coaches and practitioners.

Oded very much embodies these attributes. Every aspect of how he coaches and prepares each player is very considered, which lends a great deal of conviction to how he runs the programme; nevertheless Oded was quick to engage me in asking for my thoughts, and genuinely entertained what I had to say. I very much enjoyed the back and forth, including the push-back! After monday’s visit I followed up with some resources and objective data to support the point of view I was offering. I very much look forward to future opportunities to engage and I am eager to continue the exchange!

THE WEEK THAT WAS…

We open with a quick update on Mackenzie, the national development bobsled athlete who recently migrated for the winter to rejoin the national programme for the forthcoming season. Regular readers will recall the disappointment Mackenzie experienced recently with the dry land assessments at the final recruitment camp for the BC province, frankly due to the indoor facility not being fit for purpose (this is a case of facilities failing to meet minimum requirements).

Having returned to Calgary, last week Mackenzie had another opportunity to test, this time on an actual indoor track, as opposed to a sports hall with track lanes painted on it. Oddly enough, this made a considerable difference and she stormed to a personal best in the sprint assessments, as well as impressing in the other assessments, including a one-repetition maximum PB for the barbell power clean lift. This was certainly a better reflection of the work Mackenzie put in over the summer, and follows on from the sprint PB registered at the previous assessments in Calgary in late July. It was also fitting reward for Mackenzie keeping the faith.

We will close with an update on masters triathlete Diane, who is at a somewhat earlier stage in the process. Diane came to me towards the end of the summer with the goal of improve her capabilities for the running portion of the triathlon and has just completed a handful of sessions to date. Despite being a mature athlete, as is often the case for athletes in running based endurance sports, this is essentially the first time Diane has been given any clarity on the fundamental mechanics of running and in turn some idea what she should be seeking to do when she runs.

Accordingly, at this stage much of the drills and technical aspects we are working on are still unfamiliar. Changing the way an athlete has become accustomed to moving can be a daunting prospect, and there is naturally some initial apprehension to overcome. Whilst on a rational level it would seem reasonable to expect that a new way of moving will feel different, equally the fact that it does feel strange and unfamiliar certainly puts individuals out of their comfort zone. Once again, this does require a level of trust on the part of the individual to engage with the process and keep the faith that they will master the new way of moving, so that in time it feels natural. Diane continues to make huge strides (pun somewhat intended) and continues to show courage and willingness to engage with the mental challenges that are part of the journey she has chosen to embark on.

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Nov 5, 2021

Free-Range Athletes

The parallels between coaching and parenting are striking and both of these elements naturally come together with youth sports. The concept of free-range kids popularised by author (and parent) Lenore Skenazy thus readily applies to how we coach young athletes (as well as sport parenting). In each case, free play and participating in unsupervised games are essential parts of how children and young athletes develop. Engaging in play is central to how we learn to navigate the world and engage with others. Voluntarily participating in games with others (without intervention from the grown ups) teaches kids how to conduct themselves and develops the capability to interact with peers in a competitive context and a cooperative manner. A less structured environment where the kids themselves decide the playing area and the rules of the game affords the opportunity to apply what they have learned, explore different tactics and engage in trial and error. As such, free play and unsupervised games are particularly rich in opportunities to acquire and adapt sport skills and develop game sense. Given the myriad benefits and the essential role that these opportunities play in developing adept athletes and capable humans, it seems baffling that they are systematically being eliminated with today’s youth. So here we will make the case for applying the free-range perspective to rethink youth sports participation and talent development in a way that fosters engagement and creates self-reliant athletes.

Sep 18, 2021

Teach an Athlete to Fish...

When we do something for a performer that they could do for themselves we deprive them of an opportunity to progress towards becoming self-sufficient. Whilst this might seem like a small thing, if we extrapolate this out, these small things compound over time into a major issue. All of which becomes apparent when the occasion arises that the performer is on their own and facing a situation that requires them to act independently, only to find themselves to be entirely unprepared to do so.

May 7, 2021

Helping Young Performers Find Their Aim

Having an end in mind is pretty important. Aspiring towards a future outcome provides the impetus and intent that helps us to act in the moment. Knowing where we want to get to also provides a sense of how we are progressing and in turn guides us along the way. Deciding upon an ultimate aim is thus a central theme of the youth sports journey. As we will explore to some extent the performer settles upon their ultimate aspiration through a process of elimination and will often try out a few before they find their true north star to guide the journey. These formative experiences and the lessons they contain are part of what makes participating in youth sports so valuable in developing crucial traits, tools and behaviours that serve the performer well not only in their chosen sport but also in their life outside sport.

Apr 9, 2021

What Performers Need to Hear

What we want to hear and what we need to hear do not always match up. Indeed in some instances they are distinctly different things! On the youth sports journey the performer will encounter numerous trials and situations that offer abundant lessons. The conversations with those around them are an integral part of how the performer makes sense of events, puzzle things through and elucidate what lessons to take. As the grown ups, it follows that coaches and parents alike have a duty to help performers be objective and uncover the insights to make the best use of these experiences. To that end, there is an onus on us to ensure that the performer maintains a healthy relationship with the truth and remains in touch with reality.

Mar 12, 2021

Feeling Privileged

The idea of privilege has taken on strange and somewhat dark connotations in recent times, as has the idea of feeling privileged. This strikes me as a little odd. As a coach I feel privileged to work with performers who are committed to their craft. I am quick to acknowledge that it is a privilege to coach these individuals and to have them place their faith in my expertise. I feel grateful for my good fortune. I also feel a profound sense of responsibility to hold such a privileged position and a duty to do great work in return. Perhaps we should foster a more healthy attitude towards privilege. By reframing how we think about privilege we can perhaps respond to it in ways that better serves the performer and those supporting them.

Feb 26, 2021

Dealing with Distraction

Distraction is a constant feature of modern life. Current generations are growing up as digital natives and the allure of technology is ever-present in most environments. Clearly the genie is not going back in the bottle so it follows we should take steps to equip young performers to manage their own mental traffic to take back control of their actions and better deal with distractions of technological and other origin. The ability to marshal one’s own attention and resist becoming sidetracked is arguably the new superpower. Developing these capabilities to harness and direct our attention amidst all the distraction represents not only a competitive advantage but also the key to unlocking the possibilities for long term achievement in sport and beyond.

Jan 11, 2021

Judging What to Prioritise and When for a Young Performer

Getting a handle on a young performer’s present status from a developmental perspective is crucial. After all, without this information we have no real frame of reference for making judgements or deciding on the best way forward. The reason that talent identification policy and development pathways at junior level frequently go awry in practice (as we noted in a previous post) is in large part due to a failure to account for maturation and relative age effects. Young performers at age-grade level are far from a homogenous group. Kids in the same age group may be at very different points in their trajectory. That growth and development curves for young performers can vary so widely inevitably thwarts any attempt to adopt a blanket approach. Whilst individual growth curves eventually converge, during their formative teenage years young performers can differ dramatically in how they present at any given time and this is manifested both physically and in the performance capabilities that they exhibit. Given that much of the variability we see at age-grade is simply due to the fact that kids are at very different stages in their relative stage of development, it follows we need some way to assess where a young performer is on their individual growth trajectory. Aside from the addressing the challenge of parsing genuine ‘talent’ versus maturation effects for sporting organisations, we equally need to be able to evaluate these factors on an individual level to inform decisions on how to best support the young performer. In this post we present a tool to estimate biological age and relative stage of maturation and describe how to use this information to inform the priority areas for development and guide training for the young performer.

Nov 27, 2020

Bringing a Performance Mindset to Dealing with Sports Injuries

Sports injuries pose arguably the biggest trials for aspiring performers, challenging not only the body but also the mind. How the performer and those around them approach and handle the process that follows more severe injuries in particular can prove to be pivotal. What mindset the performer and those around them bring to the task of dealing with injury is hugely influential in shaping the route this takes. A performance mindset goes a long way when contemplating the path forward following an injury. Indeed belief alone plays a role in shaping the eventual outcome. There is evidence that those who express high expectations of making a successful return as they enter the process (such as prior to surgery) are more likely to ultimately achieve that outcome in reality.

Nov 13, 2020

The Merits of Becoming an Athletic Virtuoso

Raw physical attributes and performance in junior competition are not good predictors of future success until late adolescence. Technical skills, tactical awareness and character traits are more reflective of future potential. Beyond the specialist skills of the sport, more evolved talent ID and development systems are also starting to recognise the value of general movement proficiency or athleticism. As with skills and character, these qualities are less biased by the transient influence of growth and maturation, making them a much more reliable indicator of future potential and a crucial asset regardless of the sport. From the performer’s perspective, developing athleticism is therefore a very good investment in the future.

Oct 29, 2020

Practicing Resilience

Grit and resilience are increasingly identified as crucial factors for the long-term success of young performers. Some people have even started to speak about practicing resilience. But what does this mean? How might we practically go about fostering resilience in aspiring young performers? If resilience is a practice or discipline then what does this look like in reality?

Oct 16, 2020

Navigating Talent ID and Selection in Youth Sports

One of the biggest travails of the youth sports journey is dealing with selection. Even the most successful athletes often recall instances of disappointment at not being selected for teams or being benched during their years competing at high school and junior level. Navigating selection and talent identification policies are thus part of youth sports. To help parents and young performers themselves deal with these trials we should try to understand the factors at play and perhaps find some strategies to overcome the challenges involved.

Oct 2, 2020

Realising the Full Benefits of Youth Sports

A notable casualty amid the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic has been organised sport below the elite and professional level. In recent weeks kids have cautiously returned to school, but youth sports and school sport in particular remain off limits for many. Competition schedules for the coming year are still in limbo. There is a question mark over whether there will even be a competitive season for some sports and this uncertainty extends to college sports, which is the end-goal that many high school aspire to. Against this backdrop, the numbers of kids who have returned to participating in training and practices are way down since the lockdown and returning to school. There is an understandable reluctance among parents and the kids themselves to reengage in sport, given the perceived risks. Some authors are already sounding the alarm that the present generation of high school kids may be lost from participating in organised sport.

Sep 17, 2020

Developing Grit in Young Performers

Over recent years talent identification in sport has started to acknowledge and account for the crucial character element in talent development. In particular, the importance of ‘grit’ is increasingly championed. Coaches and parents are accordingly becoming more aware of this concept in relation to youth sports. So what is grit, how does it relate to long-term success in sport and what can we do to create the conditions to help foster grittiness in young performers?