Developing a buy-in culture to get the most out of your sports or business team

2005-11-25T08:47:00.000-08:00

This link will send you to the Bio Team Blog where the article is posted!

Happy Reading

Coop

Player Development Series

2005-10-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

Competing confidently under pressure

2004-09-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

As a coach having been lucky enough to work with athletes from peewee to pro I am constantly studying and discovering strategies to assist the athletes and teams that I work with to be able to consistently compete with confidence even under tremendous pressure.

My latest view on this subject features the strategy of combining an athletes strengths with their ability to powerfully ride the waves of their competitive storms. Let me explain. First, lets talk about the importance of competing through an athletes strengths:

As a competition comes closer to its conclusion it is critical for an athlete to have managed their confidence to be able to successful.

The best way for athletes to be able to be successful during the critical part of their competition is to have a high level of trust in their abilities to do so. But where does this trust come from? It has to come from identifying, discovering, practicing and competing from their sport skills, talents and attitudes that they are naturally strong at (their strengths). Each athlete has to recognize that they indeed do have strengths, and that as they continue to develop them they will build a solid foundation of confidence that will allow them to think, perform and compete to win!

Unfortunately most athletes suffer from stage fright under pressure and revert to focusing on how not to lose which paralyses their ability to perform and leaves them wondering what went wrong after an unsuccessful competition.

The second part of this equation is that the athletes actually need train on how to "ride the waves" of their sport. What is "ride the waves"? In every sporting event (or every day for that matter) numerous things get thrown at us that we didn't see coming. An athletes ability to ride the waves allows them to stay cool under fire and look for ways to use they waves to makes better descisions about what to do nextin their competitive event.

Some examples of this would include recognizing when you have just captured the momentum and then taking charge, recognizing when an opponent is starting to show signs of weakness, or while struggling you try a new strategy that totally turns the competition around. By having the confidence to "ride the waves" of your event, you will find tremendous ways to finish a match, turn around a game or to re-strategize! The trick though is that you have to be looking for these waves and this takes practice.

Once I've explained the ride the waves concept to an athlete or team, we discuss the performance gap that they currently face, which is where they are now with where they could be by competing more from their strengths and riding the waves of their competitive events. From this discussion the athlete or team has a pretty clear picture of what to be focusing on over their next training period.

The good news is that once the athlete or team has this clear picture of what to work on, its simply a matter of creating the right strategies to effectively close their specific performance gap.

So that my latest folks, compete with your strengths and ride the waves to close your performance gap and give yourself YOUR best opportunity for SUCCESS!

P.S. As you can see by my writing that I write in a new language called: coopeneeze. I apologize but once I my enthusiasm for success gets going I can't stop and you get some confusing language, but hey remember I'm just trying to compete from my strengths!

About Sportscoop

2004-09-24T05:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog! My name is Dave Cooper and I am both a sports performance coach and sports fanatic (thus the name sportscoop) I operate ML Sports Management, whose mission is to assist athletes, teams and organizations to identify, develop & compete with their Competitive Edge & Leadership skills!

My background includes sports performance coaching, Tennis Pro, Author and presenter to both individuals, teams and organizations. I have been fortunate to have coached for over 18 years, with my tennis experiences including teaching in Canada, the United States and Tahiti.

I have also been fortunate to work with many athletes, coaches and organizations dedicated to developing Sports Leaders both on and off the playing field. I look forward to meeting many like minded people who share in the cause of assisting athletes everywhere tap into their unique talents, skills and dreams to develop their Competitive Edge, one that inspires performance as well as Leadership!

Go for it!

Dave Cooper
sportscoop