Over the past few issues of both the World of Soccer newsletter and the Byte Size Coaching newsletter we've been looking at what goes into the makeup of a good or perhaps, outstanding coach.  Initially we had a brainstorming session at the conclusion of a Canadian Provincial B Course some weeks back (Click here to read the article) .  This had been sparked off by Brian challenging me as to what was the benefit of a course such as this.

Brian said, "What are your coaches doing spending two weekends to get a piece of paper?  Do they know what goes into the makeup of an outstanding coach?"  So we tried to establish that in a group discussion as part of the course.  And then later Brian Halliday gave us his own version. (Click here to read).

In one of my Emails to Brain I had inadvertently called him "Brain" - not the most insulting of typos.

Now we do have a legitimate "brain."

Continuing our quest for the qualities of a coach, in the Practice Section we are going to Australia to see what Wayne Goldsmith's Sports Coaching Brain Newsletter has to say about the topic.

Robin Russell, the architect of the LMA On-Line Course, first recommended the Sports Coaching Brain Newsletter to me and I recommend it to you.  If you like what you see after reading his "50 Ways to Enhance your Coaching Performance in High Performance then subscribe to get future issues.  You'll see that Wayne Goldsmith was being criticized for being negative - all coaches are to a certain degree - and was asked to come up with the positive qualities he thought were the most important.

50 Ways to Enhance your Coaching Performance in High Performance Sport.

by Wayne Goldsmith

Recently I got an email from someone saying, "Hi Wayne. You seem to have a lot to say about what people are doing wrong in high performance sport. How about you "put your money where your mouth is" and post a list of things people can do to enhance the performance of their athletes, teams and programs."

OK. I did.

1. Train harder;

2. Train smarter;

3. Train harder and smarter;

4. Improve your leadership skills;

5. Consistently out-prepare everyone in your competition;

6. Dream bigger;

7. Believe in yourself;

8. Back yourself;

9. Get up faster when you are knocked down or face adversity;

10. Get tougher mentally;

11. Never accept the first "no" from a sports administrator or bureaucrat - just fight harder;

12. Become outstanding at finding and retaining talented athletes;

13. Develop the most creative thinking skills in your sport: the best ideas win;

14. Be more passionate about success than anyone else in your sport;

15. Never become complacent: success is a moving target;

16. Enthusiasm, passion, desire and attitude are contagious diseases: are yours worth catching?

17. Use sports science intelligently, effectively and with intent;

18. Get to know your athletes better than they know themselves;

19. Collaborate with your athletes - don't coach at them;

20. Listen;

21. Take care of your own health - physical, mental and spiritual;

22. Be committed to intelligent change and continuous improvement;

23. Make friends far more often than you make enemies;

24. Develop a network of coaches in other sports and speak with them regularly;

25. Leave your ego at the door - ego kills progress and limits creativity;

26. Read books by great leaders, great thinkers and great philosophers: there are lessons to be learnt everywhere;

27. Go back and read Number 1 on this list again - you have to work harder than anyone else;

28. There are no short cuts: anything promising double figure improvement (e.g. 10% or more) in high performance sport is more fictitious than Lord of the Rings and you aren't a hobbit;

29. Develop a group of close friends outside of your sport and don't talk to them about sport;

30. Sleep and eat well everyday;

31. Find a sports science network group who respect you, want to collaborate with you and will grow with you;

32. Adopt an integrated approach to identifying and developing talent: physical, mental, technical, tactical, cultural and genetic;

33. Teach one new lesson to every athlete every day;

34. Give and seek feedback often;

35. Hate losing - but learn from it, grow from it and improve as a consequence;

36. Take smart risks with your program, your ideas and your coaching;

37. See an athlete's parents as partners in performance not as adversaries or just paying clients;

38. Create the culture you want to coach in: start with your own attitude then "infect" everyone around you;

39. Accelerate your learning faster than your opposition: from learning comes change, from change comes improvement, from improvement comes winning;

40. Take up another passion - i.e. other than your sport - to focus your mind and intelligence on;

41. Get to know the techniques, skills, rules and regulations of your sport better than anyone in the world;

42. Learn from the legend coaches of your sport - to see further than giants, you must stand upon their shoulders;

43. Keep records, refer back to them often and learn from them: those who do not learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them;

44. Find a mentor - someone whose skills, knowledge, experience, attitudes and philosophies are complimentary (i.e. different) to your own;

45. Find someone to mentor: nothing teaches like teaching;

46. Become a master of the Internet, social networking and all current forms of communication: communicate the way your athletes want to be communicated with;

47. Don't think, speak or act in absolutes....there is no such things as "always, "never", "must" and "only" in high performance sport: challenge everything!

48. Learn enough about sports science, sports medicine, technology and strength and conditioning to look your staff in the eye and challenge them with a level of credibility and understanding;

49. Hire intelligently: hire on attitude and passion, then train the skills you need;

50. And number 50.........an oldie but a goodie....never, ever give up. Persistence and perseverance usually beat talent, money, facilities and potential.
    

There you go. 

What are your top 50? Let me know - let's see if we can add another 500 to my list!

Wayne Goldsmith 

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