Author: Andy Gillham

Sport is Back: Let’s Make it a Success

In the sporting landscape, there are at least two current paradoxes that are of interest to athletes, coaches, and key stakeholders. First, particularly in the United States, there has been great diversity in the degree to which sport has been affected by the SARS-COVID-19 pandemic. Some sports and states have endured seasons cancelled and venues closed while others have moved forward with more modest adjustments. A second noteworthy paradox is that while more people have been homebound during 2020 and 2021, they have been clamoring for information on how best to proceed whenever sport does return, yet finding quality information can be elusive. This presents a confound in that researchers simply haven’t had the time yet to produce high-quality scholarly work on the effects of SARS-COVID-19 on the sporting landscape though that in no way lessens the need. Therefore traditional academic outlets of books, textbooks, and peer-reviewed journal articles are not yet caught up to the realities athletes and coaches are currently facing. Many academic conferences, typically a quicker route to quality information dissemination, have been cancelled or reduced due to the pandemic, too.

054004-02802P POWER-Coaching-Hockey-Academy-Sports-PT-RTP-7-10-2020

Ultimately, parents of athletes, coaches, and the athletes themselves are collectively in a similar situation: Where to find quality information on how to return to sport after a season was canceled or how to cope with significant modifications to their sport experience. There is no shortage of questions that could be addressed and due to the breadth of the Internet, no shortage of possible sources for information. This all culminates into the community need for quality information to be available, free of charge, and for that information to be from true experts in the sport field. PHE America serves as a conduit for quality information dissemination and one organization that has created a breadth of quality information throughout the SARS-COVID-19 pandemic is Sanford Health based in Sioux Falls, SD. Within Sanford Health is the Sanford Sports Science Institute and Sanford POWER Performance Lab both of which focus on improving athlete performance.

Read More

Best Practices for Coaches When Providing Feedback

(3 Minute Read)

Youth sport coaches are tasked with the difficult job of taking the abundance of knowledge they have and delivering it to athletes at various developmental stages in a way that makes sense. One way that coaches often deliver information is through offering feedback for both positive and negative behaviors. Feedback is used to increase the athlete’s performance of a movement and can come in many forms. However, not all types of feedback are created equal. While the purpose of feedback is to increase an athlete’s skill level and confidence, feedback given at the wrong time and in the wrong way can do the exact opposite. The remainder of this article will present best practices for giving feedback when teaching new skills.

To begin, it is important to understand that there are two main types of verbal feedback. The first type of verbal feedback is called supportive feedback. Supportive feedback is used to reinforce components of a skill that an athlete performed well. The second type of feedback is named change-oriented feedback. The purpose of this type of feedback is to provide an athlete with information about how to change their behavior to increase their performance. While both types of feedback are essential, they can either increase or decrease confidence and skill-based on the coach’s delivery. Feedback that is specific, directed, goal-oriented, and frequent is generally viewed as most effective.

Read More

Strength and Conditioning Considerations for the Youth Sport Coach

It is no secret that youth sport coaches fill a variety of roles for their athletes. Those roles can vary from day-to-day based on athlete needs. One important distinction at the youth (high school or club) level is that the sport coach must fill roles that would otherwise be occupied by allied professionals at higher competitive levels.

For example, a youth sport coach often tapes an ankle or may serve as the default sport psychology consultant. Additionally, many sport coaches are put in the position of having to design the strength and conditioning portion of athlete training. The remainder of this article will focus on how youth sport coaches at the high school and club level can serve as their own strength and conditioning (S&C) coach in addition to simply being the sport coach. In order to make the article more applicable, examples from a single sport, gymnastics, will be used as a point of reference.

2018-10-08_Gymnastics_at_2018_Summer_Youth_Olympics_–_Boys'_Artistic_Gymnastics_–_Rings_qualification_(Martin_Rulsch)_1212

Read More

How Coaches Can Optimize Athletes’ Mental Performance

Coaches strive to understand their athletes. They aim to understand how they learn and how they think in order to motivate and mold them into the athletes they want them to become. While coaches often act with the athlete’s best interest in mind by training and conditioning them physically for competition, coaches often miss crucial pieces of an athlete’s psychological experience. The psychological needs of an athlete can stem from performance situations, such as motivation or difficulty focusing during competition, or clinical situations, such as anxiety or depression.

images

Understanding and talking about the athlete’s psychological needs might help coaches understand what truly motivates each athlete and how they can better overcome the non-physical challenges they face throughout a season. No matter the number of hours spent training and conditioning, pre-competition anxiety can overwhelm even the most talented athlete. An athlete can diligently practice a new play, but the presence of an opponent or the pressure of the game may alter their ability to execute what they have practiced. Pressure situations can crack even the most prepared athletes who struggle with performance anxiety. By implementing psychological training components (i.e. sport psychology) coaches can assist athletes and teams in their quest to get better.

Why Sport Psychology Works
Sport psychology is the connection between the mind and the body and how the mind and body impact performance. Think of a race car. No matter how fast or powerful the car is, if the driver does not have the knowledge and control to operate the vehicle, the specifically built race car is no better than any other vehicle. Through the use of sport psychology concepts, the coach can aim to train athletes’ minds to effectively run their “race car,” through pressure and regular performances. Sport psychology concepts include topics like goal setting and self-talk to more complex theories of imagery and relaxation. Using these different sport psychology concepts, coaches can help athletes gain awareness of how their mind and body react during practice and competition, to better optimize performance. Having this awareness allows athletes and coaches to practice overcoming the innate internal obstacles that arise while they aim to achieve peak performance.

Read More