10 Skills Any True Coach Must Balance, by Dan John
1. Constant assessment
2. Constant upgrading
3. Ignore perfect - strive for (a) Pretty Good (b) Better
4. This isn't moral theology - there's time for everything just maybe not today
5. Everything works - for a bit at least. Did it get you closer to the goal?
6. Achieving a Goal Vs Success - enjoy the process
7. After the peak is the cliff - what will you do when you reach the top? Always plan the route down.
8. Self-disciple is a finite resource - communal support needed
9. Fundamentals trump everything else
10. Take a moment to thank those who came before you

Why are Team Sky so successful?, on BBC
- Brailsford: "Elite sport is like a treadmill - stop moving and you fly off"

Pete Carroll, NFL's Eternal Optimist, on si.com
- Where some people say 'worst possible decision', Carroll says 'worst possible outcome'
- PC has "very deliberately created a culture that encourages passion and perseverance - the two components of grit"
- Carroll is "what psychologists call an Authoritative Parent: warm but demanding, unconditionally supportive but with hig expectations"
- Less about victory, more about process
- Striving FOR something, not AGAINST something
- Encouraged different, individual personalities - a celebration of uniqueness
- He wanted to frame even the epic SuperBowl defeat as a teachable moment

Graham Henry: Learned to win the RWC, on guardian
- Culture comes first
- Check your ego. Anecdote of Tana Umage asking Henry - "what/who are the team talks for? Are they for you or for us?"
- Empower your players
- Be smart
- Confront your weaknesses
- Expect the unexpected

Embracing the adaptive capacity of our young learners, on footblogball
- David Epstein = "In our pursuit of better players we are making better 10 year olds but not better senior players. The developmental pathway that makes the best 10 year old isn't the same on that makes the best 20 year old".

The Sports Gene Ch1, by David Epstein
- Most people "simple reaction time" is 200 miliseconds (time for retina to receive info and then put muscles in motion). Elite athletes are the SAME.
- Janet Starkes created modern sports 'occlusion' test in 1975. The test was to show photos from volleyball match with ball just in or just out of the shot. Players look at the photo for a fraction of a second (too quick to see ball). Elite players FAR better to determine if ball in the photo. 
- Elite athletes seemed to have 'miraculously' photographic memory when it came to their sport
- Elite athletes CHUNK information - unconscious grouping of information into smaller and more meaningful chunks based on patterns they have seen before
- "perceiving order allows elite athletes to extract critical information from the arrangement of players or from subtle changes in an opponent's body movements in order to make unconscious predictions about what will happen next"
- Brain automation is hyperspecific to the practised skill
- "it is software, not hardware" eg learned, not genetic

Developing World Class Potential, by Mark Upton on medium.
- Notes from Maria Ruiz de Ona talk...
- Environment needs to be positive by very clear about purpose of talent development
- Genuine change will lead to confusion/doubt for a while
- Coach needs to learn to observe
- To produce confident players we must create challenging environment
- "We need doubt - it makes us think"

The Power of Not Punting, on campusrush
- Kevin Kelley's Bruins don't punt the ball. They "always play as if they are 10 points down with 90 seconds left".
- Comes down to careful use of odds and statistics
- "nearly every great football innovation has come out of an attempt to close a talent gap"

Don't Decide Like Martians, on psychologyblog.com
- The most common team decision strategy (voting) is probably the worst
- Team decisions have competing agendas and interpretations
- 3 options for decision making: Leader decides; team broker action to reflect the desires of members; vote.
- Vote puts huge social pressure to conform, therefore if using voting then confidentiality is key

The Coach's Coach, on hmmrmedia
- Becoming a better coach is more than methods
- Find a mentor, observe then build a bridge between theory and practice
- Art of coaching not just about training methods but communication and understanding athletes
- Nothing replaces experience
- In the end you have to try to do it yourself. The trouble is in knowing how you are doing.
- Everyone needs a coach

Secret Ingredients of Great Coaching, on Changing the Game Project
- Coaching is a RELATIONSHIP business
PERFORMANCE = (POTENTIAL + BEHAVIOUR) - INTERFERENCE
- Too many coaches ignore 'interference'
- Trust is the secret ingredient of great coaching.
- Steven R Covey: characteristics of high trust teams include:
Common purpose and values; Respect; Commitment; Resiliency; Love which decreases fear; Few discipline issues; Intrinsically motivated players; celebrate each other's success
- Coaches must intentionally build trust in team
- Coaches need to be worthy of trust, coach the person not the sport
- Trust works by Blanchard, Olmstead and Lawrence:
ABILITY / BELIEVABILITY / CONNECTEDNESS / DEPENDABILITY

What a Fighter Pilot Can Teach About Teamwork and Focus, on inc.com
- Feel the fear, do it anyway
1. 80% is good enough. 80% of the information is enough, follow up and follow through
2. Prioritize. Three priorities is enough
3. Deal with fear. Question is not whether you will fail but how you will respond to it.
4. Trust
5. Focus. Simple statement of purpose, adaptability easier if everyone is oriented to one singular purpose.

Why Organisations Don't Learn, on internettime.com
- Real Learning features:
* Destigmatize making mistakes
* Embrace growth mindset
* Avoid attribution bias
* Don't work to exhaustion
* Take frequent breaks
* Take time to think
* Encourage reflection
* Leverage your strengths
* Know the person

Knowing How You Decide is as Important as the Decision, on nymag.com
- Traditional research = keeping options open ultimately makes you less happy with your choice. It is better to choose and move on with it.
- New Research = reversible decisions can still make you happy. Depends on what type of decision maker you are.
There are two types:
1. MAXIMIZERS - concerned with making BEST decision having considered every option
2. SATISFICERS - know what they want, find an option that meets that criteria then pick and move on
- Satisficers tend to be happier with choices
- New research (R Shiner) indicates Satisficers happier with permanent decision, Maximizers happier knowing they can change their mind. This suggests, at least for little things, Maximizers better off recognizing tendencies around decision making and adjust accordingly
- Key to better decision making may be understanding how you make decisions

Reflective Practice, on SCUK
- Reflective Practice basically = thinking/reflecting on what you do
- Difference between casual and purposeful thinking - making considered and cognitive effort to consider and recall what happened, the part you played and your view against it as coach with expected outcome
- Reflective Practice is a conduit for experiential learning. A PURPOSEFUL and COMPLEX process that facilitates the examination of experience by questioning whole self within context of practice
- Reflective Practice transforms experience into learning
- Must develop critical thinking and open mindedness

Establishing Athlete Behaviour Standards, on ASEP.com
- Athlete behaviour should be evaluated against flexible team standards, not rules
- John Wooden = equal treatment is not equitable treatment
- Rules punish negative behaviour whereas Standards promote positive behaviour
- Urban Meyer has a three-tier system:
BLUE LEVEL = entry level for all. Lowest status and fewest earned privileges. eg No unexcused absence from class
RED LEVEL = show record of good academic performance and adherence to team standards. Earnt more freedom and trust.
GOLD LEVEL = shown they desire to be treated like 'grown men'
His coaches meet weekly to review and move athletes up or down the levels.

Serial Winners Top 10, on Leeds Beckett
1. Get the right people on the bus
2. Be athlete-centred
3. Partnership not dictatorship
4. Emotional intelligence is as important as sporting intelligence
5. Thick skin is a must-have
6. Work-life balance matters
7. Serial winners suffer from serial insecurity
8. Create simple image of future and plan towards it
9. Develop belief in others
10. Take risks

All Blacks - Learners, on medium.com
- Strive to develop independent learners where players drive their own development
- Not just players who should be viewed as learners but coaches and support staff too
- Key traits are trust, critical thinking, open mind, diversity of experience, humility, courage and letting go of the past
- "the more we talk about learning stuff, and the less we talk about winning stuff, the better we get at developing excellence and the more likely we are to win" Al Smith
- "Nice amenities do not cultivate talent...hardship does" Brett Bartholomew
- "Build a program and a culture that is built on positive expectation and accountability" Chidi Enyie

Creating the Culture, by Brett Bartholomew on McMillanSpeed
- world within us influences world around us = how culture created
- coaches need to be able to "talk in colour"
- START WITH WHY
- When we understand athlete's unique internal environment we can better construct everything around it to bring best out of them

Rugby Skills and Coaching Environment, on KickCoaching
- Not just mechanics = pre-performance routine, distraction, focus of attention, visualisation scripts and emotional intelligence
- Skills sessions should include = perception, context, cues, challenge, variability
- Kicking = 1. Whole Body Movement
                   2. Contact Quality
                   3. Impact line (path of knee, foot and ball)
                   4. Transfer of weight (momentum through impact)

Why we are bad at predicting our own behaviour, on Science of Running
- Coaches job at elite level is to hold the reigns : know the athlete well enough to make best decisions for them as they may not themselves

Carol Dweck on Fixed Mindset vs Growth Mindset, on examinedexistence
- Fixed Mindset = affirmation of intelligence is success and therefore avoid failure
- Growth Mindset = seeks challenge, failure is a springboard for growth and development
Factor                                     Fixed Mindset                                     Growth Mindset
Intelligence                             Static                                                          Can be developed
Challenges                              Avoid                                                          Embrace
Obstacles                                Give up easily                                            Persist
Effort                                        Fruitless                                                     Path to mastery
Criticism                                  Ignore                                                         Learn
Success of Others                  Threatened                                                Lessons and inspiration
                                                  Plateau early                                             ever-higher level of achievement
                                                  Deterministic view of world                   Sense of free will

Can Creativity Be Taught? on creativityatwork.com
- George Land Test concluded non-creative behaviour is learned
- Creativity skills can be learned by learning and applying creative thinking processes
- Amabile (1998) 3 Components of Creativity: Expertise, Creative Thinking, Motivation.
- learn to be creative by experimenting, exploring and questioning assumptions, by using imagination and synthesising information.
- We don't learn to be creative, we must become creative people
- Fastest way to become creative is to hang around with creative people
- Give permission to be WRONG. Learn from mistakes.

John Fox's NAVY SEAL Stepfather, on ESPN
- "It's amazing what can be accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit"