No foul mouths on this field, on NYtimes
- Jimmy Graham on Carroll's Seahawks = "here, they feel like you guys are already men and we're going to treat you like men. It's literally all positive reinforcement."
- Gervais' psych and emotional input possible as Carroll built a team that valued keeping an open mind.
- Carroll and his staff are "supportive and nurturing"

How to increase mental toughness: 4 secrets of Olympians and Navy SEALS, on Bakadesuyo.com
1. Talk positively to yourself.
- Optimists have the view that bad things are temporary, bad things have a specific cause and aren't universal, it's not their fault.
2. Set goals
3. Practice visualization. Don't seek perfection, try to see problems you may encounter and how to solve them
4. Use simulations

Billy Bean on making better decisions... , on farnamstreetblog
- When he hired he looked out of sport to someone who didn't have his biases - Paul dePodesta was a Harvard Econ major.
- Remove the emotion from decision making - your own experiences are tied to an emotion. Take blind eye and look at things fresh. Don't make assumptions.
- Always analyze your process, make sure you weren't correct through serendipity but because the process is good and you are doing things properly.
- "I think, if anything, we certainly didn't fear failure, because we felt like going a traditional path was certainly the surest of failure based on revenues and the payroll we were on"
- Always analyze your foundation as culture and tradition are ingrained quickly. If you wrongly assume you are correct, it can really go awry.

Importance of friendship groups in sport, on SCUK
- understand young people's motivations for coming
- take time to understand friendship groups
- Encourage more/bigger/new friendship groups
- Allow time for social (media) breaks

The Rocky Road of Excellence, on changingthegameproject.org
- You must risk being uncomfortable to achieve something worthwhile
- Alan Stein = "Do the habits you have today match the dreams you have for tomorrow?"
- As coach, give players and team accountability. Hold to high standards. Make it tough, then be there after to debrief and understand outcome.

Greetings from Cub Med, on si.com
- Joe Maddon's Cubs Spring Training they seek to go about work with a collegiate confidence, a rapport in which the joy of playing together is greater than the burden of having to meet expectations individually.
- "Embrace the target". They welcome expectations.
- Joe Guru stressed Individuality and Authenticity. Spring Training isn't about reps but to think properly.
- 1st week Maddon has meetings with all players and he gives players the freedom to be most relaxed self.

Jameis Winston: What I learned, on MMQB
- A lot of what we did was just developing good habits

Drills. Why not? on rightbackonthebench
- Games based training works due to amount of touches, "players practicing everything the need to improve at football - practicing assessing the football situation, making a decision based on that assessment and then executing that decision all at the same time"

Is your feedback process false and failing?, on Coach Logic
By Allistair McCaw.
- A lot of coaches not consistent enough in providing honest feedback - regardless if nice or not.
- Many talk of 5:1 ratio in favour of positive comments, AM is more like 3:1 as need to be honest and realistic
- Eastern Euro coaches brutal honesty compared to US or UK
- Not 'criticize' but 'information'.
- Feedback centres around
1. Timing of it
2. Feedback based on facts, with proof
3. Feedback that is honest
- Lying to athlete and self if not giving the info they need
- "You don't improve with criticism, rather you improve with the right information"
- Effective communication 80% how delivered and 20% what.

Old Trafford kids buying into my philosophy, on DailyMail
- Louis Van Gaal - "I think being a teacher is part of my function as manager"

The following was written for Coach Logic and the original can be found at:

http://www.coach-logic.com/blog/learning-to-improve-your-coaching-the-what-and-the-how/

As a coach it is important to prioritise learning within your plans for development and career progression. In my view, learning is about more than just getting your qualifications, it is about embracing the concept of learning across all aspects of coaching. Whilst not exhaustive, in this blog I’ll discuss some of the areas that coaches can apply learning to and how they may do it.

Formal and Informal Learning
Within all sports there is a clear pathway to demonstrate your learning and development as a coach in formal qualifications and CPD courses. Within my field of Rugby, the RFU has Levels of Qualification as well as CPD workshops that focus on specific areas of the game. Regardless of where you view your coaching ability to be, these are crucial steps for your career and boxes that need to be ticked. Increasingly, Premiership Clubs are also running their own Coach Development workshops and I have attended a number of useful events held by both Wasps and Saracens. Seek these opportunities out because you may pick something up, or just as likely, you’ll meet and chat to other coaches with a variety of experiences and ideas.
On this latter point, informal learning is easier than ever now with the rise of the internet and social media. Twitter has been particularly useful for me to find resources, research papers, interesting articles and to connect with coaches in various sports or research fields. As a result of this interaction online, I have met with some fascinating coaches and sparked ideas to improve my own coaching just through casual conversations. Quick tip (thanks @jattaylor), download the ‘Pocket’ app to your phone to save papers, articles etc that you come across so that you can sit down to read them at a convenient time.

Learn About Yourself
I would always advise young coaches to take up as many coaching opportunities as possible to get as much experience as possible. Experience in different environments, coaching different ages or maybe different sports gives you a wealth of information to process and apply as you move forward in your career. Most importantly, it enables you to understand who you are as a person and a coach, and how that can be best applied to improve your practice. In his book, “Win Forever”, Pete Carroll details how two young coaches started with his programme at USC. Lane Kiffin and Rocky Seto, he recalls, tried to emulate the hard-nosed coaches around them and were “acting outside themselves”. Carroll encouraged them to stay true to their personality to be the “most authentic and effective coaches possible”. Vince Lombardi once remarked succinctly, “You’ve got to do things according to your own personality”. Taking up different opportunities allows you to constantly learn whilst in varying environments. Scott Parker recently revealed to The Guardianthat “when you are pushed out of your comfort zone, that’s when you realise you may have to learn a little bit more”.

Learn About Your Learners
This sub-heading is another phrase borrowed from Pete Carroll but is something that I believe in strongly – it is crucial to establish meaningful connections with your athletes so as to engender trust, open communication, honesty and to understand ‘what makes them tick’. Move beyond the player to get to know the person, where they are from and how their life experience has moulded them. Careful observation before/during/after training or in social situations will give you great understanding. Observation combined with attentive listening will enable you to understand the person and communicate in a way that best suits them and helps them to develop.

Learn About Learning
I’ll be the first to admit that my ‘Learning Theory’ lectures at University didn’t rank among my favourites, however I see now how important it is to have a grasp of the concept of learning. Whether in educational, sporting, music or any variety of setting, people have to learn along the way so as to improve. How one person learns compared to another could have a very real effect on your coaching and having an understanding as to how you might cater to each individual will enable you to get the most out of your athletes. Recently I was listening to ‘The Hidden Brain’ podcast where the particular episode revolved around a former violinist, Maya Shankar. At one stage it discusses her teacher, Itzhak Perlman, and the way he would ask Maya to explain how she thought she could do better and what tools she had at her disposal. He explained “The more you learn to think for yourself and how to make decisions for yourself, the better it will be for future performance”. The crossover to coaching sports was obvious to me. Experience alone isn’t enough if you are unable to pass on the knowledge you have.
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Learn to Reflect Whilst Living in the Present
Reflective Practice is purposeful thinking, making the considered effort to consider and recall what happened, the part you played and your view of it as a coach against the expected outcome (SCUK). It enables you to examine your experience and transform it into learning. Think critically and be inquisitive. However, once you have reflected on a match/session/event then take what you can from it and move on. Don’t allow yourself to be a slave to the past or the future as it will create either anxiety or dangerous comfort (Nick Saban). Like Saban, Arsene Wenger recently commented in an interview that “the only moment of possible happiness is the present. The past gives regrets and the future uncertainties”.

The following was written for Coach Logic and the original can be found at:
​
http://www.coach-logic.com/the-4-key-elements-to-coaches-communicating-effectively/

KEY ELEMENTS TO COACHES COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY

​Communication is crucial to all aspects of coaching and it is my belief that it needs to be carefully considered and continually reviewed by a coach. It is one area of my coaching that I constantly focus upon, not just in terms of coaching cues and how I can create the best learning environment for my players, but also how I can engage them as both people and players so as to ensure that they feel valued and have a clear understanding of my thought process.

Respected coach Allistair McCaw tweeted earlier this year:

“Clear and well understood communication is key in the successful working relationship of athlete and coach” – @allistairmccaw, 10/03/2015.

Below I have listed some points that I strive to address on a regular basis.

What am I saying / What are they hearing?

Every coach has had sessions where whatever they planned just doesn’t seem to be working – the players aren’t quite reacting in the way you had hoped they might. Of course there could be a number of reasons for this, however it is always worth considering that players aren’t necessarily hearing the message that you think you are saying. It is crucial to know your players in a training environment – how do they normally react? How do they learn best? Is there anything I could say, do or demonstrate differently to get them to the point that I want them to reach?

Remember – there are many roads to the same destination. Sometimes they will be the ones you mapped out in advance; sometimes you’ll have to work out the best route on the fly.

Know the person behind the player

The player is made up of a variety of experiences, decisions and relationships both on and off the pitch. Knowing them as a person creates a far stronger bond and also puts you in a better position to have a positive impact as a coach. Not everyone is the same, and not everyone necessarily needs to be treated the same way – strive to create a team of individuals working in unison rather than multiple versions of the same individual. If you get to know them, understand their experiences and have an idea of how they see the sport and the world in general, then you are better placed to know how to treat them if they have a bad game, or show up late, or their performance stagnates, or they lose interest etc etc. Take the time and you’ll see/feel the benefits.

Treat players with honesty and respect

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” – Maya Angelou

Force yourself to not just make the tough decisions but to follow this up by having the tough conversations. This is particularly true for team selection. Personally, I don’t believe that players should be left confused by your actions as a coach – they may not agree, they may not be happy, but they should have a clear understanding of what has led you to that decision. Furthermore, you should be there to support them to help them reach the level of performance that you want to see.

The quote above, from Maya Angelou, is one that I use for motivation to ensure that I treat my players with enough respect to have the uncomfortable conversations that can help them in the long run.

Encourage players to speak up and give feedback

This is not a dictatorship. Encourage players to question you and to provide both positive, or negative, feedback. Leave your ego at the door and focus on improving their performance. If they question you, they are at least thinking about the game in some more detail. Communication is a two-way process and we should all be striving to create ‘thinking players’. You can’t do it for them on the pitch – they need to be able to make decisions for themselves at the correct times and under pressure. An environment that encourages and values their input increases their engagement, understanding and sense of responsibility for performance.