BORING is good when you want to be good

Written and contributed by Dr. Chris Hobbs ( Follow him on Twitter @Dr_ChrisHobbs)

My youngest daughter is a 14 year old aspiring athlete. Early on in her sport endeavors she’s demonstrated strength, grit, commitment, and some explosive athletic ability. I don’t know how accomplished she’ll become but she puts her all into her athletic participation. She loves it. Practices, games, tournaments, and training sessions are why she gets out of bed each day. Much of me agrees with her; like father, like daughter! She recently came home from an after-school strength training session with the qualified strength coaches we have at our school. I asked her how her session was. ‘Dad, it was boring. We do the same exercises every time.’

This made me smile. We have highly qualified and passionate strength coaches and an elite weight room so the workouts were not my concern. What my daughter was experiencing was the paradox that boring is good when you want to be good. We live in a day and age when we have almost no tolerance for boredom. If something becomes boring, we move on quickly. We can skip commercials, check a different social media network, communicate with whomever we want whenever we want, or scroll our phones while standing in lines.

We have almost completely purged boredom from our lives and that has consequences. One of those consequences is we have forgotten how many boring repetitions it requires to become proficient in a task or skill. Skill development in athletics is a great example, but it has many other applications like earning a degree, losing weight, or saving money for a big purchase. Getting good is boring!

As I worked through my doctorate, I would estimate that 75% of the things I was involved in were boring, but it would not have developed the understanding of content or process necessary to do what was required to finish the doctorate (write a dissertation) if I had not navigated a lot of boring. Boring is not bad if you want to be good at something.

There are a couple of ways to navigate boring while pursuing something good.

1. Check off the completion of tasks as you are working through boring phases. Jerry Seinfeld used to keep a calendar above his desk and cross off each day that he spent 30 minutes working on new jokes. His goal was to create as many unbroken rows of x’s on his calendar as he could. I’m sure writing jokes day in and day out go boring, but we don’t have the humor of Jerry Seinfeld without his tolerance for boring.

2. Develop practical reminders of where you are heading. Post it notes on mirrors, home screens on phones, and daily journals are all great ways to remind yourself of why you started on a boring path to something good.

3. Do boring with other people that are headed your same direction. I spent 3 years working towards a particular goal in strength training during my 30’s. There was a lot of boring days, hard lifts, and failed programs. I kept going many times because I was having a blast being miserable with the two guys I was training with. We did boring together and it was quite so boring.

Mother Theresa is quoted as saying, ‘be faithful in the little things because it is them that your strength lies.’ Boring is hard to tolerate when it comes to commercials and lines but that doesn’t mean that boring is bad. Boring is good when you want to be good. Ironically, when you remember that boring is required to be good, boring becomes exciting!

Keep on, keepin’ on, friends!

‘Bite Down and Don’t Let Go’ is a collection of writings on being intentional about life in a way that produces great persistence. Read about it more here.

Dr. Chris Hobbs is an educational leader and Director of Athletics at The King’s Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida. He’s earned a few degrees and won some awards. He’s happily married to his high school sweetheart and they have three teenage children. Life is messy and complicated most of the time. You can follow him on Twitter for all sorts of inspirational thoughts and good laughs.

Body Language Self Awareness Exercise with Mental-Coach Josef Spiegal:
“Based on my unconventional path of life, I am able to combine my experiences to see performance enhancement in sports from different perspectives thanks to
– my passion for basketball, which I have been now over 25 years around (up to 1st Bundesliga AUT),
– my psychological expertise, which I gained through various educations and my work as a psychotherapist and sports-mental-coach and
– my experience in building a work ethic focusing on details, in order to grind out edges in a highly competitive environment as a former professional online poker player for many years.”

We are providing this to give you ideas on how to enhance your current program. The idea is not to implement it exactly as is, but rather to tweak it to make it fit your system

There is sound with the video, so please make sure that your sound is on.

This is a Vimeo video, so you will need to be on a network that does not block Vimeo videos.

If you would like to see more information about Coach Spiegal’s entire presentation, click this link: Unconventional Ways in Performance Enhancement

Thad Wells is the head high school football coach at Richlands High School in Virginia. Thad is known for his creativity and thoughtful approach to life and the game of football. The way he runs his program is unique, his offense is unique, and how he teaches the game is unique.

Thad was a 2018 AFCA 35 Under 35 selection and he won a state championship in just his 2nd year as a head coach.

“Books have changed my life as a coach.

Several years ago I started to notice a pattern among the world’s most successful people throughout history. Over and over again I would hear stories about how important reading was to their success. So I decided to follow suit and it has turned out to be the best decision I could have made for my career.

I put together my list of the 101 most influential books that I have read so far in my life. They are ordered in terms of importance for me. The point of the list is to not encourage you to go out and read all of these books. Instead, I just want to provide an idea of all the different types of books that I believe could potentially help a coach. Pick one and just get started. After you read a few, stop looking at the list and just ask questions. Then go find a book that can help you answer the questions you face.”

There is sound with the video, so please make sure that your sound is on.

This is a YouTube video, so you will need to be on a network that does not block YouTube videos.

If you would like to see more information about Coach Wells’ entire presentation, click this link 101 Influential Books for Coaches

This article was provided by Bjorn Galjaardt

Okay, a catchy phrase for something that might actually be a double pyramid model. However, time is of the essence and clubs, coaches, athletes, parents or caretakers and stakeholders can act now. The Sandglass Sport Success model is a blueprint that poses challenges of ‘participation’, ‘early specialisation’ and ‘high-performance’. In fact, in various sports, people find the same challenges and opportunities but may find friction in or from certain levels of the ‘sandglass’. The sandglass works from a broad FUNdamental base to a narrow high-performance climax, that eventually will mirror success. Interested? Let me take you through a journey of a blueprint in sport success.

First pyramid:
The first pyramid is based on the basics and needs of the participants. It is like a combination of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Balyi Long-Term-Development-Model, but then for all sport needs involved! From associations to clubs and from grassroots to high-performance interests. Active Start.

1. Statistics shown that most participants join an introduction program, whether it is through the school, club, association or similar. On average, globally, around the age of 8 years old. Some have gone through ‘mandatory’ programs (e.g. learn-to-swim), while others try sport based activities for the first time. Some will join at a later age as they may transition from other sports (e.g. swimming to water polo), like to try something new or it is part of a (curriculum) activity. Fun is the main driver: FUNdamentals

2. Other or the same participants either transition to the next phase or begin here. The second most important layer. In both layers, there could be some sort of competitive component involved, but the majority want to play the sport with friends, try something new or really want to learn more about the sport. Learn to train.

3. Phase 3 is where the ‘fun’ starts to form a different dimension. Training starts to get serious for some. Perhaps there is an appetite for more, perhaps the club has a history of being a more performance driven club, perhaps there are other reasons. The main idea is to offer multiple levels for multiple participants, which shall now be called players. This base layer of phase, or stage, 1, 2 a 3 is needed to provide adequate opportunities for all players involved. Whether it is a once in a week game with a BBQ after or 5 times a week training with an A division team. If we lose those crucial ‘hot’ levels (hence the colours red, orange and yellow), there will be no phases or stages after this. High-Performance is bound to those first 3 crucial levels. Train to Train.

4. As the pyramid layer shrinks, the level of players become thinner. Players shall now be called athletes, whether they are emerging or close to elite. They play representative and they want to continue to do well. Some are happy to already perform on this level, others want more. Most of them specialise into this sport alone, others may drop out and it is crucial to capture them and nurture them on the level that they feel valued and welcome. Some may have educational sponsorships or still depend on parents or stakeholders. Train to compete.

5. This is the level with the least athletes. The financial structure depends on professional sponsors or government support. The quality is assumed to be higher and for that matter, perhaps high key performance indicators are on stake. Train to win.

Second pyramid.
The reflection of the first pyramid, or better the expansion.

6. Coaches, athletes or coordinators and managers who have gone through phases or stages 3, 4 or 5 and are a current or past identified role models, could be utilised for those levels to inspire those that are close to that same level. Learn from their experiences and share their stories. Sure, when high stake medals were won this would leverage the strength of this phase. However, there are many examples of successful club programs and sponsor packages that others have never seen, just because it was not shared with the right people. Who in your club has a success story that people could learn from? Perhaps a community members’ father, who won the Football Premiers… Share to perform.

7. All members from all levels can inspire, not just your top performers. There are great coaches out there who never represented any country but touched many lives and build a club. Past players who actually never thought of doing something for the club or program, because they perhaps never been asked, therefore never had considered it. Who in your club or program knows a person that perhaps has an interest to inspire a current or next generation? Teachers can introduce water polo into schools or schools into your water polo program. Share to inspire.

8. People who currently play or have transitioned from playing and are in roles that could have a positive influence on your sport. Health and wellbeing is a hot item currently with more attention to it than a few decades ago. Develop a think tank with administrators in the sport area to evaluate competition, programs for clubs and schools and see what you can offer them. This may as well open connections and create transparency, perhaps there is even a need that was not identified before. Now maybe financial benefits are mutual! Inspire to develop.

9. By showcasing the sport there needs to be mutual benefits as mentioned in phase 8. This can be done by a combination of previous phases. Some benefits may run short term, other long term. To establish improvement a holistic approach needs to be considered. Created to be improve for the next few years if not for the next generations. Inspire to improve.

10. Once all stages or phases have been experienced, the reach to the community will be the foundation stage for the outreach of the sport. The sandglass can be built on again with stage or phase 1. New or current participants will become players, athletes and hopefully stay involved for life. Becoming new administrators, coaches, referees, sponsors and passionate supporters. Leaving a legacy. Active for Life.

SUMMARY: THE SUNGLASS SPORT SUCCESS MODEL

As time slips by, we would hope that the levels of support and interest in your sport will always continue. The reality is that time seems to runs out. New rules, organisational structures, players moving clubs, athletes dropping out and participants choosing different sports. What if we could improve the current structure and leverage of what we are doing now? Often the perception is that this comes at a price, e.g. winning medals, attracting good players, etc. This is not necessary the truth. What we need to do is stop early specialisation, keep pushing youngsters to limits that only others would like to see of them, and stop pointing fingers to above and below. Use what we have to keep a sport we all love. That does not mean that we cannot be competitive; we just do not need (the same level of) competition for everyone. We do not need to specialise and train 20 plus hours a week in an early stage of life. We only need to provide the right opportunity. There are many factors like different maturity ages, social-economic impact, etc. and some of these factors can be used to benefit and support the first pyramid effects.

What we need to do is leverage what we have done; evaluate, anticipate and generate in order to execute. This means a shared responsibility, ownership of tasks and goals as well as transparency and working together. This starts within the capacity and placing of your phase or stage in the pyramid. High-performance cannot be sustainable on it is own, but without high-performance we also miss the pathways and need for the few who can be role models and use our sport as a promotion. Adapt to trends in sport, but with a feel what the community wants and what the sport needs. Let us use the Sandglass Sport Success model in order to keep building and improve our sport. Leave a legacy and turn the sandglass with the ease.

AUTHOR

Bjorn Galjaardt (B.ed) studying Master of Sports Coaching with 12+ years coaching and managing experience from grassroots to elite level. Held roles in program management and currently delivering online and in person performance services at Blended Performances.

This article is contributed by Bjorn Galjaardt

Does coaching means to achieve results and reach set targets? Coaching to win! However, this is only one perceived idea on coaching. True, there are goals that need to be achieved. The reality is that most coaches view coaching as a complex process that contributes to multiple facets of the individual and thus team.

Filled with curiosity about the concept of coaching, I picked the brains of seven highly regarded coaches from various backgrounds and industries. Posing the difficult question: ‘Can you describe in a few sentences what coaching means to you’?

Mrs. Gonny Farley-Reijnen. Lecturer Sport Institute CIOS | Culture Coach Royal Dutch Baseball and Softball Association. Coaching for me is creating a positive performance culture. One in which everyone knows their tasks and responsibilities. A coach is there to lead everyone to the right behaviour, ensuring that they continue to grow, have the freedom to succeed and have relationships that they value. This applies to the individual as well for the team. Embrace the process!

Mr. Jay Ellis. Sports Performance / Business Academic | Academic Lecturer Australian College of Physical Education | High-Performance Consultant. My single thought: Coaching for me is all about people skills. Understanding the athlete is vital! Our job as coaches should be to develop the person before the athlete (the second will come).

Mr. Simon Daley. Head Water Polo Coach | Founder of Academy Water Polo & Goggle Project. It is the ‘self-felt joy’ of being given an opportunity of unlocking a player’s potential, so as to maximise their own performance towards success. This not only involves their on-field skill requirements but having a guide to their off-field achievements post their sporting career.

Ms. Martine Tobe. Director at Children’s Perspective Foundation | Founder Lifebook for You(th) | Board member FICE Netherlands. For me coaching is especially focussed and designed to provide a perspective for the future. Asking questions and providing a mirror to allow for self-reflection. Using positive psychology and recognising traits together to further develop. The coaching basis is providing attention to ‘growth’ possibilities. I like to focus on the qualities and contribute to a positive feeling in doing so.

Mr. Grant Jenkins. Performance Coach | Presenter | Educator | Coaching Athletes | Accelerating careers | Developing businesses. To improve the mindset of the person I am working with so they can achieve their long-term goals in life.

Mr. Bob Beusekom. Executive Director at The Executive Nomad | CFO Bright Zebra | Board member True (Family Planning Queensland). “Beat your yester self”. My view is that coaching style leaders do not only focus on the role performance of their staff. They also aim to develop their staff’s ‘self’, ideally considering the whole person, in a safe environment, on a plate of trust and respect, with a sauce of authenticity and vulnerability. Through coaching, as a leader, you can help reduce blind spots and self-limiting beliefs, giving your staff confidence and insight in their ‘selves’, purpose, and roles in life.

Mrs. Anna Wood. Women’s High-Performance Coach Australian Canoeing | Musculoskeletal and Sports Physiotherapist. As a HP coach I need to know my athletes’ goals, dreams and beliefs, their doubts and fears, basically what makes them tick… Between coach – athlete – team we strive for a foundation of trust and respect with room for individuality. If this foundation is firmly embedded into our culture, we are able to provide honest and constructive feedback, achieve full commitment of every team member and hold each other accountable. I believe this is the pathway to success.

SUMMARY:

Coaching as described by the business, education and sports coaches above is focused on ‘the person beyond the player’. Goals are merely milestones to provide an indication in the process of coaching performance. Whether it is improvement in one context, say technical aspects, there are other contexts like life skills, study/work balance and so on. Coaching is a meticulous process that is continuously managed and reviewed. A portfolio of this perspective on coaching will include a range of foundational strategies. For example, focus on personal development, growth mindset, and creativity. Furthermore, allowing room for self-reflection, mutual respect and understanding. Coaching comprises an arsenal of believes, methods and strategies to create a culture of trust and commitment for people to flourish. Coaching the person, equals coaching the process: ‘Fuelling the engine for optimised coaching’.

Special thanks goes out to the contributing coaches for this article.

AUTHOR

Bjorn Galjaardt (B.ed) studying a Master of Sports Coaching with a focus on Olympic education. He has 12+ years coaching and management experience from grassroots to elite sports level. Currently delivering online and in person performance services at Blended Performances.