Peak Performance in Sports

Main Obectives of Coaching Regulation for Peak Performance in Sports

2010-06-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

When we seek to regulate coaches for peak performance in sports, there are 3 objectives that would ensure quality of instructions provided by the coaches / instructors for sports.

(a)Capacity Building.
Build the capacity of the existing coaches by having them attend courses in technical and practical coaching skills and knowledge to develop peak performance in sports. The mechanism adopted should enable the organization to equip the coaches with the skills and knowledge to teach the soft skills we expect students to be equipped with by the time they leave schools. At the same time, the mechanism can give schools and parents the assurance that the coaches would be equipped to take care of their charges.

(b)Increase Pool of Coaches.
Build the pool of qualified coaches by providing progressive level of certification courses for peak performance in sports. These courses could be aligned to the Outcomes of Education and sports talent development framework for Singapore students. Each level could comprise theory and technical aspects of coaching. Coaches would be expected to attend the courses and pass tests before they could progress to the next level.

(c)Ensure Alignment of Values.
Alignment of values and what the coaches teach or role model to their students would be critical for peak performance in sports. Alignment of values would need to be pegged to the ethical behaviours of coaching and professional coaching standards so that coaches see their professional behaviors and teaching of soft skills as part and parcel of their coaching responsibilities.

To achieve these objectives, regulation of coaches is proposed for peak performance in sports. Regulation would entail the establishment of procedures for recognizing the qualifications and experiences of existing coaches, certification processes for training and development of new coaches, and continuing education opportunities so that coaches could continue to sharpen their skills and knowledge.

World Cup Upsets

2010-06-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

It has been an interesting world cup so far. As we reach the end of the first round, two clear trends has emerged that supports the trend that whenever a world cup is held outside of Europe, the South Americans are again the kings of the game. For some teams, the tournament has brought out their best and their peak performance in sports. For some, the results has been downright disappointing.

The first obvious trend is that all the South American Teams have advanced or are closed to advancing into the next round of the world cup. The traditional power houses have maintained their positions as favourites. Brazil and Argentina has cruised into the next round with a game to spare, and in the process has played good exciting football that thrilled the crowd and lived up to expectations from their fans. The other unfancied South American teams like Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile has also provided a few shock results against their so called superior opponents in their group. Uruguay in particular has impressed with their peak performance in sports, winning two and drawing one without conceding a goal. Chile has also cruised into round two with effective 1-0 wins in their first two games. Paraguay held Champions Italy to a 1-1 draw and has won their second game. It only remains for them to secure a good result against minnows New Zealand to secure their passage to the next stage. Don't be surprised to see all 5 South American Teams advance far into the latter stages.

In contrast to the peak performance in sports of the South American teams, the European giants have been faltering. France won nothing but attracted the greatest attention with the off field training strike ethics that will surely bring condemnation from the whole of France. In fact, the entire team should be axed and never be selected again for any more international games. Regardless of the reasons of protest, they should never have seated out a training session. They have already arrived in South Africa with an unpopular coach, a controversial playoff victory over Ireland and lack of team spirit and confidence, they did not need another distraction. France deserves to go home aerly and shamed. England has always attracted a lot of hot air at big tournaments and this is no different. When you look at the players they have compared other big names like Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Holland, they are actually quite ordinary.

Yes, they have dynamic players like Rooney and Gerard, but they never truly possess skillful wizards like Messis, Kaka or Ronaldo. If they do advance, credit it to their sole asset - their coach Fabio Capello. The players has not shown enough faith and trust in this highly successful coach. Spain, Italy and Germany has self destructed somewhat, and they faced tough tests in their last games to advance. Spain seems distracted by WAGs. The Germans has underestimated their second opponents and they now face a tough game against the only realistic African team who can advance, Ghana. Italy are old and facing rising teams. Their last game is also against a team who is fighting to qualify themselves. The only European teams that has done well quietly are Holland and Portugal. These two teams are quietly building up their team work that is so essential to peak performance in sports. Don't be surprised to see them do well in the World Cup.

This World Cup has been taunted the chance for the African teams to finally show their true potential. In a sense, they have shown that, and their potential is still not good enough yet. The teams have all the stars and quality with so many of their players plying their trade and Europe. But until they get their houses in order to bring some form of stability in their country with sound structures and motivation, the African teams will not do well. They have been a major disappointment so far. I hope for the stake of the contingent and the game at least one team, most likely Ghana, advance to the next round for peak performance in sports.

Challenges of Regulating Sports Coaches for Peak Performance in Sports

2010-06-16T02:29:00.000-07:00

Although it important to regulate coaches in Singapore for peak performance in sports, this might not be so easily conceived and implemented as there are numerous challenges to be addressed if the regulation is to be effective. Here are some of these challenges:

1. Lack of a professional body to oversee regulation.
Apart from the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) which oversees the certification of of coaches, other professional bodies. Some of these professional associations may not see the need to regulate as their members may see it as more red tape leading to potential job loss and unnecessary interference in earning power. In addition, specific sports do not have a professional body or association to help with the development of peak performance in sports.

2. Mindset of coaches may be negative towards regulation.
Most of them may not ‘buy-in’ to a regulatory mechanism that would ensure quality of instructions for peak performance in sports. Hence, the pool of qualified coaches / coaches may be further reduced as existing ones may be concerned about the accreditation process and the competition posed by those who pass the certification process. Some coaches may also complain about the requirement for “paper qualification” for what they have been doing for years.

3. Role definition & motivation.
Some coaches perceive their principal role as teaching students to perfect their craft in the technical areas for peak performance in sports. They would only be interested in delivering results to ensure their contracts with schools could be renewed. Some coaches may not see the distinction between the teaching of values versus what they teach. For example. Sports coaches would focus on skills that increase sports performance by managing emotions like mental toughness, and minimizing the psychological effects of injury and poor performance.

4. Time Factor & Remuneration.
Majority of the coaches are hired for specific number of hours to teach the technical skills. These coaches would expect to be paid if they now need to teach other soft skills for peak performance in sports as well.

5. Language Proficiency.
The majority of coaches in some sports are foreigners and may not be using English as their medium of instruction when coaching students.

In order to be really effective in coaching regulation, the relevant authorities in Singapore Schools Sports must come up with something addresses all these challenges and concerns. We are dealing with scarce human resources that are needed here to increase peak performance in sports for schools.

The Need for Regulation of Coaches for Peak Performance in Sports

2010-06-06T02:39:00.000-07:00

With the emphasis in holistic education, schools provide many opportunities for their students to experience and learn new skills within and outside of curriculum time for peak performance in sports. These days, students are able to pursue and develop their interest areas through a variety of sports. Currently, as many of these Sports require specialized technical skills areas, it is necessary for schools to bring in coaches to address the shortfall of manpower or the specific competency in their existing school personnel. Besides conducting school-based activities, these coaches are also involved in training students for competition and games at National Sports Competitions.

Over the years, we have received inputs from school leaders that a handful of coaches demanded high remuneration packages at the onset of their achievements in national platforms for peak performance in sports. Schools who wanted to continue with the achievements in their sports felt constrained in their negotiation on remuneration as there is no existing guidelines. At the same time, school leaders have expressed concerns that some coaches focus too much on the technical skills in order to win that the values being inculcated or communicated to the students may not be aligned to the schools’ values.

As coaches spend substantial amount of time with the students during sports sessions, these concerns about the quality of the instructions and the alignment between the values we expect the coaches to teach to the students and what they actually do with the students are valid. Given the current focus on the development of soft skills in students, it is timely to consider the necessity to put in place mechanisms to ensure quality of instructions while concurrently ensuring that these coaches are equipped to teach the students the soft skills. As sports provide the platforms for learning soft skills in a real world setting and for demonstrating what the students have learned (during formal & informal curriculum), the role and responsibilities of the coaches need to be expanded. Hence, the need to regulate our coaches for peak performance in sports.

Avoid Injuries for Your Young Players

2010-05-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

If you are like any other that is involved in sports, you want to make sure that every player stays well and is always able to play in the game for peak performance in sports. Of course, some injuries are inevitable. It is easy for the children or youth to make a wrong move, adjust the wrong way, or simply run straight into the ball. If you want to help with possible injuries, there are several ways to come prepared.

The first thing that you should keep in mind is that most injuries are preventable. Of course, kids will be kids, and it will be inevitable that they will make a wrong move. However, the more you let them know about safety equipment, the less likely you will be to have major problems. You can also be sure to over emphasize specific movements in every type of game for peak performance in sports. Making them comfortable with these movements will help create an extra safety feature.

Even if you had all of the wrapping in the world to help prevent injuries, there will still be specific injuries that occur. Because you are playing a sport, you can easily expect twisted ankles, knees and arms. If this happens, make sure that you have your first aid kit with you. You can wrap the fractured or broken area until they get to a hospital. Another type of injury that may occur may be from getting hit by a ball. Having an ice pack or a way to help relieve some of the pain will help until they can get to the right area and receive medical attention, if they need it. Been prepared for injuries is part of peak performance in sports.

These are not the only types of injuries that may occur. There is also a caution that needs to be taken for things such as heat disorder. It is easy for any player to get a little too much sun, causing them to overheat, and possibly pass out. If this happens, be sure to get them in the shade and give them water. You can easily prevent this by requiring all of your players to drink water on a consistent basis for peak performance in sports.

No matter what the injury, there is always a solution. By knowing what can be expected and coming prepared, you will be able to help the players enjoy the game for peak performance in sports, without walking away with an injury. There are some stories that every child will want to tell about their game. You want to make sure that it is not about an injury that occurred.

The 'Big Three' Muscle Building Exercises for Peak Performance in Sports

2010-05-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

When you start weight training for peak performance in sports, whether it is for bulking up, improving your sports or for body building, one of the most fascinating objectives will be to get big muscles in double quick time. In order to bulk up with big muscles for the entire body in general, you will need to seriously look into your diet as well as the training. Good training without a nutritional supporting diet will not get you the big muscles that you desire. Please remember that. This article however, focuses on three main ways that you can bulk up in double quick time.

1.Include Squat, Dead lift and Bench Press in Your Training
Squat and dead lift together with the bench press are what we termed the ‘Big Three’ exercises that any aspiring weight trainer needs. When done properly and regularly, the ‘Big Three’ uses 75% of all body muscles in one way or another. The squat might appear to be a leg exercise focusing only on the quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and gluts, but it also utilizes the back, torso and shoulder muscles to support the weight. All these muscles are major muscle groups of the body, hence the usefulness of the squat to work out the bulk of the body for peak performance in sports. Similarly, the dead lift, although deceptively simple to perform uses a whole range of muscles from the shoulders, arms, torsos and legs to support the exercise. The bench press is predominantly an upper body exercise, but the entire upper body is used. These areas include the chest, shoulders, arms and torso. In addition to large number of muscle groups involved, these exercises been heavy power training tools also releases more growth hormones and induce greater stamina training when performed. For a beginner weight trainer, it will be wise to start with these three exercises in your routine so that more muscle groups are worked at one go.

2.Use Compound Exercises in Your TrainingCompound exercises are exercises that uses more than one muscle group. When starting beginner weight training to get big muscles, it is important to make use of as many compound exercises as possible for peak performance in sports. Being a new weight lifter, your muscles are probably not conditioned enough to really focus on isolation training yet. Furthermore, compound exercises, by acting on more muscles, will induce more growth. Another reason for using compound exercises is that fact the energy level of a beginner is not really sufficient yet for advance isolation training. So the advice for these aspiring weight lifters is to stick to compound exercises like squat, dead lift, bench press, barbell rows, pull ups, chin ups, military presses and dips.

3.Use Optimal Rest Time in Your Training
In general, the closer you lift to your one repetition maximum, the longer your required rest period to ensure maximal recovery of energy levels in the muscles. The higher the number of repetitions (further away from a one rep max), the shorter the rest duration required. We must not overlook this important variable in our training. Ensuring that our muscles are rested sufficiently between sets will mean that greater contraction can be forced out of the muscles in subsequent sets for peak performance in sports. This will stimulate the muscles more for greater growth and bigger muscles. Imagine if you start a new set before completely recovering from the last one? Your muscles are basically exhausted and they will not be capable of 100% contraction force for the next set. Less stimulation will occur. Determining the rest interval in between sets comes from experimentation in your training. You have got to feel the muscles after lifting and know the feeling of the ‘pump’ before starting on the next set.

When starting out in weight lifting to get big muscles, one must use the ‘Big Three’ exercises, supplement them with more compound exercises and ensure that sufficient rest is catered for between sets for peak performance in sports. Only by doing so will you be able to work at an optimal level for peak results.

Improving Self-Esteem Through Sports

2010-05-18T07:35:00.000-07:00

One of the largest factors that youths deal with today is in relation to their self-esteem. Several suffer by looking at themselves as not good enough and inferior. This may range from seeing their body image in the wrong light to seeing their mental states as not quite right. All this negativity only serves to discourage the person from reaching his peak performance in sports. There are ways to help youth with their self-esteem. By suggesting and supporting things like sports, you will be certain to decrease their chances at unhealthy activities from a low self-esteem.

It is known that when children enter into school, they will generally have a high self-esteem. More than eighty percent of children in the first grade will start out by thinking highly of themselves and believing that they can do anything. However, this high level of self-esteem will drop with age. By the time these same children reach the fifth grade, the attitude towards themselves and the self-esteem has dropped to about twenty percent. By the time children graduate from high school, the amount that has a high self esteem is at a low of five percent. Why is this so? It is because as we grow, we become influence by the people we meet, surroundings we live in and the society we embrace. The world as we know is full of limitation and these limitations prevents us from doing things that might seem impossible. This will lower self image which brings along other adverse effects an discourage peak performance in sports.

Along with the low self-esteem come things such as drug use, early sex, and failure with steps towards a career. This comes about because youths without proper motivation in life will tend to find other things to fill the vacuum. At the same time, it is also being found that those who play sports are less likely to take part in these activities. Instead, those who play sports are more likely to develop a higher self-esteem and participate in positive activities leading to peak performance in sports. Because the children and youth are being challenged to succeed, and encouraged to continue through the use of a team and the sport, they are able to develop a better insight towards their own self-image.

The idea of self-esteem in sports has become such a major component of the sports, that several areas are now committed to giving more youth activities outside of school specifically to battle low self-esteem and offer alternatives for success and peak performance in sports. It is being found that no matter what type of physical activity or sport the youth participate in, it is helping to build them into better adults with a more positive outlook on whom they are.

If you notice any type of anxiety, depression, or negative reaction from your child, their self-esteem may need some help. If you want to make sure that they graduate from high school feeling good about their accomplishments, then you can enroll them in a physical activity to help them achieve sme kind of peak performance in sports. By doing this, you will be able to give them another option away from the negative outlook that they may have.

The Suns and Habs Magic

2010-05-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

The NBA and Stanley Cup playoffs are in full swing, and this years big time events not only produced underdog triumphs for the Phoenix Suns in the NBA and the Montreal Canadiens in NHL, but these improbably victory also confirms that team work and team spirit play the most important factor above anything else.

The Suns finally eclipse their long time rival the San Antonia Spurs, even with Spurs talisman Tim Duncan leading the Texan team. While the Habs have overcome not just one but two favourite teams in the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins in back to back playoff rounds. What stories these two fairy tail teams holds for the sports world. For the Suns, it is vindication of their past years of failure against the same boogie team that often dismantle their playoff hopes. For the Habs, it was a case of beyond all expectations. Such things happens in sports, and we are left to wonder how did all these upsets come about in.

Perhaps it is timely to examine the philosophy and team spirit of both team. Both team do not possess high calibre superstars that their opposing team often possess. But what they lack in individual quality they more than make up for with their 'united for the team cause' mentality. These are two teams with great team spirit and beliefs. More often than not, that will make the difference between success and failure overcoming superior opponents. Their cause is of course made easier by their opponents' overconfidence as favourites.

The morale of this story is that superior team spirit is more important than superior players. And don't ever underestimate the underdogs. I have this feeling that the fairy tail stories of the Suns and Habs have not ended yet. What the hell, we need these upset miracles once in a while to give the sporting world and humanity hope.

Go Suns and Habs!

Optimal Arousal Levels for Peak Performance in Sports

2010-05-06T22:14:00.000-07:00

Different sports will require different optimal arousal to achieve peak performance in sports. In a game of American Football, rugby and weight lifting as you can imagine, the higher the arousal level, the greater will be strength, aggressiveness and power generated. In this type of sports, it is about overpowering your opponents for peak performance in sport. In other finer sports like archery, shooting and gymnastics, high arousal levels may impede peak performance in sports rather than promote. Under such conditions, it is necessary to reduce our arousal levels to appropriate levels for sporting success. Competitions are unique situations that raise the excitement of the occasion. So it is necessary in all competition to manage the arousal levels experienced by athletes.

Increasing Arousal Levels for Peak Performance in Sports
1.Listening to inspirational music
Music is a power tool to raise your arousal levels. Prior to competition, you can listen to truly inspirational music to increase your arousal to the optimal levels. Listening to sound tracks of Rocky or similar themed music has a tremendous effect of arousal level. Be careful not to overdo it though. Know your arousal limits and maintain it there.

2.Psyching up through self-talk and team talk
Team and self-talks are also power techniques to raise arousal levels. Team talks are usually carried out by the coach or captain who must skilled in this to raise the stake for the team before the game. Loud language, purposeful language and aggressive gestures are often associated with a good rousing team talk. But the best ingredient of a good motivational team talk is actually the sharing of a common objective and feeling amongst team mates. This will help everyone feel united and passionately driven for the game to achieve peak performance in sports. In individual sports, you can either do it yourself through self-talk or more effectively through another person that is closely related to you. The coach or parent often plays this role.

3.Visualization of powerful events
You can also use visualization of powerful events to raise the tempo before your game. For example, if you are a linebacker, you can picture your best ever sack you have done. Repeat the images over and over again so that your mind is flooded with powerful emotions of arousal. Another form of visualization that might help is envisioning the final successful outcome of your game, soaking in the celebratory atmosphere associated with winning and peak performance in sports.

Decreasing Arousal Levels
1.Breathing control
When there is a need to lower arousal level, breathing control techniques might be helpful. Once you find your heart racing too fast or you start to feel butterfly in your tummy, switch your attention and focus to your breathing. Concentrate on inhaling and exhaling slowly, focusing on each breath at a time. By slowing down a physiological response, your other anxiety responses will also slow down resulting in a calmer person and peak performance in sports

2.Visualization of calming events
You can also use visualization of calming events reduce arousal levels. When you start to feel too excited prior to a sports task, switch your thinking to a relaxing and calming setting. You might want to picture yourself slow dancing or lying on beach at your favorite resting stop. Closing your eyes temporarily might help as well. It is also a good idea to stockpile a list of your favorite scenes so that you can switch to it once you need it.

Arousal levels will rise and fall deepening on the situation. Most competition will raise arousal level which might become too unhealthy for peak performance in sports. The good thing is that there are ways to manipulate arousal levels. After all, arousal levels are physiological in nature. Just like an illness, it can be treated, so can arousal levels.

Implementing Positive Practice for Peak Performance in Sports

2010-04-27T18:21:00.000-07:00

You have welcomed the new members to your sports team and are ready to make the best of it. You have a list of things that you want to teach them, ranging from the basics of the sport to the different techniques that individual players can use. All the kicking drills, passing drills and tackling drills for your game must be taught. You already have every one's position in mind and know exactly how you want the games to look. All of the children and youth are looking at you for the next direction to improve their peak performance in sports. It seemed so easy when it all began. But is that so? Are there more things to consider?

After a specific amount of time, it becomes hard for children and youth to continue to stay on the path that you have so carefully laid out for them. Some may get distracted, others may get bored, and some will get frustrated. After weeks and hours of not getting the perfect stance, passing the ball the wrong way, or just not being pushed into the right spot, it is easy for kids to loose the interest that they first had in the sport. Kids and young players need to stay motivated and excited about their Gaelic football. It is up of the coach to design the training program that will make it meaningful for them to attend training regularly for peak performance in sports.

The first thing to do is recognize that this reaction after several weeks of practice is natural. Children and youth are naturally curious and are interested in learning about new things. At the same time, it is easy to become distracted if something just isn't working right. You will need to come into the practice with fresh outlooks and new attitudes in order to help the children and youth develop their peak performance in sports. Take note of what works and what excites your charges. It might be a good idea to keep to these positive practices for the time being and only introduce other practices and drills slowly. When they start to find it boring, it is time for a fresh perspective.

One of the ways that you can be sure to keep the attention of the youth is to keep everything with a fresh and new perspective. If you know that they have been working on specific techniques in one way, you might want to try to give them a new insight into the same technique with a different drill. You might want to introduce a scoring system into your tackling drills to increase competition and motivation for peak performance in sports. You can also make sure that you are bringing yourself into check and bringing in a positive attitude for the players. This will help them to stay excited about the game and continue to learn and develop their techniques.

If your players are like most, they just want to play the game. Making sure that they stay excited while they are playing and helping to keep them encouraged and offer insights into improvement can help to keep the level of fun that they thought about when they began the sport. In a game setting, scoring is involved and children just love to score. So make sure that your practices involve plenty of scoring opportunities. It will be part of your job as a coach to make sure that all of your players walk away feeling like they've learned something new and had fun doing it while achieving peak performance in sports.

Attribution Theory for Peak Performance in Sports

2010-04-25T02:08:00.000-07:00

Whenever an athlete loses or performs badly, the tendency is to blame himself for not doing enough to succeed. This starts a whole vicious cycle of negative reinforcement. He will begin to feel inferior and thinks that he is actually not that good. When that happens he will lose his motivation to succeed, which will lead him to train with less purpose. Eventually, the performance of this athlete will drop again. Often, the root cause of this problem starts with what the athlete attributes his failures or sub par performances to. Positive reinforcement or attribution theory allows an alternative route for the athlete to credit his failures so that his self esteem and motivation for peak performance in sports are not affected. In order to carry out this technique well, try the steps indicated here the next time you experience failure or defeat.

1.Realize that you have performed badly
One of the greatest mistake athletes make is not been aware that they have performed badly. This form of self-illusion is dangerous as it promotes a state of denial when in effect there is something wrong with the situation. It is alright to acknowledge that something is not well done. To help self denying athletes become more aware of the situation, use concrete and visible indicators to signal the poor performance. Some of these indicators include the scores, the timing of the race, and the facial expression of team mates and so on. Once the athletes realize that poor performance has occurred, we are on the way to preserve our state of confidence and improve peak performance in sports.

2.Mentally list the extrinsic factors of failure
There are many reasons to failure. Your own performances and skill levels, the superiority of the opponents, the luck element, the conditions of the playing areas, the weather, the fans, etc are all possible factors of poor performances. Attribution theory or positive reinforcement makes these factors more evident for analysis of the sports performance for peak performance in sports.

3.Deflect the cause of failure away from yourself
In attribution theory, you must deflect the cause of poor performance from yourself. Instead of blaming yourself and feeling inferior after defeat, credit your opponents for their superior skills. Apportion blame to the uneven pitch that caused the poor performance. By looking at things extrinsically, you are preserving your own confidence. Defeat was not because you are no good, but due to other factors beyond your control. This will create mindset of seeking to be creative to improve the next time round to overcome the odds and achieve peal performance in sports.

4.Focus on your next skill performance
Once you have attributed failure extrinsically, close the chapter and begin focusing on the next task. It could be a point lost, but there are many more points to be won in the next rally or match. It could be a game lost, but there is always another game coming up. By looking forward to the next sports task, the mind is taken off the current poor performance and you are now back in the process of training or playing purposefully for future peak performance in sports.

Any good coach will know that the confidence of the athletes is very fragile and must be protected at all cost. Attribution theory helps an athlete prevent the lost of confidence from setting in the first place. The key is to recognize the poor performance early, attribute this to other causes and move on to the next sports task as quickly as possible. By this process of attribution theory, the mind becomes more engaged and focused on future tasks for success and peak performance in sports.

Using Mental Imagery for Peak Performance in Sports

2010-04-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

Imagery, sometimes called visualization, mental rehearsal, or self-hypnosis, refers to the techniques and strategies that are often used by psychologists to help sportsmen visualize or mentally rehearse a desired event. It involves the use of all senses to fully form and explore a mental picture of success to program the mind for peak performance in sports. All great things and ideas began with a thought. By forming quality pictures of thoughts and success, we are actually programming the brain to register how success can be achieved. When the brain becomes familiar with these mental actions, it will be translated into actual output that is capable of producing positive outcomes. Mental imagery can be practiced in the following steps.

If you are new to this field of sports psychology, it is best to have someone trained or experienced in this area to facilitate your mental imagery. This is known as guided imagery. This technique is usually practiced in a quiet setting with relaxing music in the background to help the mind focus on visualizing successes.

1.Settle down in a comfortable setting
Mental imagery is best done in a setting that is quiet and relaxing for the body. Lots of fresh air and coolness is a plus. Some people like a dark environment so that they are less distracted. The position and posture of the body is also important to some. You might want to lie down or sit in a comfortable manner. The objectives are to feel as relaxed as possible and not to be distracted.

2.Play soothing music to relax the entire body and mind
Light and soothing music has a calming effect on the body and mind. We want to create a peaceful setting for the mind and body so that you can focus on visualizing positive and successful outcome. The choice of music is also important. In recent years, there has been discovery that new age music actually has subliminal messages that are directed to our mind. This helps in feeding our subconscious mind with positive energy flow for better manifestation of success. It is worthwhile checking the kind of music available in the market.

3.Focus on your breathing muscular contractions and relaxations
Once you are settled down comfortably and music is loosening your mood, it is time to begin the process of the actual mental imagery. Start by focusing on your breathing. Take deep and slow breathes and really focused on each breathe. This will focus all thoughts on just one element – breathing. This practice sets the stage for more focus visualization later for peak performance in sports. Once focus on breathing is done for 5-10 breathes, switch focus to muscle contractions and relaxations. Contract one muscle group at a time, followed by slow relaxation of the same muscle group. The idea is to feel the relaxation sensation. Perform this on all major muscle groups starting from the top of the body to the legs. This focus on breathing and muscle contraction should take 10 minutes or so.

4.Picture the successful process and final outcome for peak performance in sports
The earlier step will have trained the mind to focus deeply on one thing at a time. Now making use of this focus, let us apply it on visualizing success. To do this effectively, you need to allow you mind to tell a story of success. Start with a scenario, for example, a free kick, and lead the mind through a series of action from the free kick resulting in a final successful outcome, perhaps a goal scored. Picture running into open space, receiving a good pass, than dribbling pass opponents and finally executing a successful shot that sails beyond the goal keeper. Using this method of process visualization, athletes can visualize successful outcomes in many game play situations and skills. It is recommended that you focus on key skills and situations that you will likely encounter in the game.

5.Reinforce the positive mental picture to end
To end the technique of mental imagery, lead the mind to a successful conclusion of the game, match or race. Always end the visualization practice on a high. Celebrating a win at the final whistle. Standing on top of the podium and receiving the gold medal. Celebrating with friends after victory. This form of successful ends will really fired up the mind to induce psycho motor processed that lead to peak performance for sports.

Mental imagery for success must be mastered and practiced as often as possible. With practice, the mind gets conditioned for successes and they become part and parcel of the sportsman life. You see it than you do it. You start seeing the end in the mind, than the successful end and peak performance in sports will come.

The Role of the Instigator in Sports Conflicts

2010-04-19T00:14:00.000-07:00

In recent weeks,there has been a glut of unfortunate display of poor sportsmanship and physical violence in our local schools' sports scene in Singapore. In particular, two incidents involved were from the same sport (rugby) and one from judo. One boy was hospitalized due to physical play which no one dare to admit, and in another, provocation from a winning opponent led to a violent attack on him from the losing opponent. In the judo case, a coach actually instructed his young school charges to sit out their fights on the floor mat in protest of a supposedly wrong decision made by the organizers. What ever happened to sportsmanship in the quest for peak performance in sports?

There is no room for all these acts of violence or defiance behaviour in our sports world, especially so in the world of student-athletes. The impression ate minds of our young charges are simply too easily influence these days. Already, they watch and learn numerous sporting stunts from the professional world of sports on television. What makes things worse for them is to learn firsthand from adult figures that poor display of sportsmanship is ok.

In the first instance, where a player was hospitalized fro rough play, do we seriously think that his concussion and coma like condition was purely accidental? What happens in the scrums, rucks and mauls of a rugby field is already nasty. The situation is only made worse when deliberate violence is used to inflict greater harm on opposition players. These form of intentional rough tactics are increasingly common in school rugby. One has to wonder where did our kids learn this from. Even when they are not taught explicitly to play dirty, by condoning such acts, are we not teaching our kids that it is ok to do anything you want for peak performance in sports. Sports is supposed to be pure and honourable, but the way we have been gunning for victory really speak foul of the integrity and ideals of sports.

How about the attack on the ACS(I) player by his St.Andrew's opponent after a hotly contested and close final game. There is no excuse for that kind of violence by anyone. Failure to control his emotions because of provocation means that he has lost his battle in his character development. Sports teaches control and discipline. There has been many instances of lack of self control by key players that led to their team losing ultimately. Remember David Beckham in the World Cup when he was provoked to kick out at his opponent? Too bad for him and England then. Same with this SAS boy, he will not be playing for the foreseeable future.

But there is something more disturbing with regards to the instigator. In all this instances, we notice that the provocateur has escaped major punishment if at all. But in our court of law, the schemer or instigator is equally if not more guilty than the actual offender. The instigator could have done a thousand other things to celebrate his victory. He could have walked away and join his teammates. He could have run a lap of honour on his own. He could have run to his mother or girl friend and gave them a hug. He could have knelt down on the final whistle and thanked the heavens for the victory. He could even, as a great gesture of sportsmanship, offered a hand shake to his fallen opponents to thank them for a great match. But he has chosen to do none of this. Instead he took the sole path that led to the unfortunate incident of violence. Based on his one and only course of action taken, there is no doubt that he has every intent to provoke and emotionally taunt his victim, resulting in the punch up. That intent is enough to make him just as guilty as the one who threw the punches at him. It was really a sad day when our finest school athletes should descend into such hideous depths of poor sportsmanship. There should be no place for such behaviours from our athletes in their quest for peak performance in sports.

Benefits of Utilizing Mental Training as Part of Your Training Regime

2010-04-18T00:06:00.000-07:00

If you really want to perform well in your sports competitions for peak performance in sports, you must incorporate some form of mental skill training in your training regime. Mental skill training can be defined as the training of the mind using structured techniques to guide the mind in performing sports tasks. Sports tasks and competitions can be very demanding and unpredictable. What, mental skill training does in the main is to reduce this demand and uncertainty by making sports activities more predictable and achievable. Some of the key benefits of mental training as part of your training regime are discussed below.

1.Set target for the mind
The starting point of any mental skill training for peak performance in sports is setting targets for the mind. Targets set must be specific, measurable, achievable, and realistic and time based (SMART goals). Without targets to guide our mind, there will never be full commitment and belief. Once these are absence in any sportsmen, the end result is often sub par performances. Target setting, creates the vision of a successful sports outcome, and this will become the driving force for all the planning and training that follows.

2.Promote structured planning of training
Once targets are set, our mind and body will find ways to get there. The power of the mind must not be underestimated. We were born without impossible dreams and abilities. Just look at any toddler play and explore. They will go to the ends of all boundaries and stretch them the limit. Once the mind believe, the rest is easy. Life will find a way to solve all problems or achieve all targets. Mental skill training promotes the structured planning of success and this form of planning is guided by the targets set for peak performance in sports.

3.Develop strategies to cope with stresses in sports
Stresses in sports are bound to occur and they will occur very frequently. As a result, the athlete who performs well will be one who is able to best handle all these stresses as they are encountered in competitions. Mental skill training identifies stresses when they occur, and equip athletes will various techniques to deal with them to reduce their impact on performance. A noisy crowd can be a distraction and stress, but a good player will be able to visually and audibly focus cues other than the crowd.

4.Visualizing for success
Belief in success comes from changing mental perception. Mental skill training, through strategies like self talk, positive reinforcement, and mental rehearsal will coerce the mind towards a state of being that will see peak performance in sport and successes in the mind in every corner. Once the mind see successes, actions will lead to eventual success in most cases.

5.Raising or lowering arousal levels
In any competition or sports task, it is inevitable that athletes will get excited and anxious. This is common because the stakes are usually high and sports are about competition with other opponents. As the body and mind faces encounters, physiological responses will take place which will inhibit good performances. Mental skill training will equip athletes will strategies and techniques that will raise and lower the arousal level of the athlete to appropriate levels for solid competition performances and peak performance in sports.

6.Creates positive and predictable routines for peak performance
Finally mental skill training will teach athletes to create positive and predictable routines for activities leading up to sports performance. These routine and activities are important as they prepare the body and mind fully for sports competition and they also reduce unexpected outcomes and interference to sports. You will not find a good athlete without a proper and personal routine to follow before competition starts.

Mental skill training is not taboo just because of the word ‘mental’. It is actually training the mind to reach a state that is conducive for the repeated performances of positive sports skills and peak performance for sports.

FAS! What about the HEART of our players?

2010-04-14T03:28:00.000-07:00

Last week, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) launched their most ambitious strategic plan yet, with the goal of propelling Singapore Football to greater peak performance in sports. The plan listed 6 keys goals and 9 key areas to work on to reach their target. In short, there is now a new football syllabus to develop skills and tactics of our footballers, more money for a new National Training Centre for football and better medical science to support the development of players, and a drive to promote greater participation and competition in Singapore. There is nothing wrong with all those areas we will be focusing on, but have we gotten to the root of the real problem? Have we not thrown money and set ambitious targets before? You, mean all this while, our footballers are not competent in their skills and tactics? No wonder, we have been lackluster in our performances all these years. No wonder our footballers are not reaching their peak performances in sports. Amidst all these physical goodies to support and motivate our players, perhaps it is wiser to invest in something that we have more or less forgotten.

This reminded me of the sports comedy “Replacements” many years back starring Keanu Reeves, Gene Hackman and bunch of other colorful nobodies. The gist of the film revolves around a strike by professional football players (American Football that is) demanding, what else? Higher pay of course. That sparked the owners of the various clubs to continue with their season by using ‘replacement’ players to fill the gaps left by the superstars who were only playing for money.
In come, coach Jimmy McGinty (Hackman) as the coach of the Washington Sentinels, who immediately went about finding replacements the unorthodox way. He got a prisoner and SWAP team police officer to ankle the defense, hired two bouncers to be the Guards of the quarter back, recruited a Welshman to do the field goal kicking, a mute player to be the Tight End, a Sumo wrestler to be the blocker, plus a speedster who could not catch to be a wide receiver. To top up the whole show boat, he persuaded an ex-college football star, Shane Falco (Reeves) with low self esteem to lead the team as the quarter back. As you might have expected, this circus was on a fun and wild ride. But strangely, when money matters least, the team started to gel and play well together. They had nothing to lose at this second chance, so they played hard. When some of pros did come back and replaced the replacements, there was not real fight in them. All they did was upset a highly motivated lot. At half-time of a playoff game with the team down by almost 20 points, a reporter went up to ask coach McGinty, “What do you think is needed to turn this team around?” In response, McGinty said, “Heart!” And pointing to is heart said again, “Miles and miles of heart!”

Singapore Football does not need more money (well it sure help to have money) or football syllabus which players should already know or more exposure to games and competitions. What they need is miles and miles of heart. Playing with a true heart defines a great player. No team or player has succeeded for peak performance in sports without miles and miles of heart. Having miles and miles of heart, gives players the intrinsic motivation to train harder, learn more skills and tactics, play harder, and above all, fight for the right cause. If we are serious to improve our football and bring our national football to international repute, we should spend the effort to find players with miles and miles of heart.

Basic Skills of Volleyball

2010-04-09T08:51:00.000-07:00

The worst situation that a volleyball team could be in is to show up at a game without knowing what skills they needed to win the game for peak performance in sports. Hitting the ball, being in the right place, and playing competitively can help to win the game as well as gain confidence in the sport. Focusing on the basics for volleyball can help you to gain the skills you need for every game.

1. Serving. This is what always starts the game and helps to keep the game. There are two basic types of serves. One is overhand; where the player will throw the ball in the air first, then hit it. The second is underhand, where the server will hold the ball and swing their other arm underneath the ball to hit it. There are a variety of other serves beyond these basics, all which help to get the ball over the net, and get the game going. It pays to be able to serve well, as this is the starting point for peak performance in sports here.

2. Pass or reception. This is usually set up by the setter of the game. It is used in order to take the ball and give it to the other players on your own team. They will then have the ability to put the ball to the other side like they want to. You can either pass by the forearm or by hitting the ball overhead.

3. Tip. A tip is used as a way to trick the other team into thinking that the ball is going further than it will. The player will hit the ball lightly, making it go over the net but not too far into the other player's area so that they can't hit it back.

4. Dig. This is the ability for a player to save the ball from hitting the court after it has been spiked. It usually requires a player to slide underneath the ball on the court or to dive underneath the ball. The dig is the most basic skill of volleyball and must be mastered if you are to achieve peak performance in sports here.

5. Rebound. This occurs when the ball stays on one side, making the players rebound, or take the ball back.

With all of these different hits for a ball, you will want to make sure that the players have the ability to move freely and effectively with every move. With all of these different hits, the players will need to connect where they want to hit the ball with the way that their feet move. For example, a dig will require the feet to move under the body in order to save the ball. A serve will require more balance on both feet in order to hit the ball more effectively. This will be important to keep in mind as you are training players.

The basics of volleyball hits can lead a long way when you are working towards playing the game and peak performance in sports. If you are finding ways to teach techniques to players, this is the place to start. It will allow everyone to have a good chance at controlling and hitting the ball, no matter what the set up is.

Keeping Scores in Your Sports

2010-04-05T22:40:00.000-07:00

Half of the fun of playing against opponents on court is seeing who will win the game. Of course, if you aren't playing in a tournament, you will want to make sure you know how to keep the score. Not only are there possibilities for opponents to cheat, but you can also help in building a different kind of game by keeping track of the points.

When you begin keeping score with your opponents, you can expect a series of things to be broken down numerically. First, if you are in a match, you can expect the match to be divided into either three or five different games. The winner will be the one who wins the most points out of all three or five of the matches. The first player who wins at least four points in every match will be the winner. If the opponent is keeping up with the other side, then the winning points will be determined by being two ahead of the opponent.

Of course, the points will be stated differently when you are playing. If you have one to three points against the opponent you will hear it as either love or zero. After this, every three points that you gain, will show up as fifteen, thirty and forty. If you are tied with the opponent, you can expect to have the number deuce as the point definer. If you are only one point ahead, it will be called advantage, ad or ad out.

If you are coaching, then keeping score during a tournament can help you to make sure that everything is in line and will help to determine what the next strategy should be for the player. This is especially important if there are problems such as the opponent being up only by one point or keeping the game tied. When this happens, you should be aware of some next steps to take in order to settle the score.

Once you understand the logistics of the scoring system of tennis, it allows you to make sure you know what needs to happen for the win. By keeping track of what is available to you, there will be the possibility to make sure that you are always one step ahead.

Swinging into Action with the Right Practice Drills

2010-04-03T23:26:00.000-07:00

If you want to play an effective game, then you will want to make sure that you have an effective practice. If you aren't sure where to start with your team, then you can begin with some simply drills that will help the team to build a memory of different plays and how to react, as well as give them the ability to understand the different possibilities to responding to the baseball.

When you are developing the skills of the team, you will want to offer specific exercises that will help build them in several ways. The first of these is to help build strength in both the arms and the legs. You can do this simply by throwing the ball back and forth, or by doing exercises that will help to develop the muscles in these areas. You will also want to focus on building balance and other kinesthetic needs that they will have.

From building the individual needs for the game, you can begin to practice for a variety of things. The most suggested part of practice is for batting practice. You can do this by diving members into groups of two and have one person pitch and the other bat. As they practice their batting, you will be able to show different techniques for hitting the ball every time.

You can also be sure to help players gain confidence and more abilities by having play situation drills. This will allow everyone to understand their different positions and what they need to do in specific situations. You can do this by minimizing the efforts of players. Simply divide the team into groups of four. You will then have the different teams, all in different positions, throw the balls into different areas for a specified amount of time. The fastest group that throws the ball most efficiently will win. This is one of several types of play situations that you can use in order to help the players understand what they can do for different plays.

If you want to make sure that your team continues to develop with their skills, then you will want to offer practices that are effective and offer the members abilities to learn new techniques. By setting specific drills, showing new maneuvers, and working on different aspects of the game that are needed, you will be certain to give your players foundational skills for the game.

Player's Safety & Injuries

2010-04-01T23:59:00.000-07:00

In every game, there is always the possibility of running into an injury instead of the goal line. If you are affiliated with sports as a coach, you will want to make sure that you help your players to stay safe and avoid possibilities for injury. By keeping a checklist in mind of what the players need and how to meet this, you will have the ability to keep them going in the game.

One of the most important factors that relates to children's safety and injuries is related to the growth of the child. Because they are not fully developed, an injury can cause problems not only with the pain at the moment, but also with potential future problems. There are several who have found the various reasons for the injuries, many which could be prevented.

The number one cause for injuries in sports is related to a lack of education. Children will go without wearing the proper safety gear, or will take a wrong move that could have been prevented if they knew it would injure them. Because this is the number one reason for injury, it is important for coaches to inform every player of the importance of safety gear and educating them on ways to prevent injury while playing.

A second factor related to sports injuries is from children who do not receive the proper conditioning before they go to play a game. They should be practicing scenarios of the game as well as learning techniques that will help them to reach the goals of the game without making a wrong move. Once you learn the basics of maneuvers for games, it is your priority to make sure that all of your players understand why the moves are set rules.

If you are looking at the different possibilities to help your players stay healthy and safe in practice and in a game, then it is up to you to step up to the plate. Making sure that they receive the proper education and observing their use and understanding of safety gear can help save children from the fall.

The Mastery of Dribbling

2010-03-29T04:08:00.000-07:00

In basketball, you want to make sure that every dribble and move that the team members make will lead to the basket and the win. If you are working towards teaching each team member to have different tricks for dribbling, then you can begin by teaching them basics and moving up into developing more advanced techniques as you go.

The first thing you will want to teach anyone who is learning the basics of dribbling is where to set all of their strength. Many beginners will try to use their palms when they are beginning to dribble. Instead, you will want to focus on teaching how to use and strengthen the fingertips for better dribbling. The wrist will then be able to control the movement of the fingers, giving more possibilities for controlling the ball. You will also want to teach beginners how to dribble a lower ball, giving them the ability to maneuver through defense with more options. While they are dribbling lower, you will want to make sure that they are able to keep their head up and away from the ball so they can make their next move.

After you have the basics of dribbling down, then you can add extra techniques into the bounce. The first of these is learning how to pivot while dribbling. When you are doing basic dribbles, your feet will be hip width apart and your knees will be bent. When you pivot while dribbling a basketball, you will be able to turn your body while you are dribbling into a completely different position, giving you more lead way to get past defense and make a basket. Another maneuver that you can do will combine foot work with the dribble. For example, you can fake moving one way, then turn to move the other, giving you an open shot at a basket. You can do this same thing by feinting, meaning that you dribble the ball enough to move the defense out of your way, giving a clear shot to the basket.

Dribbling beyond the basics is learning how to combine footwork with the way that the ball is moving. When you begin to teach others how to move with the ball and how to combine different actions of movement with the game, you will have the ability to give options for moving past the other team and into the basket you want to make.

Boost Self-Esteem through Sports

2010-03-25T19:54:00.000-07:00

One of the largest factors that youths deal with today is in relation to their self-esteem. Several suffer by looking at themselves as not good enough and inferior. This may range from seeing their body image in the wrong light to seeing their mental states as not quite right. All this negativity only serves to discourage the person from reaching his sporting potential. There are ways to help youth with their self-esteem. By suggesting and supporting things like sports, you will be certain to decrease their chances at unhealthy activities from a low self-esteem.

It is known that when children enter into school, they will generally have a high self-esteem. More than eighty percent of children in the first grade will start out by thinking highly of themselves and believing that they can do anything. However, this high level of self-esteem will drop with age. By the time these same children reach the fifth grade, the attitude towards themselves and the self-esteem has dropped to about twenty percent. By the time children graduate from high school, the amount that has a high self esteem is at a low of five percent. Why is this so? It is because as we grow, we become influence by the people we meet, surroundings we live in and the society we embrace. The world as we know is full of limitation and these limitations prevents us from doing things that might seem impossible. This will lower self image which brings along other adverse effects.

Along with the low self-esteem come things such as drug use, early sex, and failure with steps towards a career. This comes about because youths without proper motivation in life will tend to find other things to fill the vacuum. At the same time, it is also being found that those who play sports are less likely to take part in these activities. Instead, those who play sports are more likely to develop a higher self-esteem and participate in positive activities. Because the children and youth are being challenged to succeed, and encouraged to continue through the use of a team and the sport, they are able to develop a better insight towards their own self-image.

The idea of self-esteem in sports has become such a major component of the sports, that several areas are now committed to giving more youth activities outside of school specifically to battle low self-esteem and offer alternatives for success. It is being found that no matter what type of physical activity or sport the youth participate in, it is helping to build them into better adults with a more positive outlook on whom they are.

If you notice any type of anxiety, depression, or negative reaction from your child, their self-esteem may need some help. If you want to make sure that they graduate from high school feeling good about their accomplishments, then you can enroll them in a physical activity to help out. By doing this, you will be able to give them another option away from the negative outlook that they may have.

Mind Over Body

2010-03-21T01:47:00.000-07:00

In anything we do in life, we are only confined by one thing - our mind. We are all made to scale the impossible. If you don't believe me, go and ask a toddler when he is about to jump off a high table. Chances are he will still want to do it, but most likely he will be prevented from doing so by his safety conscious parents. When we were young, nothing is impossible for us. But as we grow older, we begin to be affected by life's expectations. Oh, you can't climb Mount Everest, you are not conditioned for this. Oh, you can't represent your country in soccer, there are too many players out there who are much better than you. Oh, you can't finish the marathon at 60 years old, your bones and muscles cannot take it. We hear this every single day of our lives. In that sense our excellence has been constrained by ourselves. Our mind does not work like that. There is nothing impossible for the mind, only our beliefs. In the world of sports, it is the same. Only when sportsmen have a mind over body mentality will he reach his peak performance in sports. Very often though he is already defeated before the start because he has told his mind that it cannot be done. To really succeed, we need to adopt a mind over body mentality, and there are some simple steps we can take to head in that direction.

Adopting a positive mindset is the first and most important thing that must be done if we are to reach our peak performance in sports. When Singapore play Manchester United for example. What will be the first thing that comes into your mind? That's right, Singapore don't stand a chance, it is just about preventing the fewest goals scored against us by a far superior team. And guess what, all these years when Manchester United visited Singapore in their warm up tours, they have always defeated us by a big margin because we have expected that. When we are convinced tof an adverse result, our mind will make sure it happens. What if we have a positive mindset and actually believe that Singapore is better than Manchester United? What if we do not give in to negative thoughts? If we can truly think that way, I tell, the results would have been very different. We might not actually win, but I bet you you that we will give Manchester United a run for their money. The reason for this is simple. When our mindset becomes positive and we actually think we are better in many ways, the mind will find all kinds of way to make us better. It could be training harder. It could be analyzing our opponents harder and coming up with strategies to deal with a rampant opponent. It could be a never give in mindset. It does not matter. Give our mind a strong belief, and it will find a way to overcome insurmountable obstacles. So sportsmen the world over, do yourself a favor, believe in yourselves, and success and peak performance in sports will come your way surely.

With a positive mindset, confidence will come. Once confidence comes, it can become a vicious cycle of success. Nothing is more dangerous than an opponent who is overwhelmingly confident of themselves to succeed. We are talking about great self-confidence, not complacency. When a team is full of confidence, it is because they have made their minds so overwhelming positive that they do not entertain any doubts about their abilities. Even if they do, they have devise ways to overcome those doubts and remain confident of themselves. There are some ways where a team can gain this confidence that can become infectious. A good coach would have been careful to build up this type of confidence by positive motivational methods. Like complementing and praising his players when they perform well. Even when they do not perform well, the coach will convey the message across to his players in ways that will not bring down their sel-esteem. That is why in modern sports today, you will see many coached coming out publicly to defend their players even if they have not performed well. They will attribute their failure to external factors rather than to their own players. By doing so, the players know that they are values, hence they will work harder next time. Another way the coach can induce confidence in his team is by scheduling progressively difficult competition for his teams. Start with opponents that they can easily beat and work their way up towards stronger opponents. When coaches do that, they artificially create success for their teams.

Finally, once a positive mindset and confidence is instilled, it is important to make all activities that created these in the first place routine and habitual. If you ask any successful sportsmen, there will always be a routine that they diligently follow to the T, and they are very afraid to break this routine. The way routines work is all in the mind. We know what works and these translates to the mind. By repeating familiar activities in the same sequence we are actually programming success. Like how a computer works. If certain inputs and programming leads to success, keying in the same inputs will also create similar outcomes. The key is for coaches to help athletes replicate their peak performance for success. You can do that in many things. You can build up to the game on game day by following a strict routine. You can mentally rehearsal dead ball situations and cause the mind to think success. When these are followed, the body systems will react accordingly in a positive manner. Knowing the process, routines and habits that lead to peak performance in sports is important.

To be a successful sportsmen who achieve peak performance in sports constantly, you need to cultivate a positive mindset, breed confidence and set routines for success. Ultimately, how far we go is determined by how highly we think of ourselves. The mind is for us to change, it is not supposed to be the mind controlling our response. We were not build this way.

How Can a Coach Succeed?

2010-03-16T21:20:00.000-07:00

Have you wonder why top coaches like Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Guus Hiddink are always so successful wherever they ply their trades? Look at Sir Alex, 20 plus years at Manchester United, and he is still going strong. Yesterday, Chelsea just got dumped out of the Champions League again Inter Milan, coached by a certain Jose Mourinho, whom they sack after winning two Premier League titles. What about Guus? Well, he only brought great success to Ajax, South Korea and Russia. Hey, are those teams miles apart geographically and culturally? Silly question! These great masters are not just successfully because they are lucky or they have inherited a good squad of players, although that can be bonus factor. They are great because they know what the attributes of a great team is, and they are just damn good at creating such characteristics in their teams.

How long do we need to argue that talented players do not make a great team? Look at Manchester City and the pre-Mourinho Chelsea. Despite millions of pounds on player investment, Manchester City is still a long shot from Champions League football. How about Chelsea, didn’t the overpaid superstars just got dumped out of the Champions League? Money does not guarantee success. A cohesive team does. If there is anything the history of sports has shown, it is the fact that winners are true teams in all sense, and great managers and coaches know that. Which is why, it is important to get the team spirit right right from the start? Throw out the super stars, throw out those without 100% commitment, and throw out those who prefer the night life than training, throw out those who smoke. These are the culprits that will bring the team down. It is like a rotten apple affecting the whole basket, the longer you leave it there, the greater the damage. People ask, where should Singapore football go from the latest fiasco of errant players. The answer is right here. Get the team spirit right, the team motivation will follow. Throw, purposefully and tough training you will have the making of a fine team. The next thing that follows with a few decent results will be confidence.

There is a saying, confidence is infectious. When a basketballer is “on fire”, he will sink any shot given to him. When a footballer finds his scoring touch, every ball he touches turns into goals. Look at Wayne Rooney now. Need I say more. Great coaches know the importance of confidence at all levels. Not just self confidence, but confidence in their team mates and coaches as well. When teams reach that stage for coaches to devise strategies and tactics, the players will have full trust in their coaches’ decisions, and they will execute their strategies wholeheartedly. But when players are at odds with their coaches, they will be thinking whether their coaches have picked the right tactics in the first place. How can you expect, the players to fully concentrate on the field? Scolari during his brief stint with Chelsea was the perfect example. The players under him simply did not buy into his ways of running things. It is no surprise Chelsea was sixes and sevens that season. The main challenge then is to build confidence in the players and the team. Once that is achieved, a vicious cycle takes over. A siege mentality is build, and the team can be considered invincible.

To reach that stage, coaches really have to know their stuff and people manage proper. He must know all his players well. He must know all his adversaries and opponents well. Only with such knowledge will he be able to devise the right team strategy to win games for the team. Only when they win games will they gain confidence. Once confidence is gain, the team siege mentality will take over. The coach will make his job of building his team up so much easier if he has gotten rid of all adverse players’ right at the start. Don’t even think about retaining superstars just because there are too indispensable. If their motivation and professionalism is in doubt, wheel the axe. Once these vice players are out, he can now concentrate fully on developing his team. It calls for sensitivity to your players’ needs. It also calls for a firm hand when players step out of line. Most of all, the coach must rub your on passion for success and the game on the players. The coach is the captain or the ship. The players sail or sink with you. He must give them direction and hope, something worthwhile to work towards. Once that motivation is enshrined in their hearts, the team can go to the ends of the earth. Nothing is impossible. So I urge all coaches to lead your team in this manner. People might think you are not playing the game, hence you are not important. On the contrary, you are the heart of the team. Make sure you assume that role.

Coaches! Impart the Right Values, Not Just the Right Skills

2010-03-15T03:18:00.000-07:00

Something has happened to our sports scenes over the last 10 to 20 years. There use to be a time when my teachers were my hockey coach, rugby coach and soccer coach. Teachers assumed so many roles in schools, and never once did they gripe about how much they have to work. These days, our schools are flooded with external coaches for all kinds of sports. The teacher-coach has more or less disappeared. Schools allocate huge sums of money in their budget for coaches, to the extend that a coach can have a livelihood just by coaching. There is actually nothing wrong in coaching as a career. However, when it comes to coaches delivering the right education package in their coaching program we have a problem. Too many of our coaches are not teaching the right values to our students when they coach our sports teams, and if this is left unchecked, it will breed the next generation of adverse sportsmen and sportswomen. Not a good idea for A Sporting Singapore. Here is the call; Coaches! Impart the Right Values, Not Just the Right Skills.

Sports is meant to be played with the right values. The Olympic values of Friendship, Respect and Excellence sum up why we should be playing sports. Sports is about socializing and interacting, not just between team mates but also with our opponents. It is about respecting yourselves, your team mates, your coaches, your officials and above all the rules. Without rules there will be no games. Sports is also about giving your best, hence the excellence aspect. We play to win, otherwise do not play at all. But there is a limit to playing to win. It is an unwritten code that winning at all cost through dishonest ways is not the way of the warrior. Sadly, too many of our athletes and coaches trump this negative face of excellence and use it as an excuse to impart values that are in conflict with the true meaning of sports. We should not do that. After all it is only a game. After the trophies are lifted, what have we left behind? We leave behind young and impression ate sportsmen who think that it is alright to cheat and play foul to win. Before long, these characteristics will be carried out in the working world. And applying these wrong values in a smart way is tantamount to what happened during the last financial crisis when bankers went all out to reap dividends at the expense of the rest of the world. We do not want that for our future.

It is a tall order to be a coach. Not only must you be an expert in your field, you must possess the skills, knowledge and application to transfers these expertise of yours to your charges. And given only 4-6 hours a week to do so, the task might seem impossible. Plus, schools expect results from competitions; otherwise why hire a coach in the first place? But ask any teacher or principal if they will trade victory through cheating with defeat and a hard lesson learn on playing honestly and gracious, no educator will choose the former. Coaches, you have the mandate from the true purpose of sports, it is high time you use that mandate to demand the purest of values from your charges. The greatest victory you can give your charges is the victory of winning and losing with the right values. Only with that can you and your team be considered true champions.

An Own Goal for Singapore Football

2010-03-12T17:48:00.000-08:00

Newspaper headlines recently publicized a long held open secret about the dire straits of football in our country. It was reported that some of our national footballer smokes during half-time of a crucial match, oversleeps and are late for matches, and worse of all, show poor motivation and attitudes during training. No wonder Singapore cannot make the World Cup stage or even the less competitive Asian Football Championships. These errant players in the national squad ought to be sacked immediately and replaced by players who are willing to put in their hearts and souls for the country. As much as these national players are talented, their attitudes stint to high heavens. One wonders why they are in the national team in the first place. Something ought to be done if Singapore Football wants to reach a stage whereby it is of some standards.

If we look at the top football teams in the world and the region, you will find that these teams are where they are now because of the strict and discipline regime their respective coaches and football associations have enforced upon their teams. Can you imagine, Fabio Capello tolerating smoking in the locker room at half-time? Or can you imagine Guus Hiddink saying “Its’ ok to skip a team meeting and be late for a team bus?” These coaches are no nonsense coaches who insist on 100% professionalism and team spirit from their team. England is where they are now, because Capello has instilled upon them a strict regime that builds team spirit. His sacking of John Terry after his scandal is just one good example of telling people what can or cannot be done. We need to take a page from these great coaches and great teams and learn from them. Members of the national team must show 100% professionalism and discipline when it comes to representing and training for the country. Smoking, being late for training and training below par are not professional standards. Anyone in this category ought to be shown the door no matter how good a player you are. Their very attitudes and turn outs threaten the foundation of the team.

Raddy Avramovic knows this, but he has been caught in the struggle of trying to select the best players versus instilling a strict regime on his charges. His coming out publicly to criticize his errand players is his way of saying “I will not stand this nonsense anymore. It’s either the players training my way or they can get out of my way.” Raddy, you should also name these players right from the start. I believe that the public will be behind you. We will even do you a favor by insist that the FAS sack these players. These players will not lead Singapore to the next World Cup or major championships. What we need are players who are willing to play as a team, train as a team and be a 100% professional the moment they are selected. We need more players like Aleksandar Duric, who at 39, still does not smoke, maintains a strict diet, and train harder than anyone else. And we wonder why he still can play professionally and be recognized as the top striker in the country after all these years.

There is no secret to longevity in the professional football world. It is down to doing your job professionally. That means you look after your body by strict dieting and staying away from vices. That means training hard, if not harder than others so that you can run faster and longer than the others who are probably younger as well. But than again, the young players are more interested in hooking up girls and enjoying the nigh life. These players just do not understand what it means to be professionals. The irony in all this is that, these players are also immensely blessed with football talent. But they are preventing themselves from reaching their peak by their wayward lifestyles. As a result our national team also suffers.

The selection of national players is very simple if we only select the most motivated and professional players. Never mind these might not be the most talented players because at the end of the day, these eleven dedicated professionals will be able to play as a team like how the coach wants it, and out play eleven others Ronaldos who do not give two hoots about team work and acting professionally. So, please Raddy and the FAS, do us, Singapore fans, and a favor and get rid of all these non-professionals in the team and start recruiting motivated professionals to fill the ranks. I think if we do that and keep this group together, the next World Cup is possible.

A Hat-Trick for a Sporting Singapore

2010-03-10T18:50:00.001-08:00

A check on the front page of today’s Strait Times will reveal that the Ministry of Education (MOE) will be increasing the duration of Physical Education (PE) per week in schools gradually. This increase in compulsory PE lessons for all students in schools is the long awaited mass sport development booster shot that A Sporting Singapore needs. In time, nearly 100% of our youth will be actively involved in regular PE. The foundation for sports excellence is indeed set for the future. We have scored a hat-trick for sport development through an extended PE curriculum, but we must make use of this unique opportunity and properly enforce this to ensure the success of A Sporting Singapore.

I have argued previously about the importance of raising sports standards and promoting sports through more participation by our youth. With the incoming extended PE curriculum, we can finally have the means and platform to truly make sports popular amongst our young Singaporeans. These future students will form the critical mass of sports participation we so badly need to boost our Sporting Singapore objectives. Now, in schools, more time will be devoted by trained and passionate PE teachers to train a wide variety of basic skills to our students from a young age. Not only that, the teaching of soft skills and good sportsmanship will also take place in an increasingly more diverse manner. This form of sports and physical education will form the backbone for the formation of the next batch of sports stars in our country.

With this privilege to extend more PE lessons to all students, the PE circle must ensure that the teaching of sports is meaningful and effective in delivering a system that will produce future sports stars or the very least passionate sports participants. We will need to ensure the following if the foundation of A Sporting Singapore is to be formed;

1.Teaching a wide variety of sports and not just the popular sports. Our students have a very narrow view regarding physical education in Singapore. To many children, PE means playing the sports they like most. Inevitably these games will be football, basketball, badminton and netball. There is nothing wrong in playing something popular with the masses. But until our students start to try out other sports, they will never know what they are truly good at. This is where a diverse PE curriculum comes in. By teaching students more sports and games, the increase exposure will allow students to learn and appreciate new sports. Some will find that these new sports will suit them more or appeal more to them. And once students start playing games they are better at or are more passionate about, their standard of play will improve.

2.Teaching F.I.R.S.T. The acronym stands for Fitness, Individual Skills, Rules, Sports Types and Tactics. All these five components of sports must be taught to induce the kind of sports development results and outcomes we want to see in our students. There is more to sports and games than just learning skills and competing. To compete well, you need to be familiar with rules, knowledge and tactics of the games. Only by understanding your game better will you become a more intelligent player. This will improve the overall standard of play for A Sporting Singapore.

3.Teaching officiating and umpiring. This is an area that is often neglected, but is just as important for sports development and peak performance in sports. Knowing how to referee and umpire games will allow sportsmen to better appreciate how the game is officiated. This change of perspective will often result in behavioral change in terms of how one approaches the game. For example, if we know that referees are consistent in giving away penalties for discipline offences, it will force the coach and players to really devise a match strategy based on discipline team play. A team that infringes too often because of ill discipline will lose more often as the officials are never on their side.

4.Teaching for competition. We must teach sports to our students so that they are equipped to compete at their respective levels. Only through competitions and training for competitions will the desired soft skills be imparted to our students effectively. It is not just about wanting to win or doing well in the competitions, but the very process of training and practicing for a real competition is a great building tool of character in our sportsmen. Through tough training, our students will earn about hard work and success. Team work and success. Having the resilience to get up when defeated. More competitions must be encouraged all levels, and PE is a very good starting point for this competitions.

5.Teaching methods of instructions in sports so that the next generation of sports coaches can be inspired and groomed from a young age. This will facilitate the development of sports stars in the future. A good PE teacher is also a good coach. We can strive to pass on this form of coaching instructional knowledge to our more senior students to inspire them to become future teachers and coaches of sports. This will ensure continuity of well trained manpower resources contributing to the future of sports development and A Sporting Singapore.

We have come a long way in terms of PE in Singapore. From having untrained PE teachers to having highly trained ones in most schools today. The curriculum and focus as also evolved for the better. Now with extra PE time allocated to all schools, it will be a perfect platform for us to reach out to all children in our country. We must make use of this extra time to implement what is important and effective, so that the critical mass of sports participation can be created for the development of A Sporting Singapore.

Two Aspects of Sports Development That Singapore Schools Have Overlooked

2010-03-08T19:50:00.001-08:00

In a rat race society that is Singapore, it is not surprising that whoever wins counts more than anything else. From a young age, our children are already being geared towards this kind of attitude by our ever ‘kiasu’ parents. In schools, ranking and performance appraisal accentuates the situation. When these children grow up and enter the work force, productivity and value-added ness are buzz words; otherwise you risk not having your performance bonus. In our quest for the best outcome, we have often forgotten that sometimes simply going through the process of education and career development is just as important as the outcome at the end of the day. In sports development it is the same. Winning championships need not be everything, What kind of sports developmental process that our children goes through matters as well because in the long run these will lead us towards our goals of A Sporting Singapore. Today, let us touch on two aspects of sports development that our Singapore Schools have overlooked in their sports programs.

The first area is in the area of referee and umpiring of sports. Like it or not, very often referees and umpires decide the outcomes of games. We cannot control how the officials oversee the games when they are played, but we sure can ensure motivated and competent officials end up umpiring games in the future if we only start some form of refereeing or umpiring course or educational package in schools.

In schools now, there is hardly any proper platform to teach our children about umpiring and officiating. We do teach rules of the games so that our student athletes can play the games and sports better, but there is no conscious effort to educate student-athletes in the areas of umpiring and refereeing. As a result, our children grow up wanting only to play the game. When results do not favor them, they turn on the referees and umpires. This is our local ‘referee kayu’ culture at work. This form of referee abuse only serves to discourage people from taking up officiating seriously. It does not take a genius to see that refereeing standards are not up to par in our country especially in our school scenes. No wonder, our students grow up playing in games that are poorly officiated. It is a vicious cycle that needs to be broken if we are to improving our sports standards for A Sporting Singapore.

Schools need to start looking seriously at educating our student-athletes on officiating and refereeing. They need to create awareness in students that the referee is just as important in the game they play than the player themselves. Let us also not forget that not everyone will be school team caliber. For those who do not make the sports standards, developing them as a referee or umpire is actually a good path for these athletes to follow. Their in depth knowledge and interest in their respective games will help them to really contribute to the development of their sports. There must be a concerted effort to support and encourage referee and umpire development so that student-athletes can see this as a viable option to take in their respective sports journeys.

The second aspect that schools need to develop is in the area of coaching and instruction. Again, not all student-athletes will make it to represent their school teams and national teams. For these motivated and passionate sportsmen, becoming a coach or instructor will be another viable alternative to playing the game full time. Many well known coaches in the world are not outstanding players of their times. Think of Jose Mourinho in soccer. He was never an outstanding soccer player, but yet he has become one of the most coveted coaches in the world.

There is more to sports development than just improving the abilities of the athletes themselves. By encouraging coaching to be undertaken early in school going years, we are actually creating the coaching expertise of the future, which will be invaluable in developing the champions of tomorrow. How can schools do that? One way is to develop student coaches to look after their junior teams. For example, a good student leader in upper secondary can be made to look after the selection and training of new secondary one student. Or these leaders can look after second tier teams of the school. These leaders need some basic coaching training which I am sure the teachers and coaches can provide. Thereafter, it is learning on the job.

When they leave school, these budding young coaches can upgrade their skills and expertise with their respective sports associations. With Singapore’s sports industry expanding year by year, there are really many opportunities for these young coaches to take up coaching as a career. This will be a plus point to for sports development in Singapore. A Sporting Singapore becomes more attainable.

In our quest for results, we very often focus just on aspects of sports development that are only associated with winning. These include areas of coaching of athletes, development of sports skills, mental skill training for success and so forth. We very seldom look into other soft and non-competitive aspects of sports development. In the long run, if we invest in development of referees and coaches from a young age, we are only creating a bigger pool of expertise for sports development in Singapore. Eventually, these resources will support the achievement of A Sporting Singapore.

How Can Sports Development in Schools Help in Achieving a Sporting Singapore?

2010-03-06T23:24:00.001-08:00

In my last post, I have expounded on how creating a critical mass of sports participation is the key in helping our country achieve A Sporting Singapore. This critical mass of sports participation is crucial in any nation that has been doing well in international sports. Take New Zealand for example. How did the Kiwis produce top class rugby players year after year? The answer is that they are a rugby mad nation where almost everyone of all ages and status breathe rugby. Every corner of the country is playing the game at mass level. No wonder that these Kiwis will continue to dominate the rugby world. If Singapore is to achieve a Sporting Singapore, winning international honours regularly, we have to have this kind of critical mass of sports participation in some, if not most sports and games. Being in a country where every young children enters compulsory education by the age of 6, we do not need to look very far to know where we should start to induce this kind of mass participation for our nation to do well in sports. It begins with our schools. If we can somehow create a critical mass of students playing sports in schools from the beginning, all these young people will become our sports participation numbers when they reach adult hood. We have to implement policies and programmes that will help our young pick up sports in schools and sustain this interest for life.

Apart from physical education in schools at the moment, only approximately 25% of our student population take part in sports actively and regular. We will need to increase this percentage to reach a critical mass of sports participation in school. There are three serious ways we can look into to achieve this. They include making sports CCA compulsory for all, creating more platforms for intra-school and inter-school sports and revamping the existing sports awards system in school to encourage more recreational sports development programmes.

Making sports CCA mandatory sounds autocratic, but it is an effective way to get the participation we want. The physical health of an individual is not any less important than his mental health, and if English, Mathematics and Science are deemed important for the intellectual development, physical health development should come second to none. Without a health body, it is impossible to have a sound mind. Furthermore, more and more of our children are becomeing less and less active and healthy as they grow up. This will only add on to our health cost next time. It will be poractive on our part to invest in the health and sports development of our young. The key is encourage life long sports activities at all levels. Just having physical education once a week will not do.

Secondly, creating more platforms for sports competition and participation can induce more sports participation. Right now only the best athletes in the school represent their schools in competitions. What if more competitions at different levels are created to cater to the standards of those less abled? More children will get to play sports. You never know, one of these less abled athlete might be a late developer and become a national player in the future. If we let all our athletes know that they are valued regardless of their standards and that there are outlets for them to compete and express themselves, the motivation for them to continue in sports will be tremendous. Even in school, more platforms can be created to increase participation. Have more sports days and sports meets. Hold more inter-class and inter-house competitions. Create new kinds of competitive settings like inter-clubs, inter-uniformed groups, inter arts groups and so forth. These kind of platforms will bring in the naturally less sports inclined students. They will encourage them to play sports and not worry about playing against school team players. If we can make sports platforms easily available, our students will come forward to play naturally. It is the natural instinct for children to want to play. We only need to guide them and encourage them.

Finally, to make schools look seriously at raising sports development and participation levels, we need to twitch our current sports awards system which currently only reward schools who have achieved honours in Inter-School Sports Competitions. Perhaps, schools with good sports development programmes should be equally rewarded as well since they are able to reach out to a larger mass of students. Instead of just 25% in sports, if a school can design and implement programmes to induce the mass of the school to be involved in regular exercise and sports participation, would not that have more impact on the school and sports scene? The awards system should be changed to reward schools with impactful and pervasive reach to more students. In the long run, this will create a culture of sports participation for life.

To realize the goals of A Sporting Singapore, we must create the critical mass of sports participation. For our country, it starts with our school children, since nearly 100% of our people attend compulsory education. In that sense we are more fortunate than many countries who cannot afford to send all their citizens for schools. If we can induce all our children to play sports for the long term through mandatory sports participation, new sports participation and development platforms and new sports awards systems, we will be able to create a culture of large scale and continuous sports participation. Our school children will be where our new sports stars come from. It is worth investing in them to make our country proud later.

A Sporting Singapore – How Can We Get There?

2010-03-04T18:57:00.000-08:00

In recent years, there has been an explosion of interest in sports in Singapore. From government initiatives to promote sports to schools participation in sports, these are all bold and meaningful programs that are good for the development of the country. We have made Singapore a more internationally recognized sporting hub with the arrival of Formula One, Youth Olympic Games and also hosting of major sporting conventions like the International Olympic Committee Convention to select the host of the 2012 Olympic Games. More seems to be on the way through the building of a New Sports Hub and also the push for great sporting achievements for Singapore. We are well and truly on our way towards A Sporting Singapore. But are we on the right rack? Can we achieve our vision of A Sporting Singapore? What are the objectives of A Sporting Singapore? How can we get there?

MCYS defines the objectives of A Sporting Singapore as follows:

“MCYS provides policy direction for sport and works with other Government departments to implement these policies. Our vision for a Sporting Singapore is one where:
1. Sports participation helps develop a resilient people with the virtues of perseverance, focus, discipline, teamwork, creativity, a drive to excel and a healthy lifestyle
2. Sport is an effective channel to bond the people from various communities of our society
3. Sports excellence helps enhance our national pride and international standing
4. A vibrant sports industry contributes to the economy and sustains the sports delivery system
5. Sport helps strengthen friendships with other nations.”

If we look into the above objectives and the things we have achieved so far for sports in Singapore, it will probably be a fair assessment that we have done well for objectives 4 and 5, but we still have quite a bit to do to achieve for the first three goals.

We as a people and society are very good at building infrastructure, systems and friendships. There is no denying that we have a very active and growing sports industry in our country. Sports development, coaching, and event organization jobs are now very common in our country. There is a whole list of opportunities out there for all those keen on a sports career. Just look at our very own Singapore Marathon. When it first started, barely 6000 runners took part. Last year, we had the largest participation in the region of 50000 runners. This year it is set to grow some more. In term of prompting sports and setting the stage for sporting events, we are second none.

Similarly in the context of building friendships and bonds with people of other countries, we have also been very successful. This years Youth Olympic Games in Singapore is not just about sports and athletic competition. The organizers have also painstaking included immersion programs, cultural exchanges, twinning programs, friendship camps and so on for all participating nations. The end result will be a complete education package for all participating members of the games. New rivalries will be formed in the competitive arenas, and new friendships will also be forged off stage. All this will only benefit the youth of a globalized society.

However, it is in the area of sports participation and sports excellence that we are still lacking. Of course we are not discounting the efforts and strides made in these areas so far. In fact we must applaud the achievements of MCYS, SSC and their counterparts for the great sporting progress made so far. The point is that, to make winning international sporting honors and pervasive sports participation for all a regular and common affair we must look at how we can better move the nation forward.

Sports participation has indeed made great strides. National consensus has shown a rise in sports participation by the general population. More people are exercising. Utilization of sports facilities are at all time highs. More competitions for all levels of abilities are been organized, and more sports events are also taking place. These are all encouraging signs. But in terms of reaching a critical mass of participation in sports, we can still do more. For example, in schools, on average only 25% of students are active sports competitors. For the other three-quarters of the school going children, sports and physical activities are confined to only Physical Education lessons, yearly camps and termly school sports events. This hardly constitute regular sports participation. Can the level of regular sports participation and sports development be raised? Certainly. We will explore some of the ways to do this in another post specific to sports development in schools. This remains the key to achieving all our goals of A Sporting Singapore, even with the problem of a sedentary adult population.

How about people outside of school? Do our average working adults of all ages participate in sports regularly? For the majority of these people, sports is very much alien still. The need to earn money and support family is still the predominant concerns despite government initiatives for better work life balance. In National Service, the Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) passing rates are still of great concern for most commanding officers and the SAF. Men returning for In-Camp Training (ICT) are often unfit and have not exercise since the last ICT. This is a good reflection of the general sports participation behavioral trend for the whole nation. Adults do not exercise regularly on their own unless they have to. The reasons for exercise are usually enforced upon them. Like when IPPT come or when medical conditions strikes. Again, the critical mass for sports participation has not been reach still, and we are struggling with building a culture for regular sports participation. How can we address this? The key lies in how we approach our children in sport development. If we do not develop a love for sports in school, by the time our children reach the adult world it will be too late. Building a culture of regular sports participation at a young age is the key to solving all our challenges towards our Sporting Singapore.

This is also the key for us to winning international sports competitions in the long run. If we do not create this critical mass of sports participation, we will always be struggling for our medals. It is no surprise why countries like Brazil are so well known for football, why New Zealand is so well known for rugby, why Canada is so well know for Ice Hockey, and why America is so well known for baseball. From a young age the children of these countries eat, sleep and breathe their national games. Every weekend there are games going on. Their parents bring them for the games and support them whole heartedly. There are avenues for play, competition, exposure to winning and losing. This spikes their passions and ignites their burning desires. Once that is achieved there is not stopping where these children can go with their sports. We need to create this kind of environment for our kids. We need to make every corner of the country playgrounds of sports. We need to have families active with their kids in sports. By doing this we will also pull these adults along the sports participation journey. In time, it will become a culture that sports are part of our daily lives. Only if we can create this kind of critical mass will our goals of A Sporting Singapore be possible. It is a long journey. We need to go back to the basic and allow our children to enjoy play again. Not only that, we must sustain their passion and in the process we will become regular sports participants as well.

A Sporting Singapore? Yes, we can!

The National Service Factor in Sports Development

2010-03-01T19:04:00.000-08:00

National Service (NS) is one of the key foundations, together with multiculturalism and religious harmony, in Singapore’s unique social fabric. Every male of the modern generation has gone through the rites of NS, including our very best athletes. These athletes leave their schools as future sports champions of our nation, but very few of them actually fulfill their potential to do Singapore proud in international competitions. What happened to these potential sports stars? Did NS hinder their passion and motivation to excel in their sports? Why do so few carry on in their sports after school and NS? In our national quest for more sporting excellence and glories, perhaps it is time to re-look at our NS policy and see how we can truly support and encourage the journeys of these potential sports stars without necessarily compromising the security of the nation.

The argument that NS is detrimental to the development and continuous journey of our budding athletes from school is not new. Athletes who are affected have been fighting for years to get the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) to make special concessions and arrangements for them to continue with their training programs with their sports coaches. In most cases, MINDEF has adopted a general guide line that athletes can still continue with their sports career as long as their obligations with their respective NS units are not compromised. This basically means that athletes will have to count on the good graces of their commanding officers to make special arrangements for them to continue training, and at the same time fulfill their training and duties with their units. A most difficult task at best. Any top class athlete will tell you that in order to be successful and be competitive with the rest of the other world class athletes, training twice a day, seven day a week, with full nutritional and physiological support is common practice. NS training by itself is already tough, and asking our athletes to spend time in NS and train at the same time is just not possible. When faced with this situation, most of our athletes have no choice but to drop out. Only a handful, with good fortunate and determination will be able to find the time to balance the NS commitments and training to the effect that some measure of success is possible. Even these athletes do not compare well when competing against other sportsmen from around the world. How do sportsmen in countries without compulsory NS fair? Let us investigate a bit further.

In the Olympic Games, the usual powerhouses that garner the most medals include countries like China, USA, Russia, Australia, Britain, Germany, and to a certain extend South Korea and Japan. Do these countries have compulsory military service? The answer is no. A logical conclusion here is that their athletes have unimpeded paths towards their sporting ambitions and peak performance in sports. Of course some might argue that these countries are large in terms of their population size. China has a population of 1.3 billion. Surely, from these mass of people, champions for various sports can be found. That is true. Let us now examine countries with similar population as Singapore and compare their sport achievements.

A search on the internet will reveal that the following countries have comparable population size as Singapore (5m); Norway (4.8m), Ireland (4.5m), Croatia (4.4m), New Zealand (4.3m), Finland (5.3m) and Denmark (5.5m). What strikes you as you view this list? These are all countries with well known sports achievements despite their limited population size. The three Scandinavian Countries listed above have won in access of 350 Gold Medals in all Olympics Games, and they are also well represented in World Sports Events. Norway and Denmark has featured in many football World Cups. Finland is consistent in producing NHL professional ice-hockey players. As for Ireland and Croatia, they have won 8 and 3 Olympic Gold medals respectively in their history. But let us not forget these two countries are also power houses in other sports. Ireland features highly in World Cup Football, Rugby and even golf. Croatia produces the best water-polo and handball teams regularly on the World Stage. Need we say more about New Zealand? Apart from the All Blacks, New Zealand has also produced 36 Olympic Gold in their history. These countries did not have huge population bases like China and Russia, but yet they have been consistently successful in peak performance in sports. By the way, did I mention that these countries have no compulsory military service for their citizens?

If we change our perspective and look at a country that Singapore is modeled after, maybe the effect of NS on sports become clearer. Israel has a population of 7.5m, a fraction greater than Singapore’s. They also have compulsory military service because of their security concerns. How many Olympic Gold Medals have they won? One. Are they prominent in other international sports? Not quite yet. Israel like Singapore has also been actively sending contingents for major competitions, but successes are far and few. The question is 'has compulsory military service somehow affected their sporting achievements?’ If we look at the evidence presented here, we cannot deny the fact that NS does have a part to play in limiting peak performance in sports.

NS takes away the prime period of an athlete’s development. At 17-20 years of age, our body is reaching their full sporting potential. This is the time whereby, sports talents need to be continuously nurtured. The disruption caused by NS will break this important cycle and de-motivate our athletes to stop sports development in their lives. How many of our national school record breakers continue on to run and swim beyond their school and NS years? Hardly. Imagine how much achievement is possible if these athletes are supported and encouraged to continue on training in their sports. The sporting achievement for Singapore can be so much more than what we have achieved so far.

There are of course opponents to freeing these athletes up for full time sports development. Many argue that not doing NS will break the social fabric of Singapore. Many parents of servicemen feel that it is unfair for their sons to serve NS while sportsmen ‘take the easy way out’. There is no denying that NS is important. We must never take that away. Our very security and prosperity depends on it. But we are also at an age of dynamic change whereby different peaks of excellence are important in nation building. We need to add on to our social fabric by sewing on peak performance in sports and other areas. And people who contribute to these areas are far and few. Hence, if we are to achieve more sporting success, we must have policies that support these talented people; otherwise they will never reach their full potential because we as a nation have snuffed out the passion for these areas. What of those who feel that sports an easy way is out compared to serving NS? My answer to these critics is that they have never gone through what a true top class sports person has gone through. In many ways, the training regime of a top class athlete is more demanding than a typical NSF in Singapore. If you do not believe, try training twice a day, seven days a week. Try, eating sports diets seven days a week. Try foregoing social life for a few years to train for a competition. It is a tough job to try and win a Gold Medal.

Sochi 2014 for Singapore – Is This Just Another Dream?

2010-02-27T04:46:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, 19th Feb, Mr. Teo Ser Luck, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), revealed that Singapore is reviewing the possibility of sending a team of athletes for the next Winter Olympic Games at Sochi, Russia in 2014. It was a bold idea which reminded me of another bold idea by Singapore in the early part of this century – sending a team to the World Cup for Football in 2010. Well, the 32 teams for South Africa 2010 have already been finalized and Singapore is not on that list. The decade long journey, Dream 2010 has remained a dream for Singapore. Will Dream Sochi 2014 become just another dream? It will depends on how we as a nation come together to fulfill this daring proposal.

When the idea of Dream 2010 was first proposed, it was a good ambition by our sports community to lift the level of our sports excellence to a new level. There is nothing wrong with dreaming big. But for any dream to be fulfilled, we must back it up with true resolve. Sadly, that resolve was never truly shown. The various stakeholders did not come together as one to work on issues that could have matter. On the contrary, there were divided individual efforts and agenda for most of the relevant parties. The government wanted it, but they did not fund the project with sufficient resources. The Singapore Sports Council was supportive, but they could not pull all the parties together. The Football Association of Singapore struggled for years with the S-League and the youth teams that were supposed to provide the future stars for this World Cup Dream Team. The end result was our dependence on foreign talents to fill the ranks of the team in the hope that these talents will lead us to our destination. The effort was not concerted by all relevant stake holders.

Contrast this to our recent sports achievements in the area hosting world class sports extravaganza like the Formula 1 and Youth Olympic Games. These are equally ambitious projects although not in the area of achieving sports excellence. They require a lot of hard work and resources. But we are there. What is the difference between our failure in Dream 2010 and the hosting of these big time sports events? The answer is simple. We backed up our ambitions with true resolve. When the Formula needed more money to be inaugurated, our government pumped in $100 million to top up what FIA had. In winning the bid to host the first ever YOG, our government again spared no efforts but instead channeled the entire nation’s energy to push for the bid. The results of these 100% efforts are astonishing. They have lifted Singapore Sports to greater heights.

To reach our Sochi 2014 target, we need to show similar resolve and whole hearted action, and the government must lead in pulling all organizations along the same direction. If Dubai can build a ski resort in the middle of the desert, why can’t a tropical country like Singapore field athletes for a Winter Olympics? The movie ‘Cool Runnings’ was inspired by a true story. It chronicles the participation of a Jamaican bobsleigh team in a Winter Olympic Games. An inspiring and humorous story of how four seemingly different characters got together to form one of the most outrageous sports team in history. If a country of 2.3 million, with no winter season can send a team to a Winter Olympics, why can’t a tropical state like ours, with better management and resources do so? Let us all get behind our Sochi 2014 Dream. Only this time lets mean it!

The True Benefits of Playing Sports – Values Inculcation

2010-02-20T23:47:00.000-08:00

When read today’s newspapers or catch the sports segment on the newsreels, it is inevitable to feel that sports is all about the glory of winning. Sportsmen around the world pride themselves to be the best in what they play. A lot of emotion is hype up whenever a goal is scored; a race is won, a record broken and so on. But are we missing the point of sports when everyone is so consumed by winning and the pursuit of excellence? There is nothing inherently wrong with pursuing peak performance in sports, but we ought to be reminded every so often, that the true benefit of playing sports is to learn the finest values associated with the sports process.

1.Fighting Spirit
To be the best in what we do in sports and reach peak performance in sports is not easy. Winning the gold medal in an Olympics or winning a tournament requires just pure passion and hard work. You must have this quality first, otherwise don’t even think about getting to the top of the podium. Winners not only have the skills, mentality and passion for their sports, they also have the fighting spirit to surmount impossible obstacles. If we look at the history of most successfully sportsmen, somewhere along their careers, they had suffered defeat and setbacks. But the ability of these successful sports stars to overcome defeat and bounce back for more is the true hallmark of a Champion. We can learn something valuable here from sports. It is an area that allows for mistakes and defeat. It does not exclude of eliminate people from the sports. Today’s losers can be tomorrow’s winners as long as they possess the fighting spirit to recover and fight on. It is this fighting spirit that we all admire subconsciously when we read about the glory of winning. This value ought to be highlighted more for the whole world to see, just as true sportsmanship should be regularly showcased as well.

2.Sportsmanship
What defines true sportsmanship from brinksmanship is the humility to do the right thing in sports. When we overcome our opponents in a tightly fought game to reach our peak performance in sports, do we later honor the fallen gladiators or do we humiliate them? When the interpretation of the referee goes against us, are we the first to voice discontent and blame the match officials? When, our race is finished, do we look back and cheer on those who have yet to cross the finish line? When defeated, do we accept that the best has won and offer our congratulations to the winners or do we envy and despise our opponents? Do we thank our coaches and officials when the final whistle is blown, or do we reserve such praises and gratitude for winning occasions only? Sports should be about more than just winning. In our sporting contest we must remember that it is just a game at the end of the day. The important thing is about how we have conducted ourselves in the course of winning and losing. The result in the end is immaterial if we fail to lift humanity higher by exhibiting great sportsmanship during the games we play.

3.Team Spirit
And finally, in sports, we are never alone. Even in so called individual sports like athletes and swimming. Many people are behind the successes or failures of sporting endeavors. Without these people, we will never be able to reach our final destination. Take the example of the Tour de France. The world and media only see the man in the yellow jersey, but never his cycling team mates who rode their hearts out, sacrificing their own positions to put their team leader on top of the podium. The middle distance running sensational could not have achieved his Olympic records without the unseen efforts of running mates winning to pace him day in day out during training and also maybe on the actual race final.

The American Football fan always applaud and credit the quarterback for the team’s success, seldom do they recognize the offensive or defensive linemen who never touches the ball. In sports, team spirit and team work is important. It is an aspect of sports can cannot be underestimated or ignored. A sports star will never reach his peak performance in sports without the unsung heroic actions of his team mates and buddies. In sports there is nothing nobler than the courage and sacrifices of your team mates. Do not ever forget them. They are the reason why you have won.

Sports have a certain aura that attracts people and motivate people. It is not just the pursuit of excellence and peak performance in sports; it is also about how we play sports with true fighting spirit, sportsmanship and team spirit. If we play sports and forget these very values that make us better people, we might as well not play the game at all.

Outcomes of Games Depends a Lot on Referees

2010-02-18T20:24:00.000-08:00

Whenever we discuss about peak performance in sports, the first thing athletes and coaches will talk about is either about themselves or the opponents. Sportsmen are always focused on improving their own team performances or countering their opponents’ strength for peak performance in sports. Actually, there is a third party who is just as important when we talk about influencing the outcomes of your games. Yes, the referees and umpires! In modern sports and at all levels, it is important for sportsmen to spend some effort to ensure that the umpires or referees of the tournaments do not dislike you and your team. Notice the double negative I used here to emphasize that I do not approve the outright bribing of the match officials. But there are certain things that you as a player and coach can do to morally to win decisions for your teams from the umpires and referees.

1.Know your rules of the game
The best thing you can do in a sports program to further sports development is to learn the rules of the game well, and to ensure that your team does so as well. Only by understanding the rules well will you be able to play the game well. It will allow you and your team to stretch and exploit the limits of the game to your advantage. The best thing is that you are doing all this in agreement with the referee’s interpretation of the game. Referees will know whether teams know their rules. There is a tendency for them to respond more favorably to teams who are more conversant with the rules of the game. On the contrary, when referees know that a team is not familiar with the rules, subconsciously, he will be looking out for more fouls infringements from this team.

2.Build a long term relationship with referees
Although games can be one off affairs, referees are usually regular features of the sport. The chances of getting a familiar referee to umpire your next game during the next round or tournament are always there. So, it makes sense to aim for a positive long term relationship with any referee. By annoying a referee now, you are simply sowing the seeds of an unwanted outcome in your future game. When the same referee next officiates in your game, you can be sure he will remember the past abuses you have hauled against him. Consequently, his decisions will be more unfavorable to your team. It is better to get on his good books by knowing your laws of the game well, understanding the referee’s interpretation of these laws, and exhibit good sportsmanship by thanking all officials after the game. Such action when done over time on a consistent basis, will build a good relationship with referees. Much more important is that such actions to the referees teach our sportsmen immense values of good sportsmanship.

3.Proactive discussions with your referees
Part of understanding and building rapport with referees begins at the start and end of the game. Be proactive and approach referees before and after games to discuss and clarify laws of the game. Not only will you learn from him proper interpretation of the laws, you will also be able to build rapport with the referee. This will only improve peak performance in sports for subsequent games. If you clarify laws before the game, you will ensure that your team avoids these mistakes. When you clarify after the game, your team will learn from their mistakes. In the next games, you can than take action to ensure that your team does not commit the same mistakes.

4.Take care of your referees
Referees are also human beings. They have their physiological needs. They are also the loneliest people during games. Their decisions will not be accepted by at least 50% of the people playing and watching the game. They will be constantly abused whether their decisions are correct or wrong. They run just as much as the players. Sometimes, when your game is over, he has another game to do. During the entire duration of the game(s), he is alone on the pitch to manage two very unhappy teams. At national and international levels, at least he will have the backing of his fellow officials. But at school games, the referee usually works alone. He prays that the game is well managed. If any incidents erupt, he would face a potentially hostile gathering of people against, under such circumstances, the laws of the games and the backing given by any sport associations is useless to help the poor chap alone. Knowing their difficulties, it will really be a kind gesture if you offer some form of assistance and logistical needs to the referee. A simple gesture of giving him water at half-time goes a long way to bring the referee over to your side. After all, you are only being human to another human being. If things do become tense, it is worth offering help to the referee. Next time, you can be sure; he will favor your team more in terms of decisions made in a game.

5.Respect your referees
Finally, it is important to show respect to referees. The best way to do this is to accept all his decisions during the game no matter how wrong they are. Referees make split second decisions under very demanding circumstances. They may not get the decisions right all the time. That is part of refereeing ethics. We as matured and educated sportsmen must learn to accept poor decisions with grace during the game. There is no point arguing during the game. It is the wrong thing to do at the wrong time. If you want to bring the cases up, do it at appropriate times. Referees want to learn and improve too.

We as players and coaches must make a conscious effort to ensure that peak performance in sports come to our teams. Investing in winning the referees over is a good strategy that will bear long term fruits of success. This form of relationship and goodwill building with referees is only good for our teams as well as the game. We get more decisions during game time that will go our way, and at the same time referees gets appreciated as well. Our players also learn more about the game and sportsmanship when it comes to respecting the laws of the game.

How Does Weight Training Benefits Games Players?

2010-02-17T02:15:00.000-08:00

In sports like weight-lifting, wrestling, athletics, rowing, cycling, and other individual sports the benefits of weight training for the sportsman is obvious. Greater strength and bulk gained through weight training equals stronger lifts, stronger throws, further jumps and faster speeds. The measurement of success in these sports is easy to make. Contrast this with team sports like soccer, basketball, netball, hockey and so on, the benefits of weight training to a games player become less often. In fact, there exist a subtle debate about whether excess bulk and strength will compromise the speed and agility needed for most games. What if the extra bulk gained through weight training means more weight for the body to carry? How can I run faster and be more agile with extra muscle weight? Those are fair comments and deserve deeper analysis. Although benefits of weight training for games players are more difficult to quantify, they nevertheless exist, and are integral in peak performance in sports for the games players.

The main objective in any weight training program is to build strength and muscle bulk. These gains in muscle strength and bulk are the foundation of all other sports skills and attributes. Strength and muscle mass can be converted to speed and power with some modification to training. But it is very difficult to convert speed to strength. As we also know, speed is equal to strength multiply by velocity, in physics terms. Hence, by increasing strength and muscle mass, we are in effect increasing overall speed if we consider the entire equation of speed in sports terms. The misconception is how to move something heavy faster or at the same rate as before? The answer lies in converting these extra muscle mass to fast twitch fiber. Our body generally has two main types of muscle fibers – fast twitch or slow twitch. The former is predominantly responsible for speed burst activities like sprinting, while the latter is responsible for slower endurance activities like marathons. These fibers can be trained to a certain extent. Furthermore, when strength training first induced mass development, generally speaking fast twitch like muscles are developed. To allow this additional muscle mass to contract faster, the games player just need to undergo a period of transition training for the newly acquired strength. Instead of low repetition, high resistance sets, execute faster and higher repetition training for a few weeks. This should condition and convert newly formed muscle mass to fast twitch fibers. The overall speed of movement will improved. Now you not only have a bigger mass, but a faster moving mass as well. Think of the burly modern day rugby wingers and running backs.

The second benefit of weight training for games player is that it allows the player with greater strength and muscle mass to out-muscle his opponents and hold on to the key positions on the playing fields. The analogy is a huge boulder placed in the middle of your daily road to school. This boulder is strategically placed to inhibit your daily route to school by your car. When you reach this boulder, you would probably need to go around it. Now imagine that this boulder can move to block your movement. It is going to be a real pain to get rid of this boulder. The only other way to get rid of such players is to become just as big if not bigger and stronger than he is, so that you can out-muscle him and hold that vital position. When Shaquille O’Neal first came into the NBA, he possesses just this image and ability. All he needs to do is established a low-key position on court and he will invariably score some points. That is the advantage of gaining strength and mass for games players.

Thirdly, weight training is also the foundation of power building. In sports formula terms, power equals mass multiply speed. With a bigger mass, and subsequently moving that mass at a greater speed will mean that power is huge. When a games player possesses great power and moves, he radiates an area of no-go zone around himself. Players around him will stay away from him because to be near or in contact with him is to risk getting bummed off and injured. There is certain quickness and toughness a power player moves such that his actions are all powerful and unstoppable. Much like a Lebron James leaping for a dunk. To get in his way is to ask for trouble. Weight training will build the mass and strength for future power development and power distinguish an ordinary player from an elite superstar.

There is actually no argument of how weight training can be beneficial to all sportsmen, whether you are a weight lifter or a hockey player, weight training will transform you into an athlete who is faster, more powerful and tougher player. It is however to fine tune your training methods to convert the strength and mass gained into the final ingredients for sports stardom.

Talent Scouting in Sports

2010-02-12T00:33:00.000-08:00

Talent scouting for the best sportsmen has been around since the beginnings of time, and this has been done in all areas from the sports fields to the scientific fields. In the ancient days, Sparta chose the best specimens for training to become the finest warriors in Greece. During Roman times when Gladiators were prized, scouts put their prisoners and captured slaves through brutal fights to determine who would best represent them in the Coliseum. Today, scouts from professional sports clubs scan the globe and search everywhere for the finest talents to play in their teams. In all these forms of talent scouting for sports, do we actually ask, “what are the attributes are we looking for?’ Or do the talent scouts just use their objective judgment to pick the cream of the crop? There are five main things every scout looks for in selecting the best for their teams.

1. Athletic Finesse
This criterion of talent scouting forms the basis of all other selection and it includes elements like agility, speed, endurance, balance and power. Agility is about how easily and quickly a player can change direction and speed. The range of motion from an agile athlete is also very large resulting in bigger repertoire of skills and abilities. Speed is not just running speed, but also reaction time to stimulus, and more importantly speed of thinking. Endurance is the duration that the athlete last in a game without compromising his efficiency in the game. When an athlete fatigues, can he maintain a high level of play to ensure that he still achieves peak performance in sports? Or does he fade from the game and become a mere ‘passenger’? Balance is defined by how an athlete carries his motion during the game. Very often, a finely balanced athlete will elude grace and symmetry as he goes about his pitch of play. Finally, power is the execution of strong skills at great speed. The result of someone with power is that he will be more dominant in face-off situations. All these elements are important foundation from which all other form of playing attributes are pieced together for peak performance in sports.

2. Superior Sports Skills
At the end of the day, the skills possess by a sportsman in his sport will be important to the coach of the team. A player who is physically fit in all aspects will be useless if he does not have the skills to play the game well. In analyzing the skills of game, talent scouts often look for key skills of the game. For example, in basketball, some of the key skills will be dribbling with the ball, shooting, passing and movement off the ball. In badminton, the key skills will be overhead drive, drop-shots and also footwork. Having a list of these skills will allow talent scouts to very rapidly identify the players they are looking for. When you put skills and athletic finesse together, you will have a potential candidate for selection. But good talent scouts will take a few steps further in addition to just looking at these physical attributes.

3. Good Tactical Brain
There is saying in the sports world, ‘Great sportsmen are actually the most intelligent people around.’ To play any game well, having a good tactical brain is essential. What do we mean by a good tactical brain? Firstly, the player needs to be knowledge about the rules of the game. If he knows his rules very well, he will be able to exploit the rules to his fullest advantage. Secondly, the player must have great vision and awareness when playing the game. What we refer to here is the ability to see possibilities and options open to him in the game. It also means being aware of where his team mates and opponents are so that he can use them or avoid them. When a player possesses the talent of vision and awareness, his brain will automatically be one step ahead, thinking about his next move, while his team mates or opponents are still reacting to his current movement. Thirdly, a good tactical brain will allow the sportsman to make the right decision quickly under varying circumstances. When short-stop fields a ball hit to him under a bases-loaded situation, he has many options available once the ball is picked up. Does he throw the ball to first base, second base, third base or home plate? Does he tag out the player himself? He will also have to make the correct decision in a split second. A talented player with a good tactical brain will be able to execute the right decision that will ensure that the outcome is most favorable to his team. When you have talented players with good tactical brains, peak performance in sports is very easy to achieve for your team.

4. Positive Attitudes
So far, we have looked at three factors that are very much related to the sport. But when talent scouting, it is important to look at the attitudes of the players as well as well. The scouts will be observing the mannerism of the player during pre-game time, game time and post-game time. He might even attend a few training session, visit the locker room, talk to players and coaches, read news reports, and so on to find out just what the players scouted are made of. In particular, he will be looking out for someone who is hard working, humble, a team player and resilient. The reason is very simple. With these positive attitudes, it will be easier for the team and coaches to train and develop the players selected. If you have a very talented player who is lazy and loves the night life, a lot of time, effort and resources might have to be devoted to monitoring and checking this player. All these extra efforts can be better spend on coaching other players. So having a positive attitude is crucial in talent scouting for sports.

5. Leadership Influence
Finally, it will be wonderful if the player to be selected has great leadership influence and an ‘X’ factor. He must be someone who commands the respect of his team mates and coaches. He must be someone who can be the clutch player when the chips are down. These are rare players though. We think of Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Wayne Gretzy, Diego Maradona, and so on. These guys are the ‘go to’ guys when games need to be won. They will step in and inspire their team mates with their words and/or actions. In the process, the team performs better and achieves peak performance in sports. When you find these players, grab them. These talents are rare.

Talent scouting in sports is an important element of success for any sports teams. In selecting talented players, it is important to remember the important criteria of athletic finesse, superior sport skills, good tactical brains, positive attitudes and great leadership influence. But if some of all these components are missing, it is not the end of the story. The talent scout must be able to assess whether the areas lacking by the player can be rectified somehow when the player is recruited. This is a judgment call that must be made when talent scouting.

Don't Take Sports Stars as Role Models

2010-02-10T19:28:00.000-08:00

Recently, the sports world seems to be hard hit by sex scandals involving super-stars. Two figures are currently taking all the limelight for the wrong reason at the moment. The world's richest athlete, Tiger Woods, has disappeared after the breakdown of his marriage due to his philandering ways. In England, captain fantastic, John Terry, has become the talk of the Premier League when news of his affair with his ex-teammate's partner broke. He has since been strip of his captaincy. Closer to home, there has been great media discussion about how footballers live affair-laden lives. Some people even make it sound that all these immoral lifestyle is acceptable. Well, that is sad fact for the sports world. It throws into question of our kids role modelling their sports heroes. In this respect, it is important to teach sound values to our young by warning them against idolizing athletes that has attained peak performance in sports.

Charles Barkley, the former NBA superstar in the 1990s, once said, "I am not a model.", and asked kids not to follow his ways. As much as he is not fantastic in his lifestyle, his honesty actually did greater good than harm for the sports world. He is basically presenting to all that sports stars are human beings who can have values that may not be sound. In our efforts to educate our youths about character development, it is important for coaches, teachers and parents to draw distinction between idolizing good examples of life, and appreciating the high standard of sports abilities. We might be aw by a sports star's skills, but that should the end of it if the sports stars in question live by a set of different values. We can learn and imitate the skills, but not poor values of the person. It does not have to go hand in hand.

Another critical aspect of learning from sports stars is the fact that we must learn from their mistakes. We need to highlight the weaknesses of an athlete, not follow them and re consolidate what is right for us. Tiger Woods has a weakness for women. From his example, we have to stay away from what he has done, and instead encourage the opposite, that is fidelity and love for your family. Similarly, John Terry's betrayal of Wayne Bridge must be made known and our children taught never to follow in his footstep. However, some sports fans find that it is OK to engage in what these stars have done. These people themselves possess inconsistent values to speak the least. They need to be shut up as well.

The sports fraternity must come together and condemn such immoral values. We might not want to punish these instances of folly through the actual playing of sports, but we surely can send a strong signal to these stars that their behaviour is unacceptable. Fans, coaches and officials alike need to come together an issue the strongest statements against them. Do not under estimate what this unified actions can do to people. And if fans also turn supportive of the errand sports stars, these people need to be put in place as well.

Eating More Slowly for Peak Performance in Sports

2010-02-07T20:46:00.001-08:00

The last part of our nutritional advisory on how we can improve peak performance in sport looks into the concept of eating slowly. Yes, this is something we often neglect in our fast pace world where breakfasts are in a rush, lunch times are short, and cozy dinner evenings are not very frequent occurrence. Eating fast has its disadvantages which we must look to avoid if we are truly to have our body system for peak performance in sports.

What do we mean by eating slowly? We are not referring to taking our time to cook or to cut cut our steak. What we are referring to is really to the chewing of our foods. When we consciously make an effort to chew our food a couple of positive effects takes place that will enhance our digestive system for peak performance in sports.

Firstly, by extending the stay of our foods in our mouth, instead of swallowing it quickly, allows more digestion to take place in the mouth. When we chew, saliva is secreted to start the digestive process. The great the length of time food stays in our mouth, the more it will be digested by the saliva. This mean that less work will be done after swallow to further break down the food, thus saving energy and resources. Chewing our food longer also breaks down the food in smaller pieces, thus increasing the surface area of the food to be acted upon by other digestive enzymes as the food pass through the gut. This will increase the rate of food break down and also absorption of the nutrients further down the gut.

When food is better digested, the excretion and passing of motion becomes easier for the the body system to handle. This will significantly improve the overall well-being of the body for peak performance in sports.

Finally, extending the eating period will also induce a 'fullness effect' on the body to prevent overeating. Research has shown that when we reach twenty minutes of eating, the brain will begin sending messages to the body to slow down ingestion or stop eating altogether. This psychological effect on eating is especially important for people who needs to control their calorie intake for peak performance in sports. Examples of these people include people who are trying to lose weight for peak performance in sports.

Eating slowly definitely has its merits for peak performance in sports. As practicing sports people, we need to become more conscious of our eating habits, so that the body system can be in optimal state for peak performance in sports.

Eating More Frequently for Peak Performance in Sports

2010-02-03T23:35:00.000-08:00

There has been an increase in focus in the frequency of meals for proper nutrition and dieting in recent years for peak performance in sports. No longer is dieting just about what do you eat and how much do you eat. The number of meals and size of each of these meals are now just as important as well. Increasing scientific evidence points to the fact that more frequent small peaks does improves the body function and metabolism for peak performance in sports.

When meals are smaller and more frequent, the amount of effort and energy expended to fully digest the food taken in is greatly reduced. This leads to a conservation of energy and fuel for other more important aspects of daily activities and physical exercise for peak performance in sports.

A lower food intake is also easier for the digestive system to fully utilize what is taken in. Wastage of the nutrients found in the food we take in is also lower. Instead of quality nutrients being passed out as excretion, these nutrients are absolved for greater usage by the body. In contrast, a large meal often means that the digestive system is incapable of fully breaking the food down, leaving a large portion as waste to be excreted. This will mean that the calculation we make in planning our calorie intake will be accurate and effective.

Thirdly, more frequent meals also implies that the body will have a constant source of energy and nutrient intake for exercise, training, muscle growth and recovery of tissue and muscles. When we confine ourselves to 3 big meals a day, we often find that the six hour break between meals can cause lethargy which is characterized by lower energy levels. This can be countered by eating every 3 hours, which will mean that the body systems are continuously being fueled for their multiple purposes.

Eating proper is no longer confined to the correct foods and size of the intake. For peak performance in sports, our dieting habits must be made up of more frequent but smaller meals to conserve energy, ensure complete digestion and maintain a fully fuel state all the time. Time to break your big meals into smaller and more frequent ones.

Increasing Fiber Intake for Peak Performance in Sports

2010-02-01T18:43:00.000-08:00

There are three main ways whereby a high fiber diet can promote peak performance in sports. All these ways are necessary to ensure that our body systems are at their optimal state to drive sports performance. Contrary to what most people think, the actual physical activities that peak performance in sports require are not the only important aspects. The bodily function of ingestion,digestion and absorption are just as critical for us to reach peak performance in sports. Here are the three advantages of a high fiber diet.

Firstly, a high fiber diet provides the necessary nutrients, minerals and minerals that re absolutely critical for optimal bodily functions. If these components of the diet is absent, the utilization and metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins and fats will be slow and inefficient. This will cause energy release, muscle and strength growth, recovery and other important sports related functions of the body to be slowed tremendously. An athlete seeking peak performance in sports need to be in prime state of health and without these critical minerals, vitamins and nutrients from a high fiber diet, it will not be in that state.

Secondly, a high fiber diet also aid the body in maintaining the ideal weight for peak performance in sports. Athletes who are carry excess weight for their sports will do well to have high fiber diets as this can create a 'fullness' effect within the body, thereby slowing down the intake of other food classes especially carbohydrates and fats. This will mean that less potential fats are formed as storage. Of course the athlete must be careful to take in sufficient fuel foods to ensure that their energy level is sufficient to sustain their daily activities including training.

Finally, a high fiber diet improves the secretion system within the body system. This so call clearing and detoxification effect allows the body remove waste and toxins more rapidly and effectively thus ensuring that the body is at its prime for peak performance in sports. If the secretion system is not good, than this will lead to poorer digestion and absorption which can be detrimental to the athlete's body to sustain peak performance in sports.

When consuming a high fiber diet, the athlete concerned need not go the extreme of becoming a vegetarian. he must nevertheless ensure that sufficient fiber is present in his diet to facilitate the body to enable peak performance in sports. Too much of a good thing can also be ineffective in achieving the desired results.

A Low Fat, High Carbohydrate Diet for Peak Performance in Sports

2010-01-28T03:14:00.000-08:00

Losing weight is part of the process of getting into best physical shape for peak performance in sports. In the last post we talked about the need to have a balanced diet. Despite the urgent need to lose weight, you must not compromise your balanced diet as all food classes are essential for bodily functions. In this article, we will examine how a low fat and high carbohydrate diet will help you lose weight for peak performance in sports.

The bulk of excess body weight carried by the body is in the form of fat. As we all know, certain tiny amount of fat and lipids are crucial for body functions. Anything in excess will be stored away as fat. This fat storage are not just excess weight that needs to be lugged around by the body, it is also unhealthy for the body system as more resources are required to take care of it. For example, the build up of artery fats impedes the flow of blood in the body. Therefore, the athlete with the optimum amount of fat will be more successful in peak performance in sports. Cutting your fat intake in your diet will result in less accumulation of spare capacity. At the same time, increase exercise can result in greater fat metabolism and higher muscle mass. The latter is will also contribute to fat loss by increase metabolism.

Combining a low fat diet with a high carbohydrate diet will help in peak performance in sports. However, it must be cautioned that this high carbohydrate intake must be accompanied by increase physical activity. With increase physical activity, more energy will be required. By taking in more carbohydrates, you are providing fuel for these increase energy requirements. Having the energy to train harder will result in more growth that can also lead to better fitness and high fat metabolism. Higher carbohydrate intake will also ensure that the glycogen stores in muscles are always at optimal state, allowing the muscles to be very reactive and explosive at the onset of training or competition for peak performance in sports.

In any diet for peak performance in sports, it is common to have low fat, high carbohydrate diets. But these form of diets must remain balanced and also applied under increase exercise intensities. Without which, it can be harmful for the body to have higher carbohydrate intake for instance.

Have a Balanced Diet for Peak Performance in Sports

2010-01-24T18:50:00.000-08:00

As much as athletes would want to tweet their diet for peak performance in sports, it is important to bear in mind the concept of a balanced diet. A balanced diet is one which incorporate all major food classes so that the body can function in an optimal level. The major food classes are carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, water, vitamins and fiber.

Carbohydrates are the basic energy fuel that the body requires to fuel its daily activities. They are mainly derived from staples like rice, bread, pasta, wheat, cereal, etc. In general, this food class should form the bulk of the daily consumption of food. A diet lacking in carbohydrate will result in the body using other classes of food like protein and fats for energy fuel. This can result in a depletion of the other food class for other important bodily functions.

One of these function is for growth and repair of body muscles and tissues. This is accomplish by utilization of proteins that the body gets from the ingestion of meat and dairy products. In the case for an athlete, a lot of growth and restoration of body tissues is happening as a result of of intense and sustained training for peak performance in sports. Having a protein rich diet is also important for the sustenance of training. Typically, protein consumption should form about 30% of the daily diet.

Fats, as negatively viewed so often, is also necessary in a balanced diet. Many functions of the body are actually enhanced because of the presence of fats in the body system. For example, some hormones are known to use fats as a solvent in the body system. But this food class should be the lowest in terms of volume in the daily diet. Fats comes from cooking oil, animal and even vegetable fats found in foods.

Most of the minerals and vitamins that are essential elements in body functioning can be found in a large variety of food. But the bulk of all these elements are found in vegetables and fruits. These class of foods also form the necessary fiber that is important to fulfill excretion processes in the body. Vegetables and fruits should form the second largest by volume of consumption in a balanced diet.

Finally, water is also important in a balanced diet for peak performance in sports. Our body is 70% liquid. This can be lost through exercise and daily activities. The hydration of the body is essential for the numerous physiological functions of the body.

The food pyramid here summarizes the idea of a balance diet. Without which, optimal body functioning will not be possible. And when this is so, peak performance in sports will also be difficult.

Eating to Lose Weight For Peak Performance in Sports

2010-01-22T03:28:00.000-08:00

Body weight and BMI has always been important for athletes seeking for peak performance in sports. Basically excess body weight carried around by any athlete will just hinder the progress and movements of athletes. Imagine an obese person running the marathon. Not only must he overcome 26 miles, but he must do so carrying the excess weight all the way. Energy, instead of been used to cover the distance, is spend supporting weight. Because of this, athletes always strive for minimum body weight. In the next series of blog posts, I will elaborate on a few guidelines for weight loss diet that will help in losing weight to help achieve peak performance in sports. The following are the guidelines in summary;

1)Have a balanced diet
2)Avoid high fat, high calorie diets
3)Increase fiber intake
4)Eat more frequent meals
5)Eat more slowly

Time to Use Technology to Aid Referee in Soccer

2010-01-20T19:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Thierry Henry escaped being punished for his infamous handball offence in the 2010 World Cup finals playoff against Ireland.

FIFA claims that they are ‘powerless to punish the 1998 World Cup winning striker because their rules forbade them to do so if the original misdemeanor had not been seen by the match officials.’

For an organization that can demand up to $100million dollars of broadcasting rights from any country for the coming World Cup in South Africa, it is indeed a fiasco to be deemed ‘powerless’ under such circumstances. The fact is that, this kind of controversy will not be happening if only FIFA adopted what so many other professional sports has adopted, that is make use of video replay technology to assist their match officials to referee their games. Only the highest rungs in FIFA and God will know what is keeping the most populous game adopting technology to improve the game.

Many traditional critics argue that refereeing in soccer should remain status quo, so that the human error aspects of the game remain as part of the game. At the very top, FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, is a strong opponent to using any technology to assist the referee. In this modern age, traditional people like Blatter ought to be replaced to move the sports forward.

In truth, FIFA can be held responsible for all the refereeing controversies that has ensue over the last century. Things got worse in the last two decades after instant video replay technology allow television to broadcast all poor refereeing decisions immediately to the world to see. How can you blame managers, players and fans from becoming enraged when they see a legitimate penalty been denied? Or a poor offside decision that led to the eventual game winner? Worse, all these refereeing decisions has led to real instances of life and death, when referees who made crucial mistakes received death threats and are forced retire.

Remember Anders Frisk from Sweden in 2005 after the contentious match between Barcelona and Chelsea in the Champions League? He was forced to quit after some poor decisions made that caused Chelsea to lose the eventual tie. In his own words, ‘‘it’s not worth carrying on....My safety and the safety of my family goes before anything else. These last few weeks have been the worst of my life.’’ Soccer lost a very good referee that day. Can we blame him? Or the Jose Morinho who led that publicity assault against his poor performance? FIFA has got to take a significant part of the responsibility as well.

The scary thing is that this type of anti-referee stuff is also taking shape at the youngest age groups. Refereeing resources are already tight, and at the lowest and youngest level of competitive soccer, young players and managers are also learning from what they see on television to openly challenge referee’s decisions and cause disputes. It has become acceptable to lambaste the referee whether he made the right or wrong call, depending on which side you supported. This does not speak well of the game. What kind of sportsmanship are we teaching our youths? What kind of refereeing standards do we hope to raise if the referees’ job continue to be the loneliest one in the world?

FIFA will always support the referee’s decision, right or wrong. But this kind of backing does not offer practice support for referees at all levels. What referees need is an understanding from all that they are human and that they can make mistakes. If these mistakes can be rectified at the right time in a match through technology and appeals, the footballing crowds will not become overzealous in condemning poor refereeing standards. Technology allows that to be done, but sadly, authority does not. Wake up FIFA, before someone really gets killed because of a poor refereeing decision. It should not come to that stage. Football is a beautiful game after all.

Sports Coaching Success for Kids

2010-01-17T23:38:00.000-08:00

Our precocious 5-8 year olds are tremendously active creatures. At this age group, anything physical in nature attracts their attention. You can try any sports and games for them, and they will take to it like fish to water. They just love sports. Now, that can become a problem when you start coaching them for peak performance in sports. When you start to introduce rules, practices, drills, conditioning, etc, resistance from them will come. But as a sports coach, you still need to have sports coaching success for them, despite their disdain for anything organized and conforming. Here is where some practical and effective coaching principles will help you succeed at inducing peak performance in sports in our young and dynamic kids and result in sports coaching success.

The first principle of sports coaching success for kids is to make your training competition based. When you start your session create teams right from the start. You might need to do this properly by grouping friends together. If anything, kids at this age love their pals and will be most unwilling to part with their friends. Creating team will set the stage for the rest of the session for sports coaching success. With these teams formed, centre your training on competition based activities. Devise a point system and let your groups know that they will have to outwit each other to earn points for their team. Eventually, there will be a winner and rewards for the winning members. Kids by nature love to win. By creating this form of competition within a training session, we are basically riding on their instinct to win to caused them to perform their best for peak performance in sports. Once they give their best in competition, sports coaching success will be easy. Sports coaching success will be further enhance if we adopt other principles as well.

To achieve sports coaching success for kids, your training will also have to adopt a game-based approach. This basically means that instead of planning drills for them, you will have to turn your drills into games for them to play. As I have mentioned earlier, kids love all form of game. When you have games with goals instead of activities that resemble drills, sports coaching success will be easier for you as a coach. The challenge here is to link all your games into a coherent training session that is smooth and exciting for the kids. You can ensure that sports coach success for kids happens with competitive games as well as infusing other principle into practice.

The third principle that is effective for sports coaching success is to have a reward system to anchor your training session. Make the rewards known right from the start, and regularly remind your charges of these during training. Being kids, they will find this every appealing and give their best for their respective teams at practice. Sometimes having rewards at various intervals of training is useful, but of course this entails more planning and logistical support. One other important aspect of reward that will enhance sports coaching for success in kids is to ensure that you deliver what you promise. Our kids will hold us to our promises of rewards very seriously. If we do not give a promised reward at the end, they will be very disappointed and will never trust you again.

As we motivate our kids with competition, games and rewards for sports coaching success, we must also provide continuity in our training programme by ensuring that we inspire and motivate them for future training session as well. At the end of the training session, we must link it to the next session to provide our kids with something to look forward to. The worse form of programme is to do something that is totally different from what has been done in the previous session. For example, if we have just completed basic dribbling skills today, a good link will be to provide a lead up into dribbling and passing. The next session must be made exciting as well for sports coaching success and peak performance in sports. For example, letting kids know that at the start of the next session, there will be a dribbling test whereby scores will be added on to the team’s scores. This will mean that children are encouraged to practice at home so that when they return the next time, their skills would have improved to contribute significantly to the next game. This form of motivation and lead up to the next session is important for sports coaching success.

Sports coaching success for kids are a tall order for all coaches to achieve. The fact that our kids respond in very peculiar ways requires us really to think of strategies to make our training competitive, game-based, reward driven and smooth flowing, but most of all fun. After all, kids growing up need to have fun to learn. The key for a coach to have sports coaching success is to maintain the training for kids to be as fun as possible. Do not worry about peak performance in sports. It will follow when they have fun.

Inspiring Our Children in Sports For Peak Performance in Sports

2010-01-15T23:41:00.000-08:00

Whether we like it or not, our children will look up to us when it comes to playing their sports and games. How we, as parents deal with this responsibility will play a big part in whether our children can achieve peak performance in sports. Sometimes we can be overwhelmed by this responsibility, and not know how we can inspire and motivate our children to sustain their interest and passion for peak performance in sports. Actually, there are some effective ways we can used to inspire our children to do well in their sports.

To me, the most effective and important way to inspire our children to peak performance in sports is to be a role model for them to follow. In the first place, our kids probably got started playing sports because they saw us playing at some point of time in their growing up years. It was only natural for them to follow our footstep, and aspire to play the games we played and achieve their own peak performance in sports. Having started them on this journey, we must not stop playing the games we loved. Our age might increase make us less physically able to play, but we can overcome that by been more involved in the sports with our kids in other ways. Take time to play catch with our kids in the back yard. Shoot some hoops with them at the sports centre. Go swimming and running with them. All these activities can be done as part of the family unit, and it will bond the family and get everyone fit as well. Such regular activities bring do wonders to our aspiring children in helping them reach their peak performance in sports. A good and active role model from the closest person in their lives will give children the greatest motivation to continue to do their best in sports.

The second way to inspire our children is to be there for your children's sports events. When there is a game, try and be there. The biggest supporter and fan of our kids must be ourselves, the parents. Children, no matter what age ache to do their parents proud by reaching their peak performance in sports. When they become champions, their greatest wish is to have their parents and loved ones witnessing them standing on the podium and receiving their medals. For us parents, it can be our proudest moment as well. So, parents please find the time to be there for your children. This simple gesture will go a long way in helping your children reach their peak performance in sports. Conversely, it is also important to be there when your children taste defeat or unpleasant circumstances like long-term injuries. These are trying times and also times when they need their closest support. If they ride through these tough times well, with you as their pillar, you can be sure they will succeed even more in the future in their quest for peak performance in sports.

Another way you can support your children's desire for peak performance in sports is to support them with resources. Buying jerseys, sports equipment, paying for their coaching and so on are important to support their development in sports. When our children are young, they are not in any position to pay for their sporting equipment. We as parents must be there for them. But buying and paying outright is not the answer to our children's sports needs and aspirations. The secret to make them valuing their sports equipment is to deliver these when they desire them most. So, secretly buying that coveted NBA jersey for them, and giving them when they least expect it will do wonders to their morale. They will treasure these gifts, and work even harder towards their peak performance in sports. So parents do buy selectively and appropriately for your children.

Fourthly, we as parents need to be as updated in our children's sports as possible to offer them the greatest advice possible. If your child is into football but you are into baseball, than you better make an effort to learn more about football. By having a base of knowledge on the sports of your children, you will be able to have relevant and resourceful conversations with your children about their sports. For example, discussing about why his favorite ice-hockey team will not make the playoffs this season supported by good technical analysis will force him to think and respond appropriately. These types of discussions will improve understanding of their game, and contribute to their peak performance in sports. So, by all means please stay updated about their sports.

Finally, to inspire and motivate our children towards peak performance in sports, it is also important to form and expand community of sports. Joining the local sports club and actively participating in their events will create more options for your children to take. They might form more valuable friendships with other kids in the local clubs. These new friends and team mates can be another source of support and sports opportunities. Sometimes, knowing that the mates at their club are just as good if not better then your children will cause your own children to work harder at their sports. Make sure these form of rivalry and competition are friendly in nature. Overly competitive friends are not healthy in he long run.

Whatever ways we try and use to inspire and motivate our children towards their own peak performance in sports, it is important to consider your own situation. Not all ways are possible. Sometimes, you just have to focus on areas that you can do your best. For instance, if your family is not well off, constantly paying for courses and equipment might not be possible. But it is always possible to use other ways and explain to our children about it. If anything, our children are perfectly logical and reasonable when we are true in our hearts.

Crazy for Football: Supported Blanc French coach after World Cup 2010#comment-form#comment-form#comment-form#comment-form

2010-01-14T18:10:00.000-08:00

Crazy for Football: Supported Blanc French coach after World Cup 2010#comment-form#comment-form#comment-form#comment-form

The Sports Nation

2010-01-13T23:26:00.000-08:00

In this day and age, it is very difficult to find a country that does not have a strong emphasis to develop a Sports Nation. Apart from very under-privilege countries, most countries now have some form of initiative or structured programmes that drive them towards a Sports Nation. But what exact is a Sports Nation? What are the things different countries do in order to aspire to reach that status? Is it national policy that sports must play a prominent role in societies? These are some of the questions we will explore as we uncover the nature of a Sports Nation.

All aspiring Sports Nations has a hidden agenda these days, and that is to develop a healthier nation. Healthy people require less cost to look after as they age and develop. Encouraging an active and healthy lifestyle is an indirect way to tackle the demographic issues of higher life expectancy and rising health care cost. In countries that are considered welfare states, like Australia, Britain, France, and Canada, the health care cost of citizens are mainly bourn by government coffers. This could present a significant burden on the countries resources as health care cost has skyrocketed or will continue to skyrocket with time. Since 1965, health care cost has exploded exponential. This geometric rise poses a very challenging problem to governments of the world as population growth has not receded. In fact the global population is forecast to breach the 9 billion mark by 2020. How than can governments cope with such pressing need to sustain their peoples? Developing a Sports Nation can be one long-term strategy to deal with this issue. The key is to keep people fit and strong and hopefully keep illnesses and diseases at bay, such that health care costs could be contained.

Another feature of why Sports Nations need to be developed more and more is the quest for greater publicity and positive image creation. In the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, China for the first time emerged the overall winner in terms of Gold Medals garnered during the games. It marks the rise and return of China to the peak ranks of world order. As a Sports Nation, China has created for itself lasting image and publicity that will last a long time. This kind of positive image gained has rubbed off effects on other countries in the world. Because of this Sports Nation image created, people suddenly view many things about China differently. For example, the sports training systems now become the darling for the world over to follow. Its sports equipment and products suddenly become more heavily bought. Chinese sports heroes became role models. In short, the country gets a shot in the arm, and the overall health of the country has improved. Sports Nations has a way to promote and excite people from all over the world, and it is a good thing to have.

Sports Nations not just get an image boost and allow health care costs to be tackled, they also bring in revenue for the country. As the world continue to move towards a sporting world, nations that are successfully becoming Sports Nations, become the destination of numerous international games, sports conferences, sports exhibitions, training tours and camps, even investment destinations for companies producing sports goods and services. Just think of the building of stadia in South Africa for the World Cup of soccer. How many billions of dollars are invested, and how many billions more will flow in during this kind of events. With the kind of money generated, it is no wonder that countries around the world try their very best to become Sports Nations and in the process eludes the kind of features that only Sports Nations have.

One of these features is the abundance of sports facilities and programmes in a Sports Nation. In established and successful Sports Nations, the lifestyle and infrastructure gives the feel of a truly healthy and active people in them. Stadia are monuments and symbols of progress, parks and running routes are accessible to the masses, sports events for the masses are common, advertising campaigns are washed with sports publicity, families engage in sports whole-hearted and holistically. Government initiatives and support in terms of resource allocation is also very evident in such countries. The whole Sports Nation is just breathing the sporting culture. Because of all these present in a Sports Nation, it is not surprising that the standard of living in the country can be exceedingly high as well. The benefits of sports offer people a way of life that is much more desirable. If you look at successful Sports Nation, like Australia, New Zealand, Germany, America, and even China, there is a feel of peace and freshness, and this is reflected by the great desire of people wanting to make them their migration and travel destinations.

Sports Nations are desirable destinations and living places for people to flourish. They lead to lower health care cost eventually, increase public image of the country, generate revenue and allow the populace to enjoy high standards of living. These are all very positive motivation for nations to strive towards becoming Sports Nations. In the long run, it will happen, but getting there might not be as easy as there are many challenges that nations face in becoming Sports Nations.

Advanced Sports Training Principles

2010-01-12T18:32:00.000-08:00

In the serious sports world, FITT is meant for the general population of societies who are basically striving for a more active life-style as their peak performance in sports. For those who are more serious, training principles ought to be more advance so that training becomes more scientific and predictable for peak performance in sports. Here are the six advanced sports training principles for more serious athletes.

1.Specificity
In many ways, specificity is similar to what we have discussed under the type or training activities under FITT. The reference here is to the kind of sports activities been used to boast peak performance in sports. When it comes to more serious sports training, it is only prudent to select and engage in sports specific activities to induce the kind of training benefits for peak performance in sports. A sprinter should be doing more sprint drills compared to long distance running. Although it is not wrong to do some endurance work in season to increase the overall cardiovascular output. The body of a sprinter will respond more specifically to fast twitch training by performing more sprint related drills and practice.

2.AdaptationAdaptation refers to the body's ability to adjust to increased or decreased physical demands and training. When we put our bodies through strenuous training activities, they will response to the increase stimuli by becoming stronger, more efficient and responsive with time in order to meet the new demands been set upon. Adaptation to exercise and training do not happen overnight, but the effects of increase activity can be felt within 24 hours. Soreness of muscles, lack of mobility and a general feel of fatigue are common responses to increase physical demands. Conversely, when training or physical activity levels are lower, the body will also adapt by becoming less efficient strong and responsive. This explains why athletes lose endurance levels if they stop training for even a short period of time. Hence, in the quest for peak performance in sports, it is important to raise activity levels to levels that will induce adaptations from the body.

3.Overload
The principle of overload goes hand in hand with adaptation. In order for the body to respond in a positive manner toward peak performance in sports, the activity load must be increased to a level that will signal the body to change. If we keep the same training intensity level, the body will respond by adapting to a level that will comfortably achieve all the required efforts. When this stage is reached, no further progress will be made unless the intensity level is raise. This is where the principle of overload comes in. Training intensity can be raised to induce the body system to continuously adapt.

4.Progression
When we overload in terms of training intensity, this must be done in a progressive way. If this is not done, serious injury can occur, and the body will not respond and adapt as well. For example, say a weight lifter can bench press 100kg comfortably now. In his quest for heavier lifts, if he raises his next training lifts to 150kg, the body will not be able to carry out the lifts as physiologically, the muscle capacities, energy generation and structural gain is just not strong even to sustain such drastic sudden overload. However, if the weight lifter raise his next lift by 5kg to 105kg, and practice that for a few days and weeks, the body will have the physiological capacities to sustain this training intensity. Once 105kg becomes comfortable, the athlete can than raise the resistance level by a small amount again. Progressive overload allows for the body to respond and adapt smoothly, leading to peak performance in sports with time.

5.Reversibility
The principle of reversibility is more a warning to athletes in serious training for peak performance in sports than anything else. “If you do not use it, you will lose it!” That is how fitness and sports skills are. An athlete who has gained immense endurance capacity to many months of training will lose this level of fitness gains in double quick time if he does not sustain his training intensity. Studies have shown that it takes 6 to 8 weeks to make significant aerobic gains through sound training, but that gain can disappear in 10 days without sustained training activities. In order to prevent this form of reversibility of training gains, athletes must seek to avoid lowering training intensity and also inactivity.

6.Variation
And finally the variation principle of sports training refers to having a wide range of activities to stimulate and sustain training motivation. It might appear to contradict the principle of specificity here, which is why it is important for coaches and athletes to really strike a balance between the two principles. When doing so, it is paramount to take into consideration the motivational levels of the athletes. Some athletes are very self-motivated to train for peak performance in sports. For these athletes, planning varied activities might not be necessary. For athletes with lower motivation levels, especially younger athletes, there is a need to constantly change activities to induce the necessary training improvements for peak performance in sports.

The Lure of Money In Sports Politics

2010-01-11T01:53:00.000-08:00

$80million for Cristiano Ronaldo! That is how much Spanish football club, Real Madrid paid for the Portuguese superstar that many consider is the best footballer on the planet at present. Big money has indeed rolled into town in the sporting world. In recent times, we have also witness the first billionaire athlete. The unquestionable golfing talents of Tiger Woods has made him into an invincible golfer who today commands more money from prize monies and advertising endorsement.

Oil barons from all over the world are also pouring in billions to fuel purchases of the top sports clubs and organizations of the world. Billionaires like Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan think nothing of investing hundreds of million of pounds buying up football clubs, that they think will make them more prominent players in the financial world. This totally changed the way the game of sports is played in this the modern world.

A certain rich-poor divide is beginning to be formed in the professional sports scene. With all the money and credit available to these sports clubs, top players are also flocking to them, earning obscene weekly wages. Performances will no doubt improve. Clubs owned by these multi-billionaires are beginning to monopolize the top rungs of the sports world, whilst decent sports franchises are struggling to break into the top few positions of their sports. The business of sports is taking on a more corporate outlook with balance sheets, IPOs, CEOs and credit ratings commonly used terms to refer to the business of a sports clubs. One thing is for certain, the money flowing into sports will no abate in the future, which makes it ever more important for different parties in societies to ride on this.

Togo Football Shooting

2010-01-10T01:39:00.000-08:00

Just when you thought sports and politics cannot be mixed, the above incident again show how people can make use of sports to go after their own political goals. It is a sad day for sports the world over. Read more.

The Rise of Sports

2010-01-08T01:35:00.000-08:00

In recent years sports has taken on a face not seen before in the history of civilized societies. When you obtain an major newspaper in the world these days, it is not uncommon to find an in-depth section devoted to sports news. On television networks, at least 15 to 20% of the time of a news programme is given to air the sports news of the world. On websites on the world wide web, sports news is always a major segment on the web page. The world has certainly witness the emergence of sports in all aspects of society. However, sports news and information is only one component of sports that is evident in today’s world. There are other aspects of sports that are assuming more and more importance, and these are collectively having a greater impact in the way society deal with sports and changing sports politics.

Look forward to more of my posts on how sports is changing or can be changing the face of the world for the better.

"Better to play football than to fire cannon balls at each other."

Introduction to Sports Politics

2010-01-07T00:49:00.000-08:00

It has been 15 years since sports politics landed the Springboks the Ellis We Trophy, the World Cup of Rugby under the most difficult of circumstances. South Africa has just emerged from the shadows of Apartheid. Nelson Mandela was just elected the country’s first ever colored President by the black majority population. But the team that represented the Springboks in the 1995 World Cup was still made up of all white players except for a certain Chester William. Sports politics was the last thing on anyone’s mind.

Amidst all the reforms and positive outlook in a post-Apartheid era, the tension in South Africa between the white Afrikaner ex-ruling class and the majority black population still sizzle beneath an apparent state of reform and positive outlook. All that changed when the underdog Springboks, against all odds and expectations defeated the overwhelming favorites, New Zealand. In a miraculous stroke, Nelson Mandela has conjured up not just a World Cup win, but began a healing process of change within a violence-ravaged nation so staved of peace and harmony for centuries. It proved that there is a part for sports to play in the complex world of political differences, strive and struggles in our modern societies. This kind of sports politics has a lot of potential for us to explore.

There are those that argue that sports and politics do not mix. They claim that there is no such thing as sports politics. They claim that both are of different character and extremes. The former is gentlemanly, passionate and non-violent. While the latter is unpredictable, uncalled for, and often expressed in the violent forms of war, racism, riots and unrest. We cannot deny such traits of sports and politics. But if we look deeper at sports and politics, both are essentially battles of a different kind. As George Orwell once said, “sport is basically war minus the shooting”.

If only mankind can resolve their differences by sports politics on the football field rather than the battle field. If only, Hitler tries to prove his racial supremacy in sports field rather than in the death camps of Auschwitz. If only, the soldiers of this world are more eager to don their jerseys than their combat gear. If only politicians can let a game decide the fate of nations, rather than mobilize for war. Life on earth would be more meaningful, harmonious and peaceful with sports politics. People can than go about their tasks without fear of their race, color, religions or birth rights. Yes, there is room for us humans to evoke this spirit of sports politics to solve our world’s problems.

It might seem trivial and silly. Why not let our children and future generations answer this question: “Would you rather prepare hard and ultimately lose on the sports field, or train hard and die on a battlefield?” This rhetoric question begs no answers. We all know the right answer and the right thing to do. But why are we so eager still to bear arms and risk death. I believe that in this modern world of weapons of mass destruction, we should seriously consider using other means like sports politics to resolve our differences and build a better world. If we don’t and continue to resort to war and violence, there will be not much of a place for us to call home.

The Over-Protective Parent

2010-01-06T02:22:00.000-08:00

I had an encounter with an over-protective parent that was really more detrimental than helpful to peak performance in sports.

Some years ago, I chance upon a long distance running coaching job that set me on the path to meeting this parent who was very concerned about the son's running performances. The runner was dedicated, but sadly lacks the necessary talent to really become an elite runner. Nevertheless, I went about the task of getting him to reach his peak performance in sports as best as I could.

The parent was helpful to the extend that coaching fee was offered, transport was offered and so on. In due time, I realize that the chief concern was about the son. The rest was secondary.

Wanting the best for your own flesh and blood is one thing, but going about it with the least care about others in another. Even in a sports like running, the team element is important to develop peak performance in sports. When the team is not united, training becomes less effective, hence peak performance in sports will not come by so easily.

I urge all parents to see a more holistic picture and think about the team. After all, your son or daughter is part of the team. When the team do well and achieve peak performance in sports, he or she benefits as well.

FITT - Time of Training for Peak Performance in Sports

2010-01-04T23:07:00.000-08:00

The last principle of fitness and training under FITT is Time. Here, we are referring to the duration of each training session. Having determined the frequency, intensity and type of training, it is now important to ensure that the training duration for each session maximizes peak performance in sports. Our body systems are very delicate systems that will respond most under optimal stimulation. Too little training, not enough adaptation will take place. Too much training will result in the detrimental effects of over training. Hence, the coach is very important to plan for the right amount of training time for his players for peak performance in sports. Once again, to decide on the time of training required, it is important to consider the different kinds of athletes we are dealing with. Earlier we have elaborated about how different athletes respond to during frequency of training. We can deal with the time required for training by looking at each of these groups in place, and make the necessary recommendations. Let us begin.

For professional athletes, since they are the cream of the crop, and possessing body systems that recovery and respond the fastest to training, these athletes can be subjected to longer training duration for peak performance in sports. Generally speaking, once the energy fuel system in their body is exhausted, any more training without fuel will be counter productive. The time taken for these elite athletes to reach this stage is generally between 2-3 hours of training in a single session. The good thing is their systems will recover rapidly as well, and with good rest, stretching, massaging and proper nutrition, they will be ready for a second training session again in about 8-10 hours.

For amateur athletes, their body systems are also similarly defined as the elite professional athletes. However, given that these amateurs are also involved in a job of some kind on a daily basis, training once a day for 2-3 hours will have to be enough to stimulate optimal growth for peak performance in sports. Work involvement can be physically draining and should not be underestimated. The key thing missing for these athletes is lack of quality and quantity rest as compared with a professional athlete.

As for local sportsmen and school athletes, the general guideline would be training for about 2 hours tops. The developing body systems of these young athletes are just not ready for anything more. Fuel storage is less efficient, recovery is more complicated and rest is commonly not enough. Hence, extended training beyond 2 hours can be counter productive. Coaches of these athletes often have the difficult task of reining in their eager athletes. They will want to do more because of their enthusiasm, but really, it is not benefiting them for peak performance in sports.

Finally, the recreational group of athletes should not train too hard. Anything within one hour will generally suffice to develop a healthy body. The key here is to feel good from a healthy body with good energy levels to do more recreational activities after training. There is no point exhausting them and leaving little reserves less to do other more meaningful activities.

FITT - Type of Training Activities for Peak Performance in Sports

2010-01-04T01:11:00.000-08:00

The next principle in FITT is Type of activities that must be conducted and organized for peak performance in sports. Having planned and established the required frequency of training and decided upon the measure of intensity of training, it is important to use the correct type of activities to use in training to promote peak performance in sports. Here, we can classify type of activities used according to the following categories.

a.General Fitness Activities
These are activities and exercised that are more fitness related with very little skill related activities. Common activities in this category include weight training, aerobics, interval training, body resistance training, plyrometric training, fartlek, partner resistance training, endurance based activities, body pump, skipping, etc. The examples mentioned here are extremely effective training tools to improve fitness of athletes for peak performance in sports. They are also easily implemented and monitored, which is a good thing for a coach. The down-side of this is that it can be boring to the athletes. Performing monotonous runs, painful weight lifting and repetitive body resistance exercises are not exactly the most fun and inspiring things in the world to do. These form of activities need to form only a minor portion of the total training time for each session. It is recommended that anywhere from 10-20% of the time should be devoted such training activities. Another way to implement such activities is to use them as a form of disincentives. Any sub-standard performances in training can mean more of these general fitness activities.

b.Sports Specific Training Activities
As the name implies, these are activities that are related to the sports been played by the athletes. These activities should form the bulk of all training times. They will include activities, drills, games and any other form of exercises that are related to the sports. Players are involved in their chosen sport because they are passionate about it in the first place. Nothing will motivate them more than to get them to practice what they have signed up for. For example, it will not make sense for water-polo players to spend more time out of the swimming pool than in it. Water-polo players must spend as much time as they can in the water so that they get use to the sports medium as much as possible. It is up to the coach to be resourceful to come up with as many sports specific training activities as possible for peak performance in sports. So if the aim one of the session is to build agility as well as dribbling skills in soccer, perhaps using dribbling skills at high intensity with lots of changes in direction will be the right activity for the session.

c.Cross Disciplinary Activities
Cross disciplinary activities are activities with little familiarity to the chosen sports being played, but they still allow the players to maintain and improve their fitness, conditioning and skills. This form as activities is especially important during breaks from the main sports season. Very often playing too much of the same sport year in year out can be very detrimental to the athletes psychologically as well as physically. Burn out from over exposure to the same sports can occur if too much of the same activities are done. To counter this and get the players a break, engaging in relevant cross disciplinary activities can be very helpful to refresh the players. In most continental European soccer leagues, the leagues have winter breaks lasting between 2 – 4 weeks during the Christmas and New Year period. During this break, the players do not just go on vacation and do nothing. In fact, many teams will bring their players away from cold countries to warmer ones to engage in some other activities other than soccer. These activities keep the players renewed and refreshed. Some team also make use of the wintry cold and snow, by engaging in skiing to keep their players conditions at their peak, so that when they return for the second half of the season, the players are still in good shape to play the remaining games. This form of cross disciplinary activities is extremely useful to recharge player’s batteries.

With a good mixture of these three types of activities in the training programme, athletes will find the variety, motivation and usefulness in them to improve their peak performance in sports.

FITT - Recovery and Speed Based Training for Training Intensity

2010-01-02T22:54:00.000-08:00

In the previous two postings we have explored using heart rate, breathing rate, volume based and repetition based training to manipulate the training intensity for peak performance in sports. In this final posting on intensity training we will look at two final ways to manipulate training intensity for peak performance in sports.

e.Recovery based Training
Determining the recovery periods and frequency during a training session can also be used to determine the intensity of training. In a low intensity work out, the number of recovery intervals and duration of each recovery could be lengthy. This low intensity work outs are man for beginning athletes, or they can be done during off-season phase where the aim is to just recuperate or cross train. When the fitness levels of athletes are higher or when greater improvement in peak performance in sports is needed during the in-season, then recovery periods can be cut down to have a higher intensity training session. Again the inputs from the training programme and coaches are crucial. During different periods of the season, different intensity of training are called for, and recovery periods and duration can be used to set intensity level.

f.Speed Based Training
Finally, another way whereby intensity of training can be measured is by using speed as a factor. In any training session, the speed at which different activities are done can be adjusted to control the intensity of training. If the session is supposed to facilitate recovery of athletes after a strenuous match the day before, the activities and drills performed in the session can be lowered to 50-60% speed. On the contrary, if there is a need to stimulate game play as best as possible, the session could be upped in intensity by performing most drills at full speed. However, determining the speed can be tricky and requires certain amount of understanding of what full speed is to each different athlete. Therefore it is recommended that this form of intensity measurement be confined to more experience athletes and teams.

Intensity as on of the principles of fitness and training is important to ensure that athletes are heading towards peak performance in sports. There are obvious quite a few ways to control the intensity of training, from the use of heart rate to the use of speed as a measure of training intensity. Whichever way is adopted, it is important to note that the objectives of each session is important.

FITT - Volume-Based and Repetition-Based Training To Induce Training Intensity

2010-01-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

Following on my previous posting on using heart rate and breathing rate to manipulate training intensity, we shall discuss another two methods of manipulating training intensity for peak performance in sports.

c.Volume Based Training
Volume of training refers mainly to mileage done in a session. Mileage here often refers to aerobic activities like running, cycling, swimming, aerobics, skipping, hoping, low resistance weight training, etc. All this volume training is to be done at 60-70% intensity to stimulate maximal aerobic growth. Time is not a factor. The focus here is to ensure that activity is continuous over a prolonged period of time. The intensity of training is measured by the volume of exercise done. How many miles do you run? How many steps do you complete in an aerobic work out? How many repetitions do you complete? How many times do you skip? Extended volume training done at moderate intensity can expand aerobic capacity tremendously if done over a planned period of time.

Volume based training is a useful tool that coaches can employ to build up solid aerobic endurance for peak performance in sports. Ultimately, how well athletes perform in other areas of fitness for sports has some form of origins from improved aerobic endurance. Without substantial aerobic endurance levels, improvement in other aspects like anaerobic capacity, speed, agility, strength and flexibility will not be as optimal as it can be. The volume of aerobic capacity gain allows athletes to train harder, thereby improving other aspects of sports and peak performance in sports. It is vital for athletes lock in volume based training to improve aerobic endurance for peak performance in sports.

d.Repetition Based Training
By repetition based training, we mean to plan and run your training using sets and repetitions to stimulate growth. The intensity of training here can be measured in terms of having more sets and repetitions included in training. For example, coaches can plan for many sets repetitions, and subsequent increase the numbers to increase intensity of training. In any given training work out, the athletes can perform a pre-determined number of exercises. Each exercise will require certain number of sets and repetitions to be completed in order to gain objectives for peak performance in sports. Again, the direction set by the coaches is important. Each session with its exercises, sets and repetitions must have objectives.

These are another two methods whereby you can change to induce the necessary training intensity for peak performance in sports.

FITT - Using Heart-Rate and Breathing Rate to Measure Intensity of Training

2010-01-01T01:38:00.000-08:00

Having established the necessary frequency of work outs needed to achieve your own peak performance in sports, the task is now to determine how intensive each session should be. In fact, the intensity for different session may differ from session to session. Sometimes, one session maybe very intense to stimulate maximal growth, whereas the next session can be extremely light to allow for rest and recovery of the muscles and cells. It is important to cater the intensity of your training sessions to what is required and also what your body can handle. A professional adult sportsman might be able to handle the most intensive work out, but the same work out intensity might not apply to a school athlete. It is best to work with an experienced coach or expert when planning training intensity.

Broadly speaking intensity of training can be conducted in the following ways

a.Heart-Rate Based Training
For any age group, there is a way to calculate the estimated maximal heart rate of an athlete. Physiologists have long agreed that the formula for this is to subtract your age from 220. That would give you your estimated maximal heart rate. The figure 220 has been derived from studies and experiment conducted over a lengthy period of time. Basically, it is the maximal heart rate of an infant at birth. As you can see, the older one gets, the lower your maximal heart rate. Once you have rough estimate of your maximal heart rate, you can than peg your training intensity to your heart rate to maximize gains from your training. So if you want to exercise at 70% intensity, your will have to ensure that your exercise raises and maintain your heart rate to 70% of maximum.

Let take the example of a 20-year old cyclist wanting to ride 50 mile at 70% intensity. For this cyclist his estimated maximal heart rate would be 200. 70% of 200 will be 140. For his 50 mile ride, he will have to ensure that his heart rate hits 140 beats per minute for the duration of his ride. Your question now might be how can he measure and ensure that his heart rate is at 140 for the entire 50 mile ride. There are a few ways to measure your heart rate during training. Use a heart rate monitor that can be worn around your chest while training. The reading is taken from a wrist watch which is part of the accessory of the heart rate monitor. This is a fairly accurate measuring instrument. A more practical approach is to measure your pulse rate over 10 seconds and than multiply that figure by 6, which will give you your heart rate for beats per minute. However, this method cannot be done continuously. The athlete would have to rely on the occasional measurement and rely on his own feelings to gauge the intensity level of the training.

b.Breathing-Rate Based Training
Tracking your breathing rate is also a good way to ensure that your training intensity is up to the required standard to achieve peak performance in sports. There is a very simple and universal way to measure your breathing when exercising. As you are exercising, when you reach the point where you can barely hold a conversation with your training partner, you have reached 70% intensity of training. At that point, your body systems have probably reached a point where the entire oxygen uptake, energy expenditure is needed more urgently to fuel your exercise intensity. From this point on, it is not difficult to raise intensity levels to 80%, 90% and even 100%. If you want to measure exact breathing rate and use it to gauge exercise intensity, than this could be done similarly as measuring your heart rate over 10 seconds and than multiplying by 6. Do the same for breathing rate. Count the number of breathes taken in 10 seconds and than multiply by 6 to get your breaths per minute.

FITT - Frequency

2009-12-30T07:02:00.000-08:00

FITT stands for Frequency, Intensity, Type and Time. These four principles of physical fitness and training represent the very basic for all athletes and sports enthusiasts, from recreational athletes to world class professionals. Applying these four principles in your sports programme will be the beginnings towards peak performance in sports. Let’s explore in greater depth each one of these.

Frequency
The basic definition is how many times are your workouts going to be or how frequently do you work out or train in your sports. In order for fitness standards to improve, our body systems – muscular, respiratory, and skeletal, etc – need to be stimulated to a certain degree whereby adaptations is called for response to the changes. Once adaptations are complete, it remains to be maintained at that level for sustained peak performance in sports. Without the necessary exercise stimulus at regular interval whatever adaptations that are gained will be lost and the original status of the body systems will be restored. But I find that answering this question of frequency of training is more relevant when you set your sports programmes in context. That is what are you involved in sports for? Is it to lose weight? Do you want a healthy life style? Are you training for competitions? Are you a professional athlete earning a living through sports? We will explore the frequency of exercise for each of the following category that I have set out to guide any aspiring athlete for peak performance in sports.

Right at the very top are our professional athletes who earn top dollars by playing their sports at the highest level. It is not surprising that the first billionaire athlete, Tiger Woods, is who he is in the golfing world. Amongst all the golfers in this world, he is the hardest training athlete who works out not everyday, but twice a day, with a very heavy weight training component. To be the best, athletes will have to put in their share of hard work. There is no short cut to success. The body systems will respond to proper training when we give them time and resources to adapt to a more intensive and grueling training regime. For professional athletes, training twice or more a day is not a problem because the body has adapted to it. Recovery is faster and more frequent and intensive work outs are needed to stimulate muscle growth and adaptations. Training less will be detrimental for peak performance in sports for these elite athletes. It is the nature of the job and professionals have to work for their living in this sense.

A rung down the ladder are your amateur athletes. Part-time aspiring Olympians and competitors who need to find the time for peak performance in sports. This group of athletes is generally the most disadvantaged. Not only must they work for a living, but they must also juggle training and family life, and all this is done with very little professional resource help. Compared to professional athletes, the funding is low. There are also no readily available services like nutrition support, physiological support, medical help, etc around to assist this group of athletes. But still, this group of athletes trains just as hard as the professionals to reach their peak performance in sports. Training twice a day is not uncommon. More often than not, a once a day routine is more practical for these highly motivated sportsmen. Time and work just does not permit these athletes from accomplishing more.

After the amateur group come the serious competitors in schools and the local sports scene. These include mainly young athletes in schools and post-secondary education. This group of athletes is budding athletes who are just becoming serious in their sporting ambitions, but their body systems are still developing for them to take on too much training. For these athletes, training up to 3 to 4 times a week is the norm for their systems to improve. Anything more is actually counter productive and may cause a burn out effect.

Right at the bottom of the ladder are recreational sports enthusiasts whose main goal is mainly to keep a healthy lifestyle. For these people, twice a week exercise sessions are good enough for them to main a healthy state of being. With this form of regular exercise, the body will have the stimulus to develop and adapt to a healthy state of being. Our body systems are remarkably responsive to stimulus, and for them to maintain an active status all they need is a frequency of about twice week training.

Happy Holidays Sports Tips

2009-12-28T19:06:00.001-08:00

Christmas and New Year are always tough periods for sportsmen. It is an extended period of holiday season for all where there is every reason to relax and eat in a way that can be detrimental to peak performance in sports. All that is built up in weeks and months of proper training and dieting can be thrown out of the window when you just relax for a couple of days. That is the way sports training in and anyone who wants to excel in sports and achieve peak performance in sports will have to live with this fact of sports training. How than can athletes approach this seasons of holidays without comprising training effectiveness and at the same time enjoy the holidays with friends and family as well?

Here are some tips to overcome this problem if you are facing a similar situation above;

1) Get your training done the first thing in the morning. Basically get it out of the way so that you can enjoy the festive moods for the rest of the day. The longer you delay your training, the more guilty and problematic it will be to try and find the time and motivation to get your training out of the way.

2) Reduce your workout durations but maintain the frequency and intensity. It is the season for giving after all. So it is ok to give yourself a lighter workout load. The important thing to keep peak performance in sports going is to ensure that activity and training has been carried out. Nothing is worse than not having done your training. So instead of a 2 hour training session, you might want to reduce it by half, but you might want to work at a higher intensity than normal to compensate for the lesser duration.

3) Try something different at home. For many of us, you will be pretty confined to your home areas or there abouts. Gyms might remain closed for the holidays and at this time of the year, for those in winter countries, snow, rain and cold will be your common enemies. Try things within your home, or something you can do around your neighbourhood. Never tried running in the snow? Try it, A five minutes run in knee deep snow, can cause your lungs to burst. Even better, how about build your own snowman at your backyard? Think its easy? Wait till you try it.

4) Eat well. Here I mean, do not be so fixed as to maintain your strict diet. If you keep up your workouts, it is ok to indulge yourself in good foods during this time of the year. Wine, turkeys, etc are all fine as long as your bodies have been active.

5) Finally, mentally maintain that peak edge. The mind must not go to sleep during this period. Do not shut yourself out of sports. Research has shown that keeping your mind sharp and in tune towards sports and training is very important to maintain the edge for peak performance in sports.

Happy holidays.

Preparing for Golf Tournament

2009-12-24T07:48:00.000-08:00

Preparing to Compete in golf is really fun. If it does not turn out that way for you, you might want to reconsider competing. Preparation for competitive golf isn't like getting knocked around in preparation for a football game or a marathon race where you need to spend hours running.

These are some of the things you will need to do if you want to play your best golf in th tournament.

1. Work on the weak parts of your game.
2. Practicing versus Playing.
3. Tweak your equipment.
4. Know the rules.
5. Acquire either a golf range finder or GPS measuring device.
6. Practice the gimmes.
7. Help.

Players should do their best to develop a highly reliable style of play. Avoid high risk exotic shots. Nurture confidence by developing an arsenal of simple low risk shots. Golf preparation is vital to becoming a complete player in competition.

Pre-Game Preparation - Opponent's Check

2009-12-22T22:35:00.000-08:00

One of the main aspects of pre-game preparation which is critical to peak performance in sports is the analysis of your opponents. Sun Tzi, the ancient Art of War general has said, “Know your enemy and yourself, and victory is secured.” Guess what, in the realm of sports, this maxim applies as well. This form of opponents check as part of the pre-game preparation is critical. The coach must be the catalyst of this analysis and study, but the players themselves must also do their part in knowing their opponents inside out before kick-off, face-off, and tip-off. When checking out your opponents for peak performance in sports, you will need to focus and pay attention to the following aspects with regards to your opponents.

1.Opponents Overall Team Strategy
Every team of whichever sport will have their own playing style to maximize their peak performance in sports. A lot of this is a reflection of the coach’s playing philosophy and ingrained culture. Some coaches and teams prefer defensive style, low scoring games. Some prefer an expansive, open and attractive style of play. It is important for all players to bear in mind the opposition team strategy and style of play, and to do whatever you can to disrupt and interfere with their strategy and style. For example, you know your opponents likes to keep the game flowing, constantly knocking out the ball during open play will force them into set plays situations, thus disrupting their style. Your coach must understand your opponents well and be able to communicate a counter to their style. As players, you must believe in this approach and try your best to implement your coach’s concepts into the game.

2.Departmental Strengths of Opponents
In any team sports, there will be bound to be different departments of the team. What do I mean? In rugby, the departments can be classified into the forwards and back-row, both of which can be sub-divided further as well. In baseball, your have the starting pitching, set-up pitching, relief pitching, infielders and outfielders in various departments. For different teams, different departments will exhibit different strengths and weaknesses. For example, The 1990s Atlanta Braves are known for their strength in their pitching starters with Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and John Smoltz anchoring this department. Once you know where the department strengths are, it will be best to come up with a plan to either avoid this area of by-pass it. By playing less of this department you will be maximizing your chance for peak performance in sports for your team. For example, in soccer if your opponents have a very solid ball winning midfield unit, perhaps the best route of attack is to play a long ball approach direct to your forwards, thus taking the opponents’ midfield out of the equation.

3.Departmental Weaknesses of Opponents
As in the previous point, your opponents will also have weaker sports department, which as a team you must exploit as often as possible for peak performance in sports. Coaches and analysts can often find out these areas of weaknesses through observation of recent matches of their opponents. Very often, these weaknesses can be temporary as the opponents will also think of ways to shore up their weak departments. That is the basic coaching process that all coaches adopt to achieve peak performance in sports.

4.Key Players to Watch
Identifying key players of your opponents is crucial for your players to achieve peak performance in sports. Your players might not be able to match these key players in terms of skills and abilities, but by alerting them to these players; it will enable your own team-mates to deal with these key players in a more guarded ways, thus reducing mistakes. The mind set of dealing with these key players are important. It will be good for the coach to point out what areas these keys opponents are good at. They may favor a side of their play. They have a tendency to run at speed. They may have the ability to do the unexpected. Once these key players’ characteristics are made known, mentally it will give your own players a mental framework to deal with them. Very often this will be enough for your players achieve peak performance in sports.

5.Immediate Players to Watch
Besides key players that must be singled out for your own team to take note of, players with immediate influence to your specific players must also be analyzed. In ice-hockey, if you are a right-defenseman your immediate players to watch out for and study will be the opponent’s left-wingers and centers. These are opponents that will be most encountered in the game, and it makes sense to know them well, so that when facing them, you will know what to look out for to maximize your game for peak performance in sports. When it comes to this stage, it is often the individual player’s responsibility to really go into depth to study and understand his immediate players. The coach’s job cannot entail every minute detail. After which, the players should try their best to remember the main playing features of their immediate opponents.

6.Other Opposition Tendencies
Sometimes, teams or opponents have certain tendencies to play in a certain way. For example, in American Football, some quarter-backs, due to their agility and speed, like to run with the ball and do the unexpected. All these patterns of plays should be identified as much as possible, so that your own team-mates are not caught off guard by such expected sudden plays from the opponents.

These are some of the things athletes should be looking out for whenever they do an opponents check as part of their pre-game preparation for peak performance in sports. In sports, it vital that opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, key players influence, style of play are identified and made known to the whole team. Without which, your own team’s play for peak performance in sports will be severely hampered. No team should ever go into a match without at least having some form of opponents check done by the team.

Pre-Game Preparation - Routine Check Part 2

2009-12-21T18:45:00.000-08:00

This is a continuation from yesterday's blog post on routine check. There are altogether 10 pointers. Here are the other 5 pointers for routine check for peak performance in sports.

6.Team Pep Talk
This is often done by the coach, and should be factored into your own personalize routine for peak performance in sports. By being aware of this, you will sub-consciously shape your mind to lead up to this important activity before the game. You can even anticipate what the coach is going to say, or what your captains will say to lift the motivation and morale of the team before the game.

7.Gear up for Game
Gearing up for a game must also be made a routine. You will find, on closer study, some players actually go through the same procedures when suiting up for games. Regardless, this is a personal thing and should be practiced as much as possible if it makes the athlete comfortable for the game.

8.Self-Positive Reinforcement
Once the physical aspect of game preparation is more or less completed by this stage, it is absolutely important to focus on the mental preparation of the mind again. The mind is infinitely more powerful than the physical body. What the mind envisage as possible the body can do. Very often, it is our mind that limits our abilities and our body will just follow its orders. The few minutes leading up to game time should be spent mentally rehearsing and positively reinforcing oneself with regards to the skills and tactics required by the athlete. Re-affirming to one-self using sentences like ‘I am good at scoring goals’, ‘I am the fastest person in the race’, ‘I am the best goalie in the league’, etc will produce very positive emotions and morale, leading to peak performance in sports later. Of course, this type of mental training success will only come with practice. Athletes should be encouraged to use these techniques as often as possible.

9.Final Imagery of Game Plan
Together with positive self-talk and reinforcement, it is also appropriate for the athletes to go through in his mind as many times as possible the game plan that has been decided upon. This imagery of game plan provides clarity for the athletes regarding what their role is in relation to the overall scheme of things. By being very clear mentally how to execute the game plan under varying circumstances, the reflex thoughts and action of the player are stimulate, producing near instantaneous positive actions when the player is faced with a certain tactical situation. This instantaneous reaction often saves mini-seconds in games, which we know is crucial to getting an upper hand over your opponents.

10.Team Cheer
Once all is said an done, nothing rounds up pre-game preparation more than a last, aggressive, solid cheer that will arouse the emotions necessary to play the game at the optimum level. Cheers are rallying cries of people with a common purpose. It set down the stage for all in the team that everyone is important and that each will go out of their way to fight for each other so that success of the team and peak performance in sports is achieved. So go on, have a good, solid final cheer before game time.

Pre-Game Preparation - Routine Check Part 1

2009-12-20T19:00:00.000-08:00

Having a fixed routine prior to a game or competition is extremely important in striving for peak performance in sports. By having a routine leading up to game time, the athlete is able to minimize any unforeseen circumstances that might affect his psyche for the game, and also allow him to have excellent preparation for the game. In order for routines to be effective, it must be created as a check list, it should be personalized to the athlete within the framework of the team’s preparation, and finally it should be memorized as much as possible. Here is sample routine check list with some description content for each item that might be useful to athletes. There are 10 items altogether, in this first part, we will discuss the first 5.

1.Equipment Check
Basically this is to ensure that all necessary equipment are checked and readied. Make sure that nothing is missing. This should be done twice. Once before you go to sleep, and two, just before you leave home for the game. In an earlier article, I have already expounded on equipment preparation. Please refer to the following link for more information http://esportspeaks.blogspot.com/search/label/Competition

2.Mental Imagery Practice
Mentally preparing for the game is the key to peak performance in sports. Although it is rostered in at activity number 2, really, mental imagery practice should be done as often as possible for the body and mind to internalize all the skill sequences vital for peak performance in sports. As a guide, mentally rehearse your sports skills while going to sleep. Do it again when traveling to the match. Finally, find the time during game day to retire alone into solitude and mentally rehearse for peak performance in sports again.

3.Talk to Team-Mates
This can be done once you get to the games venue or school. Huddle up with your pals from the team and start to talk about the big game coming up. Share your preparation the previous day, share your fears and anxiety, discuss about the technical and tactical aspects of the game, talk about your opponents, and so on. All these basically allow the athletes to loosen themselves and allow the athletes to feel more at ease as game time approaches.

4.Check on Team Sentiments
While chatting up with team-mates, you will also be finding out how the team is doing on game day. Is there anyone emotionally unstable for some reasons? Is there dispute over game plan and strategies? Does the team feel confident or fearful? Team sentiments can affect your play and peak performance in sports tremendously. Imagine if you know that your captain is wreck due to some break-up with his girlfriend that happened the night before. How much confident do you have in your captain in such a case? Surely your game play will be affected.

5.Rest and Diet
Remember to factor in time for rest and diet. This is to ensure that the body is boosted to the optimum level in terms of energy levels for the big game. Avoid unnecessary expenditure of energies before the game, apart from warm-up and so on. Prior to the game, intake of the right amount and the right kind of food is also important. This is to ensure that athletes do not screw up with the body systems who need to be at their prime to produce the greatest amount of energy for the game.

In part 2, we will carry on discussion of the other 5 items in the routine checklist for peak performance in sports.

6.Team Pep Talk
7.Gear up for Game
8.Self-Positive Reinforcement
9.Final Imagery of Game Plan
10.Team Cheer

Ways to Prevent Over Training

2009-12-19T18:16:00.000-08:00

Over training in sports is a common occurrence when athletes become too engrossed in their sporting activities. The common mindset of 'the more I train, the better I become' is actually a very false belief. Sport is about getting out body systems into the most optimal mode for competition and games. Just like over-stimulation of an American football player can often lead to rash decisions and extreme violence, thus affecting the peak performance in sports of the team. As coaches and athletes, we need to look out for signs of over training, as well as to seek ways to prevent it from happening so that we are in prime status for peak performance in sports.

Some ways to prevent over training are as follows;

1) Work out and follow a proper training programme.
Training programmes are very important training regimes designed and thought through by expert people. Therefore, it is imperative that athletes follow their stated training programme and only allow for minimal changes to it. In building a training programme, the coach would have taken into account of the duration, intensity, frequency, skill sets, etc. Over training will also be in his mind when crafting the programme. The problem with most sports programmes that once started, it is hard to control, especially when we are dealing immensely motivated sportsmen looking to achieve peak performance in sports at all cost. Hence, it is too uncommon for players to stay back and train extra hard after the session is officially over. This form of extra training will lead to over training very easily.

2) Stretch, Stretch and Stretch
Not many athletes like to do stretching exercises. They are boring, time consuming and often uncomfortable. However, stretching has proven to do our muscles wonders in terms of aiding recovery and also getting them ready for more heavy duty training subsequently. When we stretch to prevent over training, we must be very thorough in our stretching exercises. All muscle groups must be stretched extensive and for a few repetitions each. After which, the heavily taxed muscles must be stretched again. Stretching should be performed twice a day to allow the muscles to continuously respond to recovery. What this form of stretching does is that it essentially lengthen the muscles, allowing for more and easy blood flood into the muscle cells. More blood flow means more nutrients and oxygen into the muscles for growth and recovery, and more excretion of waste like carbon dioxide and lactic acid from these muscles. The extensive stretching of muscles also means that blood circulation can reach all the deepest corners of muscle groups, enabling a fuller recovery for peak performance in sports.

3) Post-Exercise Diet (the first half an hour after exercise)
Research has found that muscle cells recover their energy stores fastest in the first half hour immediately after training or a hard bout of exercise. At the end of exercise, muscles have generally exhausted their stores of glycogen and other fuel stores in them. This emptiness effect creates a great appetite for nutrients. If we are able to feed our body systems adequate supplies of carbohydrates, the body system will rapidly ingest and take in all this new fuel substances. Here is the trick again. For best replenishment of the muscle fuel, not only must you eat sufficiently within half an hour, but you must also eat the right foods. Having a complex carbohydrate diet like sandwiches made of whole-meal bread will not be as effective as eating bananas and a pasta meal that is easily absolved. This quick meal after exercise will tremendously replenish the muscle nutrients thus allowing for quicker recovery. But athletes must continue to eat proper as well over the next few meals to ensure that peak performance in sports is achieved in the next practice or match.

4) Rest and Recovery
Most of the building and recovery of muscles and cells in the body happens when our body is at rest that is sleep. It is when the body shuts down that the body doctor goes to work repairing and improving all damaged systems within. If the muscle tissues are damage, it will be repaired and made stronger. If a certain muscle group is always taxed, then the body will reinforce this group and build this group up to ensure that they can take the load next time round. That is how bodily systems adapt to stimulus which is the exercise and intensive work-outs. Over time, with proper rest and adaptations, you will realize that your body is improving for peak performance in sports. What is good rest duration? Experts generally believe that 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep supplemented by a 1-2 hour nap is good enough to stimulate the greatest rest and recovery.

Over training is an important aspect for athletes to take note of if peak performance in sports is to be achieved. The are ways to prevent over training. In short, when you are awake after training, ensure that the body gets just the optimal amount of workout, the correct foods in the right amounts at the right time, and plenty of stretching. Sleep sufficiently and let the body does the adaptations and recovery.

Pre-Game Check - Individual Focus Check

2009-12-16T10:38:00.000-08:00

Following up from our game plan check as part of pre-game preparation for competition, let us take a deeper look at individual focus check. There are basically two components that an athlete would need to consider here striving for peak performance in sports. One, the individual focus areas as listed out by his coach, and two, the athlete’ own dictated focus areas to look into.

As mentioned earlier, a good coach in his analysis and preparation for the next match would have done his homework well and given each player what he thinks the player should focus on for the next game to achieve peak performance in sports. These three or less areas given to the player to focus on are what the coach think will make his overall game plan for the match works. It is important for the player to trust and believe in his coach, otherwise, the team play will not reach peak performance in sports. That is why right from the start in one of my earlier article described the importance of building a team with good team spirit. That is the foundation of all other things to come leading to peak performance in sports. With these focus areas given to each player, the roles of the player becomes very clear to each of them with regards to the overall game plan set by the coach. If the overall game plan in say soccer is to play a compact defensive game to deny a strong opponent from scoring, some focus areas given to midfielders could be to play more centrally and refrain from pushing up too much n attack. Another focus area in this case could be to close down but not commit into reckless tackles unnecessarily. These are the requirements from the coach for the midfielders.

Using the same example, what could be the individual athlete’s focus areas to look into in this case? How these individual focus areas are derived is actually just a simple breakdown of how to get the coach’s focus areas achieved. In order to play a more centrally in a compact defensive posture, the midfielder would need to be very focus on his positions on the field at all times. Perhaps he might zone out the field for himself, and focus on being in the central zone 75% of the game. This specific target for himself will allow him to really concentrate on positioning. To be effective in closing down his players and not commit to reckless tackles, one individual focus area the midfielder could apply is to note the distance from himself to the opponent when he is defending that player. By maintaining a safe distance and positioning himself between the player and his goal, he would have minimize his opponents getting pass him. Therefore, by analyzing him what needs to be done to achieve the coach’s requirement, certain specific actions will surface and these will become his individual focus areas for the game.

When preparing for the game, this form of focus training is done mentally. The player rehearses and thinks through in his mind as often as possible what needs to be done. In this way, it tends to become more automatic with time, allowing peak performance in sports to be achieved.

World Cup 2010 Predictions & Analysis

2009-12-15T02:53:00.000-08:00

I am taking a break from publishing peak performance in sports articles to spend a few days writing about one of my passion - World Cup Soccer. South Africa 2010 is coming, all 32 teams are grouped, fixtures are set, and the whole world will be ready to roll again in 6 months time. High time we make our analysis and predictions for the greatest game on earth.

Historical Fact
Based on historical data, no team from Europe has ever lifted the World Cup outside Europe. A country from the host continent eventually won every single World Cup except for Brazil in 1958 when they won in Sweden. When the first World Cup on Asian soil was held in 2002 in Korea and Japan, the eventual winner was not an Asian country but Brazil again. Asian countries were not ready to win yet, although S. Korea came close. These are the historical facts of the World Cup for the past 100 plus years. Eight years on, do you think an African country is actually ready to lift the World Cup on their home soil? Foolhardy are the ones who bet against history.

Based on this, a South American country will lift the World Cup again outside of Europe, with an African country having an outside chance to do a first in history.

Analysis
Brazil has been winning too often and their odds are pretty low at 4.5, but still good. They will always be favourites in every World Cup, but perhaps not this time.

Argentina is the dark horse. Not many people give them a chance because they have a certain eccentric Diego Maradona at their helm. They do have wonderfully talented players at their disposal and I just have this feeling that they will make all their critics eat their words by bonding together despite all their unwanted attention on Diego. Reminds me a bit of Italy at the last World Cup. The Italians had lots of trouble with team spirit, someone dying and so on. But they managed to use that as a bonding tool to get the team together to play effective football to win the World Cup.

England, as usual is over rated. Fabio Capello will only get them so far. History will not be kind to this talented lot of players. Gerard, Rooney, Lampard, Terry will have a good World Cup, but only up to the Semis again. I have a strange feeling that they will go out on penalties again. Guess who will miss the crucial spot kick?

My, famed Portugal will go out in round one this time. Too bad they are in the Group of Death. They are too dependent on Ronaldo. I am afraid Carlos is not a Scolari this time round. Anyway, apart from Ronaldo, the other players are all mediocre.

I like the African teams. This World Cup might just be their one. Over the past World Cups they have shown the world that they are talented, skillful and capable of upsetting the best. Remember Roger Milla and the Indomitable Lions. Now with more high profile players in Europe and more importantly, with better technical coaches hired, and on their home soil, this could be the World Cup that new grounds are broken. The first African Nation to lift the World Cup on home soil? It will not be South Africa, not with Piennar type of players. The real caliber players are with Ivory Coast and even Ghana. Players like Drogba, Toure, Kalou, Essien are great players with great experience. They might just take the next great leap for African players.

As for Asian teams, I think they have had their go. It is neither their time nor place to bring in another great performance this time round. Teams underestimated their abilities in 2002. They won’t make the same mistakes again.

Spain. Sigh…. They have the lowest odds. Though talented, they will come up short against the South Americans. Winning the European Championship is one thing. Winning the World Cup against Brazil and Argentina is another. Furthermore, they are not in Europe. Good luck to them.

Germany and Italy? Their era is over. Look at their leagues at the moment. Hard to imagine them coming out with winners away from Europe.

Group Winners and Runners-Up Proposal (1 denotes group winner, 2 denotes runners-up)
(Refer to http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/standings/index.html for Groupings)

A1 – France
A2 – Uruguay
B1 – Argentina
B2 – Nigeria
C1 – England
C2 – Algeria
D1 – Germany
D2 – Ghana
E1 – Holland
E2 – Cameroon
F1 – Italy
F2 – Paraguay
G1 – Brazil
G2 – Ivory Coast
H1 – Spain
H2 – Chile

Playoffs Proposal (http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/kostage.html)

Second Round Fixtures Quarter-Finals Semi-Finals Final/3rd-4th

France v Nigeria Nigeria Ghana
England v Ghana Ghana

Holland v Paraguay Holland Brazil
Brazil v Chile Brazil

Germany v Algeria Germany Argentina
Argentina v Uruguay Argentina

Italy v Cameroon Italy Ivory Coast
Spain v Ivory Coast Ivory Coast

More comments and analysis will follow as we get closer to World Cup 2010. Stay tune.

Pre-Game Preparation - Game Plan Check

2009-12-14T00:25:00.000-08:00

By the time an athlete approaches his next game or match, he would have probably done some training, past match analysis, scouting reports on next opponent and familiarize with the next game plan. A good coach who wants to get peak performance in sports for his team would have ensured that all of the above is covered before the next match. Consequently, the players would have been prepared mentally for the match. How than can a player prepare for the next game in terms of conducting a Game Plan Check? What is a Game Plan? How does it look like?

A Game Plan for peak performance in sports is basically a structured understanding of how the game needs to be played by the players in order to achieve a positive result in the game. Coming up with a game plan requires inputs about our players’ abilities and weaknesses, our team strengths, the opponents tendencies, strengths and weaknesses, and past game outcomes. The coach has to look at all this in totality, consult his coaching staff and key players, and formulate a game plan to tackle the next opponent. Below is a simple template of a game plan;

1)Main Objective – This refer to the main goal of the match. Usually expressed in terms of win or draw. Most teams would target a win at least as a positive mindset to have. However, when realistic opponents are really streets ahead in terms of talent and abilities, playing for a draw or even losing by the fewest points may not be a bad objective after all. Think of a high school soccer team playing the Brazilian U16 National team for instance. Would it be a good result if the high school team only loses by 2 goals? Most definitely.

2)Main Style of Play to be employed – Does the coach advocate a direct approach to attack or attack through the wings? Does he want the team to focus on a compact defensive posture because the opponent is superior? Does he prefer a counter-attacking type of play for the game? Does he want the players to concentrate on error-free play to maximize the chances of a positive result? The style of play for different games varies and the coach must pick the right style, and the players must believe in it to maximize peak performance in sports.

3)Key Areas Focus – Once the main style of play is selected, the coach can than lay down some key areas for the team to focus on. For any game, have no more than 3 focus areas. Anything more, the athletes will have difficulty remembering and focusing. Typical focus areas the coach can give the team include holding onto the ball and keeping possession. Keep your pitches low and away. Spread plays to the wings as much and as often as possible. In defensive zones, dump the puck to the corner. Closest player must challenge for the ball. Use running plays 3 out of 4 times. There are many more key areas that the coach can give to the team to focus on.

4)Individual Players’ Focus - Any finally, every player or group of similar position players should have 3 or less areas of focus for the game as well. For example, for defenders, the coach might want to advocate a winning the first tackle cleanly and hard strategy because that set ups the tone of the match. For a particular pitcher whose weakness is location, the coach might want him to focus more on generating less precise pitches but more velocity towards the main plate area. What these types of individual focus areas give players is the ability to concentrate better in the game. There are a hundred and one things happening in the game. But by focusing on just a few key areas, the player will be able to settle down well into playing the game at his comfortable rhythm. After a while, the sport mind will take over naturally.

Having this form of game plan check is very helpful for players. Coaches ought to verbally present the game plan to players before the game, and perhaps even write them down on a single sheet for each player to take home. Here, coaching staff can help by preparing such a template game plan for all players. With this game plan, the players can then go back and read this on his own time to really understand how the game must be played for peak performance in sports.

Pre-Game Preparation - Equipment Check

2009-12-13T00:41:00.000-08:00

Many inexperienced athletes underestimate the power of pre-game preparation for peak performance in sports. Proper preparation not only prepare the mind and body well for competition, but it also minimise exposure for unforeseen circumstances that could affect the psyche of athletes during competition. Imagine what will happen if you are in the World Series, playing Game Seven when one of your contact lenses fell out. Best thing is you did not bring a spare pair due to poor preparation on your part. Instead of focusing on the most important game of your life, you will be running headless trying to solve your problem. Not only will you be affected but your team mates as well. Thankfully, pre-game preparation can be made simple to enhance peak performance in sports.

Develop the following checklist for yourself when preparing for your game;

Equipments Check
Attire Check
Game Plan Check
Individual Focus Check
Routine Check
Rest Check
Diet Check
Previous Game Learning Check
Opponents Check

Today we will focus on equipment check for pre-game preparation for peak performance in sports.

There are a few type of equipment you ought to check for pre-game preparation for peak performance in sports. Personal attire, personal games equipment and special equipment.

Personal attire includes your jerseys, socks, pants, gloves, head gear, guards, boots, footwear and so on. Ensure that all these equipment are cleaned and properly prepared the day before. You probably have to develop a system of ensure that these items are cleaned and prepared in time. Perhaps, having your gear washed the first thing you finish a game, and than checking them the night before the next game. For professionals these will not be an issue, but a good sportsman will still have the ownership to check with the people cleaning your equipment to ensure that everything is in tip-top condition. Its also best to have a list of all attire written down for easy reference.

Next, personal games equipment depends on the type of game you play. A baseball player will have his bats, gloves and balls to account for. A runner will obviously have less equipment to check. Having the equipment is one thing, getting them into tip top condition ready for peak performance in sports is another. What do I mean? An ice-hockey player can have his stick ready for play, but if the stick is not taped up, with chips repaired, it is not going to be an effective tool for the game. It is just like a warrior having a blunt spear going into battle. So it is important that players ensure that their playing equipment are well service for maximum benefit for peak performance in sports.

Finally, athletes will need to look into special equipment before competitions. A good example is contact lenses, spectacles and the like. These are not exactly your competition attire nor your games equipment, but are nevertheless important things to check to ensure peak performance in sports. Having your nails cut before a rugby game is another example. Imagine if you have not checked yourself, and the referee on game day disallow you to start play until you had your nails cut. Imagine what kind of condition your mind will be at just minutes before the game. Your coach will probably fuming mad that such an easily task is not taken care of.

Checking of sports equipment is vital for pre-game preparation for games if you want peak performance in sports during game time. If you fail to look into details, than chances are these little things will come back to haunt you.

Benefits of Competitions

2009-12-12T08:30:00.000-08:00

In any sporting pursuit, getting involved in competition is one sure way to measure your progress in peak performance in sports. After all those tiring hours of training to improve yourself in your chosen sport, it will be a waste not to test what you have trained for in competitions. In competitions, the true value of peak performance in sports will be revealed. Competitions have inherent benefits for any athletes.

Competition brings out strengths of character in sportsmen. Whether it is success or failure in terms of competition results, how you deal with this shows a lot about your character. When results go against you, do you look for people to blame or are you game enough to accept defeat with great sportsmanship and look for ways to improve? When you win, do you accept peak performance in sports humbly or do you go forth and show off your success?

Competitions also reveals how effective your training and preparation for peak performance in sports is. Sometimes, you think you have been training for the right things, but when competition comes, you suddenly realize that things are not what you have trained for? This is where you can review your training and learn from it so that future training can be more effective in producing peak performance in sports.

Thirdly, competition allows you to network with other like minded sportsmen. Your competitors can be your friends after the game. From them, you can build on better relationship and learn from them to improve for peak performance in sports. Of course not all opponents can become trusted partners. Some are just too competitive to establish long term friendships. Better to avoid these sportsmen as they tend to carry a lot of self-praise and egos with them. These are not exactly the type values true sports intend to bring forth.

Finally, competition is a great source of motivation for all sportsmen. At the end of the day, people train for something, and that something is peak performance in sports. Imagine, as a coach, you tell your players that they are just training for fun. That is not going to be very encouraging to a bunch of serious and interested sportsmen going for peak performance in sports.

How Can You Contribute to Your Child's Sports Team For Peak Performance in Sports

2009-12-10T09:52:00.001-08:00

In many schools today, parents are increasingly becoming an important part of how things are run in school. Even in the sports fields, parental roles in cultivating peak performance in sports is evident. Those parents who can actively and positively influence their children's sports can do so in several ways as follows;

1) Letting the the coach, teacher and school knows that you are there as a form of support and not a demanding parent who only cares for your child. When this is made known to others in the team, the pressure on the coaches and teachers drop tremendously. They will start to see you as someone whom they can turn to instead of someone whom they want to avoid.

2) As a logistic person for the team. There are many needs from a sports team in order to achieve peak performance in sports. Needs could be material, financial, instructional, manpower in nature, and many other forms. As a parent, coming forward to ask what is needed is a very good way to start breaking new grounds with the team. Once those needs are known,you can than offer what you can contribute. For example, I have had parents offering to cook pasta meals for the team just before their matches. This saves the children money, they have a great bonding session before the match, and all the players get to get healthy sports meals and learn about nutrition for sports.

3) Celebrate successes and honour losses of the team together. Whether the team win or lose, you should be proud of the performance of the team. Every performance from your child's team should be treated as peak performances in sports. In this way, you are encouraging your the children to play to their best and also to know that it is all right to lose when one has tried their best. That is the essence of peak performance in sports.

Good Nutrition Routine for Peak Performance in Sports

2009-12-09T10:28:00.000-08:00

Sports nutrition can be devised as a routine to achieve peak performance in sports. Meals during that are day designed with specific purposes. The type of food whether a complex carbohydrate, simple carbohydrate, protein or fat can all be properly structured into a sports nutrition routine. The more advanced use of sports nutrition plans will exactly match an athlete’s weight, caloric intake and caloric expenditure. Details of a routine can be so specifically tailored that even the time of year is taken into account.

The major benefit of sports nutrition is giving the body the fuel that it needs to achieve peak performance in sports. The time factor to see such results can be instantaneous in some cases. But in most cases time is needed to allow the body to adapt and repair itself. A basic year round sports nutrition routine that I recommend to every athlete would consist of 4 basic parts. Each day take a multi vitamin. Drink 64oz of water in addition to sports drinks. Consume when protein combined with liquid carbohydrates after workouts. Eat fruit and vegetables with every meal.

The biggest problem most athletes encounter is consuming enough essential vitamins and minerals. Training day after day week after week month after month makes it very difficult to do so. Eating a perfect diet will still leave the body in some form of deficiency. Taking a multi vitamin that is geared toward the extra needs of a hard training athlete is essential. Look for labels that use performance in the description.

Many under estimate another great value of water for peak performance in sports. Drinking at least 64oz of water will help the body rid toxins and waste products produced when exercising and digesting food. The body is removing waste products when urinating. By keeping the body properly hydrated you will not only perform better. But the additional water will help recover faster. After finishing a workout that last 60 minutes, I recommend a combination of whey protein and liquid carbohydrates. Combine 20g of whey protein with 50g of liquid carbohydrate. A 20oz or 32oz sports drink combined with whey protein powder works great. Drink immediately after your workout. You can also use this recovery method after competitions that are shorter in duration.

Eating fruits and vegetables with every meal is one of the most effective ways to boost nutrition and peak performance in sports. The body is designed to work its best on this type of food. No other processed food can compare with the nutritional value of unprocessed fruits and vegetables.

By following this sports nutrition routine throughout the year you will notice significant changes. Your body will look and perform better. You will feel better and age more gracefully.

Determine Current Positional Standards

2009-12-07T18:18:00.000-08:00

The final aspect of team analysis for peak performance in sports is to determine the current positional standards of your players. Knowing the ideal needs of each position is easy. Matching those standards with what your players have is the difficult part.

As a coach, you will have to observe and analyze just how good each of your players is at their positions. You will be looking at a whole host of attributes. Skill sets, fitness, adaptability, speed, balance, right or left handed, stronger side, special skills, etc. These are all essential components of good playing standards which must be uncovered and improved on if the players do not possess these attributes to be successful in playing according to the coach’s game plan. There is a lot of time and energy required to really look at each and every player completely. Most likely the Head Coach will not be able to fulfill this task, although he ought to. Here is where the coaching staff comes in to handle specific unit or positions of the team.

In the modern game, it is not uncommon to have coaches for offense, defense, special teams or whatever other coverage is created. In baseball we have special coaches for starting pitchers, middle relief pitchers, closers, and coaches for hitting, base running, stealing bases, positional plays and many more. In rugby, coaches for the front rows, back rows, backline, half-backs, etc are not uncommon again. If the teams have the resources to deploy these coaches to look after each playing unit, it will be well and good.

But when resources are not available, like in school games, the coach, being the solo person in-charge might need to find creative ways to help in spreading the coaching load. These ways include appointing key players to be player-coaches to look after their own team-mates in their unit, and report back to the coach regarding progress. Another way is to endorse teachers and parents to help look after some parts of the team. Whatever the methods used, it is important for the Head Coach to analyze his players in details. Find out how well they can play the positions, and subsequently devise a plan to train these players into shape.

Greater Speed For Sports

2009-12-05T22:52:00.000-08:00

One of the most critical aspects of any training program for peak performance in sports is how to develop speed. Here are eight concepts to building speed for peal performance in sports.
1. Avoid Distance Running When Developing Speed
Long-distance runs send the message that its time to focus on building lung capacity, strengthening the heart, etc. This takes away from your body's ability increase the rate at which muscles fire, and all of the other adaptations that make you faster. Your fast twitch fibre muscles will not get the training they need when too much endurance activities are carried out.
2. Speed is Not Just About Sprint Times.
Reaction time, change of speed, change of direction and a agility speeds are just as imprtant in speed training.A quality speed development program combines sprint work with both cutting and reaction drills. To supplement this, athletes likely will also need to develop their balance, core strength, ability to absorb force, and flexibility, all of which can develop your ability to move better on the field.
3. Details for Speed Training.
Where should your toes point when sprinting? Which leg should you put your weight on when cutting? Where should you always take your first step to begin a sprint?
These all may seem like insignificant details, but they are some of the crucial elements that can make you a step or two faster than you already are. It is the finer points of running technique that should be your main focus while training.
4. Begin By Practicing At Less Than Full Speed
Any time you are learning a new way to improve a technique related to speed, the best way to properly develop it is to train it at a pace which allows you to get a feel for what's happening first. Then, you can gradually add speed. Eventually, like that division, with practice you will make the new skill automatic and be able to ratchet up the pace until you have mastered the skill at top speed.
5. Automation With Speed.
Any improved movement skill you develop in your workouts will not help much during the heat of competition if you have to think of how you are supposed to move. All sports require athletes to focus on other things instead, like team strategy and awareness of what's going on around you. This is the random environment that defines sports, and it involves being ready to efficiently move left, right, forward, backward, and everywhere in between. After mastering all the details of movement training, the final step that will help transfer these skills in game conditions is to work on them in unpredictable environments.
6. How To Add Resisted And Assisted Training
Resisted training uses simply adds more weight to your frame while running. Weight sleds, vests, and other objects are commonly used, along with uphill running. Assisted training pulls you at higher speeds using tubing, or downhill running to teach your arms and legs to turn over at faster speeds. Both are valuable additions to building straight-ahead speed, but are often misused to the point that they become counterproductive. For assisted drills, these exercises should not interfere with proper technique either. To have your arms flailing all over the place while performing a tubing-assisted run will not help you in games. It may apply when running from a burning building, but that likely isn't what you're training for. Moderation is the key here, as well. Start with light pulls, and strive to keep quality form while progressing to higher speeds.
7. Getting Stronger Can Help Build Speed
Speed comes from power, which can loosely be defined as strength generated quickly. Adding strength does transfer to moving faster, and some exercises are particularly helpful. Lower body training is not the only way to build speed in the weight room. Core and upper body strength help to maintain proper torso alignment. They also help to generate faster arm action, which in turn forces the legs to turn over faster to increase stride frequency.
8. It Is A Long-Term Process.
It has been said that speed is a trait you build from year to year. More so than any other skill, it requires you to take the long view when it comes to seeing results.
In any season when you are not playing a sport full time, you should dedicate at least three 30 minute workouts per week towards speed development.

Determine Key Positional Needs of the Team

2009-12-03T19:35:00.000-08:00

Determining the key positional needs is critical, but coaches must also find the time to determine all positional needs of the team. This role is very often delegated to supporting coaching staff thus freeing the head coach to look into other more critical areas of the team.

All positions are important. Coaches must be able to draft out skill-sets and tactical understanding for each position and communicate these to the players themselves. Part of the job involves convincing these players to accept and subsequent acquire these skill-sets if they have not already done so. This can be difficult depending on how well trained and knowledgeable the players are. The motivation of these players thus becomes part of the coach’s role in team analysis and coaching.

Let the head coach concentrate on key positional needs, and delegate the positional needs of other positions to the coaching staff. If the key position of a basketball team is the point-guard, the Head Coach must be able to generate a list of competencies and skill sets that his point guards must have. For example, excellent dribbling skills, rapid change of direction, multi-passing skill sets, etc. These skills must be communicated to his point guards so that they know what the coach is looking out for. After that, it is the coach's job to ensure that his training improves these sets of skills his key positions need.

The end product from the coach is a list of competencies and skill sets for the players to have and work on.

Determine Your Key Players in The Team

2009-12-02T14:16:00.000-08:00

Key players of the existing team might not be playing in key positions determined by the coach for peak performance in sports. This is very common at lower level of plays like in high schools and college, where talented players with tremendous skills and tactics are present. But when a coach comes in, he may decide that these talented players are not actually playing in the key positions he requires. For instance, the best player, hence the key player of a netball team might be the Centre, but if the coach decides to be more attack oriented, the Goal-Attack might be the key position he is after. Under such circumstances, what can the coach do?

At lower levels, converting these key players to play in key positions is very common for peak performance in sports. Resistance from players is also less as they are younger. At top professional levels, you might find that the coach might actually bring in players that he thinks will do the job and drop these key players. However, coaches often value these key players because they are talented and can help in achieving peak performance in sports easily. Very often, an open approach to motivate these players to play for the team’s cause is the best option.

Sometimes, there might be more than one key player in the squad for the coach to deal with. To have more is actually a good thing for peak performance in sports. The key thing for the coach is to deploy them optimally without invoking their resistance.

Players are by nature lovers of their favourite positions. If a soccer player wants to be a striker it is probably because he has fallen in love with that position. He has probably been brought up scoring many goals for his teams. He has also probably been training for a long time for his position, hence acquiring unique skills for peak performance in sports. Asking these players to play other positions according to a new playing style can be quite discouraging for the players.

One of the ways to solve or minimise this problem is to appeal to the players sense of team spirit and team goals. Get them to understand that by playing other more critical positions for the team will actually develop peak performance in sports for the team and players. When the bigger picture is understood, key players often response by playing out of position for the team.

Another way to handle multiple key players is to group them together to form a sort of player-manager staff. Giving these key players authority and specific role will allow them to see the bigger picture again and raise their contribution levels for the team. This will improve the peak performance in sports of the team. Besides, it will also train the player-coaches to develop coaching competencies that will be useful for the future.

Determine Your Key Playing Positions

2009-11-30T23:42:00.001-08:00

Once the playing style of the team is determined, the next few steps in team analysis are relatively sequential, starting with determining the key positions for the team to achieving peak performance in sports. Basically this involves confirming the main position in a team that will drive the success of the team playing style as set out by the coach.This will differ from sport to sport, and it will also be different for different coaches, depending in his/her playing style.

A basketball team that wants to be dominant in the paint must have a strong centre and power forward to rule the paint. Naturally, these two positions will be the key positions of the basketball team. A rugby team intending to play an open backs game will require a solid scrum-half, stand-off and fullback. In the 1980s at the heyday of the Italian defensive soccer success, many Italian coaches deployed a sweeper as their key position. This position basically ensure that main defense of the soccer team is covered with an extra player behind them. It is also a position from which the team spring quick counter-attacks that caught opponents off-guard. It was a really defensive system that invited a lot of criticism from proponents of free-flowing football. But it was also highly effective in achieving peak performance in sports.

By zeroing in one the key positions of the team based on playing style implemented by the coach, it becomes easier to analyze the skill sets required by the different positions and players. Once these positions are decided, the coach can than set out to list down the attributes needed to play these positions. After which he will have to either find the players with these attributes or train his players to attain these attributes. It make his task of coaching more focus and effective to build up a team for peak performance in sports.

Determining the Playing Style of the Team

2009-11-30T06:05:00.000-08:00

In the previous post, I have outlined the steps a coach needs take to analyse his own team. Today, we will elaborate a little on how to determine a playing style that will aid the team in achieving peak performance in sports.

At the end of the day, the hired coach gets to decide what kind of playing style he/she will bring into the game. Every coach is different and will bring in his/her own playing styles. In their heydays, the New Jerseys Devils ruled the ice using their neutral zone trap favoured by their head coach. The Atlanta Braves’ strengths in the 90s depended on their solid starting pitching consisting of the likes of Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Rocky Coppingher and the like. The World Cup Winning English Team of 1966 played as the ‘wingless wonders’. Every coach will bring different elements of playing style into their games. This style set the platform for building the next team with peak performance in sports.

There has been debate regarding whether a coach should adopt his playing style to the players at his disposal or are available to him to chose from. This is especially so at top professional level where top players of the team command multi-million dollars salaries. How does the head coach manage this kind of players and yet achieve peak performance in sports. In most successful cases, coaches with the toughness to implement his playing style or traditions on the team tend to be more successful. Just think David Beckham and Sir Alex Ferguson. The former is a superstar 'play boy' of soccer, while the other a strict disciplinarian. In the end, the coach threw out his most popular asset and the owners and management of the the club supported his decision. And they are duly rewarded with a few more season of Championship success. Kudos to those who understand that the coach is the most important player of the team.

As a coach, be daring to implement and enforce your playing style and playing philosophy. This will certainly bring peak performance in sports.

Team Analysis For Peak Performance in Sports

2009-11-29T10:40:00.000-08:00

Coaching is a process of improving the performances of an individual or a team over time. The key word here is improving. As a result, without knowing the strengths and weaknesses of a team and or their opponents, it is very difficult to coach a team for peak performance in sports. Two of the main tasks of a coach is to analyse his team or players and his opponents or potential opponents. Only with this in analysis will the coach be able to formulate his coaching plans for success and peak performance in sports.

Analysis of the coach’s own players can be done in a comprehensive way by following the steps below;

a.Determine the coach’s playing style.
b.Determine your key playing positions.
c.Determine your key players.
d.Determine positional needs
e.Determine current positional standards.

When it comes to analysing opponents' strengths and weaknesses, focusing on the first 3 factors above becomes the most critical. However, the coaching staff also need to look into every player at different positions in details. This information must than be shared with their relevant opposite player of the team. For example, in soccer, it is important to let your own full-backs know what are the strengths and weaknesses of opposing wingers. Is he a right or left footer? Does he possess explosive speed? Does he like to cut in?

Setting a Vision For Peak Performance in Sports

2009-11-28T15:39:00.000-08:00

When we talk about sound preparation for coaching for Peak Performance in Sports, we are referring to the grand scheme of things. No effective coach can perform his coaching job properly without a vision of where he/she wants to lead the team to. It does not matter at what level of play the coach is involved in. Whether it is high school, college, varsity, professional or international levels, coaches must come into their job with a clear vision in mind. Very often, this vision is determined by the organizations hiring the coach. The person been hired must fit the bill of what the sports organization intends to achieve.

When Chelsea FC hired Jose Mourinho as their Head Coach in 2004, they got a coach who could deliver the results, but not the flamboyant playing style that their owner craved for. Although Mourinho won two Premier League titles, it was not sufficient to keep him in the job as he preach and coach a style of effective and discipline soccer, focusing on grinding out results instead of playing beautiful soccer. Here is a case of a coach with a vision of playing mechanical soccer for success, whilst the team organization was looking for a coach who could deliver beautiful soccer with success. The marriage here was never sound and Mourinho's departure was inevitable.

This kind of story and outcome is a loud call for all coaches and owners of sports organizations to be aware of when filling the most important position of the team. When looking for a coaching job, coaches must actively look for the best match in terms of team philosophy. Money and incentive can be huge draws, but ultimately, it will result in a poor working relationship if the manager or coach cannot express his/her coaching philosophy on the playing field. Owners must also be fair to coaches and be out front with their prospective hires. Just because the coach is reputable and successful does not mean that he is the right person for the job. The team's philosophy must be communicated to the coaches before the job is confirmed.

Once a common understanding is established - when the coach understands the requirements of the job and when the organization is frank with the type of job to be taken. It becomes so much easier for the vision of the team and coach to be established. The coach will be able to whole-heartedly devote his energies in ensuring that this vision is communicated to the players. Let him/her get on with the coaching job with minimal interference and peak performance in sports for the team will follow naturally.

It is important for the coach to set his vision early and communicate this to his players as soon as possible. The vision must have a long term horizon of where he/she intends to lead the team. This vision also needs to be supported by short, medium and long-term goals. For instance, a high school baseball team's vision as set out by the coach might be to become the most recognized team in the region in 10 years time. When people think of baseball in this region, the school's name must come to mind. In 2 years time as part of the goal, the school might want to make it to the playoffs. As a medium term goal, the school might want to reach the finals in 5 years' time. The long term goal could be a winner or regular finalist in ten years' time. That will fulfill the vision as set out by the coach right from the onset when he/she took up the job, and management must support this vision.

Setting the vision is an important step in ensuring that sound preparation can take place. This will lay the foundation of what is to come in terms of designing and planning a good sports programme for peak performance in sports

Building True Team Spirit For Peak Performance in Sports - Part 2

2009-11-25T06:46:00.000-08:00

In the first part of this series, we discussed 3 strategies to improve team spirit in your sports team for peak performance in sports. Now, let take a look at the last 3 strategies that can bring you huge success in building team spirit for peak performance in sports.

4.Use Your Influential Players
In any team, there will be bound to be players that have a certain degree of influence over some if not all the team’s players. Very often, these influential players are also holding a low profile within the team. Their main interest is to play their game well and enjoy their sports. Nothing wrong with that, except that they can be a whole lot more useful in helping with the shaping of the team spirit within the team. Coaches must make every effort to identify these influential players and subsequently endorse their help to build team spirit for peak performance in sports. As a coach, look out for cliques in the team initially. When there is a clique, there is a leader. Once these leaders are identified, approach them quietly and make the case of team spirit building to them. Like dealing with our ‘Star’ player mentioned in another article of mine, stroke the egos of these influential players a little bit, and get them to understand the importance of team building and the part they can play in this. Another measure you can use is to actually offer these influential players certain positions within the team. Make them sub-captains, small unit leaders or something like that. There is something about assuming leadership positions that will settle players down, thus giving these influential players is a good way to build team spirit for peak performance in sports.

5.Creating Successes for Your Team
Nothing fuel success than experiencing successes themselves. The feeling of winning within a team can be a very powerful force in building team spirit and peak performance in sports. The good thing here is that successes can be artificially created to build team spirit within a team. Regardless of how talented your team is, successes can be build by choosing the right opponents to play and right teams to match up against. If you team is low on team spirit because they have not won for a long time, than arrange a match against an opponent you know that is of lower ability. Better still bring your own players in and play against your team. Be sure to tell everyone within the opposing team to play to lose. Of course, you as a coach do not have to tell this to your players. Create the scenarios for your team to win. Once they start winning, their team spirit will be immensely improved and peak performance in sports will follow. By contrast if your team is very good, than find tough opponents and let them challenge themselves. If they do well against these teams, than team spirit will be build again. As the coach, you must ensure that your team win, gain confidence and improve their team spirit before the actual start of the competition season. When they approach their season with high team spirit, chances are peak performance in sports will not be difficult.

6.One-For-All-And-All-For-One
The 3 musketeer’s motto here is very useful in building team spirit. You do not have to use this motto word for word, but something along this line will be good. The idea is to cultivate a habit of collective ownership in everything within the team. If someone in the team performs poorly in training, than the whole team is held accountable. Maybe get them to all do extra sprints. If a sub-unit within the team excel, than create the whole team for it. This is to make sure that everyone takes care of everyone else. This form of team spirit building does not focus on any individual parts of the team, but rather success or failure is for the whole team. When you first start to implement this type of team building motto there will be resistance. Players will question why all are punish for the sins of one or a few? Well, simply point them back to team goals and team objectives. Ask them what is the team suppose to achieve? Can the team achieve peak performance in sports acting as separate parts? These should set them straight

Peak Performance Workouts

2009-11-24T15:26:00.000-08:00

Whatever sport you play there are many types of sports training workouts you should be doing if you want peak performance in sports. Just hitting the weights and doing some sprints isn’t going to cut it anymore. You need to put a total package together if you want to compete at your highest levels.

Whether you play sports, there are certain types of sports training workouts you’ll need to focus on. Different sports require different training for peak performance In sports. For instance, a lineman in football needs to be big, agile, strong, and have abilities to block and rough it up inside. A wide receiver must be fast, quick, mobile, leap well, have good hands, and more. They are not tuned to be the same so their workouts and training regimen must differ extensively.Another example is that a golfer is not going to do the same workouts as a basketball player. I think you get my drift.
There are some sports workouts you must consider for peak performance in sports:

Weight Training – This should be in every sports training programme for peak performance in sports. However, there are many ways to weight train for certain sports. A basketball player is going to want to stay lean but have strength to battle. A golfer doesn’t want a lot of upper body mass, but needs solid strength in their legs. The list can go on. The point is that you need to tailor your weight training to fit the desired body type of the position you play in your sport. Basic weight training should focus on volume and strength to improve the capacity of the body.

Plyometrics – these increase speed and agility. They help you to move quicker, leap higher and faster, make body shifts smoother and faster, and more. There are specific types of plyometric workouts to perform for each sport. These were instrumental in strengthening my abilities in sports.

Sports Training Workouts – Then there is your workouts. When I played soccer, on top of the above, I would do various ball drills, sprints, stair runs, leaping drills, and other drills that helped me increase my ability to run up and down the field for long periods of time. Depending on the sport you play obviously determines what drills you do. There are loads of books out there by various experts and pros that show you the best drills to do to perfect your skills.

Your Mind – Of all the sports training workouts, getting from a level 7 to a 10 is important to do. We’ve all had those days when we were off. Yes, part has to do with your body, but if you work on your mind, your body will listen as it feeds off of it. This is the one area that I wish I had worked on harder. This is what separates the Michael Jordan’s from the bench warmers. One coach in baseball used to tell me that if I wanted to make it past high school I would need to become mentally tough. I never understood that until I started to compete with the big boys.

Nutrition & Rest – This is an important point as well. Be sure you are getting plenty of nutrition and plenty of rest. This will ensure that when you are ready to perform you will at peak levels.

If you want to achieve your personal best and go above and beyond that for peak performance in sports, you will need to focus on the above and more. This is just a basic outline of why it is important to utilize sports training workouts. Most athletes don’t understand that it takes a combination of the above to succeed in their given sport. Although things will vary from sport to sport, the fundamentals never change.

Building True Team Spirit For Peak Performance in Sports - Part 1

2009-11-22T03:39:00.000-08:00

In one of my earlier articles, I have expounded on the need to build true and effective team spirit within a sports team for peak performance in sports. It is critical that this aspect of coaching is imparted to your team if you want peak performance in sports subsequently. Without true team spirit, no matter how much talent and fitness your team possesses, it will never be able to overcome another very cohesive team who members are willing to play for each other. In this series on team building, I would like to explore 3 simple but effective strategies that will really build up team spirit and subsequently peak performance in sports.

1.Setting Common Team Targets

A team is made up of individuals with common goals. Without these common goals or objectives, team spirit is very hard to generate. As a coach for peak performance in sports, you must be able to find the cement that will gel individuals together for common purposes. Very often, the secret to great team spirit in a team is setting common goals and targets for the team. It is very easy to set targets for a team. The manager or coach or captain can come forward and just tell the lads that ‘look, this year our team target is to reach the playoffs of the nationals’. Getting the members to believe and own these targets is the secret to great team spirit. When setting targets for the team, you must get everyone to be involved in it. Hold team meetings, generate debates, conduct post-mortems for the past season with the team, get everyone to write down their views on what is success and failure as a team, force the team captains to think and generate debates. The idea is that everyone in the team must own the targets. These ownership will ensure that everyone believe in the targets set. It is critically important to have this sorted out right at the start of the season. If you cannot decide on team targets, than go back to the drawing board. But once these goals are set and everyone buys into them, they must sleep, breathe, eat, and believe in these goals. Only when this form of true team building targets is set will team spirit come naturally at a later stage.

2.Camps/Expeditions/Overseas Tours

Some special types of activities that can be conducted to build true team spirits very often does not have anything to do with playing the game or learning the sports skills for peak performance in sports. A team is like a family. Members in the team will fight for each other just like how parents will defend their kids when threatened. Coaches must build these kinds of bonds for true team spirit to flourish subsequently. Training camps, trips, overseas tours, expeditions are very effective ways to build team spirit. There is no short cut to build team spirit and building bonds. Members must be given the time to interact with each other. Activities mentioned here bring team members together for an extended period of time. During this time, they have no way out but to learn more about others, tolerate other members’ nonsense, appreciate other members’ strengths, and very importantly forge that unique identity of the team. Camps and trips need not be sports related. I have brought teams out on expeditions to climb tough mountains, and believe me, this review a lot about the character of members and also lead to team spirit. When put in uncomfortable positions, different people react differently, and the individual character will show up. Members will also find out who the reliable people are within the team and start gravitating towards them after the trip or camp. So be sure to include these activities, lengthy ones if possible, to let your players build their unique team spirit.

3.Play, Eat and Sleep Together

Just like camps, trips and tours, situations that force the team members to play, eat, sleep together as often as possible will also contribute to great team spirit building. These can include pre-practice gatherings, post-training meals together, sharing of hotel rooms before match days, etc. The idea is basically to create situation where members get to interact in a non-sports setting. Once these opportunities are created or forced upon, team spirit will improve with time. During such occasions, members very commonly talk about their exploits in games, trainings, their families, their dreams, targets and so forth. This form of conversations will allow team members to really interact well. The end result is team spirit of the highest caliber. Peak performance in sports will follow naturally. A good coach is not only technically and tactically sound, but he also possesses the elements of team spirit building. That is why successful coaches the world over, have teams that will be willing to play and fight for each other, starting with their very own bosses.