mindset

Winners and Warriors? What is the difference and how can you help your players adopt a growth mindset and a focus on process and performance over outcome? TEDx Speaker & Founder of Raising Excellence, Reed Maltbie shares his ideas around intrinsic motivation and the dangers of being outcome-driven. A few years back I was walking through the parking lot at a tournament my club was hosting. It was Sunday, late in the afternoon, which meant all the games being played were for trophies. I had…

Athletes can tie their entire identity to their sporting exploits. PDP contributor & mental performance expert, John Haime shares insight into the challenge for athletes coming to the end of their career, illustrating the importance of developing the person. The hermit crab lives in a shell. When it outgrows a shell, it must leave that shell, find another and expose itself to predators. This is an ongoing process for the hermit crab – in order to grow, it must make the choice to leave its…

How can sport help build resilience in people? Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Staffordshire University, Dr. Martin Turner shares some examples of failure and success in sport from football, golf and tennis outlining the value of learning from these challenges as players and coaches. Sport has been called a natural laboratory for examining the psychology of human behaviour. It is also a perfect place to learn and craft how to respond to life’s adversities. Sport, as in life, provides many highs and many lows for…

Leadership is an inherent part of coaching. In this Masterclass Discussion, PDP Co-founder, Dave Wright is joined by father and son coaches, Keith & David Mayer for an in depth discussion on the topic of authenticity and leadership. Keith and David Mayer have just released their second book, The Lone Wolf: A Story About Assumptions, Authenticity & Action. Some of the key concepts from the book underpin this conversation with Keith, David and Dave diving into the following areas: If you enjoy this discussion, you…

John W. Mahoney, Daniel F. Gucciardi, Clifford Mallett, and Nikos Ntoumanis The Big Idea It would be difficult to find an adult athlete or coach who doesn’t have a favourite quote on the need for mental toughness in competitive sports.  Who hasn’t heard the general adage that success in sports is 10% physical and 90% mental?  Or who among us hasn’t read the mighty locker room posters from the past:  from Babe Ruth, “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up;” from Bobby…

Carol S. Dweck The Big Idea A good number of years ago the American educator and philosopher, John Dewey, wrote a little, sticky sentence when talking about learning.  It was this sentence: “We must have lions in our path.”  In a general sense, Carol Dweck’s literature research review turns nicely on exactly that sentence.  Dewey was arguing that progressive human development depended upon facing challenges.  How we respond to those challenges largely defines the extent to which we become all that we can be. Dweck’s subject…

Carol S. Dweck and Ellen L. Leggett The Big Idea This paper is a continuation of the line of research by Carol Dweck and others on behaviours that are characterised as adaptive or maladaptive.  In other words, there are patterns or tendencies in children that are identifiable by way of the choices made with regard to achievement opportunities.  While sport is not mentioned in this paper, it is an easy pivot to see how it is that some players truly thrive on challenges and obstacles;…

Iceland’s development pathway has been the focus of debate following the tiny nation’s showing at Euro 2016. But underpinning all the investment is an intangible thread, which recently came under attack from one of the world’s best players: their mindset. In light of the comments made by Cristiano Ronaldo and others about the Icelandic mindset, Jon Hoggard looks to unpick how the national team’s mentality has been formed by the country and shaped by recent investment.   In qualifying for Euro 2016, Iceland became the…

Carol S. Dweck The Big Idea “I’m quitting,” says one youth sport participant. “I give up,“ says another. What youth sport coach hasn’t faced the frustration of dealing with a child who has difficulty facing failure? Over time, a child who fails either in sports or in other life pursuits can become so affected they suffer from what is called “learned helplessness.” This study confronts this problem, one that can have untold negative impacts on an entire childhood. One approach to dealing with this kind…

Aidan Moran The Big Idea When it comes to research in cognitive psychology, until fairly recently there had been little interest in studying sport-related mentality. In its early history, the typical cognitive psychology researcher was quite comfortable interpreting human mental activity as information processing, as something computer-like. By implication, motor behaviour (the body) was considered to be independent of thinking. The consequence was to reduce motor skills such as sports to a rather uninteresting research status. And which in turn helped to trivialise sport actions and…

Susan Salzbrenner, founder of Fit Across Cultures discusses mindfulness and its benefits to athlete performance. Dennis was concentrating. “This is it. You got this! Stay focused. Just like in practice. Don’t miss this. It will cost us the game”. With the last seconds on the clock, he takes the last free throw. The score is 79-79. He shoots and …misses. A routine situation like a free throw in basketball, a serve in volleyball, or a penalty in football or hockey are habits that you have practiced…

Daniel Kirschenbaum, Arnold Ordman, Andrew Ordman, and Robert Holtzbauer The Big Idea This study is not of this decade or even of the 21st Century (1982).  But no matter because it is a classic example of the early days of psychological research into what is called self-regulation theory.  The big idea is to figure out how and in what ways and under what conditions we can guide our own behaviors.   This study concerns self-monitoring, and especially what is called differential self-monitoring.  Its potential lesson is still relevant to modern sports skill acquisition and development….

Are we measuring the stuff that really matters or focussing too much on hard data that neglects the human element of development? Former FA Talent Identification Manager & now Head of Talent & Performance at UK Sport, Nick Levett discusses the impact of sports science. So I was having a trip round a Professional Sporting Academy, being given the behind-the-scenes tour by the Academy Manager. We walked through the indoor area into the next room to “where the sports scientists live” I was told. And…

Talent: a dangerous word for players and a highly infectious idea for coaches. This article by PDP Lead Researcher, James Vaughan explores the possibility that talent is a ‘meme’. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term meme to explain an infectious idea that spreads from person to person: the cultural equivalent of a gene. Incorporating theories from motor learning and psychology, this article discusses talent as a meme and highlights its potential influence as a socio-cultural constraint – inhibiting the development of skill and creativity….

Mindset is a hot topic in youth development and education. Founder of Changing the Game Project, John O’Sullivan discusses the work of Carol Dweck citing the importance of developing a growth mindset in our players. “I lost my starting spot on the soccer team. I’m just not good at soccer.” “I failed my math test. I’m just not good at math.” Ever heard such a statement form one of your kids? From one of your players? If so, it is very likely that the single…

Critically acclaimed and widely accepted as the most effective performance enhancing mental skill by high-performance athletes, CEOs, actors, public speakers and authors, ‘visualisation’ is often undeveloped and largely under-used in player development settings, as well as other educational environments. But why is this the case? PDP Lead Researcher, James Vaughan discusses.   Similarly, while ‘vision’ is regarded as the cornerstone of organisational, leadership, or long-term development structures, minimal emphasis is placed on players’ vision for their own future. American author Stephen Covey sees vision as an…

Old school player development tells us, ‘winning is everything.’ The problem with focusing on performance outcomes though, is where does that leave us when we fail? What happens when we lose a match, a tournament or face rejection from a squad? How can we bounce back? Professor Carol Dweck from Stanford University has extensively researched success and discovered that our mindset matters. Players with a growth mindset are more likely to achieve in the long run because they embrace challenges, persist through obstacles, believe they…

What is coaching? PDP Editor & UEFA A licensed coach Dave Wright talks about the ups and downs of his career as a football coach. From technical and tactical lessons to the spoils of victory on the field, the real rewards come from shaping the lives of young players in whose reflection we often see ourselves.   Since 2002, I have only gone one season without coaching a football team. Throughout that time, I can remember nearly all of the players I have coached, many of…

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