Jean Cote The Big Idea Early in the 21st Century support for children of families with a parent who was deployed in the United States Military was identified with the slogan “We Serve Too.” The big idea of this research paper on families of elite athletes by Jean Cote could easily be captured by the same slogan—only in this case it is the families of deployed athletes Who Serve Too. Families are often forgotten as having significant influence on the social context of developing athletes. Cote…
motivation
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…
Clifford J. Mallett, Stephanie J. Hanrahan The Big Idea “An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head.” So said Emil Zatopek, the remarkable Czechoslovakian distance runner, when asked what his motivation to run was. This one word, motivation, is a giant of a word. In the sporting world this one word has birthed thousands and thousands of inspirational quotes, sayings, locker room chalk-talks, T-shirt slogans, marketing ploys, even prayers. It is the one word that is…
An excellent two part 12,000 word blog post by Jonathan Wilson recently circulating on social media called The Devils Party examined the factors that led to Jose Mourinho’s downfall at Chelsea. This fantastic article inspired The Player Development Project’s James Vaughan and Dave Wright to discuss how a managerial legend like Mourinho could fail so catastrophically at the club that reveres him most. By looking a little deeper, beyond just tactics, to examine the experiences that shaped his character, drivers, attributes and flaws, can we…
The Pschology of Coaching Are you a scientist or more of an artist? Is coaching an art or science? These were questions asked of UQ’s coaching and sports psychology research group last week and this post explores the possibility that science and accounting are hijacking football and slowly killing the art of coaching. The simple answer to the art vs. science question is that coaching is an ever-changing mixture of both, but after a little digging some additional and pretty fundamental questions emerge. Precisely, what…
A trend can be seen in the top echelon of the European transfer market, with hundreds of millions of pounds (and euros) spent on players from South America. But what do these South American footballers have that others don’t? Flair? Creativity? Arguably yes, but then why are these attributes developed so successfully in South America, or is it more important to ask why isn’t creativity developed in other cultures around the world? Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk ‘How schools kill creativity’ gives a unique insight into this…
The FIFA saga is not a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away. It is here and now. Our game is being used and abused for personal gain, but what does it all mean, who is to blame and should we be surprised? We’ll look at the motivational systems involved in football’s governing body, as well as the impact of power and money – the sport’s very own dark side. Is it time for a rebellion? At the moment it’s easy to…
Interest in women’s football is at an all-time high and on the surface it appears to be flourishing. Coverage of the Women’s World Canada 2015 is a testament to this. However, as a parent of both male and female youth players, it is evident that the gap between the women’s and men’s game is huge; a gap that exists from grassroots right through to the top level. At youth level, I see coaches with higher qualifications assigned to boys’ teams and parent coaches allocated…