What are the skills and qualities that enable a coach or captain/coach to lead their team to great victories against all odds? One of Australia’s greatest ever actors, John Bell, reckons that Shakespeare had this leadership business summed up pretty well with his character King Henry V. Henry crops up in a few of Shakespeare’s plays but, as a gun fighter and captain coach of a … [Read more...]
Hey sports coaches – slow it down! (Ideas from a guitar teacher)
There is a myth in coaching that sports practice should be performed at game speed… to emulate the pressures of a real game. The theory is that it is pointless to learn a new skill at a slow, unrealistic, speed which will never get the job done against a real opponent. Of course, once an athlete, in training, has achieved a high degree of competence at a sports skill, that … [Read more...]
Whats wrong with the Matildas?
Socrates is worried! Here is a lament from the idiot sports philosopher who has coached multiple sports for multiple years but has recently forsaken his earlier loves for Rugby, Rugby League and Basketball for “the beautiful game.” Some people who have only ever loved soccer will argue that he is not a real football person and that he doesn’t know what he is talking about. They … [Read more...]
OLD MEN CAN’T JUMP – and good principles always apply
Despite coaching basketball for over twenty years Socrates still manages to make the same stupid mistakes he tries to teach his young players to avoid. The old fool turns up for a game of pick-up with a bunch of fellow old coots and manages to make a complete goose of himself by doing precisely what he knows doesn't work! The moral of the story? Even if you are playing with a … [Read more...]
Michel de Montaigne on coaching sports
Sixteenth century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne would have been a great sports coach. In the twenty-first century world full of politicians, religious leaders, military people, celebrities, business tycoons, cultural experts, sports and coaching gurus who all seem to know, without question, the answers to all the world’s problems Michel would have been a stand out. … [Read more...]