Player Development in the Old Days

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One of the things about sports that interest me the most is how players develop. There is, of course, a wide variety of ways development occurs, and players take different paths at different ages. There isn’t, and never has been, a blanket approach to the way kids improve in athletics.

I spend a lot of time thinking about development and trying to make it happen with the players I coach. But I am far from an expert in the field. I am, however, fully versed and have expert-level knowledge in one area of player development. And that is how kids developed back in the Good Old Days. [Read more…]

Goal-Setting for Young Athletes

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You know what’s interesting? Watch a group of 12- and 13-year-old female soccer players go through a goal-setting session.

There was toughly 50 of them in a conference room which was not built with acoustical quality to match the high-pitch decibel level girls that age can reach. Once they quieted down, there were (mostly) all business. [Read more…]

Re-storing Confidence in Your Players

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“It’s a chicken and egg thing.” That’s the way confidence was explained to me once.

Which comes first? Is a particular athlete confident because they played well, or did they play well because they were confident? The answer differs from athlete to athlete, of course. And with young athletes, the level – or the existence – of confidence can differ from day to day. [Read more…]