Coaching Athletes To Be Their Best

Part 1. Motivational interviewing -- Part 2. Toolbox -- Part 3. Around the field -- Part 4. MI playbook.

The measure of a great coach is bringing the best out of athletes. This is the first guide to motivational interviewing (MI)--the proven approach to harnessing the power of conversations to build relationships and trust--for coaches, sport psychologists, training and rehabilitation specialists, and other affiliated staff. Revealing why conventional ways of giving feedback and addressing conflict are often counterproductive, the book presents tried-and-tested methods for getting through to athletes and helping them to thrive. Leading sport psychologists and MI experts--including MI cofounder Stephen Rollnick--provide effective strategies to fire up motivation, promote ownership of personal goals, address problem behavior on and off the field, enhance performance, and improve teamwork. Included are step-by-step examples and inspiring stories from coaches at all levels. Purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print the book's reproducible quick-reference sheets on key MI skills. This book is in the Applications of Motivational Interviewing series, edited by Stephen Rollnick, William R. Miller, and Theresa B. Moyers.

Maximize the development of your athletes and team throughout the year, and just maybe win a postseason title in the process. Coaching Better Every Season: A Year-Round Process for Athlete Development and Program Success presents a blueprint for such success, detailing proven coaching methods and practices in preseason, in-season, postseason, and off-season. The Coach Doc, Dr. Wade Gilbert, shares his research-supported doses of advice that have helped coaches around the globe troubleshoot their ailing programs into title contenders. His field-tested yet innovative prescriptions and protocols for a more professional approach to coaching are sure to produce positive results both in competitive outcomes and in the enjoyment of the experience for athletes and coaches. Coaching Better Every Season applies to all sports and guides coaches through the critical components of continual improvement while progressing from one season to the next in the annual coaching cycle. It also presents many practical exercises and evaluation tools that coaches can apply to athletes and teams at all levels of competition. This text is sure to make every year of coaching a more rewarding, if not a trophy-winning, experience.

The modern day youth sports environment has taken the enjoyment out of athletics for our children. Currently, 70% of kids drop out of organized sports by the age of 13, which has given rise to a generation of overweight, unhealthy young adults. There is a solution. John O’Sullivan shares the secrets of the coaches and parents who have not only raised elite athletes, but have done so by creating an environment that promotes positive core values and teaches life lessons instead of focusing on wins and losses, scholarships, and professional aspirations. Changing the Game gives adults a new paradigm and a game plan for raising happy, high performing children, and provides a national call to action to return youth sports to our kids.

The pursuit of human performance goes beyond sport. Whilst we might most readily associate sport with the quest to perform at the highest levels of competition, this is not exclusive to sports teams and athletes. Striving for excellence and dedication to continual improvement are hallmarks of high performing organisations, teams, and individuals across all realms. Following this logic, forward thinking individuals have started to explore processes and principles from elite sport and coaching, with the aim of applying high performance practices within their own domain. Just as there are traits that unite high performers across sectors, there are common themes and challenges shared by all those who aspire to excellence in performance. With 'Prepared' we use the lens of elite sport to illuminate universal truths and illustrate the key lessons that we can apply to our chosen domain (including sport): - the critical ingredients for a performance environment, - the dynamics of performance management at the level of the organisation, team, and individual, - the essentials of navigating the complexity of coaching humans, - the key principles and critical lessons from the process of preparing athletes for the crucible of competition, - and finally, the meta-abilities that will allow us to sustain the highest levels of performance, manage ourselves, and navigate the challenges we will inevitably face along the way. This is a book for all those who have an interest or involvement in human performance in the widest sense. Whilst the content remains highly relevant to those in sport, within the text we explore the parallels to other domains, and thereby derive unique insights for leaders, teams, and professionals in all sectors. Throughout the journey the reader is prompted to reflect and connect the dots at the culmination of each chapter to help relate the information presented to their own context.

Tired of training and not getting wins? Feeling a lack of motivation, or that there just isn't enough time to do it all? Missing when sport felt fun?If you've been training for an endurance sport like cycling or running but find yourself feeling stuck or not getting the results that you want, your daily habits might be to blame. Being an all-around athletic, healthy human capable of tackling any outdoor adventure-a Consummate Athlete, if you will-takes smart training and thoughtful lifestyle choices. In this book, you'll learn new ways to look at your recovery, fueling, training, record keeping and even your gear in order to help you reach your athletic goals while actually enjoying your healthy lifestyle. Longtime endurance sport coach and kinesiologist Peter Glassford and his equally athletic wife, author and fellow coach Molly Hurford are going to change the way you view your training. Remember: You are an athlete, and you owe it to yourself to start living like one!