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Solving a TOUGH Problem in Sport
The book GRIT made it onto many coaches reading lists over the summer (including ours) and there has been significant media coverage on the topic too. The interest is well founded as more than ever before, Coaches are unanimous in saying that their athletes are lacking resilience, they aren’t as ‘tough’ as their teams in previous times have been. And not just physically tough, mentally tough. But is ‘grit’ really the solution needed? Has the word ‘grit’ become too interchangeable that the real definition has been lost?
Behind the Scenes of Villanova’s 2016 National Championship Success
It is not every day that we have the privilege of writing an article about a clients’ success that includes images of the team they work with meeting the US President. But, today is one of those days. We congratulate and celebrate the behind the scenes work of consultant George Naughton and his colleague Dr Jim Brennan with the 2016 National Championship winning team, Villanova Wildcats.
Q&A with Consultant George Naughton
George Naughton has a long history with Athlete Assessments and has been using Athlete Assessments’ DISC Profiles within his consultancy for over five years. He enjoyed enormous success in 2016 when one of his clients, the Villanova Men’s Basketball Team, won the D1 National Championship. George shares his personal insights with us in this Q&A.
Conscious Competence Learning Matrix
As athletes we all start at the very beginning and over time, develop the skills and techniques needed to be successful in our chosen sport. This process can be defined by the Conscious Competence Learning Matrix, or a 4 stage model outlining the various stages of learning an athlete goes through in order to acquire new skills.
People quit Bosses not Jobs because they are not Engaged
There is interesting research, based on a Gallup survey of reasons for people leaving their jobs, which shows nearly 75% of people decided to quit because of their boss or the managerial working environment, and only 35.4% of Americans felt engaged in their workplace. If you think about it, this creates a massive and unnecessary cost to businesses, especially when you consider the cause and the fact that these numbers are fixable.
Big Win for Women in Sport and Life
If there was a way to ensure that your children would get better grades at school, grow up to be more successful in their jobs, have higher levels of self-esteem and more vitality in their overall well-being, wouldn’t you want to give them this opportunity?
In Pursuit of the perfect Post-Graduate Job
Beginning a lecture by explaining DISC theory may not sound exciting. But when the theory relates to how the students can find the best suited post graduate job, they tend to listen more carefully.
This was the case in Associate Professor, Dr Gonzalo Bravo’s Leadership in Sport Management class at West Virginia University.
Research Review of Personality and Behavioral Assessments
This article will review and discuss the key aspects of personality and behavioral assessments and how they can be measured.
In order to do this, we must first review the distinction between personality and behavior. We must also evaluate the different methods of testing the two, specifically DISC (behavioral) and psychometric (personality) testing.
Both are used in creating organizational change and to encourage high team and personal performance, whether this be within an academic, business or sporting environment. It is important to point out that both have their merits and both will effectively provide objective data for otherwise subjective measurements.
Amy Hogue – Seniors taking initiative; know your job, do your job
As a Coach, when an athlete shows initiative and takes ownership of team culture, it’s a big deal.
Culture is a measure of the observable behaviors your team and organization promotes and accepts. Ultimately, culture is best defined as ‘the way we do things around here’ or ‘the way we behave around here’. Culture is not what you think, or want to do, it is what you actually do.
Q&A with Amy Hogue: University of Utah Head Softball Coach
We had a chance to chat to Amy Hogue about life as Head Softball Coach at the University of Utah and about some of her stand out moments along the way. You can also read more about Amy Hogue in our article on Seniors Taking Initiative.
Youth Sports, What Can They Learn From Finnish schools?
Sports in many ways is like education. Athletes need to be taught new skills, they need to be nurtured, especially in the conscious incompetence and unconscious competence stages of their learning where these new skills are still foreign to them, such as in youth sports, and athletes need to be given the best opportunities to grow and succeed by their Coaches and teammates. It is the overall environment, including a good Coach-athlete relationship, access to good equipment, training and competition environments, support mechanisms and athlete self-awareness that allows an athlete to be the best they can be. Similar to how a student given the best possible academic environment will thrive and grow into the best adult they can be.
Data Analytics in Sport: Science vs People
An article has been published in the MIT Technology Review looking at the best-selling book Moneyball by Michael Lewis and how it has changed the way people think about data analytics in sport.
Lewis’s book introduced the sporting world, and in particular those with the biggest vested interests, a method in which player performance was measured and assessed using algorithms and science driven by the ability to gather vast amounts of data about players and the play during a game.
And while this is exciting, and having and relying on all of this data is tempting, unless you can find a way to make it meaningful to athletes, it won’t work.
Former student-athletes blitzing the competition
We all know sports is good for us. We know it acts as a vehicle for life skills, gives us an opportunity to participate, be the best we can be and helps us develop resiliency during our training and in competition. But what you might not know is that former student-athletes are also stronger and more consistent, in areas of well-being outside of sports than non-student-athletes.
A national Gallup-Purdue Index study of nearly 30,000 US college graduates showed that former student-athletes are more likely to be thriving in four out of five areas of well-being that Gallup measures including purpose, financial, social, community and physical well-being.
DISC Profile Strengths in Sport
Our role at Athlete Assessments is to help people become more self-aware. When you complete your CoachDISC or AthleteDISC Profile, you are essentially given the tools you need to become truly aware of the behaviors that help you and those that can be limitations. This is where knowing your DISC Profile Strengths becomes so valuable.
I recently had the experience of working with a young athlete who had just completed her AthleteDISC Profile. During our consultation, we discovered that all of the behaviors she had previously seen as being a limitation in her sport, were in fact behaviors that could be her greatest strengths.
Values and Behavior in Sport
One of the challenges we face as Coaches or as leaders at some stage of our career is when we feel like our values have been compromised. So what are our values, what defines them and what is the difference between our values and behavior?
Knowing your DISC Profile gives job seekers the professional edge
For Dr. Hedlund, it is always exciting to hear about the successes of previous students. But it’s even more exciting when they tell you they were offered a position paying $20,000 more per annum than the one they applied for thanks to what they learnt in your class.
Natasha Miller was studying a Masters degree program in Sport Management at St. John’s University (New York) when she completed the Athlete Assessments Sports ManagerDISC Profile in a Sports Management class with Dr. David Hedlund.
Strategies for Athlete Accountability in Sport
Accountability in sport is doing what you say you’re going to do and executing the task to the best of your ability. Then being able to put your hand up and say ‘this is what I need to do better’ if you don’t get it right. Being accountable is not making excuses, not blaming others or whinging and complaining. Accountability in sport is taking ownership of something and making sure you ‘know your job and do your job’ 100% of the time.
Creating Life Changing Moments: Consultant Case Study
There are instances in sport when a coach will experience a significant break-through with an athlete, or an intense moment of satisfaction when something goes exceptionally well. We describe these instances as “coaching moments”. And although they are often fleeting, they are also treasured, and what makes the hard work and dedication worthwhile. For many coaches, it is what they love most about their role.
For consultants, it isn’t all that different. There are still those special moments when it all comes together and the dedication to the role delivers a “life changing” experience for the client. Performance Consultant Patrick Rufo recently shared one of these very moments with us.
Being the Best Player for the Team
Athletes and coaches understand the importance of each individual player performing at their personal best and to striving to be the best player they can be. But what does it mean to be the “best player for the team”?
During preparation for the 2004 Olympics, Athlete Assessments Bo Hanson was selected in the Men’s Eight Rowing team for Australia. He was performing at his personal best and for a period, was ranked as the number 1 athlete in Australia.
How to Break a Losing Streak
As a coach, nothing is more demoralizing than a losing streak that just won’t break. While we do our absolute best to avoid losing streaks, performance slumps, or even the prospect of our team underachieving it doesn’t mean we can avoid the topic, it’s too important.
US Navy SEALs Resilience: Lessons on Mental Toughness
Mental toughness and resilience is a key quality in athletes that are revered and successful in their chosen sport. The US Navy SEALs resilience is renowned, they are some of the most mentally tough people in the world. The Navy SEALs consistently work where regular combat units do not have the capabilities to create a successful outcome. This sees the Navy SEALs operating in places civilians cannot imagine, under circumstances which demand the highest levels of mental toughness and team work. That is what sets the Navy SEALs resilience apart.
Becky Burleigh: Investing in People
In 1995, Becky Burleigh became the First Head Coach of the Florida Gators Women’s Soccer Program. In the 20 years that have followed, Coach Burleigh has forged a career of excellence because she has continued to invest – invest in herself, in other coaches, in her student-athletes and in the younger generation of women’s soccer players. With an extensive list of achievements including a Division I National Championship already under her belt, we caught up with Becky to hear her insights into sustaining success in coaching.
Are you Missing the Most Important Factor when Recruiting in Sport?
Recruiting. It’s fundamental to the success of any team and as coaches, you make an enormous investment in time with the aim to get it right. So often, coaches are looking for the X-factor or conversations are focused on a physical attribute of a particular player. Are you missing one of the most critical aspects for your team’s success? And, could the success factor come from an unlikely place?
DISC Survey Design Improvements
We continue to strive to lift our game in providing an exceptional level of service and the highest quality products. Most recently, we’ve been working on DISC survey design improvements for our three DISC Profile assessments and we’re excited to share the latest development.
Research on Abuse in Sport and Athlete Welfare
Recently Sports Illustrated published an important article titled, ‘Is the era of abusive college coaches finally coming to an end?’. The article highlighted alarming issues with modern collegiate athletics based on surveys of 20,000 college athletes, as well as the latest research in psychophysiology, psychology, depression, health and abusive leadership.
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