Getting out and about with some age grade coaches recently led me to ask some interesting questions; are we creating environments create better people as well as better players? Are we allowing them to express themselves, try and fail in many scenarios to develop creativity and commitment to their own development? Are we creating psychologically safe environments to explore and test skills for both on and off the field? Are we as coaches committed to creating passionate artists, willing to explore and test their ideas and skills, or conforming programmers, focused on the perceived correct ideas and techniques, offering standard outcomes with minimal risk?

AFL is back!! Aussie Rules Footy has been in heavy focus over the past few weeks; with the release of “Making Their Mark” earlier this month, it brought back focus to one of Australia’s top team sports in time for AFL’s Round 1 over the weekend. Something I enjoyed from the documentary, which may not surprise you, was the contrasting coaching styles between clubs. Couple in particular really stood out for me; Damien Hardwick of Richmond and Matthew Nicks of Adelaide Crows. During the series, I looked at the differences and eventual similarities of the coaching styles.

How can mentorship or better understanding yourself allow you to be more attuned to your athletes needs or help you create a player led environment? What techniques or critical friends can you welcome into personal reflection of yourself and your methodologies to better serve the needs of your athletes? Identifying and approaching a mentor or critical friend to reflect and review your coaching methodologies may be a great new or next step for your coaching development. Developing strong athlete relationships needs to be continually addressed and worked on, understanding people, personalities and environments shall change. Through personal reflection, be willing to change ideas or structures to match what your athletes or players need today and be reflective and flexible to change to what they need tomorrow and in future.

Super Bowl LV is upon us; the match up sees arguably the greatest ever quarterback vs the man whom shall challenge his title. We all know the immense achievements of Tom Brady yet Patrick Mahomes is coming up….fast

In these debates of GOAT status, the areas I like to dial into include what learning environments were offered or created for Brady to excel and have these expectations or sense of self belief? What complementary factors or details within connection can coaches offer to create a perfect storm and have players such as Brady or Mahomes excel to the levels they do? What can or do the coaching support network offer these highly driven, extremely successful players to continue to drive high standards and meet their performance expectations?

Following on from December’s blog post, looking at the importance of questioning, throughout Christmas period and start of this year, I have worked on and finally complied my question cheat sheet, accessible via link in blog post or via research page. As previously mentioned, I feel asking the right questions can both build relationships and close the gap through understanding athlete’s motivations, areas of importance for their development and how can the environment be structured to suit their needs.Asking questions using the linked document as a start, understanding the answers and whom they’re coming from will give you a snapshot for today yet this needs to be continually addressed and worked on, understanding people, personalities and environments shall change.