One thing coaches must consider when evaluating how an athlete performs in practice versus how they perform in competitions is the concept of social facilitation theory. This theory explains how the presence of the social pressure of an audience impacts the mindset of an athlete. To summarize, sometimes the conditions of a competition or practice […]
Coaches and parents would be wise not to overlook an unexplained drop in an athlete’s performance. It’s easy to write this off as a one-time event or an anomaly. Instead of reading the proverbial tea leaves, instinctively parents and coaches want to trust the process and just stay the course. THIS. IS. A. MISTAKE. I […]
There are two healthy ways of looking at the athletic career of a young athlete. Either 1) you can look at it like a marathon or 2) you can look at it like a series of sprints. The marathon approach is taking the slow and steady growth curve. It’s pacing the athlete’s progress and putting […]