27/12/2021
With athletes accessing more and more coaches, their individual responsibility for reflecting, and ensuring, their own successful development seems to be dropping. Here's a quick infographic we put together for an academy that we've decided to share here as well. You could expand it indefinitely, it isn't meant to be comprehensive of all the areas that influence performance, but for the sake of simplicity we've gone with 3 key areas.
1. Understand what attributes you need to have to be excellent at your chosen sport. The 3 areas highlighted are general, you must review the components of these which are important to your sport.
2. Follow the Process of Development Cycle presented.
Review Often: How are you performing, are you improving? What do you need to work on that will have the biggest benefit to your performance? What areas are being neglected in your team training that you need to implement yourself?
Improve What? Do you know what you need to work on? If not, ask your coaches or find someone that knows what you need to be able to do to perform at the level you want to get to and take their advice on board.
How? Do you know the most effective/efficient way to improve the identified areas? If not, find someone who is skilled at improving those areas and get the tools you need to find the drills/tools you need.
Now Practice! Once you know what you need to improve, and how to go about it, now you just need to create a routine and prioritise practicing those areas.
REPEAT! Repeat this process regularly. There are so many skills and attributes you need to be able to possess to succeed in sports. It's easy to slip in areas you were once skilled in, or to neglect focusing on areas you don't enjoy or aren't as skilled in. Regular reflection is vital!