Life in the LongWhiteCloud

Graduating with a Batchelor of sport and rec was a great way to cap off (ahem) a pretty awesome 2015. Thanks to all my friends and family who helped me get there, there is too many of you to name and acknowledge but couldn't have done it without you. Great to catch up some of my fellow grad students and professors yesterday, to those I didn't I hope we cross paths again sometime soon. Wish you all the best, and keep dreaming big and working hard!  "Dare to dream big dreams, only big dreams have the power to move mens souls" - Marcus Aurelius. 

Intrinsic Motivation: Lately I have been doing far too much research on sports psychology, in particular the different types of motivation individuals show. How people interact with the environment around them has a huge impact on the levels of motivation they have, this is particularly applicable to sports coaching. For example, the amount and type of feedback relayed to an athlete directly effects there response to a drill or game in training. This is a powerful tool to use, and can be tailored to suit the level of the team being coached. Similarly, athletes also have a lot of control over their own motivation types and sources, even if they don't know it (or have the motivation to, hehe). Gaining more control over the way I source my personal motivation is an area I am interested in, and keen to develop. How I can use this to my advantage:  Personally, much of my motivation is sourced from extrinsic outcome, or performance based goals, both in sport and study. For example,...

Goal Setting and Monitoring In the months following london and U23 worlds I have been thinking a lot about how we set goals and monitor these effectively. From my own experience, I have found many of my goals I set with good intentions have been lost or abandoned in the calamity of everyday life. The problem at the heart of this was these goals set with no way of measuring them effectively, such as getting an A in my exam, or spending more time on guitar playing. The goals I've had most success with have been subjective rather than objective, and follow a continual process of experimenting and redesign. In the months leading up to Worlds, I set small objectives before training camps such as working on anticipatory footwork on the mark, or putting in work early on D. I believe these goals, although seemingly small helped me improve facets of my game much more effectively, as it gave me confidence to improve noticeably in these areas. What is it I want most?  A big problem I...