Coaching 101
Commonwealth Games
I love sport. I simply can’t get enough of it and with the commonwealth games on 16 hour day it’s still not enough. Not only do I love the performances but I love observing the drama and how the athletes cope with the pressure. Just a few of my favourites have been:
Rohan Browning showed great maturity and understanding of the nature of his sport with this tweet (he missed qualifying for the 100m final by less than .01 of a second and the man who beat him finished second in the final!)
“I think I am Australia’s most pitied man right now... but I don’t want to be!!! Fractions of a sec are what separate people in this sport, and that’s what makes it beautiful. Huge thank you to the amazing officials for giving up their time to make these games amazing. GO AUS”
Too many people live in the coulda, woulda, shoulda world!
- Matthew Glaetzer who lived the ultimate roller coaster with a low in the team sprint where a mechanical derailed him, a high of the Keirin win where he showed his maturity to own the track rather than let others push him around, the low of the sprint where he let a competitor sneak a win against him that should never have happened, and then to fight back and destroy the 1000m course for a huge win was awesome. he spoke of how he controlled his negative thoughts and just pushed them aside to focus on set cues for his ride.
- Matty Deny in the men’s hammer throw, after some early poor throwing he embraced the moment focused on specific cues so he didn’t get distracted with the what if thoughts, lapped up the crowd and juts went for it. His Silver medal throw was huge.
- The 100m pressure cooker. The women’s 100m pool, 100m run and men’s 100m runs all showed that the person who was able to control the mental aspects and focus on executing the perfect race came through on top. It doesn’t matter who is the best in training or in the heats, the winner is the person who can put it all together under the pressure of gold medal competition.
- Malawi defeating multiple world champions New Zealand in the netball, showed you simply cannot underestimate any opponent
- Jacob Birtwhistle in the triathlon showed that no matter how far back, you never give up hope
- Ashleigh Gentle in the triathlon showed that life can change in a the matter of a few days, from the lows of the individual triathlon where her run wasn’t up to speed to the joy of the teams triathlon where her performance was the difference on the day. Likewise Joanna Brown of Canada was able to find a way to overcome a fractured shoulder just 4 weeks prior to win the bronze medal
- Flora Duffy and Henri Schoeman in the triathlon showed you need to be strong in all three legs and race smart to finish on top
- Tia-Clair Toomey overcome the tragedy of losing her cousin in a car accident just days before to steel her resolve to win gold in the women’s weight lifting. If you haven’t seen the weight lifting before it is an amazing sport where the mental game is equally as important as physical in determining the winner
So with a few days more of competition if you haven’t already do yourself a favour and take in the events but also look at the stories behind the result, that is where the true beauty of sport lies.
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