Coach Thrasher

Growth Mind-Set

I found a great article on "Growth Mind-Set", which I'm going to incorporate into my coaching. There are many ideas like this that resonate with improving performance in sport, and life.

The article's message reminds me of Jim Thompson's book "The Double-Goal Coach" where the concept of "Honoring the Game" is the focus, over the outcome of the sporting event. The performance-based outcome is actually put on the back burner in Thompson's book, which is the opposite message that I think we get about sports in American culture.

With junior athletes I've found that the best actual performance is nearly always had when the focus is on improving skills, and not on event outcomes. Recently, our 1x had a fantastic first race, and there was zero expectation on the outcome. Last season at our local championship regatta, I coached our MV4+ on performance goals, and they ended up having a stressful and tense race that didn't really show what they are capable of. The lesson was learned - by me!

One of the reasons I enjoy coaching at the junior level so much is that the athletes are willing to open up and learn something new, by facing new challenges. Maybe our cultural definition of not being an adult is that you have something left to learn before being labeled an adult. As an adult in the workforce, the hardest management or team issues I've come across are situations where an adult has a fixed mind-set about their ability or the abilities of others. I think that attitude tears at the performance potential of any organization.

Posted at 11:22AM Mar 24, 2007 by jason in General  |