Sports Thoughts

By Wayne Goldsmith Sports Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Getting better at coaching comes down to a simple principle: think of yourself, your own learning, your own growth, your own improvement - in the same way you think about the learning, growth and improvement of your athletes. You expect your a...

Coaches - we’re good at helping our athletes to realize their athletic potential. We’re great at inspiring kids to believe in themselves and that anything truly is possible. We’re brilliant at working hard and giving all we have to the people we coach. Want to know what we’re terrible at??? Coaching ourselves. We tell athletes to work hard - then rest, recover and regenerate - but we don’t listen...

It never ceases to amaze me that we spend most of our time as coaches writing workouts, practices and training sessions from a purely physiological perspective, i.e. we program around the physiological “big three” - volume, intensity and frequency. Yet - as far as I know - every human being on this planet has a “neck” - i.e. that every athlete you coach has a head connected to their body. That mea...

By Wayne Goldsmith Three Key Points: * Coaches the world over are tring to figure out how to balance the traditional coaching methodologies of systems, programs, structure, order and discipline with the more contemporary coaching philosophies of connection, engagement, collaboration, athlete ownership and shared responsibility. * The secret isn’t to be a “hard” coach or a “soft” coach: it’s learni...

Welcome to Sports Thoughts Story Time. As a species we humans are at our best when we’re connecting with each other through story-telling. Story telling allows us to share more than the facts: it’s our opportunity to share our feelings, our emotions, our wisdom and our learning with others. Stories allow us to share our successes, our failures, our joys and our fears. Stories help us to learn and...

This is my first paid subscribers only post - a video / pod on Periodization . We have got move on from the 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 periodization model, i.e. one week Microcycle, one month Macrocycle, one quarter Phase and one year Season. Athletes do not adapt to fit the convenience of the calendar. Instead of trying to make the adaptation of your athletes fit into the calendar, why not fit the calendar ar...

I've been inside million-dollar training centers where kids were miserable and seen grassroots clubs with rusty equipment produce Olympic champions. The facilities myth is seductive because writing checks is easier than changing behavior—but it's destroying programs. Three Key Points: * Great athletes emerge from relationships, not facilities * Money often masks fundamental problems instead of sol...

"Parents are the problem." It's sport's biggest myth—and we created it. For decades, we've treated parents like enemies, then complained when they became demanding. We excluded them, refused to educate them, then criticized their expectations. Three Key Points: * Parents are sport's greatest untapped resource, not its biggest problem * Most "difficult" parents are simply scared and uninformed, not...

Every coach has "that kid"—the 10-year-old who dominates everything. Here's the brutal truth: most quit before 16. We've confused early physical development with talent, creating systems that celebrate genetic lottery winners while overlooking future champions. Three Key Points: * Early physical dominance is often just advanced physical development * Character and work ethic predict long-term succ...

After 30 years in elite sport, I've watched coaches worship spreadsheets more than athletes. The periodization obsession has created program deliverers instead of human developers—coaches who can't adapt when their beautiful plan meets messy reality. Three Key Points: * Periodization creates inflexible coaches who can't adapt to real athletes * The best athletes succeed despite their training prog...

Welcome to Sports Thoughts Story Time. As a species we humans are at our best when we’re connecting with each other through story-telling. Story telling allows us to share more than the facts: it’s our opportunity to share our feelings, our emotions, our wisdom and our learning with others. Stories allow us to share our successes, our failures, our joys and our fears. Stories help us to learn and...

It’s time sport took in a breath of fresh air….. Why the Pathway Failed - simply the Pathway assumes that every child who starts playing sport wants to be an elite performer Contrast this with reality: most kids just want to have fun, make friends, and enjoy the experience. What the Pathway Gets Wrong: it turns sport into a selection and elimination process and it creates a narrow definition of "s...

Welcome to Sports Thoughts Story Time. As a species we humans are at our best when we’re connecting with each other through story-telling. Story telling allows us to share more than the facts: it’s our opportunity to share our feelings, our emotions, our wisdom and our learning with others. Stories allow us to share our successes, our failures, our joys and our fears. Stories help us to learn and...

Welcome to Sports Thoughts Story Time. As a species we humans are at our best when we’re connecting with each other through story-telling. Story telling allows us to share more than the facts: it’s our opportunity to share our feelings, our emotions, our wisdom and our learning with others. Stories allow us to share our successes, our failures, our joys and our fears. Stories help us to learn and...

Five things you need to know about kids and early shows of talent: * What parents say versus what they really mean about their "talented" child can be very different. * The cold truth: There are no ten-year-old champions. * Development isn't linear - the talented 10-year-old might simply be physically mature for their age * What really matters: Is your child developing independence, resilience, an...

Five things you need to know about Coaching, Teaching and Parenting “Inquisitiveness”: * As athletes develop, one of the greatest attributes they can learn is that of Inquisitiveness. * Inquisitiveness is an athlete asking - of themself - questions that begin with - “I wonder….” - e.g. I wonder what would happen if I…..”, “I wonder if I’d do it better if I….” * Inquisitive athletes progress faster...

Five things you need to know about “THE CAR RIDE HOME”: * The car ride home is one of the most critical moments in youth sports development and sports parenting. * What's happening emotionally with your child after competition (complex feelings that are hard to process) - makes the car ride a very difficult experience for sporting parents to know what to say - and - just as importantly - what not...

Five things you need to know about the Talent Worship Trap: * We all worship physical talent - and physical talent as an indicator of peak performance potential is over-rated. * There’s a stark contrast between what spectators think drives success (talent, size, speed) versus what many elite athletes and coaches actually attribute their success to (hard work, commitment, resilience, values, consis...