Sports

Exploring sport coaching and psychology
MA-OSEP
Exploring sport coaching and

psychology
Page 2 of 305 21st June 2018
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Contents
 Introduction and guidance
 Introduction and guidance
 What is a badged course?
 How to get a badge
 ession 1: Exploring sporting success

 Introduction
 1 Sporting success
 2 Your beliefs about sporting ability
 3 The anatomy of a world record
 4 Champions talk
 5 Coaching and psychology in sports

performance
 6 What conversations do coaches and

psychologists have?
 7 This session’s quiz
 8 Summary
 Session 2: Coaching children: enhancing fun and

friendships
 Introduction
 1 One sport or many?
 2 The making of an ice princess
 3 What does excellent child coaching look

like?
 4 Maintaining enthusiasm in a professional

sport
 5 What does ‘fun’ mean in children’s sport?
 6 Play the ‘Medal Quest’ online game
 8 Summary
 Session 3: Guiding teenagers towards success

and life
 Introduction
 1 How fast do teenagers grow?
 2 Why being born in May has its advantages
 3 What about brain maturation?
 4 A psychologist’s experience of working

with teenagers
 5 Confidence and emotions in teenagers
 6 I could do that: role models
 8 Summary
 Session 4: Comparing international level coaches
 Introduction
 1 What drives international athletes?
 2 Comparing top coaches
 3 What about coaching individual-based

sports?
 4 How would you recruit a team?
 6 Summary
 Session 5: Mindset and attitudes towards sport

and learning
 Introduction
 1 Revisiting your attitudes towards success
 2 Your experience of ‘mindset’
 3 Where do beliefs about ability come from?
 4 Making it early in sport
 5 Sports psychologists explain their work
 6 Psychological characteristics explained
 8 Summary
 Session 6: Psychological skills for life and sport

 Introduction
 1 Chris Hoy’s story

 2 The art of performing under pressure
 3 Fear and anxiety
 4 Managing your emotions and anxiety
 5 Seeing challenge as an opportunity
 6 Emphasising the familiar: pre-competition

routines
 7 Self-talk before important sporting

moments
 8 Self-talk before penalty taking
 9 Penalty shoot-out game
 11 Summary
 Session 7: A fresh look at coaching

 Introduction
 1 How do coaches design practice sessions?
 2 Richard Bailey’s ‘coaching

commandments’
 2.1 You learn to play by playing the

game
 2.2 Coaching and creativity
 3 Quality not quantity of practice
 4 Richard Bailey’s other commandments –
how to coach
 5 Final thoughts: a fresh approach?
 7 Summary
 Session 8: The future of coaching: technological

influences
 Introduction
 1 Where next in coaching and exercise?
 2 Recovering from intense exercise
 3 Wearable technology
 4 How much can we trust what journalists

say?
 5 How to evaluate a claim or innovation
 6 Examining ‘The filter that spots

trainability’
 7 Examining ‘Tools to warm up the mind’
 7.1 Exploring further
 8 Thinking about where your sport and/or

coaching is going
 10 Summary
 11 Where next for developing your future?
 Tell us what you think
 References
 Acknowledgements
Introduction and guidance
Introduction and guidance

This free badged course, Exploring sport coaching and
psychology, lasts 24 hours, with 8 ‘sessions’. You can work
through the course at your own pace, so if you have more time one
week there is no problem with pushing on to complete a further
study session. The eight sessions are linked to ensure a logical
flow through the course. They are:
1. Exploring sporting success

2. Coaching children: enhancing fun and friendships
3. Guiding teenagers towards success and life
4. Comparing international level coaches
5. Mindset and attitudes towards sport and learning
6. Psychological skills for life and sport
7. A fresh look at coaching
8. The future of coaching: technological influences
This course will develop your confidence and skills for online study,
whether this is to explore sport topics or part of your preparation
for other study.
You’ll start by thinking about your own beliefs about success in

sport or fitness and develop your understanding of how coaching
and psychology contribute to that success. You’ll identify some key
coaching decisions that are made with children, leading on
towards exploring some principles useful in guiding teenagers and
then some of the practices of adult coaches working with
international teams. These coaching insights are then combined
with exploring the main psychological aspects of sport which often
apply to life in general (e.g. handling pressure). You’ll conclude by
thinking about what the future might hold in coaching and exercise.
All these aspects will be explained, so don’t worry if they seem
unfamiliar at the moment. There are vivid video and audio case
study examples to help with this and you’ll get plenty of
opportunities to demonstrate your new understanding and practise
your study skills.
Part of this practice will be the interactive quizzes, of which

Sessions 4 and 8 will provide you with an opportunity to earn a
badge to demonstrate your new skills. You can read more on how
to study the course and about badges in the next sections.
After completing this course, you will be able to:
 outline the influences of, and links between, sport

coaching and psychology for those developing their
abilities in sport
 describe different aspects of effective coaching and
the way in which a coach may influence young people
and adults
 compare the psychological characteristics used in
sporting careers to those you might need to shape
your own future
 reflect on your own sport or fitness behaviours, beliefs
and practices and identify useful next steps for further
development
 understand and be confident in your ability to study
online.
Moving around the course

In the ‘Summary’ at the end of each session, you will find a link to
the next session. If at any time you want to return to the start of the
course, click on ‘Full course description’. From here you can
navigate to any part of the course.
It’s also good practice, if you access a link from within a course
page (including links to the quizzes), to open it in a new window or
tab. That way you can easily return to where you’ve come from
without having to use the back button on your browser.
What is a badged course?

While studying Exploring sport coaching and psychology you
have the option to work towards gaining a digital badge.
Badged courses are a key part of The Open University’s mission

to promote the educational wellbeing of the community.
The courses also provide another way of helping you to progress
from informal to formal learning.
Completing a course will require about 24 hours of study time.
However, you can study the course at any time and at a pace to
suit you.
Badged courses are available on The Open University’s

OpenLearn website and do not cost anything to study. They differ
from Open University courses because you do not receive support
from a tutor, but you do get useful feedback from the interactive
quizzes.
What is a badge?
Digital badges are a new way of demonstrating online that you
have gained a skill. Colleges and universities are working with
employers and other organisations to develop open badges that
help learners gain recognition for their skills, and support
employers to identify the right candidate for a job.
Badges demonstrate your work and achievement on the course.

You can share your achievement with friends, family and
employers, and on social media. Badges are a great motivation,
helping you to reach the end of the course. Gaining a badge often
boosts confidence in the skills and abilities that underpin
successful study. So, completing this course could encourage you
to think about taking other courses.
How to get a badge

Getting a badge is straightforward! Here’s what you have to do:
 read each session of the course

 score 50% or more in the two badge quizzes in
Session 4 and Session 8.
For all the quizzes, you can have three attempts at most of the
questions (for true or false type questions you usually only get one
attempt). If you get the answer right first time you will get more
marks than for a correct answer the second or third time.
Therefore, please be aware that for the two badge quizzes it is
possible to get all the questions right but not score 50% and be
eligible for the badge on that attempt. If one of your answers is
incorrect you will often receive helpful feedback and suggestions
about how to work out the correct answer.
For the badge quizzes, if you’re not successful in getting 50% the
first time, after 24 hours you can attempt the whole quiz, and come
back as many times as you like.
We hope that as many people as possible will gain an Open
University badge – so you should see getting a badge as an
opportunity to reflect on what you have learned rather than as a
test.
If you need more guidance on getting a badge and what you can
do with it, take a look at the OpenLearn FAQs. When you gain
your badge you will receive an email to notify you and you will be
able to view and manage all your badges in My OpenLearn within
24 hours of completing the criteria to gain a badge.
Get started with Session 1.
ession 1: Exploring sporting

success
Introduction
Your starting point for this course is to look more closely at the
range of factors that contribute to sporting success. By exploring
the big picture, you will be able to see how coaching and
psychology lie at the centre of understanding, taking part in and
succeeding in sport.
First, watch the following video featuring Team GB hockey player

Alex Danson.
Video content is not available in this format.
Introduction to Session 1
View transcript - Introduction to Session 1
In this session you will read about sporting success and see
different people talking about it. You will then be guided through a
visual diagram that summarises some of the factors that
researchers consider to be the most important influences. You will
also consider the part played by coaching and psychology using
exciting video footage from two contrasting sports that bring these
ideas into sharp focus.
By the end of this session, you should be able to:
 consider how a range of components contribute to
sporting success
 identify how coaching and psychology link and interact
with a number of these components
 recognise how understanding mental aspects of sport
contributes to coaching.
The Open University would really appreciate you taking a few

minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations
of the course. Your input will help to improve the online learning
experience. If you would like to help, and if you haven’t done so
already, please fill in this optional survey.
The course is supported and strongly recommended by UK

Coaching. Whether you’re just starting out or have been coaching
for many years you will learn new skills and demonstrate that you
have been proctive in your professional development.
1 Sporting success
Are some people born with a genetic predisposition to thrive at
particular sports or types of exercise (e.g. power, strength or
endurance)? This is one of the most common questions asked in
sport, and we often describe someone as ‘being a natural’ at sport,
which is synonymous with being born with the right genes. For
example, here is an extract from the autobiography of Spanish
tennis player Rafa Nadal, writing about Roger Federer:
He just seems to have been born to play the game. His physique –
his DNA – seems perfectly adapted to tennis … You get these
blessed freaks of nature in other sports too.
(Nadal and Carlin, 2011, p. 13)
There is a tendency for some to gravitate towards ‘nature’ (i.e.

fixed, born or genetic) as an explanation of champions’ successes
because physical attributes are tangible. However, some people
think that sporting success is more about ‘nurture’, or the way they
have been developed by coaching and their environment (i.e.
champions can be made). What do you think?
2 Your beliefs about sporting ability

You will start this course by considering your own beliefs about the
nature of sporting ability.
Activity 1 Your beliefs about sporting ability

Allow about 10 minutes
Answer the following two questions about nature and nurture in the
sport you are most interested in and in sport as a whole. The
questions use a 5-point scale, where 1 corresponds to ‘strongly
nature’, while 5 corresponds to ‘strongly nurture’. By responding to
these questions, you can begin to understand your own beliefs
about sporting ability.
For each question, choose between the following options:
1. Strongly nature
2. Slightly more nature than nurture
3. A 50:50 equal mix of both
4. Slightly more nurture than nature
5. Strongly nurture
Type in the relevant number from the scale after the question.
1. What do you believe is the influence of nature and nurture in the sport that you are
most interested in? 2. What do you believe is the influence of nature and nurture in all
sports?
View discussion - Activity 1 Your beliefs about sporting
ability
The next section investigates a more complex range of possibilities

for explaining sporting success.
3 The anatomy of a world record

The evening sunshine of Gothenburg, Sweden, in August 1995,
was the setting in which British athlete, Jonathan Edwards, broke
the world record in the triple jump. The record still stands at the
time of writing (February 2017). In the next activity, you’ll get some
insight into Jonathan’s circumstances in the build-up to his world
record that night, which will help you explore sporting success
further.
Activity 2 A giant leap for mankind?

Read the short article The other giant leap for mankind: how
this athlete set a world record that’s still standing 20
years later. Identify the components of Jonathan Edwards’
success. Note down 6–10 words or phrases from the article that
suggest these components. Can you group any of them together
into different categories e.g. those related to physical or other
categories?
View discussion - Activity 2 A giant leap for mankind?
The ‘facile nature–nurture debate’ was mentioned at the end of the

piece. This alludes to nature–nurture being an oversimplification of
a complex topic. Richard Dawkins calls this ‘the dichotomous mind’
– the human tendency to divide up complex ideas into simple
either–or positions. Both personality and diet are often presented
in this manner, as introvert against extrovert and low-fat diets
against high-fat diets, respectively. This reduction of complex
arguments also makes it easier for the media to present to a mass
audience. In reality, things are never that clear cut, with a range of
aspects interacting, especially in sport, coaching and psychology.
Next, you will hear from some sporting champions.
4 Champions talk
In this activity you will hear from champions about what they think
has made themselves successful.
Activity 3 What makes champions successful?

Watch the following video and try to identify its main messages.
You may find it helpful to listen for the two most commonly used
words.
Champions talk: what makes a champion?
View transcript - Champions talk: what makes a

champion?
View discussion - Activity 3 What makes champions

successful?
5 Coaching and psychology in sports

performance
It appears that psychology as the study of the mind and behaviour
is extremely relevant to understanding sporting performance; but
how does it link to a range of other factors, including the work of a
coach?
In Figure 2, which draws on extensive research from Collins et al.

(2016) and Rees et al. (2016), a range of factors that contribute to
sporting success are grouped under three headings: the performer,
the overall social environment, and training and practice. There is
a lot of overlap between each category indicating the links
between them. For example, to avoid injuries (the performer), you
would consider the type of training being done (training and
practice) and the availability of coach/family support (the social
environment). This type of diagram is known as a Venn diagram.
Figure 2 A range of factors that contribute to sporting success.
View description - Figure 2 A range of factors that

contribute to sporting success.
The prominence of coaching in Figure 2 is evident, since a coach

guides most of what falls under the training and practice
heading. Coaches also influence:
 athletes’ recovery, conditioning, nutrition and
competition entries
 athletes’ social environments, by being one of
the people who provide support
 athletes in becoming more aware of their motivation
and psychological skills.
You may have wondered what is meant by ‘personality’ and

‘motivational orientations’ under the performer category.
‘Personality’ refers to the characteristics that form an individual’s
distinctive character, while ‘motivational orientations’ refers to the
tendency to be driven to act in certain ways.
Now take a look at what Alex Danson says about this figure.
Alex says …
There were a huge number of factors that contributed to the
success of the GB women’s team in Rio. One of the key influences
was our coaching team and creating a social environment (culture)
that promoted behaviours that drove and improved performance.
Danny Kerry forged a team of support staff that had our wellbeing
and performance at the front of their minds. We worked closely
with a nutritionist, sports psychologist, and a strength and
conditioning coach to support our development.
We created a clear vision: ‘Be the Difference’, ‘Create History’ and

‘Inspire the Future’ and a set of values: ‘We are One Team’, ‘We
are Winners’ and ‘Be Alive’. We brought these to life in our
everyday behaviours, linking a lot of our language to specific
training sessions. For example, on Thursdays we created a
session called ‘Thinking Thursday’, which was a highly competitive
inter-squad tournament with the sole outcome of finding a way to
win and creating an environment where ‘We are Winners’. We
would have to perform under fatigue, with changing rules, and
come up with a plan that would give our teams the best chance of
success. In this example, Danny (the coach) created the
environment that put us under pressure and ensured that this
training was highly competitive. Creating this environment meant
we were able to transfer some of the winning characteristics
needed when we reached our Olympic Final in Rio.
Figure 2 is a visual tool to illustrate how a range of factors

contribute to explaining sporting success. You could easily add
further factors but, as you can see, it has been kept relatively
simple at this stage.
6 What conversations do coaches and

psychologists have?
In the two activities that follow, you are placed into two very
different sporting environments to consider the types of topics
coaches and psychologists might discuss.
Activity 4 Injury rehab in rugby: keeping it

personal
Watch the following video, which shows two coaches, a sport

scientist and a head of medical, outline the technology used with
injured players at Saracens, a championship-winning rugby club.
Injury rehab in rugby: keeping it personal with devices and data
View transcript - Injury rehab in rugby: keeping it personal

with devices and data
How does technology support the rehabilitation of injuries and

what injury-related topics might the coaches and psychologist
discuss off-screen?
View discussion - Activity 4 Injury rehab in rugby: keeping

it personal
In this next sporting environment, technology is used to identify
and develop talent.
Activity 5 2020 vision: exploring talent

development for Tokyo
Allow 10 minutes
Watch the video Are these future gold medallists?. It features

the four-phase Girls4Gold talent identification programme for
canoeing, which is aiming to develop female athletes for the Tokyo
2020 Olympic Games. As you watch the video consider:
i. how coaches, using their knowledge of psychology,

designed an environment that was mentally and
physically challenging
ii. what those leading the programme were looking for in
the athletes.
View discussion - Activity 5 2020 vision: exploring talent

development for Tokyo
Alex describes her experiences with regards to the previous

activity in the box below.
Alex says …
Five months before the Olympic Games, I dislocated my thumb,
rupturing my ulnar collateral ligament. This required surgery and a
12–16 week rehab period. At the time, my initial thoughts were
negative, full of worry and my mind was telling me that I would not
make it back in time for Rio. Very quickly, with the support of our
sports psychologist, Andrea Furst, and coach, Danny Kerry, I had
set myself some challenging goals that would maintain my focus
and put me in the best physical shape to aid my return. Working
closely with our strength and conditioning coach, Tom Drowley, on
a daily programme, I was able to continue with many areas of my
physical development.
I completed a monitoring form every morning that Danny, Andrea

and Tom could all access, which presented my physical condition,
tiredness, wellbeing, motivation and all the training I undertook.
This joined-up approach of coaching meant I was well supported
and the coaches at all times knew about my training load and my
wellbeing. The collection of data and monitoring, as well as good
communication between all coaches, was paramount to my
rehabilitation. It ensured I still felt part of the team, was supported,
made progress and returned on schedule.
You can begin to see that coaching and psychology interact

when challenge is appropriately applied with individual goal
setting. Coaches and teachers can support rich learning
environments with good coach/teacher–athlete/pupil relationships.
7 This session’s quiz

Check what you’ve learned this session by taking the end-of-
session quiz.
Session 1 practice quiz
Open the quiz in a new window or tab then come back here when
you’ve finished.
8 Summary
The main learning points of this first session are:
 Sporting success can only be explained as a complex

interaction between a range of components, which
some writers have grouped under the three categories
of the performer, the social environment and
training/practice.
 Coaching and psychology link and interact with a
number of these components. The examples of injury
rehabilitation (Saracens rugby club) and the design of
learning environments (Tokyo 2020 canoeists) begin
to show some of the potential interaction between
coaching and psychology.
 Coaching can be enhanced by exploring psychological
aspects of sport: two main examples emerged in this
session:
 Psychology can help develop
understanding of how different individuals
are motivated.
 Coaching for better performance can be
partly viewed as a balance between
appropriate challenge and support.
In the next session, you will explore how fun, friendships and the
number of sports you played as a youngster all have an impact on
your experiences of sport and likelihood of continuing. However,
we all have different interpretations of what ‘fun’ means in sport,
which is why children’s sport is so fascinating.
You can now go to Session 2.
Session 2: Coaching children:

enhancing fun and friendships
Introduction
Do you remember learning to ride a bicycle and the thrill and
enthusiasm that followed when you could? In this session you will
consider how to harness and sustain that fun and excitement
about learning something new. Your focus here is on children,
roughly from 5 to 12 years old, since it is at this age that many
lifelong habits and motivations are formed. Your exploration of
guiding teenagers and the coaching of adults will follow on from
this.
You will start by hearing from Michael Johnson and others talking
about childhood sporting experiences and then move on to look at
some young figure skaters. Children mainly play sport for two
reasons: fun and friendship. You will explore this by looking at the
inspirational work of a grassroots tennis coach and consider how
this also applies to a team sport (football). Finally, you have the
chance to have some childlike fun yourself by playing an online
game called Medal Quest.
 understand the risks of early specialisation in one

sport during childhood and the benefits of pursuing a
diversity of sports
 identify how different people and researchers explain
‘fun’ in sport and the coaching implications of this
 recognise how an understanding of children’s
motivations and encouraging their sense of control
over their sporting world is a healthy way of
approaching coaching children.
1 One sport or many?

One of the dilemmas that parents, coaches and young people face
is whether children should focus on one sport and attempt to excel
at it or spread their sporting interest across many diverse sports.
This is sometimes called the ‘specialisation or sampling’ debate. It
is a common question in children’s sport.
Activity 1 Michael Johnson on early

specialisation
Watch the following video with Michael Johnson (multiple Olympic

gold medallist in 200 m and 400 m sprints, and former world record
holder), where he discusses early childhood specialisation with the
author David Epstein and others. The evidence falls strongly in
support of the diverse sampling of a range of sports over early
specialisation. What arguments from this video might you use if
you were talking to a 12 year old or their parent or coach against
specialising? Write down some of the key phrases used to help
remind you of the main arguments.
Michael Johnson on early specialisation
View transcript - Michael Johnson on early specialisation
Provide your answer...
View discussion - Activity 1 Michael Johnson on early

specialisation
Those working in sports such as professional football, gymnastics,

figure skating and maybe even tennis and golf would have mixed
opinions on specialisation versus sampling. In the next section you
get a taste of such views.
2 The making of an ice princess

In women’s figure skating and artistic gymnastics, teenagers often
succeed early because the current scoring systems put performers
with small and flexible bodies at a significant advantage. Different
rules and scoring systems result in different types of bodies.
Compare, for example, the significantly different physiques of
Olympic artistic gymnasts (short and powerful) and rhythmic
gymnasts (taller and more slender). At the Rio 2016 Olympic
Games, 16-year-old artistic gymnast Amy Tinkler was Great
Britain’s youngest medallist. She is only 1.46 m (4 feet 10 inches)
tall. Sporting success can, in some cases, be achieved before
puberty.
In 2016, the BBC followed young child athletes Lily, 11, and
Genevieve, 12, and their families as the young athletes pursued
their dreams of becoming ‘ice princesses’ in competitive figure
skating.
Activity 2 Children, coaching and choices

Watch the following video featuring Lily and Genevieve. Look for
the way Lily and Genevieve interact with their family and coach.
How do the girls speak and react to those around them? It is
thought that these interactions influence aspects of motivation.
The making of an ice princess
View transcript - The making of an ice princess
View discussion - Activity 2 Children, coaching and choices
A video of children training intensely gives us an opportunity to

reflect on the purpose and outcomes of children’s sport. Research
suggests that a balanced life in sport, education and with
peers/family is ideal.
You can perhaps understand why there are minimum age limits for
senior international competitions in figure skating (15 years) and
gymnastics (16 years).
3 What does excellent child coaching

look like?
Whatever the situation, whether at grassroots or elite sporting
levels, if you are interested in sport, it is worthwhile knowing what
excellent childhood coaching looks like.
Activity 3 The magic of a holistic tennis coach

Justin Cahill is a qualified Physical Education teacher from the

USA with over two decades of experience. Read his blog post 10
keys to unlock your coaching potential, based on watching a
tennis coach (Coach Z) in action with his own children. What does
Coach Z do that warrants him being described as ‘inspiring’ and
‘special’ by Cahill?
View discussion - Activity 3 The magic of a holistic tennis

coach
The question of how this approach might also be applied to other

sport is interesting. How can coaching young people for success
avoid becoming too serious and maintain their youthful
enthusiasm?
4 Maintaining enthusiasm in a
professional sport
Think of young people training towards some professional team
sports, especially football, tennis and golf. Organisations and clubs
often attempt to identify promising young players before puberty:
an almost impossible task to get right (Bailey, 2015). This can
result in children sometimes undertaking formal coaching starting
at 8–12 years old. In football, this happens across all English
Premier League (EPL) clubs, as there is often a perceived parental
prestige from a child being recruited to an EPL academy. Notice
how adult ego might interrupt childhood enthusiasm.
Activity 4 Football academies main focus

Listen to this clip from a telephone interview with Ged Roddy

(Director of Youth, EPL). What are his two main points about
maintaining youthful enthusiasm in the training of children in
football?
Audio content is not available in this format.
Kick off: science of high performance special
View transcript - Kick off: science of high performance

special
View discussion - Activity 4 Football academies main focus
You probably know intuitively that enjoyment of sport and training

is key to motivation but, apart from the inspiring tennis coach you
read about earlier, you have yet to clearly see how fun and
enjoyment is created in children’s sport.
5 What does ‘fun’ mean in children’s

sport?
Various people other than Coach Z have tried to answer the above
question – often by talking to children about their experiences.
Nick Levett, from the English Football Association, has carried out
detailed research asking 10-year-olds around England why they
play football. One of his tasks was to ask children to make choices
between 16 statements. See if you can identify the top six from his
survey.
Activity 5 What would 10-year-old children

choose?
The 16 statements that Nick Levett used are stated below. Identify
what you think are the top six reasons that children chose as the
most important things for them about why they play football and
select the checkboxes for those reasons below.
I like playing matches against other teams
I love scoring or stopping goals
I like to show off my skills
I love playing football because it’s fun
It’s a really good game and I love it
I like skilling people
It’s important to me I win the league
Trying my hardest is more important than winning
I like learning new skills
I like playing football with my friends
I play because it makes my parents happy
It’s important to me I try to win matches
It’s important to me I win trophies and medals
It helps keep me fit and healthy
Winning is more important than trying my hardest
I like meeting new friends through football
View discussion - Activity 5 What would 10-year-old

children choose?
If you want to read Levett’s excellent article on how he did this

research and what it tells us, you can read it on his blog: Children
and some reasons behind ‘Play’.
Research shows that children’s motivation to play sport is
significantly influenced by their age. Younger children tend to be
mainly interested in the hedonistic, or pleasurable, aspects of
moving and playing. As you have seen, older children place more
importance on learning new skills and being with their friends. So,
all the children talk about fun and enjoyment as important
reasons for playing sport, but evidence suggests that they
probably mean quite different things by those simple words (Bailey,
2017).
This advice is increasingly being passed on to coaches. Watch this

video from UK Coaching to see this in action.
UK Coaching animation
View transcript - UK Coaching animation
6 Play the ‘Medal Quest’ online game

Here you can play Medal Quest, an online game developed by The
Open University. It presents ten mentoring dilemmas between
ages 10 and 20 relating to guiding either a gymnast (Kade), a
swimmer (Ivy), a footballer (Zoe) or a Paralympic runner (Andrew).
Open the game by clicking on the thumbnail below or clicking on

‘View’. Open it in a new browser or window.
Interactive content is not available in this format.
You have already explored specialisation and enjoyment, so you

should feel comfortable with the first few questions. The game then
moves onto other areas which you will need to use your own
judgement for. These areas will be covered in later sessions.
You will see the impact of each decision in the measures of ‘Early
success’ (i.e. U17), ‘Chance of injury’, ‘Long-term
prospects’ and ‘Motivation’. Depending on the thresholds
reached, a player either reaches a championship final between the
ages of 16 and 20, or has to retire early from the sport, with a few
different outcomes in between.
By playing this game you will reinforce your understanding that

coaching should be stimulating and fun and your understanding of
the fine balance between challenge, to stimulate improvement, and
being appropriately supported. You will have an opportunity to
return to the game later in the course, by which time you will have
explored some of the game’s other underlying principles.

Check what you’ve learned this week by taking the end-of-session
quiz.
you’ve finished.
8 Summary
The main learning points from this session are:
 The risks of early specialisation in one sport during

childhood are:
 that the enthusiasm and joy of sport can
be lost
 that the chances of injury or a loss of
sustained engagement are heightened.
 The benefits of sampling a diverse range of sports are
more likely to lead to a positive experience of sport.
 Fun and friendship are the two main reasons children
do sport and the coaching implications of this are that
holistic personal development of a child’s character
(respect for societal rules, integrity and empathy for
others), connection (positive bonds with people in
sport), compassion and confidence should inform
each session, as demonstrated by tennis Coach Z.
 Asking children what they enjoy about sport can give a
valuable insight into their motivations; a consistent
research finding is that encouraging their sense of
control over their sporting world is healthy for their
long-term development.
In the next session, you will be considering how coaches try to
guide those who are slightly older (i.e. teenagers). You’ll be
examining the implications of physical changes, the impact of
different rates of growth and some intriguing recent insights into
the mysterious workings of the adolescent brain.
Session 3: Guiding teenagers

towards success and life
Introduction
Do you remember your adolescence and some of the difficult
issues you had to navigate (e.g. identity, motivation, failure,
comparisons with others)? In this session, you will focus on
principles that underpin coaching and guiding teenagers (aged 13–
20 years old).
You start by considering the impacts of physical growth in these

years, before moving on to consider mental development with the
help of a psychologist who works in schools and on the sports
pitch. You also hear perspectives and evidence from an influential
former physical education (PE) teacher.
Watch the following video featuring Alex Danson.
 recognise the influence of teenage growth and

maturation on selection in sport
 consider how the teenage brain is evolving and how
an understanding of this can help when working with
teenagers
 identify how self-control, confidence and emotion are
key topics for those working in sport, or with
teenagers, to explore further
 describe the potential influence of role models on
young people’s behaviour and aspirations.
1 How fast do teenagers grow?

We all know that teenagers grow quickly, but are there patterns to
growth during the teenage years? Are there variations?
Working with teenagers is stimulating because they experience so

many changes taking place. It is important to fully understand
teenage growth beyond the well-known truism that girls mature
faster than boys, since it has implications in terms of training,
selection and potential for injury.
Activity 1 Investigating height and growth

In this activity, you are asked to interpret a graph. Look at the

graph in Figure 1, which shows the typical height gain per year for
boys and girls through childhood and adolescence. The vertical
axis shows the height gain in centimetres per year, while the
horizontal axis shows the age in years. So you can see that at
aged five, the average number of centimetres gained in a year, for
both boys and girls, is 5 cm.
1. What is the graph saying about the time of the teenage

surge in growth?
2. The lines on the graph are very precise. How normal
do you think this is?
Figure 1 Growth in height for boys/girls age 0–17 years
View description - Figure 1 Growth in height for boys/girls

age 0–17 years
View discussion - Activity 1 Investigating height and

growth
You will know that often there are early or late developers who fall
outside of the line in Figure 1. Add to this the potential impact of
having an early (i.e. September) or late (i.e. August) birthday and
enormous differences in size/power can be evident: often sporting
‘talent’ gets confused with physical development.
2 Why being born in May has its

advantages
You may have heard of the influence of the date of birth on
academic/sporting performance during the teenage years and
beyond in certain sports. It is known as the relative age effect
(RAE). The RAE refers to the developmental, practice time and
physical advantages that an autumn birth date, immediately after
the academic year cut-off (1 September), often confers.
However, Nick Levett, whose work you came across in Session 2,

explains why he is pleased his son is born in May (late in the
school year). He reasons, and this is backed up with research, that
a relatively young player in their age cohort (i.e. a May birthday)
gets some advantages:
 they have to be a better learner to survive against the

older players
 they solve problems in different ways and come up
with creative solutions as they don’t have a physical
advantage to use
 they develop coping and adapting strategies that will
serve them well in later years (Levett, 2012).
These are valuable skills that a relatively young player can

develop. In the long term, these skills may outweigh any early
physical dominance and, with determination, they can thrive
(Levett, 2012).
Nick Levett published an article on his blog that explains more

about RAE. A child born in May can develop the qualities he
describes. However, this will only happen if they are retained within
the sport and they have the grit to carry on, despite losing some
physical battles with their bigger peers. If their May birthday means
that they are repeatedly left out of teams or physically intimidated
by relatively older children, then they will develop none of these
qualities.
Detailed academic evidence from rugby and cricket academies

also exists. If you want to see the abstract (a very brief summary of
an in-depth analysis) of this research, you can view Start hard,
finish better: further evidence for the reversal of the RAE
advantage.
3 What about brain maturation?

Now you move from physical to brain development. Does the brain
develop at a similar rate to the rest of the body?
Until the late 1990s, it was assumed that most brain development
takes place early in life. Recently, with advances in brain imaging
technology, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI),
neuroscientists like Sarah-Jayne Blakemore have started to look
inside the living human brain.
In a widely viewed online talk called The mysterious workings

of the adolescent brain, Blakemore (2012) describes how the
brain undergoes dramatic development into the early 20s. This is
thought to correspond to connections between cells (synapses), in
which those:
… that are being used are strengthened … You can think of it a bit
like pruning a rosebush. You prune away the weaker branches so
that the remaining, important branches, can grow stronger, and
this process, which effectively fine-tunes brain tissue… is
happening … during adolescence.
(Blakemore, 2012)
The news that the brain continues to develop for a long time after
the rest of the body is surprising, and psychologists are starting to
understand the implications of this.
4 A psychologist’s experience of
working with teenagers
Here you can see psychologist Bradley Busch, who works with
teenagers in schools and on the playing fields, talking about some
of the implications of teenagers thinking differently to adults.
Activity 2 Bradley Busch explains his work in

schools
Bradley Busch runs workshops in schools with teenagers where he

discusses their developing brains in relation to decision-making
and judgement. In this video, he is interviewed by The Open
University’s Ben Oakley about the main talking points teenagers
respond to in those workshops. What are the three main things
that engage teenagers?
Interview with Bradley Busch (Part 1)
View transcript - Interview with Bradley Busch (Part 1)
View discussion - Activity 2 Bradley Busch explains his

work in schools
This interview could have covered a lot more ground but this
infographic (Figure 2) summarises Bradley Busch’s ideas on what
coaches/teachers can do when they know how the teenage brain
is different. Examine each of these five recommendations.
Figure 2 Teenage brain is different infographic.
View description - Figure 2 Teenage brain is different

infographic.
If you want to find out more, read his 2015 Guardian newspaper
article: Secrets of the teenage brain: a psychologist’s guide
for teachers. You will see Bradley Busch again shortly, as you
hear his thoughts on confidence and emotions.
5 Confidence and emotions in

teenagers
As you have seen, teenagers often compare themselves to their
peers and their identity is often uncertain and evolving. Listen to
this example of teenager Rachel, her younger brother Oliver and
their mother talking about the ups and downs of teenage life when
you start secondary school.
In secondary school we have a lot more responsibility
View transcript - In secondary school we have a lot more

responsibility
This family talked about drawing on determination, humour and

confidence in coping with the ups and downs in education, sport
and life.
In this next activity, Bradley Busch explains what his main topics
are when working with teenagers in sport: confidence features
strongly. Keep the voices of Rachel and Oliver in mind as you do
the activity.
Activity 3 Bradley Busch’s top teenage topics in

sport
In this video, Bradley Busch describes the two most common
topics he is asked to address with teenagers in sport. Summarise
the two main points he makes, including the practical guidance he
gives.
Interview with Bradley Busch (Part 2)
View transcript - Interview with Bradley Busch (Part 2)
View discussion - Activity 3 Bradley Busch’s top teenage

topics in sport
You will further explore psychology, confidence and emotions in

Sessions 5 and 6.
Working with young people can be very rewarding due to their

variety and rapid progress. Those experienced with guiding
teenagers know that they can often call on a powerful tool to help
them: the inspirational effect of someone being a model for what is
possible. It is this you turn to next.
6 I could do that: role models

Who inspired you in your teenage years as a role model?
Research shows that role models are particularly effective if they
have regular contact with those who seek to emulate them. This
begs the question: is fame and public recognition the most
powerful type of role model?
Activity 4 Peers as role models in PE

The clip below features a radio interview with Ali Oliver, Chief
Executive of the Youth Sports Trust, talking about how to inspire
young girls in PE. Why does she think peer role models of a
similar age can work well?
Interview with Ali Oliver
View transcript - Interview with Ali Oliver
View discussion - Activity 4 Peers as role models in PE
Have you ever seen someone like you achieve something and
thought ‘I could do that’? Read Box 1 for detailed advice about
how behaviour is often modelled by others.
Box 1 The power of modelling

The academic evidence shows that the power of behaviour and
attitude from ‘someone like me’ means that often the most
influential role models are those with similarities. For instance,
someone:
 from your locality

 doing the same sport event
 who plays the same position in a team sport
 of your generation (i.e. up to a few years older)
 of similar ethnicity
 who attended the same school or club.
If you want to find out more about this, read I could do that: why
role models matter.
The modelling of behaviour, attitudes and beliefs can be very

powerful in adolescence. Consider how you react to public errors
that you make (whether that’s in your role as a coach, teacher
or parent). You may not realise it, but you are showing a possible
way of responding to mistakes. What happens if a similar
behaviour is reinforced again and again as a teenager watches?
Do not be surprised if they respond in a similar way.
This suggests that we all need to be careful to practise what we

preach as a parent, coach or trainer: modelling has powerful
effects.

session quiz.
you’ve finished.
8 Summary
 Increased knowledge of the different teenage growth

rates over time and the possible impact of the relative
age effect on selection and progress. This included
details of how players born later can eventually thrive
through learning important coping strategies.
 A realisation that the brain continues to evolve into the
early 20s. This has implications for self-control and
decision-making/judgement.
 Those guiding teenagers can support their work by
exploring self-control, confidence and emotion in
greater depth.
 Teenage behaviour often responds to models of
significant others such as parents, teachers and
coaches but the most powerful impact is likely to be
from peer role models.
In the next session, you will be turning your attention to coaches.

We are lucky to have behind the scenes interviews with three
national coaches: one is from Sweden, another is from the USA
and a third is from Germany. This brings an international flavour to
the course and with examples from rowing, football and swimming,
you will see some interesting comparisons as to why coaches in
different sports are effective.
Session 4: Comparing international

level coaches
Introduction
You continue your exploration of coaching and psychology by
looking at what approaches have proved effective with
international adult athletes. By looking behind the scenes at this
top level, you will start to understand what drives athletes, how
coaches might best support experienced athletes and how some of
these ideas might transfer to your own learning journey.
Coaching full-time squads is a tough job and there is no one-size-

fits-all approach; each coach will bring their own style and
practices. In this session, you listen to three top coaches talking
about their work; concentrate on comparing and contrasting their
different approaches and philosophies. They give unique insights
beyond the sound bites of standard media interviews and you
should be able to relate some of what they say to your own
experiences of learning.
 identify common themes in the coaching approaches

and philosophies of the three coaches
 recognise that a traditional style of coaching in which
the coach holds all the knowledge is increasingly
being challenged by alternative types of coaching in
which there is a more balanced relationship between
athlete and coach
 explain how encouraging appropriate attitudes, beliefs
and approaches to learning are important aspects of a
coach’s work.
1 What drives international athletes?

How do you develop a good grasp of the needs of those you are
working with and, in particular, the different things that motivate
their work week in, week out? To be an effective coach or teacher
at any level, this is an important aspect to think about. If you can
explain what drives you at a personal level, this self-awareness is
useful in helping navigate work and life.
Activity 1 Heart and soul in rowing

Watch this video which examines why rowers love their sport and
what motivates them. You may find it helpful to watch the video
more than once, to pick up on things you miss the first time you
watch it.
Hearts row to Rio
View transcript - Hearts row to Rio
i. Identify phrases used under three main categories:

mastery of skills, the sport’s environment
and being with others.
ii. Think about your own experience of being coached or
coaching and what athletes would say if you made a
similar video for your sport.
View discussion - Activity 1 Heart and soul in rowing
2 Comparing top coaches

Those coaching international teams will be more successful if they
can support athletes in meeting their needs, such as those
described previously. Good coaches are also likely to be
consistent, as their work is underpinned by a clear set of beliefs
and values and what some might call a ‘coaching philosophy’. You
start your comparison by looking at two coaches working in the
most popular team sport in the world, football.
Activity 2 Pia Sundhage (Team USA and

Sweden)
First listen to some fascinating insights from Pia Sundhage.

Sundhage is one of the world’s top women’s football coaches,
having led Team USA to two consecutive Olympic gold medals.
She then coached the team of her own nation of birth, Sweden, to
a silver medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Interview with Pia Sundhage
View transcript - Interview with Pia Sundhage
She talks about how she managed the severe discord in the US
team when she took over and the way she develops and uses
‘team goals’. Note, that when she mentions ‘the role’ and respect
for it, she is talking about individual roles as part of the team
jigsaw.
If you had to describe the characteristics of her approach to

coaching, how would you do this? Your summary of her approach
will be invaluable when you come to compare it to other coaches in
a moment. You may find the transcript (under the audio’s play-bar)
useful.
View discussion - Activity 2 Pia Sundhage (Team USA and

Sweden)
Now that you have some insight into Pia’s coaching, let’s start to
compare this with another top football coach, Jürgen Klinsmann.
Activity 3 Jürgen Klinsmann (Germany and

USA)
Listen to a short clip from Jürgen Klinsmann (coach for Germany

and the USA at successive World Cups).
Interview with Jürgen Klinsmann
View transcript - Interview with Jürgen Klinsmann
Klinsmann makes comparisons between football and American
team sports such as baseball, basketball and the NFL.
Interestingly, like Sundhage, he also mentions conflicts within
teams.
What similarities and differences can you detect in his approach

compared to Sundhage’s?
View discussion - Activity 3 Jürgen Klinsmann (Germany

and USA)
In neither of these interviews did these coaches present

themselves as a coach who directs and tells players what they
should do. They suggested that they guide the group of players
and try to create a team environment that encourages self-
motivation and responsibility to keep on learning.
3 What about coaching individual-

based sports?
Next, you will hear from Teri McKeever, who has been a swimming
coach at the University of California for almost 25 years. She is
one of the most successful coaches in the world and is known for
her innovation. For instance, her idea of swimming training is one
that also uses yoga, skipping and dancing to hip hop music. It was
with these types of methods that led to her becoming the first ever
female coach of the 2012 US Olympic women’s team (they won 14
medals).
Activity 4 Coaching connections or contrasts?

Listen to the interview with Teri McKeever below. As you listen,

think about the comparisons between her approach to personal
coaching and those of Pia Sundhage and Jurgen Klinsmann. As a
reminder, both Pia and Jurgen talked about players taking
responsibility and making their own decisions in competition. Note
down some of the key terms that she uses to describe her
approach. To what extent are there connections or contrasts
between the approaches of these three coaches?
Interview with Teri McKeever

View transcript - Interview with Teri McKeever
View discussion - Activity 4 Coaching connections or

contrasts?
These interviews and research evidence reinforce a view of

coaching not being formulaic, but something that is incredibly
diverse, with one of the main attributes being that coach’s respond
to the individual, while also shaping the environment and the task.
4 How would you recruit a team?

Some coaches have the luxury of being able to identify and then
recruit those that best fit the group ethos. This is true for
professional sports teams, for example. How would you do this?
Would you look for physical attributes (e.g. size, fitness)? Their
performances as a developing athlete? Their mental attributes? Or
the right ‘mix’ of athletes to make the best team?
Teri McKeever is also in the recruitment field with many potential

swimming scholarship students applying for the University of
California. This next activity describes Teri’s approach using a case
study in a business-related publication.
Activity 5 Selecting for your team

Read the short section titled ‘Selection and Recruitment:

Finding the Right Fit’ from Schroth’s (2013) case study.
This short reading mentions ‘home visits’, as Teri McKeever’s
assistant coach, Cunnane, meets parents and athletes at home as
part of their information gathering.
Identify which sentence of the reading best summarises their

approach to recruitment? Is there anything you consider to be
unusual in their approach?
View discussion - Activity 5 Selecting for your team
Mental aspects of sport and broader learning skills, including

mindset, are something that are explored in more depth in
subsequent sessions.

Now it’s time to complete the Session 4 badge quiz. It is similar to
previous quizzes, but this time instead of answering five questions
there will be fifteen.
Session 4 compulsory badge quiz
Remember, this quiz counts towards your badge. If you’re not

successful the first time, you can attempt the quiz again in 24
hours.
Open the quiz in a new tab or window then come back here when
you’ve finished.
6 Summary
Congratulations – you have reached the halfway point of the
course.
 The common themes in the coaching approaches of

the three coaches were how they encouraged athletes
to take responsibility and make their own decisions.
The terms ‘athlete problem solving’ and ‘empowered’
were used by each coach. McKeever, in particular,
spoke about quality training.
 A traditional style of coaching, in which the coach
holds all the knowledge, is increasingly being
challenged by research that suggests alternative
types of coaching, for example,where there is a more
of a balanced partnership between athlete and coach.
 These coaches don’t just coach technical skills, but
also spend a lot of time encouraging appropriate
attitudes, beliefs and approaches to learning.
Join us on Facebook
We have created a Facebook page, Succeed at OU sport,
fitness and coaching, in which you can discuss aspects of the
course further.
You can use this space to comment on your experiences so far
and respond to any of the other questions from this course. You
will benefit by developing your understanding of the topics in the
course, and you will be able to ask any questions to our
experienced staff – Ben Oakley, Ben Langdown or our team of
sports psychologists.
Interacting with others on the course will also allow you to benefit
from new online material or opportunities (jobs, training other
networks or development events) that others identify and allow you
to view perspectives beyond your own sport. In fact, you will
probably be able to find the answer to many things connected to
sport, fitness or coaching.
When posting remember to introduce yourself by telling others

where you are from, your main sporting interests and any plans
you have for further study or training.
On this Facebook page, you’ll find opportunities to discuss things

like:
 How can I find out more about sports psychology?

 I’m interested in working towards being a PE teacher.
What are my options?
In the next session, you will explore sports psychology in more

detail. There is some very interesting evidence that demonstrates
that how you think about learning and sporting performance has an
impact on the outcomes.
Session 5: Mindset and attitudes

towards sport and learning
Introduction
You have started to see how experienced sports coaches, and
some workplaces, encourage people to think about their training
and progress in certain ways (e.g. personal responsibility, learning,
problem solving). The term ‘mindset’ has often been used by
contributors to this course: but what is meant by mindset?
This session specifically considers sports psychology. In addition

to mindset, you will explore the mental characteristics of those
developing in sport and begin to see what topics sports psychology
address with athletes and their coaches. You work in sports
psychology will continue in the next session.
A lot of the knowledge and skills used in sports psychology can

often be applied to situations that you are familiar with beyond
sport. You will be able to apply much of what is discussed here to
your own experiences or those close to you.
 describe the features and beliefs of a growth and fixed
mindset
 identify the role of feedback from coaches, teachers
and parents in influencing beliefs about ability
 describe mental toughness and the psychological
characteristics of those athletes developing towards
excellence and how these ideas contribute to your
understanding of sporting success.
1 Revisiting your attitudes towards

success
In Session 1 you completed a short questionnaire about your
attitudes towards nature and nurture in sport. At the time, you were
told that it is ‘likely that deeply held beliefs and values will influence
the way people answer’.
Educational psychologist Carol Dweck and others have

investigated the nature of deeply held beliefs about ability and how
these influenced the way children learn. Her book Mindset
(Dweck, 2012) has resulted in ‘growth mindset’ and ‘fixed mindset’
becoming increasingly used terms. What is meant by these terms
will be explained shortly.
Her research made many of those working in education and sport

realise that some people avoid challenging situations where they
might fail, while others embrace challenge as an opportunity to
learn.
2 Your experience of ‘mindset’

Carol Dweck has found that people generally hold one of two firm
beliefs about their ability: they consider it to be either a fixed trait or
something that can be improved over time with effort. She calls
these the fixed and growth mindsets, and there is
persuasive evidence that mindset can seriously influence
performance in the long run.
If you want to see how she came to these conclusions, the video
Carol Dweck: the effect of praise on mindsets summarises
some key experiments using puzzles with schoolchildren that
shaped her theory (Mueller and Dweck, 1998).
Activity 1 Explore mindset from your own

experience
Failure, mistakes and feedback are part of the DNA of sport and,
as you saw in Session 3, they are also a feature of education and
the teenage years. Figure 1 summarises Dweck’s theory. To what
extent do you recognise the different approaches to challenges,
obstacles, effort, criticism and the success of others?
Figure 1 The tendencies and likely results of fixed and growth mindsets
View description - Figure 1 The tendencies and likely

results of fixed and growth mindsets
View discussion - Activity 1 Explore mindset from your own

experience
3 Where do beliefs about ability come

from?
Many beliefs about sport and coaching (including ability) are
implicit. They are taken for granted and not directly expressed.
Therefore, these beliefs are very difficult to change because you
are either unaware that you hold them, or they are so obvious to
you that they don’t warrant your attention.
Part of the process of sport and coaching education, such as this

course and others, is to help make these beliefs explicit and,
therefore, open to reflection, criticism and change.
Dweck suggests beliefs are partly fostered by the kind of praise

and feedback you get from others such as teachers, parents and
coaches. For example, think about the influential position of coach
and parents in the ice skating video, which you watched as part of
Activity 2 in Session 2 (‘The making of an ice princess’).
Research suggests that being praised for ability (e.g. ‘you’re really
talented’ or ‘you’re a natural’), despite the initial thrill of a
compliment, soon gives way to reduced motivation and overall
performance (Mueller and Dweck, 1998).
It is preferable to encourage athletes by using expressions such as

‘you worked really hard at that’, which encourage the development
of a growth mindset, as long as praise is not so frequent it loses its
impact.
Figure 2 is a summary of sentences that young people can be

encouraged to use as a starting point to move them towards a
growth mindset.
Figure 2 Sentences that you can use to encourage young people to use to
support a growth mindset
View description - Figure 2 Sentences that you can use to
encourage young people to use to support a ...
In fact, if you search online for ‘mindset sport coaching’, you will
find many resources that reinforce the above points. Figure 3
comes from another researcher in the field of educational
research, Angela Duckworth, and illustrates a similar focus on
effort and persistence.
Figure 3 The Iceberg Illusion
View description - Figure 3 The Iceberg Illusion
4 Making it early in sport

In Session 3 you saw a vivid example of the hunger, drive and
mindset needed to work towards mastery of rowing. Often in sport,
a rising teenager (15–18 years old) bursts onto the adult national
or international scene: what can happen to your hunger and
mindset beliefs if you ‘make it’ early in sport (i.e. aged under 18)?
Author Rasmus Ankersen explains what his and others’s research

has shown.
My definition of a winner is basically ‘a loser who has evaluated

themselves’. This relates very well to a study that looked at the
golden generation of Swedish tennis players. Back in the 80s and
90s Sweden had 5 of the top 10 best (male) tennis players in the
world (e.g. Bjorn Borg et al) and the research showed that almost
every one of them were not in the top 5 in the country as
youngsters.
It’s interesting because those who start out with a big advantage or
talent as youngsters don’t make it; it can be a disadvantage to be
too good too early because you kind of feel entitled. Whereas a lot
of these young Swedish tennis players had to struggle, they had to
think about ‘how can I improve?’ and ‘why is this important to me?’
and ‘am I willing to do what it takes?’ So they all had an evaluation
mentality and that is what made them winners.
(Ankersen, 2016)
Consider the following statements.
 Most children who are very successful in sport in

childhood do not go on to later sporting success.
 Most people who are very successful as adults did not
achieve amazing things in childhood.
You may be able to think of exceptions to these statements.

However, they are in the minority. One thing is certain though, the
appropriate motivation to continue learning is vital.
5 Sports psychologists explain their

work
You have explored learning, feedback and those who experience
failure, but what about something you so often hear in commentary
and observations about those competing in sport: what are the
qualities of ‘resilient’ or ‘mentally tough’ sportspeople?
In the next two activities, you hear from two leading sports
psychologists who articulate what these terms, or their own
versions of them, mean.
Activity 2 What is this thing called mental

toughness?
This activity (which takes its name from Jones’ 2002 article on
mental toughness) introduces you to sports psychologist Peter
Clough, who explains why ‘mental toughness’ is important for
school children to master for their general development. Listen to
this interview between a BBC interviewer and Peter Clough, and
respond to the two questions below.
Peter Clough on toughness
View transcript - Peter Clough on toughness

1. What are the characteristics of Peter Clough’s version
of mental toughness?
2. What steps does he describe for enhancing mental
toughness?
View discussion - Activity 2 What is this thing called

mental toughness?
Next, you will hear from another sports psychologist, Dave Collins,
who talks about the ideas that come from his research: he calls
them the Psychological Characteristics for Developing Excellence
(PCDE)
Activity 3 Negotiating challenges on the rocky

road
Listen to the following interview with Dave Collins, one of the key
authors of the PCDE research.
1. Dave Collins talks about psychological characteristics.

What characteristic of sporting development does he
focus on?
2. What is the connection to snow ploughing and his
reference to super champs (champions) and champs
in the second half of the clip?
Dave Collins on PCDE research
View transcript - Dave Collins on PCDE research
View discussion - Activity 3 Negotiating challenges on the

rocky road
Next, you will go on to explore psychological characteristics in

more detail beyond responding to challenges.
6 Psychological characteristics
explained
There is debate among the sports psychology community about
the concept of mental toughness and the ability for it to be
measured and developed. There is agreement, though, that
sportspeople need to possess key psychobehavioural
characteristics in order to progress (e.g. Abbot et al., 2002). One
way to investigate such characteristics is by interviewing top
athletes, and there are many researchers who have done this.
You will focus on MacNamara et al.’s (2010) work with Dave

Collins, who you have just heard from in Activity 4. Their interviews
are particularly useful since they cover research from sport, as well
as musical performance.
Activity 4 Developing young athletes

Read the article Developing excellence in young athletes,

which provides a fascinating overview of the nine Psychological
Characteristics for Developing Excellence (PCDE). Consider which
of the nine characteristics provide you with new insights not yet
fully explained on the course and which overlap and connect in
some way with what you have already read about.
View discussion - Activity 4 Developing young athletes

You will be investigating some of these in greater detail in Session
6, which specifically focuses on some of the psychological skills
used in sport and in life generally.

session quiz.
you’ve finished.
8 Summary
 The main features of fixed or growth mindsets stem

from people’s beliefs about ability and incorporate
attitudes and behaviours towards challenges,
obstacles, effort, criticism and the success of others.
 Mindset beliefs influence the overall control people feel
they have over their learning and when striving for
continuous improvement. For a player with a growth
mindset, failure and mistakes are viewed as feedback
opportunities.
 The behaviour and communication of coaches,
teachers and parents influence beliefs about ability
and hence a growth mindset.
 There are similarities between the ideas of mental
toughness and the psychological characteristics of
developing excellence (PCDE). The nine items used
in the description of PCDE encompass a breadth of
skills that psychologists often develop for performance
in music, sport and education.
In the next session, you will discover how psychological skills and
strategies are used to help make sense of fear, anxiety and
emotion in sport. It is a fascinating topic.
Session 6: Psychological skills for

life and sport
Introduction
In this session, you will take a look at a few of the more common
psychological skills used both in life and in sporting competition,
which can be used to respond to fear, anxiety and emotion. In your
work, family or sporting life, you are likely to face situations in
which you need to perform under pressure, such as giving a
speech or being assessed for something (e.g. a driving test). You
will look at case study videos and examples, which will give inside
knowledge of how people such as Alex Danson use sports
psychology in action.
The session starts with Michael Johnson and Chris Hoy discussing
mental preparation for high-pressure situations, before moving on
to how athletes and psychologists make sense of emotions and
ways in which they can be controlled. Some of the specific
techniques that athletes use before and during competition are
then explored, including pre-competition routines, imagery and
self-talk. You will finish by hearing how others face an intense
situation, such as taking a penalty, and then play an online penalty
shoot-out game.
 understand how psychological skills complement

physical skills in sport and that both can be developed
 identify ways of making sense of fear and anxiety and
also controlling the emotions created from these
 describe, in outline, three psychological terms:
imagery, pre-performance routine and self-talk.
1 Chris Hoy’s story

Chris Hoy’s diverse childhood sporting background supports what
was written in previous sessions about not ‘making it’ early. In Box
1 you will look at his route to cycling, before watching a video
about his use of psychological skills at a key point in his
career.
Box 1 Chris Hoy’s route to cycling

Chris Hoy was one of Great Britain’s most successful track
cyclists, but he had an indirect path into cycling. In adolescence,
he participated in rugby, athletics and rowing. He was proficient at
them all, especially rowing, which he loved, but found that he was
most physically suited to cycling. After international BMX racing
from age 7 to 14, he transferred his skills to mountain biking, then
road racing. Eventually, when he was 17, he found track cycling
and he was smitten with the experience.
His father emphasised the benefit of Chris not being a child

champion:
He [Chris] was never up there but he just kept plugging away.

You’ve seen other kids who were winning all the time and when
they get beaten they don’t like it so they stop what they’re doing.
As long as they’re enjoying it and they’re doing pretty well, there is
not a lot between first and second.
(Hoy, 2013)
Activity 1 Chris Hoy’s experiences of using

psychological skills
Watch the following video, in which Chris Hoy catches up with

Michael Johnson. Which of the psychological skills does he
describe as the most useful to him? You may find the PCDE list
from the previous session useful.
Chris Hoy’s experiences of using sport psychology
View transcript - Chris Hoy’s experiences of using sport

psychology
View discussion - Activity 1 Chris Hoy’s experiences of

using psychological skills
Chris Hoy’s story of excelling under intense pressure should help

you to identify in more detail what performing under pressure
entails.
2 The art of performing under pressure

There are times in our lives when we all have to face performing
under pressure, for example, an exam, a presentation, an
interview or an intimidating social event. Dave Alred (elite
performance coach to Rugby World Cup hero Jonny Wilkinson, as
well as top golfers) has identified a range of strategies that he uses
in his coaching. In addition to refining people’s technique, Dave
Alred works with:
 posture and body language

 imagery
 designing practices with pressure (covered in Session
7)
 trigger phrases.
Figure 1 Dave Alred

View description - Figure 1 Dave Alred
You will cover trigger phrases as part of self-talk later in this

session, but the purpose of introducing you to Dave Alred now is to
allow you to read an article about him on OpenLearn: The art of
performing under pressure.
In the next section, you will consider some of the things he talks
about in a little more detail: fear, anxiety, emotions, routines and
self-talk.
3 Fear and anxiety

The fear and anxiety experienced by players about to take crucial
shots is a natural human response to a demanding situation. In
this activity, Michael Johnson explores a sport in which there a
huge mental challenge, largely because there is a very real threat
to life and limb: downhill ski racing.
Activity 2 A ski racer crashes − primitive fear

In the following video, you will see Michael Johnson hearing about
fear and anxiety in ski racing. Please avoid watching the whole
film. Your main task is to summarise how neuroscientist Ben
Seymour describes fear and anxiety.
Go to the video Michael Johnson downhill skier – BBC Inside

Sport special and start watching at 12:35 for one minute only
until Ben Seymour finishes. If you want to watch ski racer Scott
McCartney’s stomach-churning crash including the reactions of
those watching go back to 08:06 in the video, but be warned that
you may find it uncomfortable to watch.
This puts Ben Seymour’s words into a graphic context and it is his
academic explanation of fear and anxiety that should be your main
focus.
View discussion - Activity 2 A ski racer crashes − primitive
fear
Next, you will discover how people manage their emotions of fear
and anxiety.
4 Managing your emotions and anxiety

Psychologists working in all fields of human endeavour are
seeking ways of helping people deal with fear and anxiety. Fear is
not just about primitive threats to life; it is also about the broader
range of negative emotions and anxieties that can sabotage even
simple tasks. The causes of this fear could be a phobia about
spiders, threats to one’s self-esteem (e.g. asking for a date) or the
stressful situations athletes face.
Over the years, psychologists have developed ways of helping

people to distract themselves from focusing too much on negative
emotions and thoughts. One example is psychiatrist Steve Peters,
who talks of a primitive chimp-like voice representing a part of the
brain. This echoes with our primitive evolutionary past, which Ben
Seymour spoke of in the ski racing film in Activity 2. This reference
to a chimp is a teaching tool that helps people understand and
thus control their emotions better. In the next activity, you will hear
directly from multiple snooker world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan
on how he learnt to control his negative emotions with the help of
Steve Peters. This falls under the ‘resilience and self-regulation’
part of PCDEs.
Activity 3 Controlling your emotions in sport

Watch the video below. How did Ronnie O’Sullivan develop his
understanding that enabled him to help control his emotions?
Ronnie O’Sullivan on controlling his emotions
View transcript - Ronnie O’Sullivan on controlling his

emotions
View discussion - Activity 3 Controlling your emotions in

sport
Ronnie O’Sullivan (2013) has also reported a five-point ‘anchor’

that helped control his emotions, which is summarised below:
1. Do my best; that’s all I can do.

2. I want to be here competing.
3. I’m an adult, not a chimp. I can deal with anything.
4. It’s impossible to play well all the time.
5. What would I say to my children if they said their game
was not right?
Again, you can see these statements reinforce his logical self,
rather than any emotional impulses, and help displace negative
thoughts.
5 Seeing challenge as an opportunity

As you have heard from both Chris Hoy and Ronnie O’Sullivan,
performing under pressure is partly about how challenges are
framed. While ‘butterflies in the stomach’ from anxiety can be
unsettling, the only way to get them to ‘fly in formation’ (Hanton
and Jones, 1999) is to try out new strategies of dealing with
situations rather than avoiding them.
Skilful coaches and parents therefore talk through how young

people might approach a pressurised event and help give them the
skills (e.g. imagery, self-talk, appropriate goals – see PCDEs in
Session 5, Activity 4) to cope with the demands they face. You
may recall that there was a scenario related to this in the Medal
Quest game – you will get a chance to try it again at the end of the
next session with the help of this new knowledge.?
6 Emphasising the familiar: pre-

competition routines
There is something very safe and familiar about a routine (or even
a ‘ritualistic pattern’) that you adopt when you prepare for work, to
drive your car or to go out with others. Sportspeople emphasise
these principles of familiarity and control, so that they can prepare
to face the most intense situations with a consistent approach. It
partly distracts them from feeling anxiety. A routine becomes a sort
of safe haven. This is the unseen side of sport.
Muhammed Ali once said, ‘the fight is won or lost far away from
witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the
road, long before I dance under those lights’, and although it is
unclear to what he was referring, these words are appropriate for
pre-competition routines.
Activity 4 Behind the lines

Watch part of the video BBC Sport – London 2012 psychology,

in which Jonathan Edwards and Matthew Syed briefly summarise
pre-performance routines. This is a deliberately short clip.
What three elements do they outline that people might draw on to

help overcome self-doubt and/or nerves? How does this compare
to your own preparation moments before a key high pressure
moment in sport of work?
View discussion - Activity 4 Behind the lines
Figure 2 gives a useful summary of some of the latest thinking and

research in this topic.
Figure 2 The new science of embracing performance anxiety.

View description - Figure 2 The new science of embracing
performance anxiety.
The routine athletes construct before they compete is therefore

part of their armoury, but they can also use another powerful tool to
help them as part of their routine: what they say to themselves.
7 Self-talk before important sporting

moments
When you are learning to drive, you are often taught a bit of self-
talk to remind you what to focus on next, for example, ‘mirror-
signal-manoeuvre’. Earlier Dave Alred described these as trigger
phrases. What do you say to yourself when you face important
moments in sport, such as a penalty, tennis serve or golf shot?
Here is more detail in how self-talk is used from a large online

study. Michael Johnson used four different types of self-talk in a
BBC Lab UK online experiment in which 44,700 people took
part (Lane et al., 2016). You are not required to work through BBC
Lab UK resource – it is for information only.
In the online study before users completed an online concentration

task, Johnson showed participants one of four types of self-talk,
each with a different focus. Here are the four phrases with their
associated focus:
 ‘I can react quicker this time’ – the process of

completing the task
 ‘I can beat my best score’ – motivation towards a
positive outcome of the task
 ‘I will stay calm’ – the control of
excitement/anxiety during the task
 ‘I will focus completely on each number I need
to find’ – instructional guidance for the task.
In this experiment, a focus on process and outcome was found to

be the most effective use of self-talk. If you want to read the full
academic study, see Brief Online Training Enhances
Competitive Performance: Findings of the BBC Lab UK
Psychological Skills Intervention Study.
Now let’s consider how this applies to penalty taking.
8 Self-talk before penalty taking

Read about Alex Danson’s experiences before taking a penalty.
How can her use of self-talk be categorised into a process, a
motivational outcome, a control of excitement/anxiety or an
instructional focus?
Alex says ...

During the semi-final of the Olympic Games we won a penalty
stroke, almost immediately I knew it was my job to step up to the
spot. The last time I took a penalty stroke was at the European
Nations Cup, and I had missed. I had consciously changed a few
behaviours after this last experience. Firstly, in this instance, I
outwardly celebrated winning the stroke. I then picked up the ball
and very slowly walked to the spot where I put the ball down. I
stood up very tall and looked at the goal and visualised exactly
where I would put the shot. I then paused, took a deep breath and
remember thinking, ‘this is going in’. I didn’t let any negative
thought pass through my mind. I had done all the practice, I had a
physical and mental routine and although I was in an Olympic
semi-final, it felt like I was just taking another shot back at our
training base at Bisham Abbey. In this example, I scored and we
went through to the Olympic Final.
In contrast, at the end of the Olympic Final, I had a penalty shuffle,

a different skill to a stroke, but requiring the same mental skills. I
employed all the same techniques and this time the keeper saved
it, but this was an outcome I had already accepted was a
possibility before the game had even started. This was important
as my mind and body had to be ready if I was needed to step up
and take another, in case it got around to sudden death. For me,
the acceptance of either outcome before the game meant on both
occasions I took the stroke and shuffle without nerves and full of
confidence.
Notice how Alex had consciously adjusted her behaviours from the
European Nations Cup. Her routine was deliberately orientated
towards a positive outcome of the task (i.e. saying ‘this is going in’)
and her body language (i.e. standing tall), visualisation (i.e. the
placement of the ball in the goal) a set routine and acceptance of
either score or saved outcome all helped towards controlling
excitement/anxiety.
9 Penalty shoot-out game

Now that you have more knowledge about psychological skills, you
might want to try the Open University strategic shoot-out
game.
The game draws on evidence of some of the player selection and

pre-routine factors used in successful approaches to penalty
taking. It has engaged tens of thousands of users interested in
finding out a little more about some of the influences in penalty
taking.

session quiz.
you’ve finished.
11 Summary
 Psychological skills in sport can be refined by

practising them as part of the development path in
sport. Coaching towards elite levels in sport might
therefore be considered as a balance between
challenge, support and psychological skills.
 Fear and anxiety are a natural reaction to demanding
situations in which the primitive parts of the brain
respond to threat. The rational part of the brain can be
used to interpret and control heightened emotions.
 The use of imagery as a psychological skill helps
athletes reinforce their control, block out distractions
and focus on their own performance.
 Controlling emotions can be developed by viewing
challenges as active choices and not obstacles, and
taking responsibility for thoughts, feelings and
behaviours.
 Self-talk is used to help focus thoughts towards
relevant aspects of performance and can have a
process, motivational, emotional control or
instructional focus.
 Pre-performance routines build familiarity and control
into pressurised situations and might draw on habits,
imagery and self-talk to help achieve this.
In the next session, you will be seeing how the science of learning
and teaching can have an important influence on how coaches
design effective training sessions. It is connected to coaching and
athlete creativity and you may be surprised at how the evidence
points towards a fresh look at coaching.
Session 7: A fresh look at coaching
Introduction
In this session, you will examine how coaching styles and practice
sessions might be changing. The coach is the person who designs
practice sessions, and they play a key role in creating imaginative
situations in which their athletes can learn and refine technical,
psychological and tactical skills.
You will start by hearing from leading coaches describing their

work at both a club level and an international level. Both scenarios
question the use of repetitive drills and you will find out why. You
continue by exploring practice principles developed by Bailey
(2014a) who, with some humour, called them ‘coaching
commandments’.
 describe some outline features of ‘how’ coaches might

run sessions that help people learn
 recognise the role of creativity in providing quality
practices
 appreciate how principles based on the science of
learning and teaching have an important place in
influencing coaching, teaching and instruction in sport.
1 How do coaches design practice

sessions?
Your exploration of coaching sessions starts by considering a
typical situation in clubs and gyms. In Box 1, an experienced Irish
coach (Adrian O’ Sullivan) describes two friends asking for help
with their next coaching session. He identifies a significant contrast
between them.
Box 1 Training session advice

I get two texts from friends of mine. Both have started taking
training sessions with teams in their respective clubs. The first one
(A) is along the lines of ‘I’ve just started doing a bit of coaching,
have you any drills for me?’. The other guy (B) comes to me and
says ‘The under fourteens I’m coaching are weak under the aerial
ball; how can I work on it in a training session?’
Both questions might appear to be very similar. But immediately

without ever seeing them on the training ground I know that one of
these guys is already on a different level to the other. However, I
also think that they are both limiting their horizons by seeking the
easy option and asking someone for a drill.
Friend A has fallen into the trap that befalls so many trainers out
there. He has sixty minutes to fill [emphasis added] on a
Thursday evening and he wants three drills to fill the time before
the kids play a match. Preferably drills that are easy to execute but
look complex enough that the … parents looking on and the
chairman of the club look at him and say ‘Jeez fair play to him he’s
… good’.
He has no goal in mind for the session. No learning outcome that

he wants the players to achieve and hasn’t identified any
weaknesses to work on.
Friend B is thinking like a teacher [coach]. He has identified a

weakness in his team and he is looking for a way to work on
improving this in his session.
(O’Sullivan, 2015)
Activity 1 Training session advice

Read the contents of Box 1 about the contrast between a ‘trainer’

and a ‘coach’ from the perspective of Adrian O’Sullivan. From what
sources do most coaches learn how to run their sessions?
View discussion - Activity 1 Training session advice
There is a danger that many coaches continue using the practices

that they are most comfortable with, without consciously designing
learning into sessions and then reflecting on it.
2 Richard Bailey’s ‘coaching

commandments’
Richard Bailey is an academic focusing on learning and education
in sport and has developed five coaching commandments,
which he describes as the appliance of science in teaching and
learning. By science he means:
thinking coaching through, and using a genuine critical attitude

about what we do, there has to be evidence, there has to be
science and reasons for doing things; coaching is dominated by
tradition, sometimes this is harmless but sometimes it does harm
and holds athletes and coaches back.
(Bailey, 2015)
Activity 2 Richard Bailey’s first two coaching

commandments
Watch the following video in which Richard Bailey describes his

five coaching commandments.
Richard Bailey’s five coaching commandments
View transcript - Richard Bailey’s five coaching
commandments
Identify the main point of the first two of his commandments:
1. You learn to play the game by playing the game.

2. It’s quality, not quantity, of practice that matters most.
View discussion - Activity 2 Richard Bailey’s first two

coaching commandments
2.1 You learn to play by playing the

game
Richard Bailey’s (2014a) first coaching commandment is not
universally used, despite seeming obvious. In the next activity, you
will hear Olympic coaching advisor Simon Timson (at the time from
UK Sport) talking with Matthew Syed (journalist and former elite
athlete) about the absence of stimulating and stretching sessions
in some coaching they have watched.
Activity 3 Stimulating and stretching sessions

Listen to the discussion and consider the four recommendations

about practice sessions that emerge.
Simon Timson and Matthew Syed
View transcript - Simon Timson and Matthew Syed
View discussion - Activity 3 Stimulating and stretching

sessions
A highly contextual environment refers to skills being developed in

the context of the competitive situation, rather than in isolation, for
example, in repetitive drills. Would you teach someone to play golf
solely on a golf driving range or teach netball unopposed? These
ideas are similar to a model called Teaching Games for
Understanding (Kirk and MacPhail, 2002).
One of the aims of this section is to draw attention to coaching

creativity, but you may wonder ‘what is creative about game-like
practice sessions?’ Alex Danson’s hockey coach explains his
innovation in the next section.
2.2 Coaching and creativity

Danny Kerry is the Head Coach of the England and Great Britain’s
Women’s Hockey team, and is responsible for coaching them at
the Olympics. He describes his design of practices moving beyond
drills and repetition.
Box 2 Danny Kerry talks about his session

design
Danny is an advocate of … challenging his athletes to find
solutions to problems themselves rather than [them] hang on his
every word.
‘I’m a massive believer in continually creating the problems for the

athletes to self-organise solutions to,’ he says.
‘I’m constantly thinking about session design with the other

coaches and with some of the other practitioners … thinking
creatively about how we can create problems
[emphasis added] in the environment and discuss what a really
great outcome might be. Then tell the athletes to work towards
achieving that outcome.’
There tends to be more of a reluctance among the older players to

strike out on their own, preferring an approach of repetitive drilling.
‘They’ve grown up in an environment where they have had a lot of

this type of coaching and perceive it as good coaching. I try to
challenge back and tell them that the hockey environment is
changing half second by half second, and you have to [continually]
decide which method or skill to use ...’
(Richardson, 2015)
Activity 4 Danny Kerry's creative session design

Read the contents of Box 2 and consider why athletes and parents
in your sport or gym environment might prefer repetitive drills to
this more creative approach.
View discussion - Activity 4 Danny Kerry's creative session

design
Alex Danson backs up Danny Kerry’s approach to session design.
Alex says …
As a young athlete, I spent many hours training and practising on
my own. On one level, this was an excellent use of my time and
meant that technically I became very good. However, as I have
progressed in my career I have realised the art of ‘skill’ is to be
able to apply it in the right situation, which is forever changing in
hockey. In our world, I could be the most technically gifted player at
reverse stick shooting, but if I am unable to choose the appropriate
time to use this skill in a game, then my technical excellence is
cancelled out. We spend ninety per cent of our training week in
training drills that ensure we have to make decisions. We do not
use cones or play many small-sided games, but use game-related
drills to make sure that we learn to make the correct decisions
under the pressure of a changing game environment.
Perhaps athletes and parents need to appreciate why a shift in

coaching style to something similar to Alex’s experience helps
people to learn. The second of Richard Bailey’s coaching
commandments explores this shift in style further.
3 Quality not quantity of practice

When you listened to Teri McKeever in Activity 4 in Session 4,
she was largely agreeing with this commandment when she said:
I think there’s a place for volume but there’s also a place for
quality. And I don’t always mean quality is faster, I think quality is
about quality technique, quality is about purposefulness, intention,
the relationship to your racing event.
(The Documentary, 2014)
If you also consider team sport, Eddie Jones (England rugby union
coach) emphasises that sessions are sharp with no stopping to
rectify mistakes.
The saying practice makes perfect is untrue [emphasis

added] when it comes to preparing for a match. A game of rugby is
chaotic, not structured. You have to be able to react, make
decisions and work out where you went wrong. The old way of
training was nice and slow, everything done methodically, but that
is finished now because rugby is not like that any more.
(Rees, 2016)
This principle suggests, at higher levels of sport, an increasing

intensity and focus to practice that encourages athletes to solve
problems in varied situations. This requires detailed planning from
coaches. The old methodical approach, often using drills, was
easier to control and manage, which is partly why coaches are so
comfortable using it.
4 Richard Bailey’s other

commandments – how to coach
You now revisit the coaching commandments video to focus on
Richard Bailey’s final three commandments.
Activity 5 Richard Bailey’s final three coaching

commandments
You will now go back to think about Richard Bailey’s five coaching
commandments. You may like to watch the video again.
Richard Bailey’s five coaching commandments
View transcript - Richard Bailey’s five coaching

commandments
Identify the main point of each of the final three coaching

commandments:
 Praise and criticism should be used wisely.

 The way you coach is as important as what you coach.
 It is impossible to tell the future.
View discussion - Activity 5 Richard Bailey’s final three

All of these coaching commandments are supported by research.
If you want to find out more about his final three coaching
commandments, you can read the articles below. This is optional
and not a requirement.
 Coaches should use praise and criticism wisely: The

problem with praise: praise is not always a
good thing (Bailey, 2014b)
 The way you coach is as important as what you coach:
Let the creative sparks fly: the ‘C’ system
(Richardson, 2016)
 It is impossible to tell the future: Survival of the

fittest or survival of talent (O’Sullivan, 2015)
5 Final thoughts: a fresh approach?

Throughout this course, coaching that emphasises athletes making
decisions and different styles of quality practices has been
discussed.
Box 3 is a snapshot of how the English Football Association’s (FA)

youth coaching badge scheme is adjusting its approach. This
extract is taken from the start of a Guardian newspaper article
entitled FA’s youth coaching game-changer means more
ball-work and less shouting.
Box 3 FA’s youth coaching game-changer

means more ball-work and less shouting
A fresh approach to the education of coaches moves away from
the command-style model to a method that is more about
whispering than hairdryer treatment.
‘Hey Thomas. Love your bravery to try that first-time pass. Keep it
up. Your next challenge is to make sure you leave the ball playable
for Adam or Conor ...’
(Fahey, 2016)
You may think from ‘hairdryer treatment’ to ‘whispering’ is rather

far-fetched. However, if you look carefully at the quote at the start
of the article about Thomas’s ‘bravery’ and ‘your next challenge’,
you can begin to see feedback on effort and challenge that closely
resembles Dweck’s (2012) ideas on a growth mindset. Is coaching
changing? Your own experience of sports coaching as a parent or
participant will be a good judge of this. Contribute to the dialogue
on the Succeed at OU sport, fitness and coaching Facebook
page.

session quiz.
you’ve finished.
7 Summary
 Some of the features of coaching sessions that help

people learn include:
 coaches have a clear learning goal
 providing variety
 allowing a trial and error approach
 reviewing the session afterwards.
 Creativity in designing training sessions helps provide
quality practices by encouraging participants to:
 react to game-like situations
 solve problems
 make decisions, even if some of their
solutions are unorthodox.
 Richard Bailey’s five commandments are principles
based on the science of learning and teaching and
can help guide coaching.
In the next session, you will explore the future of coaching in light
of technological developments. By focusing on two examples of
technology, you will develop your ability to question and critique
what is often reported about such developments in the media.
Session 8: The future of coaching:

technological influences
Introduction
This final session explores how sport, coaching and exercise may
change in the next 20 years. There has already been a discernible
shift in coaching to a more evidence-based approach; now you will
consider technological developments that might influence a
coach’s work. You will do this with the help of Michael Johnson,
who has travelled to various organisations looking at what the
future might hold.
This session starts with three short videos from Michael Johnson,
each casting light on some significant likely changes in sport. The
first video features interviews with a Red Bull sport scientist, the
second focuses on the recovery from exercise and the third on
wearable technologies.
Critically examining online and media sources will help you to

make sense of your sporting interests and the world around you.
For this reason, you will be asked to respond to an important
question: how much can we trust what journalists say?
 list two type of broad claims made about technological

innovation in sport and exercise
 outline key themes from technological developments
that may influence coaching and instruction in the
future
 start understanding how to evaluate evidence and
journalist’s claims in sport, coaching and exercise.
1 Where next in coaching and

exercise?
Gazing into the future can be fascinating and can be used to help
identify some of the main themes that are starting to influence
coaching and instructional practice today. Throughout this session,
you will consider how much of what you see or read is verifiable
with evidence.
Activity 1 What sporting future?

Watch the following videohttp://www.open.edu/openlearn/health-

sports-psychology/health/sport-and-fitness/what-sporting-future-
risks-and-rewards?in_menu=321885?
utm_source=openlearn&utm_campaign=ol&utm_medium=ebook,
in which Michael Johnson hears from sporting professionals on
what they think the future of sport holds. Can you identify three to
five overall themes that are shaping the future of sport? To give an
example, one of the themes is clearly about technological
developments.
What sporting future: risks and rewards
View transcript - What sporting future: risks and rewards
View discussion - Activity 1 What sporting future?
If you want to understand more about a very real example of

technological augmentation, you may want to read this article
about a Paralympic long jumper, Should ‘Blade Jumper’ Markus
Rehm be allowed in the Olympics?
2 Recovering from intense exercise

Recovery from exercise is a very good example of an area in
which rapid gains in technology and understanding have been
made since 2010.
Activity 2 Recovery: the new frontier?

Watch the following video , in which Michael Johnson hears from

physiologists and trainers about developments in this field. What, if
anything, surprised you in this video?
Recovery: the next frontier in sporting progress?
View transcript - Recovery: the next frontier in sporting

progress?
View discussion - Activity 2 Recovery: the new frontier?
The how the body works theme, including recovery, has

benefited from equipment/devices becoming more available;
however, some of the equipment is costly (e.g. ice cryogenic
chamber), so is not yet accessible to all.
3 Wearable technology
One device that is modestly priced, very portable and influencing
many people is wearable technology. For example, you may have
a better understanding of how your body responds by using a
wearable device (e.g. measuring sleep patterns, steps taken, skin
temperature, heart rate).
Activity 3 Johnson investigates new smart

devices
Watch the video below which has two sections: first, Michael
Johnson visits the developers of new smart clothing in the USA
and second, he heard from David Brailsford (UK) about a possible
future with real-time nutritional aids. How useful are these two
innovations likely to be for coaches and sports people?
Looking inside the engine: US and UK perspectives
View transcript - Looking inside the engine: US and UK

perspectives
View discussion - Activity 3 Johnson investigates new

smart devices
There is a lot of hype and excitement about developments and,
while you can trust some sources when they speak about these
advances, you have to treat many with caution. For example,
numerous ambitious claims are made for technological advances
on the internet and through social media, but the scientific
credibility of some of these is highly questionable. It is worthwhile
reflecting on the ways in which you might be able to evaluate the
reliability of some of the claims made about ‘sport science’
advances. What clues are there that the claims are realistic and
based on sound science? What clues are there that you are being
presented with a scam?
4 How much can we trust what

journalists say?
You certainly cannot believe everything you read and fact and
fiction often become blurred in sporting practice. For example, the
media and public perception of coaching is often a long way from
the reality of what scientists and coaches actually do.
Next, you will be asked to choose one claim from WIRED

magazine, who describe themselves as ‘bringing you the people,
the trends and the big ideas that will change our lives’ (WIRED,
2016), and look at the veracity of their journalistic claims.
Activity 4 Read about two innovations you will

investigate further
Read part of the following WIRED article 15 innovations

pushing human performance to the limit. The purpose of this
activity is to read about two of the innovations (innovation 7, ‘The
filter that spots trainability’, and innovation 14, ‘Tools designed to
warm up the mind’). Identify which of the two claims you may
already know something about from this course.
View discussion - Activity 4 Read about two innovations

you will investigate further
5 How to evaluate a claim or innovation

It is worth pausing for you to think how you will evaluate such
claims or innovations. You will take three steps:
1. First, you will need to pin down exactly what is the

claim that is being made? Often the words, language
and, perhaps, use of a newsworthy story can often
make it difficult to extract the central argument or, in
this case, the claimed impact of an innovation.
2. Second, look for research evidence, preferably from a
scientific journal or credible publication, or examples
showing the support of other unbiased organisations.
Remember the support of a commercial organisation
might be more about money, rather than an
endorsement of any claims being valid.
3. Finally, short articles such as those in WIRED will
often present the information in a very short outline. Is
there any key information missing that would help
evaluate the claim further?
You will briefly consider these points for innovation 7 (‘The filter
that spots trainability’) before spending more time on innovation 14
(‘Tools designed to warm up the mind’).
6 Examining ‘The filter that spots

trainability’
This section will help you check your early ideas in evaluating the
way this innovation is described and any claims made.
Activity 5 Evaluating innovation 7

Read The filter that spots trainability again and identify:
i. What is the claimed innovation?

ii. Does anything help support its credibility?
iii. Is there any key information missing that would help
evaluate the innovation further?
View discussion - Activity 5 Evaluating innovation 7
You may reach a conclusion that the claims made in this part of the
WIRED article are partly supported by evidence, although the
journalistic language is very sensational.
You have started to evaluate online material and ask questions

about this claimed innovation but you will now explore innovation
14 in more detail.
7 Examining ‘Tools to warm up the

mind’
Since innovation is entirely new to you, we will evaluate the way
this innovation is described and then look for further evidence with
the help of Michael Johnson.

Read Tools to warm up the mind again and identify:
i. What is the claimed innovation?

ii. Does anything help support its credibility?
iii. Is there any key information missing that would help
evaluate this innovation further?
View discussion - Activity 5 Evaluating innovation 14
You have started to evaluate this, but you can now explore a little
deeper.
7.1 Exploring further

Here you will spend a few more minutes looking further into
innovation 14.
Activity 6 Michael Johnson visits Halo

Neuroscience
In this video, Michael Johnson hears from Daniel Chao, the

founder of Halo Neuroscience. How does the video expand your
understanding of the claims made about this innovation? Can you
detect any opinion that Michael has about this innovation?
Michael Johnson meets Daniel Chao
View transcript - Michael Johnson meets Daniel Chao
View discussion - Activity 6 Michael Johnson visits Halo

Neuroscience
If you visit the Halo Neuroscience website, the details of the

electrical pulses are explained under Frequently Asked
Questions, as are questions about user safety.
One of the best independent summaries of the evidence and

ethics of this innovation is provided by a short readable article
Brain stimulation in sport: is it fair? Your conclusion from
evaluating this innovation may, like Johnson, be slightly
circumspect. However, this example does illustrate how you should
be cautious in what you interpret from online sources, while also
recognising that sport, coaching and exercise could look very
different in the years ahead.
8 Thinking about where your sport

and/or coaching is going
To finish your work for this week, you will now use social media to
express your views.
Activity 7 Where is coaching and sport going

next?
Make a post to an appropriate online network (i.e. the Succeed

at OU sport, fitness and coaching Facebook page or your
own blog) about where your sport and/or coaching is going, based
on you what you have read. Articulating your thoughts is a good
way of making them explicit and will help clarify your thinking.
View discussion - Activity 7 Where is coaching and sport

going next?

Congratulations on almost reaching the end of the course.
Now it’s time to complete the Session 8 badged quiz. It is similar to

the quiz that you took at the end of Session 4, with 15 questions in
total.
Session 8 compulsory badge quiz
Open the quiz in a new tab or window and come back here when
you’re finished.
10 Summary
The main learning points in this session are:
 Some of the claims made about technological

innovation in sport and exercise are that
developments will increase human performance and
the ability to monitor the working of the body and/or
mind.
 The key themes from technological developments that
may influence coaching and instruction in the future
are:
 the reduced cost and availability of
wearable digital devices
 an increased understanding of body and
mind
 the access to sport being broadened
 an increased understanding of genetics.
 Evaluating the language used in journalists’
descriptions, along with any supporting evidence, is a
useful first step in considering the credibility of claims
made about sport, coaching and exercise.
11 Where next for developing your

future?
In working through this course, you have hopefully learned new
perspectives and noticed how studying online in this way can be
fascinating. The unique advantage of viewing quality learning
material, supported by rich videos, is that it is engaging, flexible
and at your fingertips wherever you go.
Also, it means that you can learn and work/play close to your
sporting environment. Learning so close to your sport means that
you can easily make connections and applied links between theory
and practice as you work through the intriguing material.
If you are new to The Open University and already enrolled or

about to enrol on the Open University BSc (Hons) Sport, Fitness
and Coaching, this course represents great preparation for
studying with us.
If you’ve enjoyed this course you can find more free resources and
courses on OpenLearn. You might be particularly interested in our
other free courses about sport.
New to University study? You may be interested in our courses on

health and wellbeing.
Making the decision to study can be a big step and The Open
University has over 40 years of experience supporting its students
through their chosen learning paths. You can find out more about
studying with us by visiting our online prospectus.
You can now return to the course page.
Tell us what you think

Now you have completed the course, we would again appreciate a
few minutes of your time to tell us a bit about your experience of
studying it and what you plan to do next. We will use this
information to provide better online experiences for our learners
and to share our findings with others. If you would like to help,
please fill in this optional survey.
You can now return to the course page.
References
Session 1
Collins, D., MacNamara, Á. and McCarthy, N. (2016) ‘Super

champions, champions, and almosts: important differences and
commonalities on the rocky road’, Frontiers in Psychology, vol.
6 [Online]. Available at
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(Accessed 28 March 2017).
Nadal, R. and Carlin, J. (2011) Rafa: My Story, London, Sphere.
Rees, T., Hardy, L., Güllich, A., Abernethy, B., Côté, J., Wooman,
T., Montgomery, H., Laing, S. and Warr, C. (2016) ‘The Great
British medalists project: a review of current knowledge on the
development of the world’s best sporting talent’, Sports Medicine,
vol. 46, no. 8, pp. 1041−58 [Online]. Available at
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-016-0476-2
Session 2
Bailey, R. P. (2015) The Coaching Experience, The Professional

Golf Associations of Europe, 9 February [Online]. Available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9470hAuKTtg (Accessed 28
March 2017).
Bailey, R. P. (2017) Email to Ben Oakley, 2 January.
Dweck, C. (2012) Mindset: How you can Fulfil your Potential,

London, Hachette.
Session 3
Blakemore, S. J. (2012) The Mysterious Workings of the

Adolescent Brain [Online]. Available at
https://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_jayne_blakemore_the_mysterious
_workings_of_the_adolescent_brain (Accessed 28 March 2017).
Levett, N. (2015) ‘Why I’m pleased my son is born in May…’,

Rivers of Thinking, 15 June. [Online]. Available at
http://riversofthinking.com/why-im-pleased-my-son-is-born-in-may
Session 4
The Documentary (2014) BBC World Service, 8 June.
Schroth, H.A. (2013) ‘Coach McKeever: unorthodox leadership

lessons from the pool’, California Management Review, vol. 56
no. 1, pp. 89–99.
Session 5
Abbott, A., Collins, D., Martindale, R. and Sowerby, K. (2002)

Talent Identification and Development: An Academic
Review. A Report for sportscotland by the University of
Edinburgh, Edinburgh, sportscotland.
Ankersen, R. (2016) Learning from defeat (video), part of

‘Knowledge is Golden’ IOC Learning Gateway short course.
Published by International Olympic Committee [Online]. Available
at http://onlinecourse.olympic.org/mod/insight/view.php?
id=186#.WSRU75IrJ0x [password protected] (Accessed 24 May
2017).

London, Hachette.
MacNamara, Á., Button, A. and Collins, D. (2010) ‘The role of

psychological characteristics in facilitating the pathway to elite
performance. Part 1: Identifying mental skills and behaviours’, The
Sport Psychologist, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 52–73.
Mueller, C. M. and Dweck, C. S. (1998) ‘Praise for intelligence can

undermine children’s motivation and performance’, Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 75, no. 1, p. 33.
Session 6
Hanton, S. and Jones, G. (1999) ‘The acquisition and development

of cognitive skills and strategies: I. Making the butterflies fly in
formation’, The Sport Psychologist, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 1–21.
Hoy, D. (2013) ‘Chris Hoy’s No.1 fan’, In the Winning Zone
[Online]. Available at
http://web.archive.org/web/20090710185126/http://www.inthewinni
ngzone.com/wz/Magazine/Commonwealth-Youth-Games-
Special/Chris-Hoy-s-No-1-Fan/363 (Accessed 14 February 2017).
Lane, A. M., Totterdell, P., MacDonald, I., Devonport, T. J., Friesen,

A. P., Beedie, C. J., and Nevill, A. (2016) ‘Brief online training
enhances competitive performance: Findings of the BBC Lab UK
psychological skills intervention study’, Frontiers in Psychology,
vol. 7 [Online]. Available at
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00413/full
(Accessed 6 April 2017).
O’Sullivan, R. (2013) Running: The Autobiography, London,

Orion.
Session 7
Bailey, R. P. (2014a) The Coaching Commandments: The

Appliance of Science, Professional Golfers Associations of
Europe Annual Conference, 21–22 September, University of
Stirling.
Bailey, R. P. (2014b) ‘The problem with praise’, 1 November,

Psychology Today [Online]. Available at
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/smart-moves/201411/the-
problem-praise (Accessed 6 April 2017).
Bailey, R. P. (2015) The Coaching Experience, The Professional
Golf Associations of Europe, 9 February [Online]. Available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9470hAuKTtg (Accessed 5
February 2017).

London, Hachette.
Fahey, J. (2016) ‘FA’s youth coaching game-changer means more

ball-work and less shouting’, The Guardian, 28 July [Online].
Available at
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/jul/28/fa-coach-
youth-award (Accessed 6 April 2017).
Kirk, D. and MacPhail, A. (2002) ‘Teaching games for

understanding and situated learning: rethinking the Bunker-Thorpe
model’, Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, vol. 21, no.
2, pp. 177–92.
O’Sullivan, A. (2015) ‘Are you a trainer or a coach?’, 27 June,

coachsully1 [Online]. Available at
https://coachsully1.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/are-you-a-trainer-
or-a-coach/ (Accessed 6 April 2017).
O’Sullivan, M. (2015) ‘Survival of the fittest or survival of talent’, 27

February, Footblogball [Online]. Available at
https://footblogball.wordpress.com/2015/02/27/survival-of-the-
fittest-or-survival-of-talent/ (Accessed 6 April 2017).
Patterson, J. and Lee, T. (2013) ‘Organising Practice’, in Farrow,
D., Baker, J. and MacMahon, C. (eds) Developing Sport
Expertise: Researchers and Coaches put Theory into
Practice, Abingdon, Routledge, pp. 132–53.
Potrac, P., Jones, R. and Cushion, C. (2007) ‘Understanding power

and the coach’s role in professional English soccer: a preliminary
investigation of coach behaviour’, Soccer and Society, vol. 8, no.
1, pp. 33–49.
Rees, P. (2016), ‘Eddie Jones demands mental intensity from

England as Australia tour looms’, The Observer, 28 May [Online].
Available at
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/may/28/eddie-jones-
england-australia-tour-wales (Accessed 6 April 2017).
Richardson, B. (2015) ‘How high performance coach of the year

Danny Kerry has put the Great into British hockey’, 8 December,
Connected Coaches [Online]. Available at
https://www.connectedcoaches.org/spaces/10/welcome-and-
general/blogs/press-release/181/how-high-performance-coach-of-
the-year-danny-kerry-has-put-the-great-into-british-hockey
(Accessed 6 April 2017).
Richardson, B. (2016) ‘Let the creative sparks fly: The ‘C’ system,
chapter two’, 7 March, Connected Coaches [Online]. Available at
https://www.connectedcoaches.org/spaces/17/coaching-children-
ages-5-12/blogs/general/218/let-the-creative-sparks-fly-the-c-
system-chapter-two (Accessed 6 April 2017).
The Documentary (2014) BBC World Service, 8 June.
Session 8
Rees, T., Hardy, L., Güllich, A. Abernethy, B., Côté, J., Woodman,
T., Montgomery, H., Laing, S. and Warr, C. (2016) ‘The Great
British medalists project: a Review of Current Knowledge on the
Development of the World’s Best Sporting Talent’ Sports
Medicine, vol. 46, no. 8. Available at
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-016-0476-2
(Accessed 8 May 2017).
WIRED (2017) About WIRED UK, [Online]. Available at

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/about-us (Accessed 8 May 2017).
Acknowledgements
This free course was written by Ben Oakley.
The course was critically read by Richard Bailey, writer in

residence at the International Council of Sport Science and
Physical Education (ICSSPE).
Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms
and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0
Licence.
The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under

licence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence). Grateful
acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission
to reproduce material in this free course:
Course image: © SolStock/iStock
Trailer video: Alex Danson: © The Open University (2017)

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
UK Coaching logo: http://www.sportscoachuk.org/
The Open University is delighted that UK Coaching are supporting

this free course. The use of any other logos/brand names etc
which may be visible in the course content does not indicate any
endorsement or otherwise from The Open University.
Week 1
Text
Activity 2: Oakley, B. (2015) The other giant leap for mankind: how
this athlete set a world record that's still standing 20 years later:
https://theconversation.com/the-other-giant-leap-for-
mankind-how-this-athlete-set-a-world-record-thats-still-
standing-20-years-later-44156
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ © Ben
Oakley
Audio-visual
Introductory Video: Alex Danson: © The Open University (2017)
Activity 3: Chasing Perfection: How do Athletes Become

Champions, part of the OU’s co-production collection with The
Momentum Productions © The Open University (2015)

Week 2
Text
Activity 3: Cahill, J. (2016) ’10 keys to unlock your coaching
potential’, Keeping kids in motion Available at
https://jcahillpe.wordpress.com/2016/08/06/10-keys-to-
unlocking-your-coaching-potential. Courtesy © Justin Cahill
Images
Medal Quest © The Open University
Audio-visual
Activity 1: Chasing Perfection: How do Athletes become
Activity 2: extract from: The Making of an Ice Princess broadcast

on BBC2 26 June 2016. Used under licence from DCD Rights
http://dcdrights.com
Activity 4: courtesy of Talksport http://talksport.com/kick-

science-high-performance-special-160525197204
Activity 5: courtesy of UK Coaching

http://www.sportscoachuk.org/
Week 3
Text
Box 1: Darling, N. (2012) ‘I could do that: why role models matter’,
Psychology Today. Available at
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/thinking-about-
kids/201205/i-could-do-why-role-models-matter Courtesy: © Nancy
Darling
Images
Figure 2: courtesy of ©Innerdrive www.innerdrive.co.uk
Audio-visual
Section 5: extract from: Bringing up Britain BBC R4 series 6 ep 2 ©

BBC 2013
Activity4: extract from: Sport and Fitness Running in Circles, BBC

R4 © BBC 2016
Week 4
Text
Activity 5: Schroth, H.A (2013) extract from: Coach McKeever:
Unorthodox Leadership Lessons from the Pool in Calafornia
Management Review 56, 1, 89-99, California Management
Review, University of California
Audio-visual
Introductory video: Alex Danson © The Open University (2017)
Activity 1: courtesy: British Rowing, britishrowing.org.
Activity 2: Pia Sundhage: BBC World Service © BBC (2014)
Activity 3: Jurgen Klinsmann: BBC World Service 31 May 2014 and

1 June 2014 © BBC
Activity 4: Terri McKeever: from The Managers; 7 June 2014 ©

BBC
Week 5
Text
Activity 4: Developing excellence in young athletes, courtesy ©
Innerdrive www.innerdrive.co.uk
Images
Figure 2: courtesy © Innerdrive www.innerdrive.co.uk
Figure 3: © Sylvia Duckworth
Audio-visual
Introductory video: Alex Danson © The Open University (2017)
Activity 2: extract from BBC Radio 4 interview with Peter Clough by

Liz Barclay
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/learningcurve_200807
07.shtml © BBC
Activity 3: courtesy Sports Coach Radio:

http://sportscoachradio.com
Week 6
Images
Figure 1: © Dave Rogers/Getty Images
Figure 2: designed by YLM Sportscience
Medal Quest © The Open University
Audio-visual
Moment Productions © The Open University (2015)
Activity 3: extract From Birth to the Starting Line episode 2

broadcast on C4. Co-produced with The Moment Productions for
The Open University © The Open University (2015)
Week 7
Text
Box 1: extract from: O’Sullivan, A. (2015), Are you a trainer or a
coach – Coachsully 1 July 27 2015. Courtesy © Adrian O’Sullivan
Box 2: extract (Kerry talks about his session design) courtesy from
Connected Coaches https://www.connectedcoaches.org/
Audio-visual
Activity 3: extract courtesy of TalkSport http://talksport.com
Week 8
Audio-visual
Activity 1: from: Chasing Perfection: How do Athletes Become
Activity 2: from: Chasing Perfection: How do Athletes Become

Activity 3: extract from: ‘From birth to the starting line’, Chasing

Perfection, episode 1, broadcast on C4. Co-produced with The
Moment Productions for The Open University © The Open
University (2015)
Activity 4: extract from: ‘From starting line to the podium’, Chasing

Perfection, episode 2 broadcast on C4. Co-produced with The
Moment Productions for The Open University © The Open
University (2015)
Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any

have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased
to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.
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Activity 1 Your beliefs about

sporting ability
Discussion
Your response about the sport that you are most interested in is
likely to depend very much on the sport itself. For instance, if we
asked a group of competitive anglers this question, we might
expect the average response to be towards the nurture end of the
scale. This is because angling is a heavily skill-based sport in
which the interpretation of varied environments is required and
physical attributes (e.g. being tall or short) have limited influence.
Therefore learning and picking up tips from others is crucial – in
other words, their skill has been ‘nurtured’. However, consider the
sprinting events in athletics, which require distinctive physical
characteristics such as fast limb movement, explosive power and
perhaps a certain stature. A group of sprint coach’s average
response might be further towards the ‘nature’ end of the scale
than the anglers.
There is a second important factor: attributional effects. People

who do their sport well tend to attribute success to hard work (i.e.
they are responsible); people who are not as competent tend to
attribute success to luck (e.g. genetics, parents, school).
The way that you answer the second question is fascinating, since
you could say ‘it depends on the sporting interests of those
responding’, but it is also likely that deeply held beliefs and values
will influence the way you answer. By the end of this course, you
may well have challenged some of your beliefs about sport. Soon,
we will introduce a new way of collecting peoples’ responses to
these questions online so if you return you can see how others
have responded to this question.
Back to Unit 2 Session 2 Activity 1
Activity 2 A giant leap for mankind?

Discussion
Some of the main words and phrases are shown in Figure 1. The
size or colour of the words has no particular significance other than
there are a range of components.
Figure 1 Some of the main words and phrases used in the article.
View description - Figure 1 Some of the main words and

phrases used in the article.
Your challenge was to begin to make sense of these and you may
have identified three main categories in the article:
C Con
at trib
eg utin
or g
y wor
ds
and
phr
ases
M Resi
en lien
tal ce,
copi
ng
with
pres
sure
,
spor
ts
psyc
holo
gy,
supr
eme
conf
iden
ce
Ph Con
ysi ditio
cal ning
,
rest
and
reco
very
Ch Wh
ild ere
ho you
od gro
w
up,
rich
mix
of
diffe
rent
spor
ts
In addition to this, while there are no direct references to coaching:

the ‘craft of athlete improvement’ and ‘jumping technique’ are
obviously both integral parts of a coach’s work.
Activity 3 What makes champions

successful?
Discussion
If you group the word mental together with psychology, it
would definitely emerge as the most popular theme. Also,
dedication and commitment were often used, suggesting
that the athletes considered drive and motivation as key aspects
that they felt separated them from their colleagues; there is plenty
of research evidence which supports these opinions. This video
reinforces the mental components used to explain Jonathan
Edwards’ success in Activity 2.
Activity 4 Injury rehab in rugby:

keeping it personal
Discussion
Devices and data at Saracens contribute to monitoring each
individual training load and help design an appropriate intensity of
training. In this situation, a coach and psychologist might discuss
the balance between physical challenge and the amount and
type of support provided by those around the injured players. If
you have ever had an injury, you will appreciate that there is a
mental aspect to getting over the injury and fears that it may
reoccur. Academic research is increasingly influencing the
psychological aspects of recovery.
Activity 5 2020 vision: exploring

talent development for Tokyo
Discussion
i. The characteristics of the learning environment were
all about providing challenges and learning
opportunities in a structured way. The fact that this
was held in colder winter months, living and training
away from home and learning a new skill in front of
others made it more demanding.
ii. The coaches were looking for the athletes’
determination to continue despite setbacks, their
willingness to learn and accept coaching guidance
and their ability to set realistic goals.
If you are interested in finding out more, take a look at the article
London 2012 champion launches new Girls4gold Talent ID
campaign.
Activity 1 Michael Johnson on early

specialisation
Discussion
The key words/phrases you noted might include: ‘wrong sport’,
‘enjoyment/fun’, ‘injury’, ‘body awareness’ or ‘early selection’.
Some of these merit a little more explanation. For example, the
reference to ‘wrong sport’ suggests that people are physically or
mentally suited to different sports and, by sampling a range of
sports, we are more likely to come across the sport most suited to
us. In sampling, you also develop a broader range of movement
patterns and ‘body awareness’. The danger is that ‘early selection’
of children for specialist training risks killing off the enthusiasm that
they will need to maintain for many years if they pursue the sport.
Epstein mentioned an uncertainty over the idea of sampling sports

applying to golf, but ask yourself this: do 15 year olds win world
class adult golf events? The principle to apply here is whether elite
adult performance before puberty is possible. Junior golfers, to
the best of our knowledge, have not won adult major events, but in
girl’s gymnastics this has occurred (and this success is discussed
later in this session).
Activity 2 Children, coaching and

choices
Discussion
The level of commitment to training at such a young age might be
a little unsettling to watch for some. You mostly saw Lily on the ice
and it appears that she is self-motivated, with parents who
facilitate her training. The tone of her interactions and behaviour
with her coach appears to be warm.
In contrast, Genevieve appears to be shy with a closely involved

mother who contributes to coaching. Her mother says that aspects
of their parent/child relationship can be hard to balance in relation
to sporting matters. It is not clear how much autonomy or control
over her sporting world Genevieve has: in the clip her mother
appeared to push her.
Activity 3 The magic of a holistic

tennis coach
Discussion
He seems to be special due to his holistic approach in trying to
develop the whole person, not just the aspiring tennis player. He is
teaching character (respect for societal rules, integrity and
empathy for others), connection (positive bonds with people in
sport), compassion and confidence whilst also providing
challenges for the young people to rise to. The inspiring aspect is
perhaps due to a magical combination of enthusiasm,
knowledge and a caring approach. Perhaps if all coaches were
able to be so effective, more children might maintain their zest for
sport. This mirrors UK Coaching’s ‘C’ system.
Activity 4 Football academies main

focus
Discussion
One clear message Roddy describes is maintaining a passion for
their sport, but he does not specifically describe how this is done.
Alongside this, he identifies creating a thirst for learning as being
important throughout a successful professional career. This links to
a ‘growth mindset’ (Dweck, 2012), which you will explore further in
Session 5.
Activity 5 What would 10-year-old

children choose?
Discussion
It is revealing that the children are driven by internal motivators
and not by winning or trophies. Two of the statements in the top six
are about children’s friendships, so making connections and
sharing experiences with others is equivalent to fun and enjoyment
for them. Levett found that the children’s top answer by far was
that trying their hardest was more important than winning. How do
you think this compares to the values that an adult brings to game
day?
Activity 1 Investigating height and

growth
Discussion
1. A label of ‘peak height velocity’ draws our attention to
the maximum surge in growth, with a striking
difference in the lines between boys (blue) and girls
(red). The duration of this period of accelerated
growth, called the adolescent growth spurt, is
usually greater in boys than girls, although there is
considerable variation. In girls, this typically occurs
around 10 to 13 years of age; in boys, it occurs
between 12 and 15 years of age. On completion of the
adolescent growth spurt, men are, on average, taller
and heavier than women. This is typical of all cultures
and ethnicities. The graph suggests that peak height
gains can be in the region of 10 cm/year, which are
quite substantial changes, particularly in any activity
where size is important.
2. The line is changing but irregular. We have to assume
that this is an average among a number of young
people. Most people differ from such an ‘average’.
Activity 2 Bradley Busch explains

his work in schools
Discussion
The most common topic that teenagers discuss is about their
self-control (control of impulses). Bradley talks about people
having different approaches to how much they can persist at
something for an eventual reward (delayed gratification). Studies
have shown that this is a key life skill. Teenagers often identify how
they can easily get distracted and give in to impulses. Removing
distractions to help them keep on task was one practical tip
Bradley raised, and it is clear that sticking at revision or practice
over time is an important aspect of those who wanted to progress
in education or sport.
The second topic is thinking about how sensitive the teenage brain
is to social status and the influence of peer pressure, and how
this can often dominate actions. The example of smoking was
given in which, if they are alone, teenagers may not make certain
decisions, but in the company of their peers they often choose
differently: there is a link here to self-control with regards to being
distracted from original intentions.
The third topic is handling failure or mistakes. Bradley Busch

suggested a tip for schools, and coaches, is to create an
environment in which mistakes are not mocked or criticised: a
place where it is safe to fail as part of learning and questions such
as ‘what would I do differently next time?’ are posed.
Activity 3 Bradley Busch’s top

teenage topics in sport
Discussion
Confidence frequently features in Bradley Busch’s dialogue with
teenagers in sport, in a similar way to how Rachel mentioned this
in the family audio clip. Whilst adults have often heard about the
advice of focusing on controlling the controllable features of
performance, this is a new concept for many teenagers and one he
says they find particularly useful.
The other common topic is controlling emotions (e.g. nerves or

frustrations) in sport. He explained how he encourages people to
think about situations as less threatening and framing them as
opportunities. This includes encouraging people to have less
regard for what other people might think about them and to focus
on their own competition routine and performance.
Activity 4 Peers as role models in

PE
Discussion
Ali Oliver has a lot of experience of working with teenagers, and
she makes the distinction between role models such as a PE
teacher or elite sportsperson, who represent a certain way of
engaging in sport, and bottom-up peer role models. She
thinks the latter have far more of an influence over teenagers.
Interestingly, research supports her opinion: those who are ‘like us’
are far more powerful role models.
Activity 1 Heart and soul in rowing

Discussion
i. The video links to what you saw in Session 2 about fun
and enjoyment in children’s sport, but there is
considerable nuance amongst these athletes because
they can express themselves very well. Here are
some of the things that may have stood out for you
under each category, which also coincide with
research about motivation.
Mastery of skills: the feeling of the movements

when carried out optimally was mentioned often and
the ambition of what they were attempting is perfectly
represented by, ‘[it is] elegant and precise, but
powerful and delicate but strong’.
The sport’s environment: the outdoor

surroundings and the tranquillity of being ‘free’ in open
space was a recurring theme.
Being with others: the special atmosphere of

being part of a well-functioning team, which includes
supporting each other and developing strong bonds,
was important for some.
ii. If videos were made for other sports, the evidence
suggests that sports participants would also talk about
mastery, as most other top athletes focus on working
towards an elusive personal best performance. Those
in team sports are likely to talk about the social aspect
of being together and shared experiences.
Activity 2 Pia Sundhage (Team USA

and Sweden)
Discussion
Listening and open communication, which together lead towards
trust, might be one way of summarising part of her philosophy. She
also talked about how shared team goals need to be discussed
and often act as a reference point. When talking about her ‘coach
healthy’ approach, it seemed to be mainly about inspiring players
to reach towards being better rather than overemphasis on what
mistakes they made. The research evidence supports her
observation that creating an environment that players want to
belong to, and one in which everyone can improve, is a valuable
approach
Activity 3 Jürgen Klinsmann

(Germany and USA)
Discussion
Klinsmann makes some interesting observations about players
being the main decision makers on the pitch and that coaches in
football have limited opportunities to direct play, which contrasts
with the American team sports that have numerous time-outs. So,
one key similarity is that both Klinsmann and Sundhage are trying
to encourage players to take responsibility on the field, which is
supported by academic research. They also want players to take
responsibility for their own learning and improvement.
Klinsmann describes how there is no perfect coaching tone or

approach since every coach and player is different. Like
Sundhage, he talks about trying resolve conflict through talking,
but he also mentions the situation of sometimes using the ultimate
sanction of removing one party from a group if a conflict is too
deep-seated.
Activity 4 Coaching connections or

contrasts?
Discussion
The list of terms that we noted were: ‘environment’, ‘athlete
problem-solving’, ‘empowered’, ‘learning’, ‘training quality’, ‘mind–
body connection’, ‘partnership’ and ‘different training being fun’.
The first four of these terms were points of connection and
similarity to themes mentioned by Pia Sundhage and Jurgen
Klinsmann. Perhaps all three coaches have a view of a coaching
model where ‘I have information, the athlete has information and
we’re partnering in that’ (The Documentary, 2014). The research
evidence on effective coaching mirrors these views.
One of the striking contrasts (differences) with Teri McKeever

was her willingness to be creative and try out different physical
training methods. She observed how an athlete’s mindset to
approaching new tasks could often be revealing. She talked about
a characteristic of quality training being how she asks athletes to
use their imagination to connect emotionally, physically and
mentally to ‘race time’ in their sessions. This is all part of her view
of the interconnection between mind and body. She concludes
‘there’s more than one way to be successful at the highest level’
(The Documentary, 2014).
Activity 5 Selecting for your team

Discussion
There are a few sentences that you might have identified as
providing the best summary. We identified this sentence as one of
them, ‘they look for independent, smart, and hardworking athletes
who have good self-insight, want to learn, and are willing to grow
as people’. Did you identify this sentence too? This approach
emphasises independence, self-awareness and diligence qualities
useful not just in sport, but in life.
The unusual aspect was how they looked out for mental attitude
and holistic life skills being a key factor in making choices. For
example, over-involved parents or an indulgence in text messaging
by the athlete indicated they may not be selected.
Activity 1 Explore mindset from

your own experience
Discussion
The different approaches to aspects of learning in the left-hand
column provide some attitudes and behaviours that you may have
encountered. They can either hinder or help learning, although it
might not be quite as clear cut as a fixed or growth mindset as is
shown in the table. Notice how in the ‘success of others’ row, there
is a strong connection to what you learned in Session 3 about role
models: ‘finds lessons and inspiration in the success of others’
clearly describes the potential impact of role models.
Some of the things Bradley Busch said about mistakes and failure
among teenagers in Session 3, Activity 3 also links to these
ideas of a growth mindset.
The claimed difference in the overall ‘control over their learning’ is

stark between those with a pre-determined (fixed) mindset and
those with a free-choice (growth) mindset.
Activity 2 What is this thing called

mental toughness?
Discussion
1. Peter Clough talks about people coping in pressurised
environments, describing people as
 not being fazed by challenges
 having control of the things they can

control
 controlling levels of
confidence/commitment
 learning from mistakes
He describes how high potential or ability cannot be

realised when mental toughness is lacking.
2. He explains the importance of having clear and
realistic goals and setting expectations based on a
person’s potential. He also outlines the importance of
regulating emotion i.e. not letting feelings distract from
what you are doing. In addition, the ability to deal with
heightened emotions from anxiety and stress is
mentioned. In each case, it is not entirely clear how
these ideas are put into practice to enhance mental
toughness, but some guidance is provided about goal
setting and exposing people to challenges.
Activity 3 Negotiating challenges on

the rocky road
Discussion
1. He focuses on the degree of challenge that a person
faces in their training environment and their response
to it – in fact he mentions ‘challenge’ eight times and
also refers to this development journey as ‘the rocky
road to success’ (part of the title of one of his team’s
research papers).
2. He makes reference to snow ploughing as a removal
or obstacles and challenge in peoples development
paths often being counterproductive. Dave Collins
goes on to describe his most recent work comparing
super champs and champs and how they cope with
adversity; more importantly learning from challenge to
enhance their skills and therefore take this into the
next challenge. He suggests in his final comment that
this is the biggest distinguishing characteristic
between super champs and champs. It is not stated in
the interview clip but a super champ is one who has
50+ national appearances in team sport or 5 or more
world/Olympic medals.

Activity 4 Developing young

athletes
Discussion
Of the nine characteristics identified in the article, two may be
familiar to you from what you have already read. The first of these
was the item about commitment, while the second was about
quality practice, which McKeever discussed in particular. In
Activity 3, Clough briefly mentioned resilience and self-
regulation and touched upon focus control when mentioning
controllable aspects of performance.
Some of the new insights were probably things you have heard of
but might not have read about before. For example, imagery
(picturing successful future performances), particularly in pre-
performance routines, is a very important skill. When realistic
performance evaluation and attribution is described,
does it make you think about people who attribute something to
misfortune or anything other than themselves? Also, you have
heard of goal setting before, but perhaps not in such detail.
The importance of creating and using support networks

was last mentioned in the very first session of the course.
However, support networks are not often recognised in sport:
asking for help is a sign of strength and can play a key role in
times of adversity.
Activity 1 Chris Hoy’s experiences

of using psychological skills
Discussion
Chris Hoy discusses his use of sports psychology and how
seeking psychological support can allow athletes to be as
prepared as possible when going for gold. He talks about his
visualisation technique, which psychologists would call imagery.
He used this in his preparation and pre-performance routine for the
2004 Olympic final. He discusses focusing on the process of
performance and what he could control, so it partly relates to the
focus and distraction control part of the PCDE. Before
using such techniques, he describes the anxiety he felt before
crucial competition and, in particular, a time when he panicked and
finished poorly.
Activity 2 A ski racer crashes −

primitive fear
Discussion
Ben Seymour outlines panic and fear as being a battle between
the primitive part of the brain from our evolutionary past and the
part of the brain trying to gain control over our actions, trying to get
us to make rational decisions. He describes sports peoples’
attempts to suppress automatic primitive fear responses. But fear
and panic don’t just apply to sport: we all face it in different ways
through the challenges of daily life.
Activity 3 Controlling your emotions

in sport
Discussion
Ronnie learned to understand himself better by looking at what
stimulates his emotions. In particular, he learnt that the conflict in
his mind between the logical self and more emotional self could be
controlled. By embracing Steve Peters’ ‘chimp’ model, he was able
to distance himself from the emotional part of his brain by talking
about it in the third person (i.e. ‘sometimes I can fire him up and
sometimes I can take him down’ (O’Sullivan, 2013)). Thinking
about emotion as a detached third person in itself is likely to make
it easier to regulate and control.
Activity 4 Behind the lines

Discussion
In this clip, Jonathan Edwards emphasises the individualised
nature of pre-performance routines and ultimately you have to find
your own way. It is not stated but he implies that you often do this
by trial and error. Then Matthew Syed goes on to suggest that
routines often follow a ritual pattern in which prayer, superstitions
and visualisation are sometimes used; he describes the process
as being about helping to provide reassurance and control. You will
find that Figure 2 gives more specific advice along with
subsequent sections on ‘self-talk’ and Alex Danson’s experiences.
Activity 1 Training session advice

Discussion
An approach like Friend A (i.e. based mainly on using drills) is
most commonly influenced by previous playing experiences of how
they were coached: O’Sullivan calls him a trainer. They learn from
watching what other coaches do. These are powerful shaping
forces that are hard to change (Potrac et. al., 2007); training
courses often struggle to change this perspective as beliefs about
practice are handed down. In contrast, it is claimed Friend B
(teacher/coach) is thinking about the learning goals of a session
and sees participants as learners.
Activity 2 Richard Bailey’s first two

Discussion
The main point in his first commandment is that practices are most
effective if designed to resemble the competitive environment as
closely as possible. This makes it more likely that the skills and
understanding will be developed to properly prepare athletes for
their activity. In his second commandment, he focuses on attempts
to stimulate full mind and body concentration in practices, rather
than concentrating on ‘mindless repetitive drills’. You will explore
examples of these principles in the sections that follow.
Activity 3 Stimulating and

stretching sessions
Discussion
A summary of the recommendations made were for coaches to
make use of:
 highly contextual ‘decision-rich environments’

 competitive practices
 feedback including allowing a trial and error approach
 coaches and athletes reviewing their training
afterwards.
This throws more light on Bailey’s commandment ‘you learn to play

by playing the game’.
Activity 4 Danny Kerry's creative

session design
Discussion
Danny Kerry is an advocate of decision-rich practices in which
athletes solve problems. The ‘norm’ for older athletes, and some
parents, was for the coach to be the centre of all activities and their
knowledge was seen as one of the most important facets of good
coaching. The problem is, increasing amounts of research shows
that you don’t retain skills as effectively if they are just practised
using repetition (Patterson and Lee, 2013; Schmidt and Lee,
2011).
Activity 5 Richard Bailey’s final

three coaching commandments
Discussion
For his third commandment, Richard uses the analogy of praise
and criticism being a bit like salt on a meal: used sparingly it can
enhance the experience, but too much can ruin it. He suggests
that there is a tendency for those coaching young people to use
praise too much, which can damage self-esteem by harming the
coach–athlete relationship.
In his fourth commandment, he is talking about encouraging

creative, innovative athletes who are often unpredictable in their
performances. For example, Lionel Messi was deemed too small
to succeed in football but compensated by becoming an
exceptional dribbler of the ball; or consider Michael Johnson who
used an unorthodox upright running style. To encourage alternative
approaches, he suggests coaches need to coach imaginatively
and concentrate on the outcome of any techniques, not how it
looks compared to the coaching manual. Fewer coaching robots:
more flair, finesse and thinking outside the box.
Finally, in his fifth commandment, Richard considers the

impossibility of predicting, especially in primary-aged school
children, who might have sporting talent. His plea is for coaches
and sporting organisations to keep as many young people
engaged with positive sporting environments for as long as
possible, out of which the best players will emerge. By keeping the
selection open for more people, the net is cast wider, which
benefits all.
Activity 1 What sporting future?

Discussion
Contributors talked about the impact of the ‘technological
revolution’ on sport, which includes the development of
prosthetic devices. The timescale of these technological advances
was quoted as being since about 2010. Another speaker claimed
that our understanding of how the body works and, in
particular, nutrition and the muscular fuelling systems, will lead to
future improvements in performance. Perhaps a less tangible leap
forward was suggested to be in the increased knowledge of
cognition (mental actions and processes), including human
‘spirit’ and creativity.
Further advances are likely, as a result of worldwide access to

sport being broadened; it was claimed that groups of the
world’s population may be discovered that have a genetic
predisposition to respond to training extremely well and
therefore have sporting potential (termed ‘trainability’). The caveat
to these possible developments was that governing organisations
in sport need to keep up with such progress in order to maintain
fair, balanced competition. Also, notice how it is useful to frame
most of these developments as ‘claims’ at this stage, until the
evidence of their impacts become clear.
In summary we can say that technological innovation in sport and
exercise will a) increase human performance and b) increase the
ability to monitor the working of the body and/or mind.
Activity 2 Recovery: the new

frontier?
Discussion
Did the potential link between recovery and genetic responses or
gene ‘switches’ surprise you as an example of the detailed
research in this field? Or perhaps the visual image of someone
stepping out of a dry ice cryogenic chamber (–100 °C and lower)
made you realise how specialised the field is becoming?
The statement implying that the placebo effect might be important

was perhaps surprising, ‘if an athlete thinks something is working
… it is working’. The same contributor also stated that with such
rapid advances, if they wait for things to be proven scientifically,
then they can be behind the curve of meeting athletes’ and
coaches’ needs.
Activity 3 Johnson investigates new

smart devices
Discussion
The prospect of people being able to monitor which muscles are
being used and the timing of, for example, leg contractions, might
make what was once lab technology far more accessible to
coaches and athletes. It was interesting that this clothing device
picked up an anomaly in Johnson’s movement due to a previous
injury.
In the second part of the video, David Brailsford (cycling

coach/performance director) was palpably excited at the possibility
of devices monitoring the fuelling state of athletes in real time. This
could mean that deciding when and what to eat could become far
more refined and could transform approaches to nutrition and
training.
Activity 4 Read about two

innovations you will investigate
further
Discussion
These comments will help you make connections with earlier parts
of the course.
 Innovation 7 – ‘The filter that spots trainability’. You

have already seen some similar ideas to this in
Activity 5 in Session 1, about canoeists preparing
for Tokyo 2020. This has a focus on identifying talent
and links to your previous exploration of the
components that contribute to sporting success.
 Innovation 14 – ‘Tools designed to warm up the mind’.
The ideas in this may be entirely new to you and are
experimental, as they claim to manipulate the brain in
order to improve learning and possibly performance.

Discussion
i. The claimed ‘filter’ is a screening process that
identifies adults who have a talent to thrive in a
particular sport. It is claimed that measuring the ‘right
stuff’ and ‘commitment’ is possible. Highly planned
learning is required, including learning from mistakes.
This statement may not be that surprising to you
having done this course.
ii. Research from the University of Bangor is cited to
support credibility. If you look at the source of Figure
2 in Session 1, you will see that Rees et al.’s (2016)
research (Rees is from the University of Bangor) has
informed your study experience already.
iii. It is not made clear how they identify athletes nor how
they measure commitment other than putting athletes
through tough developmental challenges, such as
winter canoeing tasks, and seeing how they react (see
Activity 5 in Session 1)!.

Discussion
i. The article talks about a programme (the meaning of
this ambiguous word is not clear) that delivers ‘pulses’
to the mind before exercise. It is claimed that this
‘upgrades’ the brain’s hardware (a strange, computer-
like choice of words) and athletes can go faster and
further. Hardware is completely misleading, since it
refers to the grey fleshy bits of the brain. The
‘software’ of the brain would be its thoughts, emotions,
etc..
ii. The mention of the military and medical sectors is
attempting to suggest it may have some credibility
beyond sport. The bold claim of helping people walk
again is perhaps purposefully used to attract attention,
much like using the term ‘upgrade’ when talking about
the brain.
iii. It is not clear what the pulses consist of (e.g. sound,
magnetism, heat, microwaves), nor what systems in
the body are made more efficient, and therefore how it
operates (muscular, cardiovascular, nervous
systems). As a reader, one is left uncertain whether
this development is about helping human learning
(e.g. learning to walk), processing (e.g. thinking) or
performance (e.g. walking faster)?
Activity 6 Michael Johnson visits

Halo Neuroscience
Discussion
The film suggests that it is electrical pulses that are aimed at
specific parts of the motor cortex that are responsible for
movement in the targeted part of the body; in the case of the film it
was the legs. The claim is that the device ‘supercharges the
pathways between the muscles and the brain’ and this stimulates
learning to be more efficient resulting in improved athlete output for
the same level of effort. The participant on the treadmill, Ryan,
describes the feeling of a ‘slight tingling’ sensation in the head.
Johnson does not give a great deal away about what he really
thinks about the potential of this innovation, but it is noticeable that
he does not have a trial of using the device. There perhaps remain
unresolved questions about how it operates and precisely what
mechanisms explain this heightened learning; there is also the
question of the impact of these devices with sustained use.
Activity 7 Where is coaching and

sport going next?
Discussion
By expressing your thoughts, it may well create dialogue with
others. It will be fascinating to see how different viewpoints emerge
and the influence of what you have read.
Figure 1 Some of the main words

and phrases used in the article.
Description
The word cloud contains the following words/phrases: Sport psychology; Coping with
pressure; Conditioning; Supreme confidence; Where you grow up; Resilience; The
craft of athlete improvement; Jumping technique; Rest and recovery; Rich mix of
different sports.
Back to Unit 2 Session 3 Figure 1
Figure 2 A range of factors that

contribute to sporting success.
Description
This is a Venn diagram with three circles. The first, ‘Characteristics of the Performer’,
contains the words and phrases ‘Personality’, ‘Motivational orientations’,
‘Psychological skills’, ‘Avoiding injuries’ and ‘Genetics’. The second,
‘Characteristics of Training/Practice’, contains the words and phrases ‘Recovery and
sleep’, Practice quality’, ‘Diversity of early sports experiences’, ‘Competition that
gradually gets more demanding’, ‘Effective strength and conditioning’, ‘Amount of
practice’ and ‘Appropriate nutrition’. The third, ‘Characteristics of the Social
Environment’, contains the words and phrases ‘Support (coaches, parents, siblings)’,
‘Development programme characteristics’ and ‘Geography’. The central overlapping
part of these three circles contains the words ‘The Coach’, ‘The Performer’ and
‘Sports Performance’.
Figure 1 Growth in height for

boys/girls age 0–17 years
Description
This graph plots the height gain in centimetres per year against age for boys and girls.
The initial high rate of growth following birth decelerates to a steadier rate of growth
by the age of 1. In girls, the rate of height gain accelerates at around age 9, before
reaching ‘peak height velocity’ at age 10. This growth rate decelerates and tails off in
the teenage years before growth terminates around age 15. In boys, the growth rate
accelerates from age 11 to a peak height velocity around age 13. This growth rate tails
off and growth terminates around age 17.
Figure 2 Teenage brain is different

infographic.
Description
This image is a poster titled ‘The teenage brain is different, and what you can do
about it?’. The first piece of advice states that teenagers are more likely to take risks
and seek out novelty, so you should encourage positive risk taking. The second piece
of advice states that teenagers struggle to get enough sleep, so you should talk to them
about common sleep mistakes. The third piece of advice is that teenagers are worse at
reading emotions, so you should be clear about what you mean and be patient. The
fourth piece of advice is that teenagers are more susceptible to peer pressure, so you
should shape group values that encourage academic success. The final piece of advice
is that teenagers have worse self-control, so you should remove distractions from
study areas.
Figure 1 The tendencies and likely

results of fixed and growth
mindsets
Description
This diagram compares a Fixed Mindset with a Growth Mindset. A fixed mindset
believes that sporting ability is static and that it leads to a desire to look competent
and a tendency to: avoid challenges; give up easily; see effort as fruitless; ignore
negative feedback; and feel threatened by the success of others. As a result, they
achieve less than their full potential and all this confirms to them that this is
predetermined. A growth mindset believes that sporting ability can be developed,
which leads to a desire to learn and a tendency to: embrace challenges; persist in the
face of setbacks; see effort as the path to mastery; learn from criticism; and find
lessons and inspiration in the success of others. As a result, the reach ever-higher
levels of achievement and this reinforces their belief in free-will.
Figure 2 Sentences that you can

use to encourage young people to
use to support a growth mindset
Description
This image is a poster titled ’10 growth mindset sentences. The sentences are: I
believe I can get better; I am not good at this…yet; I need to figure out what I’m
missing; I am going to learn how they do it; What other strategies can I use?;
Mistakes can help me learn; Today’s effort is worth tomorrows reward; I need to keep
trying for a little longer; Who can I ask for feedback/advice?; Minor setback? Major
comeback.
Figure 3 The Iceberg Illusion

Description
This illustration is titled ‘The Iceberg Illusion’. It shows an iceberg where two-thirds
of it is submerged below water. The top third of the iceberg is labelled ‘Success!’ with
an arrow pointing to it labelled ‘what people see’. Underwater, an arrow, labelled
‘what people don’t see’, points to the iceberg and the words ‘dedication’, ‘hard work’,
‘discipline’, ‘disappointment’, ‘sacrifice’, ‘failure’ and ‘persistence’.
Figure 1 Dave Alred

Description
This is an image of Dave Alred.
Figure 2 The new science of

embracing performance anxiety.
Description
This poster is titled ‘The new science of embracing performance anxiety’. The first
step says ‘Develop a routine’. ‘Having a pre-planned series of actions gives you
something to focus on so your mind can’t wander and become anxious’. ‘Consistently
practicing pre-performance routines reduced anxiety and increased performance.’
‘The elements of the routine itself don’t really matter, what does matter is that you
design a series of steps that makes you feel good, and that you practice it enough so
that you become comfortable with it. The second step is to ‘reframe anxiety as an
excitement’. ‘When try to suppress those pre-race nerves, you are inherently telling
yourself that something is wrong’. ‘Instead of trying to calm yourself down,
reappraise pre-performance anxiety as excitement’. ‘The sensations you feel prior to a
big event are neutral - if you view them in a positive light, they are more likely to
have a positive impact on your performance. The final step instructs to ‘change your
body to change your mind’. ‘Body language has a huge impact on how you feel about
yourself. Prior to big events, open yourself up and make yourself big’. ‘If you hold
your body like you’re confident and in charge, your mind is likely to follow’. The
poster concludes, ‘Perhaps the best part of these tactics is that they are not mutually
exclusive. They are most effective when used together, and they work across almost
all pursuits - whether that’s prepping for an Olympic race or getting ready for your
first 5K'.
Transcript
ALEX DANSON
When I look back at my sporting career, I really realise how lucky I was at a young
age to play so many different sports. Before hockey became probably my priority
about age 17, I did everything from surfing to squash, climbing, cycling.
But I think the reason I became more successful at this was definitely my parents, my
coaches, the club environment I came from, and also my school, and I think along
with that, a real desire to learn and an ability to be able to push myself from quite a
young age.
If I could go into a transfer programme to change sports, I think I’d choose
heptathlon. Now, I’d probably be terrible at heptathlon, but for me, it is the ultimate
challenge of power, endurance. And I think the mental capacity an athlete has to have
to compete over two days and seven events is simply phenomenal.
The fact that people can now swap or do dual sports like Kadeena Cox at the Rio
Paralympic Games, who won a gold medal on the track and also won a gold medal in
athletics, is just testament to both the quality of coaching and how this influences an
athlete’s journey.
But when learning is involved, it’s so important that you’re able to both take on
feedback and not get disheartened throughout that learning process. I really hope you
enjoy your first week, and you’ll hear more from me again throughout the course.
Back to Unit 2MediaContent 1
Champions talk: what makes a

champion?
Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SIR CHRIS HOY

Being a champion athlete is about behaving like a champion every day, not just when
there's thousands of people in the stadium cheering you on, TV cameras, you know,
medals to win. It's about getting up in the morning, and whether there's someone there
to stand over you or not, you have to behave like a champion. So it's the discipline
and training. It's the focus for day after day, month after month, year after year, to
become an Olympic champion at the end of a four-year cycle.
DINA ASHER-SMITH
I'd probably say the overarching theme would be just a drive. So you've got to want to
get better and you've got to be willing to work. You've got to be able to be evaluative,
so you've got to be able to look at your flaws and not get offended if somebody points
out you're not very good at that, because you've got to understand that they're trying to
help you. And you've got to want to improve all your weaknesses and just
continuously work hard all year around, apart from a little break period. But yeah,
continuously work hard all year round. Being a champion is more of a lifestyle than a
part-time thing.
RONNIE O'SULLIVAN
To be the all-around champion, I think you need to obviously have ability in the
beginning. I think you have to have a ruthless discipline inside you to just be focused
on being the best you can possibly be. And then obviously, I think there's also the side
of just having the right temperament and being able to manage your emotions, if you
like, when you're out there playing.
AP MCCOY
I think what sets those serial winners apart from other people is they have great
mental strength. Especially in terms from a jockey's point of view, you have a lot of
injuries, spend a lot of time in hospital, and you have to have the mental strength to
get through that. And obviously, it's a physical thing, but it's a mental thing that will
make you come back quicker.
DAME SARAH STOREY
I think to become a serial champion you have to have a little bit of a twinkle in your
eye, a bit between your teeth of an ambition to make a career out of something. And I
guess there's some of us that are that sort of makeup, that we want something that's
even more challenging than the most difficult challenge. And for me, it was the idea
that you could be a serial winner. And I guess I've probably milked it now, as well.
Most of the time when you step on the start line for an elite final, the physiology-- the
physical aspects-- of every single one of your competitors you're pretty much on a par.
But the psychological side of it is that the mental toughness, the ability to cope with
pressure, or not even see that pressure as being pressure, that stands you out and
makes you the winner at the end of that race.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
At the end of the day, when I look back on my career, I was able to break the world
records and win the medals, and win only gold medals, because I wasn't just focused
on winning the gold medal. I wasn't going into training each day and saying to myself,
OK, so now what time do I think it's going to take for me to become a gold medalist?
I went to training every day asking myself, how fast do I really think I can run? How
strong can I get? How powerful am I capable of being? It takes a tremendous amount
of commitment, dedication, and sacrifice.
Back to Unit 2 Session 4 MediaContent 1
Injury rehab in rugby: keeping it

personal with devices and data
Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ALEX SANDERSON
We pride ourselves here at Saracens about looking for new ways to get an edge. And
if sport science is one avenue, then we'll explore that avenue. The players are the
resource so the rehabilitation and injury prevention of our best players and all our
players is paramount to our success over a 10, 11-month season.
And for that, we have one-to-one rehabilitation. We've got guys that see them through
every step of the way. And our players actually come back, I'm proud to say, stronger,
better, physically better specimens than they were when they were injured because of
the amount of resources and energy and time we put into the rehab of players. And
part of that is technology.
JOE COLLINS
Rugby is an extremely progressive sport. It marries innovation with the art of
coaching and science extremely well and that's versus any other sport that I've seen. I
came from professional football and Olympic sports to rugby union. And actually, I
was very surprised about how advanced the sport was, really, in terms of screening,
monitoring, injury prevention, load management, the use of GPS-- essentially, the
holistic management of a pro rugby player.
The aim of the game for us really is to balance innovation with doing the basics
incredibly well. We're definitely an analytics-based club. So we use stats and
information gathering on a whole variety of different parameters on the players-- so
their wellness, their recovery, their readiness to trade and play-- and then balance that
with the art of knowing the player, how ready they are in themselves really to get back
on the pitch. So there's a whole degree of information collection that we'll have here.
TOM SHERIFF
This is the GPS receiver and the heart rate receiver. It picks up all the information
from the equipment the lads are wearing. We have 30 GPS units, they're the ones they
wear in the bra tops. They sit in between the shoulder blades and they transmit
information around distance and speed and these days will pick up accelerations,
impacts, tackles, and changes of direction. So it's a mechanical load.
And they've all got their heart rate straps that they wear under their shirt. In session,
we'll just look at how much time they spend above 85 per cent of their max heart rate.
If you want to get a conditioning element out of it or if you want to keep it low-
intensity, make sure they're below that threshold. So that all comes in real time to the
laptop.
The guys who've been here a while, they've got four or five years’ worth of data. So
we can start seeing if there's any trends, as if they do pick up an injury, is it related to
any sort of common features of how we load them and try and avoid that in the
future?
JACQUES BURGER
The game of rugby, is it brutal on the body? I think it kind of feels like you've been in
a car accident every weekend. Your body is just wrecked for two days off. And I think
the way we are looked after scientifically and how the game has evolved in itself, it's
incredible. And I think it's something that's really helped me in my professional
career.
TOM SHERIFF
It used to be, can they sprint and can they cover 4K? But a lot of people can do that
and can't play a half of rugby. So it's how you get to that 4K or how you get to that
speed and how many times you get to that speed, which is where we're at now. So it's
a very sort of individual process.
PAUL GUSTARD
Because of the sport science, because of GPS, because of heart rate monitors, we can
measure them more accurately in terms of what they're actually putting their body
through. We now recognise that it's not just what you do training-wise. It's the rest. It's
the recovery. It's the nutrition. It's the sleep-- these things that weren't really spoken
about 15, 20 years ago.
We thought, more is good. More is good. More is good. We now understand less is
more. The boys actually train way less but are bigger, faster, stronger, heavier, and
more powerful.
Michael Johnson on early

specialisation
Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MICHAEL JOHNSON
David, I want to get your opinion on early specialisation in sport because I see it as a
big problem in this country, where parents feel that the earlier I get my kid involved in
a particular sport, the more time they’re going to have to develop this incredible
amount of skill.
DAVID EPSTEIN
Yeah. So I think the burgeoning body of science in this area is suggesting that that
early hyperspecialisation is not good in a number of ways. Now, it might get you the
best 10-year-old, but it’s not the strategy to get you the best 20-year-old for a number
of reasons. One, the earlier you pick, especially pre-puberty, you’re more likely to put
the wrong person in the wrong sport.
You’re also more likely to put them psychologically in the wrong sport, right? No
matter how gifted you are now, for the most part, it takes a heck of a lot of
commitment to get to the very top level because there are other really talented people
who are committed. And if you have someone in the wrong psychological fit, I think
it’s not very likely they’re going to make it that far.
PETER HESPEL
We have been very involved in elite cycling for many years in the track and field and
you definitely see that if young kids, you start to specialise them at a very young age,
in the end, they lose the enjoyment of sports. And if at the age of 16, 17, kids don’t
have fun anymore in a sport, they will never become an athlete.
LAWRENCE OKOYE
I had great experiences playing rugby. I had great experiences playing soccer,
football. I had great experiences doing track. I had great experiences with my friends
playing all kinds of sport. And all those things will never go away and that’s
contributed to the athlete that I am today. Maybe I wouldn’t be as athletic or as
physically capable as I am now if I hadn’t have done all the other stuff in the past.
LIZZY YARNOLD
Growing up, I learned a lot from taking part in loads of different sport, not only in
athletics doing lots of different events. But the fact that you were doing different
sports meant I wasn’t getting bad tennis elbow. It means that my back wasn’t sore
from the javelin. It meant that I could always have a rest and recovery from all the
different injuries.
And also, by the time I got to skeleton, my body was kind of fresh into that movement
pattern. So it wasn’t something that I’d overpracticed and something that I’d got into
bad habits with.
PETER HESPEL
The danger is that you would always use the body in exactly the same way, using the
same muscle with the same metabolic profile. And the chance to create an overload in
a kid is much greater when you specialise than when you present a variety of exercise
moves that make him develop as an athlete. And most of the overuse injuries occur
because of very specific training at a young age.
DAVID EPSTEIN
Study after study’s coming out now that while elite athletes do train more than sub-
elite athletes, they actually train less early on and then in the mid-teen years usually
cross over. And before that, they have what’s called a sampling period.
So I think Roger Federer is a great example of this. His parents I think could be
described as ‘pully’, not pushy. They said, you can’t focus on tennis yet. You have to
play soccer, basketball, badminton before you can focus on tennis.
And it looks like the kids who have become athletes first, learned a range of skills –
both the complex neurological skills, like anticipating objects, as well as just
developing body awareness – ultimately then pick up any subsequent sport skill more
rapidly and are a lot less injury prone and have the chance to find a sport that they
might actually be motivated to do for a decade.
I think there are multiple pathways to success and some athletes, whether they’re
diversified or specialised, are going to make it for a variety of reasons, physiological
and mental. Golf, I think the jury’s out. Hyperspecialisation early may in fact be
better. Most sports, I think the evidence is pushing toward it’s not as good.
The earlier you push selection, the more likely you are to put the wrong person in the
wrong sport. So I think there are advantages but that we’ve overdone it in early
selection.
The making of an ice princess

Transcript
LILY
It is quite unique that I have self-motivation to wake up at 4:30 in the morning and go
to the rink. I’ve always wanted to be a skater since I was about three. But my mum
wouldn’t let me because she thought I was a bit too young.
MUM
For her seventh birthday, we bought her an ice skating lesson. It was only ever going
to be a half hour lesson. At eight, she’d already decided this was what she was
wanting to do. She wanted to be the best that she could be. She wanted to be a British
champion, and then she wanted to do European’s and World’s, and ultimately, of
course, it will be the Olympics.
She makes all the decisions. She dictates how much she wants to train. Everything is
driven by her, and I don’t know where it comes from. Just something within her. It’s
not genetic. It is just Lilly.
CATHERINE HUDSON
OK. That’s tine. One more time. I really like the fact that when you did the Mohawk,
there was a really strong push there before you went into it, OK? As you step forward
–
NARRATOR
The reason Lily and her mum decided to come to the ice rink in Blackburn is so she
can be trained by former Olympic competitor Catherine Hudson.
CATHERINE HUDSON
She’s super talented. You ask her to jump, she wants to do it twice. Tell her it’s time to
get off, she wants to stay on longer. She’s brilliant.
NARRATOR
Catherine has been training Lily now for two years.
CATHERINE HUDSON
Many of the girls she’s competing with have literally grown up on skates. They’ve
started as toddlers and gone through, or even started at five or six. So she’s got a lot of
years of just trying to catch up.
The more you train everything for speed, the more confidence you’re going to have in
the competition to do it. Because it’s more normal, isn’t it? Yeah?
MADELINE
I want to see tight knees, heels coming off the floor first.
This is the painful bit.
NARRATOR:
Giving Genevieve another advantage is that she’s trained three times a week in this
gym by a national gymnast champion from Bulgaria – her mum, Madeline.
MADELINE
Genevieve, shoulders back. If you’re going to be sitting, sit up. Higher, higher, higher.
GENEVIEVE
I’ve been coming to gym since I was three, because I remember being in one of them
baby carriers on the bench. And I come three times a week.
MADELINE
It is difficult being a coach and a mum at the same time, because I know when we go
to the ring, she wants me to praise a lot more. I tend to focus a lot more on her
mistakes and what needs improving. And I know she wants a lot more of me to be a
mum and a lot more to say, well done and you did well. Which I try to, but we’ve got
an understanding that when there’s something that needs correcting, I’ve got to tell
her as well.
Genevieve, faster! Knee in tighter – it’s too slow.
Kick off: science of high

performance special
Transcript
Ged Roddy
When the boys come in they come in bright eyed and when they are eight, nine years
of age we've got an unbelievable opportunity to shape the way they think about their
futures and about the potential of their professional careers. But you know one of the
key things for us to do right at the outset is just to make sure the kids are having fun.
We talk a lot about systems and the science behind all of these things but actually the
more you systemise the academy environment the more you are in danger of losing
the joy of the game and we mustn’t lose sight of that for those players that are starting
out.
So I think for me two things when they are absolutely at the start of their academy
careers - is there joy? Have they got smiles on their faces? Are they acclimatising
themselves in the environment? If so, that’s a great thing. Now add to that a learning
environment where we develop the skills of just the sheer ability to learn to be
coached and to understand that failing is part of the process of succeeding. And if we
develop those early skills we give ourselves a half-decent chance. Now we need
parents that understand this. We need coaches that buy into it as well and if we can
build that type of environment we give ourselves a fighting chance because down the
road what we know is approaching those players that stay in the system are all of
those distractions that are going to come when the money comes along, when the
agents come along and the sponsors and the like. So we need to build a resilience and
a grit and a focus to these young men so that when those distractions do arrive they're
in a balanced place and they can deal with them.
UK Coaching animation
Transcript
ON-SCREEN TEXT
What makes your session unmissable for young people? As a coach, you have the key
to creating inspiring sessions, the right environment. So now … consider the building
blocks of an unmissable experience: rewarding, personalised, interactive, social,
inspiring, creative.
Personalised. Understand what is important to young people? Dreams and aspirations.
Fun. Family and friends. Getting better.
Inspiring. Inspire young people to: be their best; be proud; stay active.
Creative. Let young people make decisions, be creative. and change things.
Social. Social time is important. Help young people connect.
Interactive. use technology.
Rewarding. Young people want positive feedback, incentives, recognition.
Better supported coaches.
Transcript
ALEX DANSON
I have really good memories of my adolescence. I was more increasingly attached to
my sport because it gave me a real sense of identity and of confidence.
I remember my role model growing up was my PE teacher, Mrs Berry. I remember
she was the first person that really gave me that sense of belief. I remember she sat me
down and said, you could-- not you would, but you could be a county hockey player
or more. She taught me the ethic of working hard and really setting a goal as high as I
dare to dream.
But I know not all young people are so fortunate, which is a big reason why I and
many other athletes go into schools and spend time, hopefully, trying to engage and
inspire young people because the transferable values from elite sport into any young
person’s life is huge. You think about self-confidence, the ability to work hard,
resilience, working together as a team-- all transferable into a young person’s life.
And that was a huge reason why I decided to study with The Open University,
because the doors it now opens for me to perhaps go into schools more, perhaps go
into a world of teaching, is something that’s always been very, very close to my heart.
Interview with Bradley Busch (Part

1)
Transcript
BEN OAKLEY
Bradley, you’re a psychologist working in school with teenagers and teachers. Now,
we know that physical development finishes between the ages of roughly 15 and 17.
When does the brain stop developing?
BRADLEY BUSCH
Well, I guess the brain is always developing. It’s constantly evolving and changing.
This is what neuroscientists call ‘neuroplasticity’. I think the biggest change happens
in the adolescence year, often peaking at about age 22, 23.
With advancements in technology, I think in the last 10 or 15 years, we’ve been able
to learn so much about the brain. And what we now know is this adolescence, this
period of change in the brain, happens much longer and into much later in life.
BEN OAKLEY
When you’re working with teenagers in your sessions, what are the three things that
they talk about most, afterwards?
BRADLEY BUSCH
So the three things I think they find most interesting are, one, areas about self-control,
two, about the impact that peers have on your decision-making, and three, how they
deal with mistakes and failures. So first of all, if we look at impulse control, they’re
fascinated. There’s a really interesting study called the ‘marshmallow experiment’. It
happened about 40 years ago.
A researcher gave young students a marshmallow. And they said, if you can wait,
when I come back I’ll give you two. So it was basically a test of delayed gratification.
Can you put off instant rewards, for long-term success?
Now, for some of the students, as soon as he left the room they ate the first
marshmallow, but others were able to wait much longer. In follow-up studies of these
same students, they found that those who were able to wait, who were able to delay
their gratification, performed much better, not only in school but also later on in life.
Self-control is quite hard to improve. So one of the things we recommend to them is,
where possible, avoid the temptation in the first place. In the first study, the students
who were able to close their eyes and not look at the marshmallow waited longer. And
so we take this as an indication. So, for some students-- say, for doing revision-- much
better to have your phone turned off or completely out of the room, so you’re not even
tempted by it in the first place.
The second thing that teenagers talk about a lot is the issue of peers on their decision-
making. We know that the teenage brain is much more sensitive to social status than
adults. We know teenagers seek out and crave the approval of their peers.
To give an example, everyone knows that smoking, in the long run, increases your
chance of getting cancer. But the risk for students if they don't do that is they might be
socially excluded from the group. And the risk of social exclusion is much more
prominent in teenagers than in adults and, as such, often drives their behaviour.
BEN OAKLEY
And what practical guidance do you give them, in that scenario?
BRADLEY BUSCH:
One of the things we tell them is to ask themselves, would they do these decisions,
these behaviours, if they were on their own, as opposed to part of the group. Also, I
think if they can go home at the end of the day, look themselves in the eye in the
mirror, and say they were happy with how they performed, how they behaved, that's
the main aim.
The third thing that students find really interesting is the role and actual importance of
mistakes and setbacks. Often students are so driven by not wanting to look bad, not
wanting to make a mistake, not wanting to look dumb. Whereas what we actually
teach them is that mistakes and failure at some stage are inevitable and actually, if
used right, can help them improve.
So we often talk to them about the importance of failing better. One thing that we find
quite useful is, after a mistake or after a setback, for them to ask themselves, what
would I do differently next time? What would I do differently next time is a really
good questions for students to ask, because it shifts the focus away from the past, onto
the future. It isn’t a judgement on who they are and their abilities, but it focuses on
how they can develop and how can they get better.
BEN OAKLEY
Bradley, thank you so much for those useful insights.
BRADLEY BUSCH
No problem at all. Thank you.
In secondary school we have a lot

more responsibility
Transcript
Rachel
At secondary school I think the traits that have helped me get through it are probably
a good sense of humour, determination and confidence because without those things
you would have just been really sad.
Oliver
In our old schools we didn’t have much responsibility, but now, secondary school,
we’ve got a lot more. We’ve got to pack our books and make sure we’ve got them,
and homework, there’s a lot more of it. And we’ve got to make sure it’s there. And
also the teachers trust us to do these things.
Rachel
I think that good characteristics will help you, getting further in life because once I
went for a country trial with netball and to be in counties you need to be really
determined and confident because you need to be one of the best.
Helen
She’s had both disappointments and successes in sport. And on both occasions she’s
dealt with them admirably really, with the disappointment she’s looked back, laughed
about it, moved on. Tried not to dwell on it and in the successes when perhaps some
of her friends haven’t been as successful she’s dealt with that with humility and been
mature. I think that as a parent we don’t necessarily intend to teach our children good
character, however teaching your child how to behave, how to interact with others,
how to show respect, I think those are all the useful tools that as a parent you should
equip your child with because in the academic world there is always the chance that
the child might not achieve perhaps what they want to achieve. But if they’ve got
some of the character skills then those can help them find an alternative and be
equally happy in life.
Interview with Bradley Busch (Part

2)
Transcript
BEN OAKLEY
Bradley, when you’re working in sport with teenagers, what are the two topics that
they most commonly ask for?
BRADLEY BUSCH
Well, the two main areas that most athletes come to us asking to get better is, one,
about improving their confidence, and, two, managing their nerves. The first,
improving their confidence, one thing that we know the brain craves is certainty. But
when you look at what a lot of people think about before an event, they’ll often focus
on things that they can't change or things that they can only influence, such as the
crowd, the referee, their opponents, what the score might be.
We help them identify what they can control and focus on those things. And that
typically looks like focusing on their effort, focus on executing their game plan,
focusing on being the best teammate they possibly can be. And by focusing on the
things you can control, you give yourself more certainty and, as such, perform with
more confidence.
BEN OAKLEY
So, when you have a group in front of you, what specifically do you ask them to do,
to help with confidence?
BRADLEY BUSCH
Well, the first thing we get teenagers to do is to try to improve their self-awareness.
We get them to write down what it is they're focused on in the build-up to a match.
Once they’ve got that list written down, we can then help them identify which are the
things they can control, which are the things they can influence, and which are the
things they can’t change. That’s usually the first step to really improving their
confidence.
BEN OAKLEY
Are there any other little techniques or strategies that you guide them towards?
BRADLEY BUSCH
Yes. A big part of how confident you feel comes from how you talk to yourself. We
help people identify their negative thoughts and replace them with positive, helpful,
and energised language, so that they can go out feeling as confident as possible.
The second most common area that we work on with athletes is helping them improve
their emotional control, managing their nerves or frustration. Because, when you think
about it, the difference between nerves and excitement, in terms of what happens to
your body, is very small. Both involve a fast heart rate. Both involve lots of adrenalin,
lots of butterflies, and excess energy.
The biggest difference between nerves and excitement often isn’t what happens to
your body, it’s what’s going through your brain. And we help people focus on making
it an opportunity not a threat. Sometimes I think students and teenagers and athletes
are so worried about what other people are saying about them, they have this worry
that people are judging them the whole time. And, as such, it makes them more
stressed and more nervous and increases their fear of failure.
But, by helping them focus on executing their routine, by helping them do the best
that they can do and focus on performing to their abilities, and not so much what other
people might say about them, helps them improve their nerves.
BEN OAKLEY
Bradley, thank you so much.
BRADLEY BUSCH
Thank you very much. Been a pleasure.
Interview with Ali Oliver

Transcript
Ali Oliver
So I was a PE teacher and I think I was a role model for maybe ten, fifteen per cent of
the kids that I taught because I represented a certain, you know, way of engaging with
sport. And young people themselves are now role models for each other and in fact
they are probably the most powerful role models.
Interviewer
And does that reel in that other eighty-five per cent, do you think?
Ali Oliver
If we take our girls active programme, it is completely designed around finding the
least active young women who potentially have the greatest impact on their peers.
They’re the influencers, they’re the heart of the social group.
Interviewer
The cynics in the class.
Ali Oliver
Absolutely. But what we know is those young women are incredibly powerful in the
peer groups. So we need to work intensively with them rather than ignoring them or
viewing them as the problem, they are the solution.
Interviewer
So bottom-up role models rather than top-down?
Ali Oliver
Absolutely. Quite right. Well, you need both. You need both. Because of course there
is young people with a whole range of interests. But we shouldn’t just assume that the
role models have to come from the elite community.
Hearts row to Rio

Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ANDREW T. HODGE
Why do I love rowing? That's a fantastic question. There's a beauty about the sport.
It's hard to describe. But it's when it comes together, you feel the boat run, you feel
the team work together-- it's quite irreplaceable.
ALAN CAMPBELL
It really is the best feeling in the world. You can feel what's happening in the water.
And you can feel how you're affecting it, how you're gliding on top of it. And there's
just like a really nice sigh and really nice rhythm.
KATHERINE GRAINGER
And the boat just ignites and just flies. That is a feeling-- I don't think I'll find
anything else in my life, the rest of what I do.
PETE LAMBERT
That's basically one of the reasons why I row is because of that feeling.
POLLY SWANN
Once you get that click, the feeling of the boat is amazing. That's what you want to
come back to every time. So you're making the boat just soar underneath you.
HEATHER STANNING
You can almost hear, like, a little kind of sizzling. I think you'd kind of liken it to a
frying pan. And it's just the water running alongside of the hull.
MATT GOTREL
It just feels like a machine. Feels like you're in a machine.
PAUL BENNETT
Elegant and precise but powerful and delicate but strong.
WILL SATCH
And you can just inch away from the crew behind you.
ANGUS GROOM
It's a really special feeling. It's a real buzz.
TOM AGGAR
First and foremost, when I first started, it was just to be out on the water.
SCOTT MEENAGH
I love being out on the water and being free.
IMOGEN WALSH
Having that sense of open space-- it's just something that I love doing.
RACHEL MORRIS
We had a day the other day-- it was a really frosty morning. There was a mist over the
water because the sun was coming up. And it was just stunning.
HEATHER STANNING
And you are totally out there with nature and no one else around. It can be totally
silent, other than the noise of us dropping the blades in the water.
PETE REED:
I'm so happy that I found rowing, and rowing found me. And I love the team
atmosphere and work with your crew. And they help you get better. You help them get
better.
PAMELA RALPH:
What you get is more than the sum of the individual athletes. And that's something
that's really, really special.
GEORGE NASH
You form these really strong bonds with everyone that you row with, kind of almost
as soon as you join the sport.
SIR DAVID TANNER:
I get my thrill from walking the shop floor with those people trying to live their
dreams, but also the ambition that people have. It's a heady mix, and it gets you really.
GRAEME THOMAS
And it really does become something that you want to keep doing more and more and
more.
RICHARD CHAMBERS
Because as soon as you get into a boat, and you start to learn to row, you can always
improve on what you're doing.
ALEX GREGORY
It is addictive.
MOHAMED SBIHI
It's one of those sports that you do get better with every stroke that you take.
NATHANIEL RILEY O'DONNELL
If you push through the feet, it comes up through and out through the hands.
WILL SATCH
It's exciting. It's aggressive. It's dramatic. I just love it.
SAM TOWNSEND
You're working really, really hard. But you don't feel like you're working hard.
ALEX GREGORY
I like getting up every day. I like training seven days a week. When I stop rowing, I'm
going to be in trouble.
KAT COPELAND
I just do it because I love it. And that's something that can carry me through every
day.
ANDREW T. HODGE
And you're able to share those moments with people that you'll be friends with-- share
those memories for the rest of your life.
Interview with Pia Sundhage

Transcript
Jane Garvey
This is Jane Garvey, and this is the BBC World Service. We’re in conversation with
Pia Sundhage, who is the coach of the Swedish women’s football team. Pia, you’ve
had a hugely successful career, you’ve played for Sweden, you’ve coached all over
the world. Your biggest job - I know that Sweden’s a big job for you now - but your
biggest job in the past that people will know you from is when you were coach of the
American football team, USA. And you joined the team at a particularly interesting,
some would say challenging, time. This was 2007.
Pia Sundhage
December.
Jane Garvey
Describe the atmosphere in that USA team at the time.
Pia Sundhage
I felt that they were disappointed, the fact that they did not win the World Cup 2007.
So they wanted a change, and that is important. They wanted a change and I was the
change. The fact that they pick a Swedish coach, a foreign coach, was huge.
Jane Garvey
You did have to make some tough decisions about players didn’t you, the goal keeper
in particular, is that right?
Pia Sundhage
The story is 2007 many things happened with the team. They won the bronze medal,
but the goalkeeper was excluded. She said different things, and she hurt the team …
some say. What I did, when I came, and she was the best goalkeeper. So here we
have Hope Solo, the best goalkeeper in the world, and I listened to five different
stories what actually happened, that was the first thing I did. I said, ‘tell me what
happened’ so I at least understand how serious it was. And I get five different stories,
from players, from the general manager, from the press officer, from the ex-coach,
from myself. And I thought, ‘okay, so what am I going to do?’ So I had some of the
players coming in and we’d talk about the situation. I said ‘I don’t expect you to
forget, so many things happened, but I expect you to forgive and move on. Because
if, do you want to win, I want to win, do you want to win?’ [they said] ‘Yeah, I want
to win.’ [I said] ‘Okay, in order to win, you have to trust me, we need goalkeepers, not
only one or two, and right now Hope Solo probably is or will become the best
goalkeeper in the world.’ So I sorted that out, I listened and I talked about it out loud,
like this, ‘so this is what I want us to do’, and I gave them time to think about it.
Jane Garvey
And how quickly did they move on?
Pia Sundhage
Quickly. I'm really proud. They did such a good, a good job. The whole atmosphere,
after a while, and we had a lot of camps, and I think it was a smart move by US
soccer. They were brave enough to pick a coach from Sweden, but a smart move to
change and I started with fresh eyes and a little bit new coaching style. And I told
them over and over again, ‘so whatever happened 2007, if we can forgive, if you can
forgive, then we will have a bright future.’ So I talked about it in different angles, and
I gave it time, I took time to show them respect. It’s not the well we’ll just have to
move on, like left it; I ran and listened quite a bit.
Jane Garvey
Now you have this phrase, coach healthy, don’t you, which means what?
Pia Sundhage
Well instead of trying to fix every mistake, I do the opposite. So the way it works, we
have a video clip and we show them, they have comments, and I ask them ‘what do
you see, what is good, could it be better’, and let them talk as much as possible. So
coaching the healthy part. So let’s say she has two good crosses, but we want, well
the game planning she has at least five or seven, we say ‘well you should do more of
this’, just double it, instead of looking at a cross where it didn’t go well. When I
analyse the game with the coaches, we look at mistakes of course, but analysing’s one
thing, coaching is another thing. So in order, we have analysed that, we don’t have
that many crosses on the right side, then what? And then we show the right back ‘this
is what we want’. But maybe she’s not playing the next game because she had only
two crosses. So I think it’s important to recognise analysing this is what we need to
do the next game, but coaching well you know, you're almost there. It’s okay to make
a mistake. And what I do know is there are three things that motivate players. One is
if you win. The other thing is to be around the certain environment. You want to be
in the team and belong here. And the third thing is the fact that you improve. So if I
can inspire her to grab that, well you know what, I can do this as well, I can add
something to my game, that is my job.
Jane Garvey
Can you give me an example of bad coaching that you had when you were a player?
Pia Sundhage
When I was not inspired and I was threatened or I was annoyed or I was, I can't find
the right English words, but, I didn’t like the situation, is somebody saying ‘well I'm
the coach, you're going to do what I'm telling you.’ I have a hard time with that kind
of coaching, because I thought I had so many things to say as a player, and we had the
same goal, we want to improve football. But he was just telling me ‘no, your
thoughts are not good enough’, and he didn’t know what I was thinking.
Jane Garvey
How, when you take over a team, Pia, do you establish the shared goals of the team?
And presumably you’ve got to do it really quickly.
Pia Sundhage
Well you started off with a goal, and then it’s so important to get to know the team.
So it’s not that I'm just picking the goal, ‘there we go’, we need to do it together. And
there are certain things that it’s important, like I do have my philosophy, and I have
the power to decide the journey to that goal. That’s the beauty of, to be a leader.
Jane Garvey
And what if a player challenges you, how do you deal with that?
Pia Sundhage
My job is to make sure that she respects the team goal, so to speak, or my leadership,
and it’s [an] ongoing discussion. It’s ongoing, looking at situations where are we
actually doing what we’re saying, is that in a room or out on the field, it’s so
important to be almost like a mirror. So we have decided this, are you acting like we
decided?
Jane Garvey
Presumably there’s always going to be a certain amount of conflict within teams and
in dressing rooms. Is it possible to avoid it, or is that crazy?
Pia Sundhage
I think it’s possible to avoid it. But it’s important to understand the role. I’ll give an
example, if we have a team and you're centre-mid[field], and you have to understand
the role but also accept the role, and respect the role.
Jane Garvey
What about when you worked in China, which was before you did the American job?
What was the atmosphere around the game like there?
Pia Sundhage
It was more complicated because I don’t speak Chinese, and it’s a little bit … I felt
they took orders more so than if you say, you want them to go from A to B and then to
C, well they went A to B, ‘here I am, okay’, ‘well you're supposed to go to C’, ‘yeah’,
they'd just wait for orders a little bit, I thought. We wanted to create a little bit of a
chaos, you know, take the initiative, ‘it’s your game’, and I think we succeeded a little
bit but not, well, we didn’t play the finals, I don’t think we were that successful.
Jane Garvey
I imagine is one of many reasons why you're such a good coach, because you really
do know what it’s like.
Pia Sundhage
Well I know how I felt, and I really try to understand how it feels out there when I'm
coaching. Because it’s one thing to coach a game, watch a game, compared to
actually playing it. So that’s why, I think that’s one of the reasons why I've become a
better listener, and trying to understand what they're actually saying. It’s not that
when we have pregame talks, for instance, or we analyse the games, it’s not that ‘this
is what we see’, yes, that’s part of it, but ‘how does it feel?’
Interview with Jürgen Klinsmann

Transcript
Peter Bowes
And you mentioned the word tone, how do you adopt the right tone with players? You
are a very, I can detect a very easy going guy and coaches sometimes are actually not
that easy going, they’re quite aggressive, and some teams I suspect there is a certain
element of fear between the players and the coach; what is your attitude?
Jurgen Klinsmann
I think there you need to turn it around, because I don’t believe in that the coach has
to have the right tone, but I try, if a player really understands that he is in the driver’s
seat, he is the decision maker on the field, because football is players driven, they
make the decisions on the field. Yes, you will put the 11 on the field but then the game
goes and it’s them.
It’s very opposite to the other American sports, baseball, football, even basketball you
can call time out and you have always stops and you can explain things, and football
is the very, very opposite of it because it’s inner driven, it’s the athlete that makes the
call, that makes the decision. I think over time a real big player learns to take the
coach’s messages the right way, learns to read the messages, learns to take it for him
in order to improve, because you have, let’s say, 20, 25 players on a roster and there is
no coach in the world that has the right tone for every one of those 25, it doesn’t exist.
So I think it’s much easier to say, you 25 players need to figure out a way to take
those messages from the coach, if it’s now a stronger voice, a more aggressive voice,
a calmer voice, whatever it is, and pick out those things that are good for you. Then I
think you will grow as a player. I don’t think somebody, a coach makes Messi or
Ronaldo or Steven Gerrard. Those went through x amount of coaches throughout their
career and I had about 16, 18 of those, and every one taught me something, told me
something, but there was no perfect one, so the tone has to be found actually by the
player and not given by the coach, because you are not making it right for 25
altogether.
Peter Bowes
And when there is conflict within a team how does that affect the individuals?
Jurgen Klinsmann
Oh, it affects everybody, so there are two ways. The best way is to solve the conflict,
you know, to talk it through, to work it out, and to create even more positive energy
out of that conflict. That is the ideal scenario. When you over time, and that’s just my
personal experience, see that we are not solving this issue, it’s too deep, it’s too
personal, it’s too distracting, you as a manager then have to make the decision to let
one of those two go.
Interview with Teri McKeever

Transcript
Interviewer
I’m at the huge outdoor swimming pool on the campus of the University of California
Berkeley, which is just outside San Francisco.
So as you started your coaching journey how soon did you begin to question what
were the conventional training methods and develop your own system?
Teri McKeever
Honestly I think I probably started questioning them as a collegiate athlete myself.
Iwas in an environment where if we all swam a 200 butterfly and there was four of us
then we were all supposed to have the same race plan and race the same way and that
didn’t make sense to me either because I didn’t think my strengths were the same
strengths that my teammates had, so why would we all want to do it the same way.
Interviewer
And one key aspect of training, simple aspect, that you questioned relatively early on
was this idea of distance over quality.
Teri McKeever
I think there’s a place for volume but there’s also a place for quality. And I don’t
always mean quality is faster,I think quality is about quality technique, quality is
about purposefulness, intention, relationship to your racingevent. There are elements
of racing and if I can put the athletes in those situations and they know that they can
manage them and they develop their own problem solving then when they’re in the
race they’re empowered to be faster, better and it’s them doing it, it’s not a plan that a
coach has given, it’s a plan that they’ve developed for themselves.
Interviewer
So you put a large part of the onus in terms of development on the athletes
themselves, you can’t tell them everything?
Teri McKeever
Absolutely, absolutely, that is huge, a cornerstone to what I believe is different. I think
a lot of people think the difference is about the volume or end quality, I believe the
greatest difference is in those subtleties of asking the athletes to use their imagination
to connect with the race experience, to put themselves there emotionally, physically,
mentally.
Interviewer
And one interesting part of your training techniques is that some days you will
actually avoid the pool completely.
Teri McKeever
Absolutely, I think initially I felt that being in even the weight room or doing dance or
having a spin class or taking a boxing class, I saw it as a diversion from what can be a
very monotonous, boring sport.
I think often times the traditional model is coach has the information, athlete needs to
do it. I want to have a model where I have information, the athlete has information
and we’re partnering in that.
And then kick, see the difference? Now you can feel it in your stomach right, go like
that – see – that’s how you swim, that’s how you want to go…
You know it’s not about me standing on deck giving information, you take the
information, do something with it, it’s me giving information, it’s me asking, just like
you’re asking me questions to get an essence of who Iam, myj ob is to ask them good
questions to get to the essence of what they’rethinking.
Right? Do you feel that? That right there, if you make that adjustment, golden.
It’s not for everybody, I fully know that not everyone is motivated or I would not be
the right coach or the right team leader for everyone.
Transcript
ALEX DANSON
I find the mental side of sport absolutely fascinating. And that’s because, first hand, I
understand how important it is. As a striker, you may think I’m just talking about
penalty strokes or taking a shuffle, perhaps at an Olympic games, in front of 9 million
people. And yes, of course, I have my routines.
If we go back to the semi-final, I had to take a penalty stroke. As soon as the whistle
went, I felt calm, composure. I knew that I'd practised that routine over again.
I walked up to the penalty spot. I visualised exactly where I was going to put that ball
when the whistle went. And then I just stayed calm.
And that preparation beforehand, and how you use your mind, is absolutely essential
to try and find success.
So what goes on in your head affects your whole life and your whole team-- your
attitude to training, facing challenges, and being able to push yourself every single
day. In our team, we spoke a lot about the commitment it would take for the whole of
our group to try and win this gold medal at those Rio Olympic games. But it was very
behaviour-driven-- what we did, every single day, to make us the best that we could
possibly be. Because, when you get down to Olympic games, and you get down to
that final moment, what it takes is a collective commitment, based upon training, so
when you’re there in the moment, you believe that you can win, and you can believe
that you can make it happen.
My absolute standout moment in Rio was in the final, in our last quarter time. We ran
in, and our coach simply said to us, look at each other. And I remember looking up,
and all of our teammates connected with our eyes. And at that point, I knew, we knew,
that it would take one chance, and we would make sure that game became ours.
And I think, if you can have that strength of mind on an individual level, as a
collective with your colleagues and your team, you know when your moment comes,
when the pressure is on, that you can go in there with absolutely no self-doubt. Then
your individual mental battle is won.
You’ll hear again from me soon, as I find the power of your mind absolutely
fascinating.
Peter Clough on toughness

Transcript
Liz Barclay:
Now, children have to be tough to succeed, according to Dr Peter Clough, Head of
Psychology at the University of Hull. He’s developed a system to teach
schoolchildren to be mentally robust, less likely to regard themselves as victims of
bullying and to cope with initial failure. He says students with higher levels of mental
toughness perform better in exams. Dr Clough, you say your interest in mental
toughness stems from working with professional athletes, Nadal and Federer. Are they
the ideal examples?
Dr Peter Clough:
I mean, they’re ideal in mental toughness. They’ve also got a lot of talent. Many of us
are not blessed with the same levels of talent, but what brings it all together, what I’m
interested in is working in high pressure environments, and being a schoolchild
nowadays is a high pressure environment.
Liz Barclay:
What exactly do you mean by mental toughness?
Dr Peter Clough:
I think that’s what we’ve achieved at Hull. It’s often mentioned, it’s often mentioned
in radio and in interviews, we’ve operationalised it, so mental toughness is the ability
to perform at your maximum in hostile environments. You can split it down a little bit
more to say, but you see challenge as an opportunity, high levels of commitment, you
control the things you can control and you have higher levels of confidence.
Liz Barclay:
So what can learning mental toughness achieve? Are you saying that low ability can
be made up for with drive?
Dr Peter Clough
I think to some extent, and I think most listeners would recognise that’s a way
forward. But I think on the other side of the coin high ability can be lost on the basis
of lacking mental toughness. So what learning mental toughness allows you to do is
learn. You need to be put in a situation to fail to move forward in my view. My job
then is simply to allow people to learn from their mistakes and be willing to challenge
themselves.
Liz Barclay:
So how do you measure the effectiveness of your theory?
Dr Peter Clough:
Well I think it’s a key question, because, you know, it does sound like a bit of a
dinosaur theory sometimes, you know, it seems like an old-fashioned approach and
perhaps it is. We have a questionnaire developed with my colleagues in AQR, and we
can measure mental toughness, that’s a starting point. But more than that, when we
actually give people these mental toughening interventions, at the end we measure
their mental toughness again. Well obviously, they’re going to say they’re more
mentally tough because they’ve been on a mental toughness course. We also look at
their psychological, psychophysiological reactions to stress, and we’ve got clear
evidence that they can deal with pressure more effectively.
Liz Barclay:
To practically, at a practical level what does a mental toughness course consist of?
Dr Peter Clough:
It’s… it started off life, because I’m a Sports Psychologist and an Occupational
Psychologist, it started off life, yeah looking at things like the tall ships race, sending
old people ice climbing, a whole range of, you know, what you’d expect. We’ve then
developed a classroom version, which obviously most people aren’t interested in
outdoor activity, and what it involves, the first, the starting point is getting people to
set clear realistic goals. And that is a real issue, you know, with the X-Factor culture
we now have, people setting realistic goals based on their talent is the starting point
and it’s the crux. Once you get past that, we have an issue then where we can deal
with what goes on between people’s ears.
Liz Barclay:
You’re saying that this may be seen as an old fashioned approach. Are you saying it
should be out with the sensitive, caring, sharing approach altogether, no more prizes
for all happiness lessons and talking therapies?
Dr Peter Clough:
I don’t, it’s never black and white or clear. I am certainly more of the end where, in
my view, my research, what we find is happiness isn’t a precursor to successful
education, unhappiness certainly stops it, but education’s not about happiness per se,
it’s about challenge. So you’re rewarding children. I’ve got a seven-year-old, Emily,
who, yeah, is the pride of my heart, and if she’s in a situation where she fails things
obviously I feel bad as a parent. However, without that failing experience, without the
ability to fail, I think even seven and eight-year-olds are sophisticated now, and they
twig that they’re going to get a certificate no matter what they do. So it loses its
power.
Liz Barclay:
You expect teachers and parents to be part of this developing mental toughness. But
how positively is your theory being received in those circles?
Dr Peter Clough:
I think it’s been received more positively than I thought. It is a positive. If I claim is
the answer to everything, obviously people react negatively against it, and absolutely
as a Psychologist there is no clear answer to everything, but I think people do see the
point, that it’s a tough world. We then get into the debate, do we make it less stressful,
or do we allow people to deal with stress more effectively, and I’m of that latter
group, that we’re not going to make the world less stressful. It is stressful. When you
go into the world of university, when you go into the world of work it gets even more
stressful. My job is, therefore, to allow people to prosper in that environment.
Liz Barclay:
Dr Peter Clough. Thank you.
Dave Collins on PCDE research

Transcript
Dave Collins
The thrust of our work I should say first has been mostly in the teaching of skills, the
teaching, testing and developing of skills in young athletes. We developed a set of
criteria, which draws heavily on the work of Terry Orlick that we call the PCDEs –
the psychological characteristics of developing excellence. And that was really where
we sort of came in sort of the mid-nineties in terms of saying ‘This is what someone
needs to get them to the top’.
As we then started to extend that into looking at the Talent Development Environment
or the TDE. We spotted that a lot of the talent systems, especially in the UK and
elsewhere where there were lots of resources, were focused very much what might
call a professional setting whereby you removed all the challenges – I think you guys
might refer to that as snow ploughing – snow plough clearance certainly - remove all
the challenges from the path of the young, developing athlete enabling her or him to
focus on – on the challenge of the sport. And what we actually recognised was that
that seemed to be a pretty counter productive approach so we came back with this
idea which we published in sort of the late twenties that looked at The Rocky Road to
Success. For a catchy title we went for ‘Why Talent Needs Trauma’. And since then
that’s been a big thrust of our research, If you're a super champ and I'm a champ we
might both encounter some challenges around say the growth spurt around
thirteen/fourteen. It’s how well I cope with them but more importantly how well I
learn from that and enhance my skills and my competence that I take into the next
challenge. Does that make sense? So it’s not the incidence of challenge, it’s what I get
out of it, what I learn from it and therefore what I bring to the next challenge because
of course any pathway is a series of challenges that is the distinguishing characteristic,
the biggest distinguishing characteristic between the super champs and the champs.
Chris Hoy’s experiences of using

sport psychology
Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MICHAEL JOHNSON
So we’re in Manchester on the way to see Chris Hoy and talk to him about his
mindset – talk to him about his career and his journey to Olympic success. One of the
things that I’ve always gathered from Chris is that he is a very, very tough competitor
mentally and that is one of his strengths, one of his weapons.
Chris, how are you? Good to see you. I’m well. How about you?
CHRIS HOY
Yeah, good, thanks.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
Good.
CHRIS HOY
Busy?
MICHAEL JOHNSON
Always.
CHRIS HOY
Yeah. Me, too.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
Chris, I think most people would think, going to see a sport psychologist, there must
be something wrong. But that wasn’t the case with you. So what was it that prompted
you to go and seek the sport psychologist’s help?
CHRIS HOY
The reason that I engaged with Steve Peters initially was because I just felt as though
I wanted to be as well-prepared as possible. So I knew that I wanted to tick every
single box that I could to get to the start line knowing there was nothing more within
my powers that I could have done. And it wasn’t like I had any major issues with
dealing with pressure or lack of focus in competition.
But there was an example in 2003 at the World Championships where I changed my
strategy based on watching a rival’s race. So I saw someone do an incredibly fast
time. Instead of thinking maybe it was a fast time because the conditions are really
quick and we’re all going to go quick, I changed the gear on the bike and I attacked
way too hard at the start. And I died off at the end and did a really poor performance.
So it was just little areas. I thought, if I go and see him, even if it makes no difference
at all, then I can feel that I’ve done everything within my powers to be in the best
possible shape when the race starts. And with Steve, I think what he was great at
explaining was that he can’t magic some performance out of thin air. You don’t find
some sort of superhuman strength out of nowhere.
But what you’re aspiring to do is to be able to do what you know you can do, what
you physically are capable of doing, under the most extreme pressures. So stepping up
there could be the one shot in your whole career. Like you’ve experienced – I
experienced – in front of a home crowd at an Olympic Games, this is your one shot.
You’re never going to get this chance again.
And if you get distracted, if you focus on the wrong things, as you well know – and
you dealt with it, I’m not sure how you dealt with it yourself but for me, it was about
focusing on my performance. And Steve really helped me just to see anything that’s
irrelevant, anything out with your control, forget it.
Hone in on the ABC, that kind of process, not the outcome. If you focus on the
process, the result will take care of itself. That really helped me in many ways. It
helped me in Athens.
Two weeks before, we were at a training camp in Newport. Steve was there and he
said to me, what are you going to do if somebody breaks a world record right before
you step up there? And I was like, well, I just won’t think about it. And he said, well,
if I say to you right now, don’t think about a pink elephant, what’s the first thing you
think about? This pink elephant pops in your head.
He said, you can’t say, I’m not going to think about something. You have to focus on
something else to displace this negative thought and focus on what you want to do.
And he said, from now on, whenever you get a negative thought, any anxious thought
between now and the games – two weeks to go – I want you to visualise your race.
It’s only a minute long.
Do it in real time. From the moment you’re in the start gate, the countdown, your
deep breaths, the snap out the gate, the first half-lap, second lap – visualise the whole
race. I was like, yeah. OK. No problem.
Went back to my room – logged on to the internet. One of the cycling websites
announced that one of the French riders had done an amazing time in training – initial
rush of adrenaline, that feeling of oh my god, he’s going to be going really well. I
thought, oh, hang on. I’ll just use this little technique. And that’s when I started doing
it.
And from then on, I don’t know how many thousands of times I must have gone over
this race in my head. Got to the race on the night itself – it was like you had some sort
of crystal ball. Four riders to go, the guy broke the world record. Three riders to go,
another one – the guy right before me broke the world record again, to a point we
never thought anyone would go that fast.
And instead of panicking and changing my strategy, I was aware of it but not
consciously. I was just so focused on myself and getting this ride out that I knew, well
I hoped, I could do.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
Do you think that people in sport are starting to embrace that a little bit more, where
athletes are starting to understand on the athlete’s side that there doesn’t have to be
something wrong in order to see a sport psychologist and to benefit from that – but
also on the sport psychologist’s side that you don't have to automatically seek to find
something wrong with this individual if they come to see you? Your job is to help
them to be better in terms of their mental preparation for a competition.
CHRIS HOY
Without doubt, absolutely, and that’s the key. And also, just because someone is a
sport psychologist, it doesn’t mean it’s either a good sport psychologist. There are
good ones, bad ones - there are good mechanics, bad mechanics, good coaches, bad
coaches, and it’s working out what’s right for you.
I know many guys on the team that never actually engage with Steve at all and still
produce great performances. But that’s not to say they couldn’t have improved
performances without him. And likewise, there are some people who spent a lot of
time with Steve and they may not have improved at all. But it’s such a personal thing.
It’s how you engage with it. It’s how you use the information and that’s why it’s such
a personal thing.
That’s what makes sport interesting. It’s the way that people deal with pressure. It’s
the way that there’s always that question that I still think that psychology is becoming
a bigger part of sport. But it’s fascinating. It’s what we love about it. I think that’s the
most exciting part of sport.
Ronnie O’Sullivan on controlling his

emotions
Transcript
MICHAEL JOHNSON
Pressure, It can make you or break you. Decades of scientific understanding has
enabled us to hone our physical form, but it is indisputable that what exists above the
neck has a huge role to play in sporting success. None more so than in the game of
snooker. Perhaps one of the most psychologically demanding sports. Just ask five
times world champion, Ronnie O’Sullivan. As one of the most skilful players of all
time, Ronnie realised that his raw talent wasn’t enough, and controlling his negative
emotions was the key to unlocking sustained success. In order to do that, he sought
the help of psychiatrist Professor Steve Peters.
RONNIE O’SULLIVAN
I used to always win tournaments, but I didn’t feel like a champion. I’d always feel
like I just kind of done it with my talent? I used the game as a way of – like if I could
play well at the game, then my mind was good. And if I didn’t play well then my
mind was bad, and I just kind of accepted that that was how I was going to be. So I
kind of resigned myself that if I was going to play snooker I was going to probably be
battling this negative emotions really. So, I just wanted out. It was just time maybe to
say goodbye, but then fate steps in and I meet Steve and then I’ll probably play the –
well I know, I’ve played the best snooker I’ve ever played in the last four years. If it
wasn’t for Steve I definitely wouldn’t have won the titles I’ve won, in the manner that
I won it you know?
STEVE PETERS
My role I think is to come in and help the elite athlete or whoever approaches me to
understand their mind better, as a machine, and to get the best out of it. The way I
operate, I parallel the physical side, so the coach would do physical training, fitness,
techniques and events, and what I do is mirror that with the mind, to say ‘how do you
operate your mind in a way that it will get the best out of you during competition’.
RONNIE O’SULLIVAN
I’m now a great believer that the mind is more important than the physical attributes,
because I see it other players now, I see it in other sportspeople. I think they’re not the
most talented, but they certainly have – are able to deal with their head, out there in
the heat of battle. That for me is what great champions have over the other people, it’s
just have that strength of mind. I didn’t know how to do it, and Steve showed me how
to do it.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
Steve devised a deliberately simple model, to illustrate the interaction between
different parts of the brain. His theory suggests that one of those parts, dubbed ‘the
chimp’, can override our logical thoughts with emotional ones, often leading to
irrational feelings and behaviours.
STEVE PETERS
If you really cut it down to basics, essentially we have what appear to be three
competing circuits in the brain, or systems, or areas. So I call them team leaders, and
the first team is what we want, our values our beliefs, what we want to happen – so
for example simply, I want to go into the sport, enjoy it, do my best and come away
with my head held up thinking all I can do is my best. That’s one. The second one
which I then coined the term ‘chimp’ because we share the same circuitry with the
chimp, and often when we’re losing it big time we do become like chimpanzees. But
that part of our brain we’re not directly in control of, we have to learn to manage it
and recognise that even if I want to go to a sport, and I’m going to enjoy it, that part
might for example – it varies – say no, your ego is on the line here, everybody is
watching you, you can’t afford to make a mistake. And it may start saying, typically
things like I just want this to end, I don’t want to be here. And yet, me as a human
being, I might be saying I do want to be here, I want to enjoy my sport. So you’ve got
this inner conflict in a lot of people, and the third system is a computer system, and
these are all memory banks and behavioural banks.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
The appeal of Steve’s chimp paradox has been in simplifying a difficult subject to
empower people to manage their emotions.
RONNIE O’SULLIVAN
There’s been matches when I’ve not wanted to even go out and play. About five
minutes before the match my mates have been trying to get me out of bed, and I’m
like, I don’t want to face it. And I’d get there, put my shirt and tie on as I’m walking
towards the table, and I’d get out there and I’d think this is going to be a nightmare,
and I started to play well. And then I was like, I want to be here now, and I didn’t
understand that. It was just kind of like Steve said, it can—the chimp is fickle.
Managing it is the key, isn’t it. That’s what it is, it’s always there, it’s just managing it,
steering it and kind of, and then we say sometimes the chimp’s really on our side and
we’re flying. And I’m like, what? I said Ste, I said, the chimp feels really good, I feel
so positive, I feel like I can just knock down walls. He went, just go with that, we like
that. And I was like, okay. And then I realised I can actually manage the levels of
emotion that I want to put in or take out, you know. I mean, sometimes I can fire them
up and sometimes I can take them down. It’s good to know that I can become
emotionless if I have to be. I’m a lot better at not sabotaging I think, isn’t it, Steve?
STEVE PETERS
Yes, yes.
RONNIE O’SULLIVAN
My own success really.
STEVE PETERS
You’ve done really well, but I say the key is, you’ve put the work in.
RONNIE O’SULLIVAN
Yeah, yeah.
STEVE PETERS
If somebody gets really physically fit by say jogging, and then they stop for three
months, they lose it. And in my experience, if someone gets emotionally fit and learns
this skill of managing themselves and getting the best out of themselves, if they don’t
practice that, they lose it, it defaults back to the base position.
RONNIE O’SULLIVAN
I feel much more like a 14-year-old kid now, when I first took the game up and played
it for fun, enjoyed it and had no fears, if you like. And that’s how I feel now, the last
four years. I feel like that young boy again, that’s excited to play, loses, takes it on the
chin, comes back for some more, you know, so.
STEVE PETERS
Umm.
RONNIE O’SULLIVAN
That’s because of Steve.
[LAUGHTER]
STEVE PETERS
In all sports, people say it’s all to do with approach and attitude at the end of the day,
so if you can learn how to get the right approach and attitude, then the probability of
success must inevitably rise.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
O’Sullivan has said of snooker, there are times out there when you’re so close to
cracking, but managing and understanding the mind has clearly been essential in
getting him back to the top of his game, with two world titles.
Transcript
ALEX DANSON
I’ve been coached by a wide range of people over the last 25 years, and some of the
most rewarding relationships and coaching sessions that I have had have been over
the last two Olympic cycles and building into those magical games in Rio. Our coach,
Danny Kerry, did an incredible job of devising really challenging coaching practises
that meant we worked incredibly closely together and devised this really unique team
amongst a squad of 31 athletes.
Now, when I visit schools and clubs, I’m always really interested to see how they
organise their practises and see how engaged the players are in those sessions. I really
enjoy pushing my mind and body to the limit, whether it’s doing two things at once
like this--
[CLACKING SOUND]
--or finessing my hitting. For me, quality of practise beats quantity, and you’ll be able
to see what I mean as we go through the course this week.
Richard Bailey’s five coaching

commandments
Transcript
RICHARD BAILEY
I’m Richard Bailey, and here are my five coaching commandments.
You learn to play the game by playing the game. Whether it’s golf, gymnastics, judo,
or ice dance, the closer the practise is to the competitive environment and the main
event, the more likely it is that you’ll develop the skills, the knowledge, the
understanding to be properly prepared for that activity.
It’s quality, not quantity, of practise that matters most. Mindless repetition contributes
almost nothing to improve performance. What’s needed is highly focused, highly
concentrated practise, and that’s the way to improve performance.
Praise and criticism should be used wisely. There’s a common view among coaches at
the moment that children require a lot of praise and that criticism should either be
kept to a minimum or completely banned. The idea is that praise builds up self-
esteem, and criticism knocks it down.
There’s absolutely no evidence that this is true. On the contrary, there is evidence that
meaningless, empty praise damages children’s self-esteem because it damages the
relationship with the coach. Praise and criticism should be used rarely. Think of it like
salt in a meal. A little bit of salt can make the meal special. Too much can ruin the
meal. Keep it to a minimum, and keep it special.
The way you coach is as important as what you coach. We all know great athletes are
creative, and innovative, and surprising. Think of Ali or the Williams sisters or Messi.
Their whole performance is unpredictable, but your coaching needs to be
unpredictable as well. If you’re expecting your players to be creative and innovative,
you need to coach in a creative and innovative way.
It is impossible to tell the future. Nobody in the history of humanity has been able to
predict the future. That seems obvious, but every day, coaches try to act as if they can
see what’s happening in the future. They identify talented children. They put them on
talent pathways. They put them under enormous pressure.
The simple reality is you cannot predict what will happen with that player. If children
are of primary age, it is literally impossible to predict the future sporting success of
that player.
What you can do is keep children playing, keep creating positive sporting
environments, and keep them coming back, and that is probably the best recipe for a
talent development pathway.

Simon Timson and Matthew Syed

Transcript
Simon Timson
What we've learned to do is create what we would describe as highly contextual,
decision rich training environment. So it’s moving away from the traditions of just
doing drills and creating competitive environments in training that challenge young
players, young athletes to make decisions all the time and trial and error, get things
wrong, safe environment – that’s fine. Learn from those mistakes. But critically
review them in a really structured, systematic way. Review them with your coaches
and the other support staff and ensure you learn and then practise those techniques
again and again.
Matthew Syed
I mean this goes right back to the issue we were discussing in the last half hour when
it comes to football because often it’s easy to think we need to coach this one skill at a
time. So if we are teaching dribbling, we get a player to run with the ball and dribble.
If we’re teaching to have a look up and find the right pass we do that. But you look at
the great players. They're able to run with the ball with their head up and they're
looking for the patterns around them. And if you have a training environment which is
decision rich – in other words where they are having to integrate the perception, the
motor skills and all the other things that are significant in an actual game - they're
learning far, far faster than if you divide it down into specific skills and just drill them
relentlessly. And I think there needs to be – I don’t know what you think – but just a
bit more sophistication in the way we think about football in particular because you're
getting this right in the Olympic context.
Simon Timson
I saw a wonderful example of the kind of former way of doing it in action last year. I
was out with a NFL franchise and I was just stood watching practise and the head
coach said you know what do you think? And I said well, you’ve been talking to me
about your players have got all the skills but they made bad decisions on game day
and I'm watching your punt returner here practise and the ball’s coming out of the
machine. He’s catching it unopposed and jogging through a bunch of stationery
defenders. He’s got guys running full pelt at him trying to knock his head off on game
days - why are you surprised he struggles?
Matthew Syed
By the way – also when you get it coming out of the machine you're not reading the
movement of the player who might be throwing it to you.
That’s exactly – look. You're so right. I see this all the time in sport where they're
getting that bit completely wrong.
Richard Bailey’s five coaching

commandments
Transcript
RICHARD BAILEY
I’m Richard Bailey, and here are my five coaching commandments.
You learn to play the game by playing the game. Whether it’s golf, gymnastics, judo,
or ice dance, the closer the practise is to the competitive environment and the main
event, the more likely it is that you'll develop the skills, the knowledge, the
understanding to be properly prepared for that activity.
It’s quality, not quantity, of practise that matters most. Mindless repetition contributes
almost nothing to improve performance. What’s needed is highly focused, highly
concentrated practise, and that’s the way to improve performance.
Praise and criticism should be used wisely. There's a common view among coaches at
the moment that children require a lot of praise and that criticism should either be
kept to a minimum or completely banned. The idea is that praise builds up self-
esteem, and criticism knocks it down.
There’s absolutely no evidence that this is true. On the contrary, there is evidence that
meaningless, empty praise damages children’s self-esteem because it damages the
relationship with the coach. Praise and criticism should be used rarely. Think of it like
salt in a meal. A little bit of salt can make the meal special. Too much can ruin the
meal. Keep it to a minimum, and keep it special.
The way you coach is as important as what you coach. We all know great athletes are
creative, and innovative, and surprising. Think of Ali or the Williams sisters or Messi.
Their whole performance is unpredictable, but your coaching needs to be
unpredictable as well. If you're expecting your players to be creative and innovative,
you need to coach in a creative and innovative way.
It is impossible to tell the future. Nobody in the history of humanity has been able to
predict the future. That seems obvious, but every day, coaches try to act as if they can
see what’s happening in the future. They identify talented children. They put them on
talent pathways. They put them under enormous pressure.
The simple reality is you cannot predict what will happen with that player. If children
are of primary age, it is literally impossible to predict the future sporting success of
that player.
What you can do is keep children playing, keep creating positive sporting
environments, and keep them coming back, and that is probably the best recipe for a
talent development pathway.

What sporting future: risks and

rewards
Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MICHAEL JOHNSON
Andy, you've been involved in sport for a very long time. Is this time over, say, the
last 50 years or so-- are we seeing right now the most advancement in sport
performance and what athletes are actually capable of?
ANDY WALSHE
Yeah. That's a great question. I think in the last 5, 10 years-- last 5 years, really-- the
technology revolution has just come, like in every aspect of life. And I think right
now, this is a point where we can understand things in ways we've never been able to
before.
So in terms of where we're heading, the future is wide open. I think we're going to see
advancements in the next 10, 20 years that make the last 100 look sort of
insignificant. What that translates to in terms of actual faster running, lifting more,
things like that, is still to be determined.
But I think as I look at it, if a scale of 1 to 10, we're probably a 1 out of 10 in terms of
our understanding of really what it takes to perform at the top. One's good. It helps.
But I think there's so much more we're going to learn in the next few years and that's
really the beauty of this time. We're going to start to get answers to things and
discover things and even learn new things that I think that are going to shed light on
how we can help people really get to the top of their game.
DAVE BRAILSFORD
I think we're going to get faster. I honestly believe that. I think we have done for all of
the time to this point. I can't see why it's going to stop now. So I think we will
definitely get higher, faster, stronger.
It's diminishing returns. We're going to work harder and the rate of progression
potential will get slower. But I think there's some super work being done about what
are the limits.
I'm particularly interested, we're all interested, in limits and certainly in nutrition. And
I think there are still gains to be made and then truly understanding some of the
nutritional interventions, for us, which fuelling systems and substrates are being used
when and how and can we optimise that? Can we manipulate it a little bit? Can we
change it?
And there's a lot of work still to be done in that area. So personally, I think there's a
knowledge and an education and research and science, that's all feeding into that. So I
can't see why it's going to slow down.
DAVID EPSTEIN
As competitive as sports are, I think there are still large populations in the world that
really don't have any access to the sports or to the kind of training that they would
need to be successful. And so I think we're going to continue to discover groups of
people that have the potential for great performances.
I think a lot of what we're learning about genetics is some of what we learned in
sports genetics is what we learned in medical genetics, which is people are set up in
different ways to respond better to certain types of training, muscular training, aerobic
training, and that what you see on day one isn't always the talents you're really
looking at. And I think as we realise more that trainability is part of the most
important talent, it'll change the way people are recruited and tested I think.
ANDY WALSHE
And ultimately, I think of performance as being a conversation, the cognition, the
body, the spirituality, the creativity, the physicality. That is, I think, really untapped.
And that whole combination, we may, because we've been training the 100 since a
couple of thousand years, we may be sort of limiting out and that curve is slowing.
But in other areas of overall total function and human function, I think we're still on
this trajectory up. And then we get into this idea that things will start to be augmented.
Bodies will start to be assisted a bit by machines. And so we're starting to get this
whole conversation of really how the human evolves and develops in contrast to the
technology.
In the last Olympics, Oscar and his prosthetics really was a window into where the
world could diverge. And ultimately, if an individual has a bionic set of limbs that
outperform the human limb, in athletics, yes, there's probably a rule that says he
shouldn't or she shouldn't be in the event. But outside of that, there are other
communities interested in performance which don't have those rules. So then I think
you're going to start to see interesting integrations of augmented components of
humanity.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
I'm both excited and somewhat concerned about what science will do to sport. I see
what it's doing to society and it's a double-edged sword. There are great things that
we're able to benefit from technology as a society. At the same time, it creates a new
set of problems that we have to then address and deal with and create solutions for.
And I think the same thing will have to happen in sport. I think that governing bodies
will have to start to prepare for what is to come with technology and science and how
it affects performance and how it affects sport because at the end of the day,
personally, I want to see sport always remain fair and balanced for everyone and not
turn into something that's unfamiliar to a sports fan.
Recovery: the next frontier in

sporting progress?
Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
LANCE WALKER
No matter how good your training is out here on the pitch, it’s only as good as your
ability to recover from it. And I’ve grabbed a hold of that, that recovery is no longer
just this passive thing that you do in between training sessions, that there’s actually
recovery training.
PHILLIP BELL
As an athlete, you want to train as intensely as you can to be able to get fitter, faster,
stronger. And the idea of the recovery strategy is to allow you to do that. There is a
range of recovery techniques that are used in sport currently. Some particularly
popular modes-- cold water immersions, compression garments, various nutritional
antioxidant-type strategies, neuromuscular electrical simulations.
There are lots of different things out there. Essentially what they’re all trying to do is
influence or modulate the stress response to exercise. So things like inflammation,
oxidative stress, and muscle damage-- by trying to influence these stress responses to
exercise, we’re trying to either reduce the damage response to exercise so we can
come back and recover faster or we’re trying to accelerate the recovery of these
damage responses.
LANCE WALKER
What’s normal? Well, the normal line of return back to normal is this. Can we steepen
that? Are there modalities that we can use to tip that line up like this so now it
squeezes down the timeline?
So now instead of 72 hours to recover from a really heavy strength training session,
which we’ve seen historically, wow, are there some things we can do with
kinotherapy? Are there some things we can do with some of the old school, dry
needling? Are there some things we can do or not do with stretching? Are there some
things we can do with compression therapy or cryogenics?
Are there some things we can do with the central nervous system in terms of mood
and changes? Think of all the crazy things that-- can we potentially steepen that return
angle? Now what does that allow me to do? Train more intense and be able to train in
more density.
LINDSEY ANDERSON
So they had a hard training day today, but we still have another training day
tomorrow. So we need them to start their recovery immediately so by the time they
come tomorrow, within 24 hours, 12 to 24 hours, they’re ready to train again.
[GROAN]
So for the contrast baths, we’re going between 56 degrees and 104 degrees. They’re
going to spend a little bit more time in the cold tub. They’re only going to spend a
minute in the hot tub and they’re going to alternate going back and forth. And what
that does is it creates this natural pump.
So you’ve got this constriction of the muscles when you’re in the cold tub and then
they relax when you’re in the hot tub. And then they constrict again when you’re in
the cold tub. You create this natural pump that is also helping to regenerate the
nervous system.
Then we’re also going to use the NormaTec boots and get that even more
compression. So we’re working out all those byproducts that have now built up into
their muscle in reaction to their training or as a product of their training. And so by
actively recovering both in a passive way, we’re just getting the body revved up to
start its recovery.
TYLER JEWELL
I think the recovery techniques are constantly improving and changing, as well as the
training techniques and the nutrition. And we go down to what’s happening in the
blood, the blood levels of the athlete. And of course, we look at CK, which is a
precursor for muscle breakdown. And if an athlete has high levels, then we know, OK,
maybe today’s not a good day to push the training session.
A lot of the things here we’re really pushing the limit with and we definitely leave a
lot up to the athletes. We like to set the buffet and they either like it and they take
what they like and they go from there. And if we wait for a lot of things to be proven,
then we’re a little bit behind the curve. So in some cases, we do take a little bit of a
risk maybe, where it hasn’t been totally proven through research. But at the end of the
day, if an athlete believes something is working, it’s working.
It’s very interesting to think about recovery. In some respects, it could be very
important. If an athlete were going into a competition, we want to make sure that
they’re recovered. But in the off season when they’re training, that recovery modality
could possibly spoil the adaptation for the athletes. So also sometimes, it’s good to not
go in the cryosauna or not ice or not use the compression pants and allow the athlete’s
muscles to get sore so then they have a better adaptation to the training.
PHILLIP BELL
There’s a big head to head on the recovery versus adaptation story at the moment.
When we do do exercise, we get these stress responses and it’s these inflammatory
and oxidative stress responses that signal to our genes to produce more proteins and
adapt in response to these proteins. Now, if we start to try and dampen down these
inflammatory responses and oxidative stress responses, are we dampening down the
signals to the genes that then express the proteins that then help us adapt?
What we’re trying to do is to take this a level deeper by looking at what we call the
methylation of genes within the DNA. There is a theory that if something like cold
water immersion is to be having a negative effect on adaptation, it may be because we
are switching off some of these genes that are associated with muscle hypertrophy.
LANCE WALKER
We’re close, but we haven’t figured it out yet. And wow, what if we could rewrite
some of those curves? What if we could rewrite the steepness of return and recovery
for different athletes depending on the steepness? Wow. What if we could do that?
What if?
That’s exciting because I think that could potentially be the new frontier is this
recovery regeneration space because it could be the limiting factor to how much
training and how steep a training we can take on. That’s a pretty exciting space.
Looking inside the engine: US and

UK perspectives
Transcript
MICHAEL JOHNSON:
Wearable technology is a massive growth area. But its impact on performance so far
isn't clear. However, if it works, there are some great opportunities. This company is
at the forefront of the tech revolution, making clothing that can monitor muscle
performance.
JAKE WAXENBERG:
It's just standard compression gear, sweat-wicking fabric like you normally see. The
difference is that we have these sensors built directly in. So, all of these sensors fall
exactly where they need to.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
So each one of these is a sensor, a different sensor.
JAKE WAXENBERG
Exactly. So these are our electromyography sensors, EMG for short. So, you know
how you have a ECG, for your heart? EMG's for your muscles. So what that does is,
your muscles when they're being used actually create an electrical signal. And we can
record that.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
The sensors sit on the main muscle groups on the chest, arms, and legs, showing what
muscles are firing, how hard, and what sequence. And all of that info is sent to your
smartphone.
JAKE WAXENBERG
All of the muscles will light up, different colours, in real time, depending on when
they're being activated and how much effort they're exerting. So the colour scale goes
from blue, yellow, orange, to red, from 0 to 95 per cent muscle effort.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
I can see this being very useful, as it delivers sophisticated data in a very simple
format, allowing athletes and coaches to target and test training strategies outside of
an expensive lab environment.
JAKE WAXENBERG
Traditionally, EMG technology, although it's been around for a very long time-- as
you said, 50, 60 years-- you'd need a PhD to understand it. So it's taking this
traditional EMG data and then translating, in a way, in our app, where it's easily
understood and actionable for everybody.
I think it's your turn. You ready to have a go and try them out?
MICHAEL JOHNSON
It's not my favourite place, the gym, but, uh-- no, it's interesting. Yeah. I'd love to see
how it works.
I've always preferred the track to the gym, but, in the interest of science I was willing
to have a go.
Not with that much weight.
JAKE WAXENBERG
No.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
[LAUGH]
JAKE WAXENBERG
Pretty light weight, for you.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
[LAUGH] Even now, still a professional.
JAKE WAXENBERG
All right, perfect. So one thing you might be surprised about is that you use that left
side a lot more than that right side.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
The sensors seem to have picked up an old injury on my left side that I struggled with
while competing.
I haven't seen my chiropractor in three weeks, so I'm overdue for an appointment. So,
if there was anything on that left side out. And so, as an athlete, I had to figure out
whether I'm off-balance or not. So, this sort of technology is fantastic for that sort of
aid, to an athlete, as opposed to trying to feel it while you're trying to work out and
while you're trying to train.
This product is in its infancy, but I feel it's part of the future of democratising data for
all, enabling athletes of all levels to make better training decisions. Whether that will
deliver better performances on the field is unclear.
You've spent quite a bit of time over in America and San Francisco, kind of the hub of
technology and innovation. So, what were some of the things that you saw when you
were there that really got you excited about the future of human performance?
DAVE BRAILSFORD
Well, I like the general-- I like the general attitude. You know, everybody I met was
going to change the world. You know, here's a product. This is going to change the
world. And I'm a sucker for that--
MICHAEL JOHNSON
So they think.
DAVE BRAILSFORD
You know, I like that attitude. And I think if somebody doesn't believe they can
change the world, we'll never change the world. And I think there's a lot of real neat
innovations coming out. And I think the-- for me, some of the-- certainly in relation to
endurance and certain cycling events, the real-time monitoring of hydration status,
you know, fuel sort of status, if you like, and what's happening in terms of energy
expenditure, and all of those physiological parameters, being able to be measured in
real time, and you're getting real feedback.
So you're fueling correctly. You know, you know exactly what's going on. It's like
being aware of what's happening in the engine, if you like. I think there's some real
smart things coming, in that area. And I think that could be a game-changer, I really
do.
Michael Johnson meets Daniel

Chao
Transcript
MICHAEL JOHNSON
So we're in San Francisco. We're on our way to see a company called Halo. And they
are a technology company that makes a device and a system that supposedly will
create this optimised learning state.
The prototype I'm about to check out has many applications in the medical space, but
can also potentially help athletes amplify their training.
I'm always wondering, what's next? What's not out yet that's coming, that's on the
horizon? So that really excites me. And in this city, you do get a chance to see some of
those things.
Daniel Chao is part of the team of neuroscientists exploring every athlete's holy grail,
their own untapped potential.
DANIEL CHAO
We're making a wearable device that stimulates the motor cortex. It's the part of the
brain that's responsible for human movement. It puts the brain in a state of what we
call hyper learning.
MICHAEL JOHNSON:
So what is the benefit to an athlete?
DANIEL CHAO
Let's think about something very practical. So if I had you just put out one rep as hard
as you possibly can-- let's say that's 100 pounds-- on a leg extension machine. If I
were to apply an external muscle stimulator to your muscles, I'm sure I could pretty
easily get 200 pounds out of you.
So you're leaving a lot on the table. And it's not limited by your muscles. It's limited
by your brain. So what we're doing is we're preparing the brain for a workout.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
All athletes understand the importance of warming up their body before they train. So
why not stimulate your brain before a performance?
DANIEL CHAO
What we have here is our prototype version of the device. And you could see the
business end of the system where the neurostimulation happens. And that we have set
up to target the part of the motor cortex that's responsible for the movement of the
legs.
Ryan, maybe you could tell us what you're feeling.
RYAN
It's just like a slight tingling. But you really can't feel much.
DANIEL CHAO
Yeah, it's just really a mild amount of electricity that we're using here.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
What is the benefit that you would be looking for specifically in this trial from the
stimulation?
DANIEL CHAO
We're hoping to see at a given power output that the cyclist will have a lower heart
rate, so that he's more efficient. And that we can measure his blood lactate levels and
it would be reflected there as well. So in this case, the cyclist is literally learning how
to be more efficient on the bike.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
As incredible as it sounds, it seems as if by sending small electrical signals to your
brain, this device supercharges the pathways between the muscles and the brain, in
theory, improving an athlete's output at the same level of effort.
DANIEL CHAO
So this is a mathematical model of what's going on with the stimulation in Ryan's
brain.
MICHAEL JOHNSON:
So if we were stimulating the brain of an athlete who was, say, a swimmer and
focused on shoulder movement--
DANIEL CHAO
Absolutely.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
--would we actually place this in a different area of the brain?
DANIEL CHAO
That's exactly right. So the part of the motor cortex that's responsible for arm
movement is just off the shoulder of the skull.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
So depending on the sport, let's say then, that an athlete plays, you can map out what
part of the brain needs to be stimulated for that particular sport that they're trying to
train for.
DANIEL CHAO
Yeah, absolutely.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
It is pretty out there. The idea makes a lot of sense. And that's what makes it so
exciting if this could work, because no one has figured out yet how to tap into that
sort of extra ability that is there. That's what this claims to do. If it's effective in doing
so, it could truly be a game-changer.

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Exploring sport coaching and psychology

Exploring sport coaching and

Page 2 of 305 21st June 2018

About this free course

This free course provides a sample of level 1 study in Health and

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Page 5 of 305 21st June 2018

Page 6 of 305 21st June 2018

 What is a badged course?

 How to get a badge

 ession 1: Exploring sporting success

 2 Your beliefs about sporting ability

 3 The anatomy of a world record

 5 Coaching and psychology in sports

 6 What conversations do coaches and

 7 This session’s quiz

 Session 2: Coaching children: enhancing fun and

 1 One sport or many?

Page 7 of 305 21st June 2018

 3 What does excellent child coaching look

 4 Maintaining enthusiasm in a professional

 5 What does ‘fun’ mean in children’s sport?

 6 Play the ‘Medal Quest’ online game

 7 This session’s quiz

 Session 3: Guiding teenagers towards success

 1 How fast do teenagers grow?

 2 Why being born in May has its advantages

 3 What about brain maturation?

 4 A psychologist’s experience of working

 5 Confidence and emotions in teenagers

 6 I could do that: role models

 7 This session’s quiz

 Session 4: Comparing international level coaches

Page 8 of 305 21st June 2018

 1 What drives international athletes?

 2 Comparing top coaches

 3 What about coaching individual-based

 4 How would you recruit a team?

 5 This session’s quiz

 Session 5: Mindset and attitudes towards sport

 1 Revisiting your attitudes towards success

 2 Your experience of ‘mindset’

 3 Where do beliefs about ability come from?

 4 Making it early in sport