Simplify and structure the overwhelming task of mapping out your career pathway.

By Josh Fletcher
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
7 min read

Introduction

We are fortunate as coaches, nutritionists, physios, athletic trainers, personal trainers or something in between, that we have a fairly good idea of what periodisation is in the context of either seasonal, quadrennial or long-term athletic development.

What we are going to address in this article is a couple of key topic areas which can help you turn a NO into a YES at an interview, separate yourself from the crowd and make professional decisions that you in 10 years will thank you for.  First, let’s discuss a working definition of career periodisation.

What is Career Periodisation?

‘Career periodisation is quite simply breaking down the core competencies of your field into smaller manageable chunks in order to map out your career’.
To dumb it right down, it is basically building a progressive and structured plan for our professional development and career development, just using cute wording which means something to our industry ‘Career Periodisation’.

It isn’t taught at school, college, university or anywhere for that matter in a formal context. We are just expected to know or figure it out ourselves without any real authority offering a guide, some principles or definitive advice and resources.  That is why we spend so much energy on trying to figure out what we want to do, making decisions that aren’t in line with our core values and picking up the pieces from the poor decisions we made 3, 5 or 10 years earlier.  So, in this article, we are going to take a deep dive into how you can build a blueprint for your career which allows you to grow as a person and practitioner. Our goal is to give you some tools which may help to prevent that professional and compassionate burn out which is all too common in us performance practitioners.

‘You can do anything; you just can’t do everything.

The same goes for our athletes, they can work on any single physical quality whilst in or out of competition. But they cannot do that without experiencing diminishing returns on each other or the outcome (competition in this instance). The art of building a good performance program that works exactly when it needs to is creating a balanced and structured program that prioritises the right areas of preparation at the right time.  We can discuss this in terms of physical qualities or more holistically in terms of mental performance skills, nutrition, recovery etc.

This process of periodising for our athletes gives them the greatest potential to optimise performance at game time. Now, let’s take this example and swap out athlete, competition and physical qualities and replace them with your career development, interview/promotion and industry-specific core competencies. Here is that paragraph again with some replacements:
‘You can work on any single core competency, but you cannot work on each area simultaneously without experiencing diminishing returns on another area.  The art of career periodisation is to prioritise the core competencies of your development, so you have the ability to utilise the skills exactly when you need to’.
If you can work out which areas need the most amount of attention first and which can open the most number of doors for your future then you are well on you way to getting ahead of the pack.

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What are Industry-specific Core Competencies?

They are the outcome of your industry needs analysis. These are the key elements of any career field which can make the difference between you landing in the no pile or the yes pile, they will see you develop and grow as a balanced and rounded practitioner who is setting themselves up for a solid long-term pathway.

These are non-exhaustive and have been chosen specifically because they represent the basics such as the obvious underpinning knowledge and experience, but also the non-technical skills that trip so many people up along the way like communication and networking.  They have applications to all departments and career fields, but you may wish to alter them slightly to be even more specific to your domain.

Experience – Internships, mentorship, shadowing, developmental opportunities
Employment – Paid positions, full time and/or part-time
Networking – Contacts made, names, numbers, conversation log, follow-ups, mentors and support network
Qualifications – Professional qualifications
Professional Development – Industry-specific certifications, webinars, courses, study
Communication – Defined development around understanding people and yourself to communicate your message
Professional Reading – Industry-specific books, podcasts, articles
How do I periodise my career? – The concept is simple, but it is not easy.  It is exactly the same as writing a 1, 3 or 5-year plan for our athletes. Just the same as our athletes might get injured, lose form, lose sponsorship or a global pandemic grinds competition to a halt. Life happens for performance practitioners. Ever experienced any of these thoughts and feelings?

• I don’t know what I want to do
• I know what I want to do, I just don’t know how to achieve it
• I have never really been taught how to work back from my goal
• I’m not sure if I should stay or go in this role
• Everyone else seems to be so much further ahead than me
• I keep getting rejections or not even contacted back and I don’t know why

The answer to one or all of these thoughts and feelings is to engage in 2 clear activities.

How Do I Periodise My Career?

The concept is simple, but it is not easy.  It is exactly the same as writing a 1, 3 or 5-year plan for our athletes. Just the same as our athletes might get injured, lose form, lose sponsorship or a global pandemic grinds competition to a halt. Life happens for performance practitioners. Ever experienced any of these thoughts and feelings?

• I don’t know what I want to do
• I know what I want to do, I just don’t know how to achieve it
• I have never really been taught how to work back from my goal
• I’m not sure if I should stay or go in this role
• Everyone else seems to be so much further ahead than me
• I keep getting rejections or not even contacted back and I don’t know why

The answer to one or all of these thoughts and feelings is to engage in 2 clear activities.

1. Define your guiding principles.

Your guiding principles are a set of personal values and visions which act as a lighthouse for you when things get rough or the visibility on the route isn’t so clear. Your guiding principles make tough decisions easier to navigate and bring you closer to career happiness and fulfilment as you start to make decisions for the right reasons.

Personal Values
A belief or value which motivates your behaviour. Examples might include kindness, health, learning, success, competitiveness and adventure.  Attaching some conscious thought to identifying these can help you to live and act by them.

Personal Vision
A personal vision is a broad stroke goal/set of goals that you would like to do in the future, both personally and professionally.  Personal and professional must go hand in hand. Personal visions often start with people saying ‘I would love to….’ or ‘I want to….’.  Examples may include earning I would love to earn x amount, managing a team, working under a mentor, not live paycheque to paycheque, I want to not bring work home and have my weekends free.

The free cheat sheets are an appendix to this article and will help you to establish your guiding principles.

2. Download the free 5 year and 1-year career blueprints HERE and start building your pathway

Writing a 5-year plan is a bit like taking a trip around the world, you might know the continents you want to go to, then the countries and the specific places come later. If you write in line with your guiding principles, then you’ll create a plan which is true to you and what you want.

The 5 year and 1-year periodised planners are designed to give you a guide, a bit like a GPS mapping out your route, you still have the opportunity to stick to the route or to take an opportunity as it presents itself.

Top tips for using the periodised planners:
Part 1:

• Study the example 5-year planner (written for a Breaker strength & conditioning coach)
• Print out the A3 blank 5-year planner
• On a separate piece of paper write some goals down such as complete MSc, part-time paid employment, pass industry accreditation exams. Spread the goals out
• Transfer your goals to the blank planner at the top
• You now have some big rocks in place. Start with those big rocks and reverse engineer the outcome until you get down to annual action items such as complete personal training qualification this year.
• Consider what core competencies you can work on simultaneously, for example, listen to a podcast on improving listening skills and apply in the workplace
• Use the accountability statistics to hold your feet to the fire and create an objective metric for the stat lovers amongst us

Part 2:

• Study the annual plan example (written for a Breaker strength & conditioning coach)
• Print out the A3 blank annual plan
• Use the content from your 5-year planner to begin breaking down the goals from year 1
• Again, reverse engineer the 1-year goals down into quarterly actions and fill in the slots
• Consider if there is a way for you to work on multiple core competencies simultaneously, for example, contact someone you wish to network with and offer to do some data analysis for them concurrently expanding your network and your data analysis skills
• Use the accountability statistics to hold your feet to the fire and create an objective metric for the stat lovers amongst us!

Summary

The formalised concept of periodisation has been around for decades in sport, business and the military. It is time we use the principles and apply them to our career development.

No one else is going to do it for you, so build your career in the way that you want, which will make you happy and fulfilled in and out of the workplace.

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Josh Fletcher

Josh is a Strength & Conditioning Coach with over 10 years industry experience. He has worked across multiple sports and nations and is previously worked as an EXOS Performance Manager on a tactical project. His particular areas of interest is coach development for the next generation of S&C coaches.

More content by Josh

The post Are You Periodising Your Career? appeared first on Science for Sport.

How to get your opportunity at an interview

By Josh Fletcher
Last updated: March 1st, 2024
7 min read

Introduction

As part of a job application, your (Curriculum Vitae) CV is your first impression. The job market is so competitive these days that if your CV isn’t up to scratch then you’ll land yourself in the NO pile or MAYBE pile at best.  They are not the piles you want to be in, as more often than not they will not lead to an offer to interview.

A sloppy CV tells a story to the panel, from the very first glance they are shaping their image of you as a person and practitioner, it is human nature. Your job as the applicant is to provide them with the evidence required to formulate a positive image of you and begin to shape the lens through which they see you.

Think about this scenario through the lens of the employer. I once helped my line manager sift through 200+ CV’s for a job vacancy. If we spent 5 minutes per CV we would cover just 24 CV’s an hour and around 8 hours to complete the task. This was not going to happen as we both had busy weeks.  So, we looked for clear red flags, good/bad first impressions based on visual aspects of the CV, names we knew and what we read in the personal profile. That was how we created a YES, NO and MAYBE pile.

There are a series of checkpoints, that almost speak to the reader of a CV and tell miniature stories throughout. This article will de-mystify CV writing and discuss important points based on what your CV says to the employer about you.  The goal is for you to finish reading this article and have a whole sack full of tips and tricks to seriously upgrade your CV.

Your CV Must Be Formatted To Perfection

This section is the lowest of the low hanging fruit. These are the basics of a CV which are easy to get right or fix. Sloppy formatting refers to any or all these things:

What this tells the employer about you
 
A well-formatted CV is the minimum standard expectation employers have, so be clear that it might not gain you any recognition.  Some employers will recognise the lack of errors and well laid out content, but not all will do. But if it is formatted poorly or there are glaring errors it will certainly stand against you.

You can therefore reverse each of these messages a well or poorly formatted CV sends to the reader:

This candidate lacks attention to detail. They may bring this into their work if I hire them.	This candidate has paid attention to detail. They will bring this into the role if I hire them.
This candidate didn’t get their CV proofread. They don’t check off the basics, are they a corner cutter?	This person does the basics well and doesn’t cut corners.
This candidate doesn’t care enough about this role.	This candidate cares about this role.
This candidate doesn’t look at their application as their first impression.	This candidate isn’t thinking about their application as their first impression.
This candidate didn’t print out a hard copy of their CV	This candidate did print out a hard copy of their CV

Top Tips

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Your CV Needs to Show How You Can Solve Problems The Employer May Have

In every job specification, an employer will quite clearly layout what problems they have at their club or organisation. It is your job to show them with your CV that you have the skills to solve their issues.

Here are some top tips which help the employer to know you are the solution to their issues:

Here is a short example where I have taken the key responsibility directly from a job specification:
Key Responsibility “Work with other members of the multidisciplinary team to improve performance through developing, implementing and evaluating strength and conditioning programs”.

The Problem
‘This role requires different departments to work together to enhance performance. Programs need to be aligned with measurable outcomes. These programs include physical qualities associated with both strength and metabolic conditioning.

Potential Response
Collaborated with the medical department to create a return to training, play and performance protocol. This has resulted in a 13% reduction in time lost through injury, aligned physical evaluation metrics, and improved performance levels as measured positive involvements during match play.

You need to try to say succinctly what happened, what was the outcome, and what performance impact it had to paint a picture of the scenario for the reader. You can use this to your advantage by framing the content to match the job spec. The employer wants to see a page of solutions so they can put you in the yes pile.

Take The Opportunity To Sell Yourself Appropriately

Selling yourself in your CV is not a sales pitch, it is simply showing the employer what you can offer them and the performance impact they can expect from you. When you are matching your solutions to the problems identified in the key responsibilities section of the job spec, you can add another layer to your response, you can sell yourself.

Problem    Solution    Your impact   Performance impact
Your focus is on the final three aspects of this diagram. Providing your solutions, showing what your impact was and what the performance impact was of your input.  By being specific about what the outcome was, and the impact on performance, you are telling the story that your actions can impact performance for this organisation.

What this tells the employer about you
People get concerned that it comes across as cocky by stating the impact you have had in previous roles. It does not. The reality is that it shows that you have had a performance impact and that you can do the same for this club/organisation. Employers need to know that you can have a positive impact and the only way to show that before the interview is to do so in your application. You need to shoot your shot and tell people what you have done, just do so in a factual manner and use non-emotive/dramatic language and your message will be heard as you intend it to be.

Summary

There is so much information out there on how to write a good CV that there is no excuse for creating a poor CV. However, a lot of the information out there will get your CV to an average level or maybe even as good as the best of the other applicants. But your goal is to land in the YES pile and separate yourself from the crowd.

The priority is to make a good first impression and help the panel to create a positive image of you before the interview. You need to give them reasons to put you in the YES pile and not the NO pile. You can control that if you implement the strategies discussed above.

Despite having laid out these tops tips for you, sometimes people need a little more support and to be confident they will land in the YES pile. Your CV is something you’ll need throughout your career, so it is worth giving it a professional upgrade as early in your career as possible. For some support with your CV, have a look HERE at the CV Overhaul service offered by Career Blueprint.

We look forward to hearing how you get in with your upcoming applications.

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Josh Fletcher

Josh is a Strength & Conditioning Coach with over 10 years industry experience. He has worked across multiple sports and nations and is previously worked as an EXOS Performance Manager on a tactical project. His particular areas of interest is coach development for the next generation of S&C coaches.

More content by Josh

The post 3 Things You Must Do with Your CV to Land in the Yes Pile appeared first on Science for Sport.

By Josh Fletcher
Last updated: March 1st, 2024
4 min read

Introduction

If you have made it to the interview, it’s usually fair to assume you have the skills to do the job, your CV would have indicated that to the panel. Now you need to show why you’re the best or most promising candidate for the job. This article will focus on an area of the interview process, which is often not optimised by the interviewee, the classic ‘Do you have any questions for us?’ posed by the panel and the end of your interview.

The Interview

At the most basic level, the panel NEED to know that you can implement the required skills in that specific environment.  But, to separate yourself from the other candidates and leave the panel with no questions about your ability to do the job, the panel WANT to know that you can think independently, take control of stressful situations, and convey your ideas clearly and concisely under pressure.

Usually, an interview will begin with a range of competency-based questions (strengths, weaknesses, describe a difficult situation and what you did to overcome it, a time when you have failed and bounced back, these sorts of questions) or technical questions (Can you describe the energy system development you would implement within this sport? Please describe in detail the fundamental requirements of power development and how you would implement these in season?).

Here you will get the opportunity to put your best foot forward, but there is another opportunity to sell yourself. The questions which you get to ask the panel about the role.

When you come to the end of your interview, often you will be offered the opportunity to ask the interview panel any questions. If you aren’t given this opportunity, which would be rare, then politely request to ask a couple of questions before you leave. Don’t leave without taking the chance to sell yourself just that little bit more.

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The Questions

Here are 3 great questions you can ask at an interview and what they say to the panel.

1. Can you describe the culture of the organisation?

What it tells the panel:

2. Can you describe the progression opportunities that would be available to me after proving myself?

What it tells the panel:

3. What would a successful 6 months look like in this role?

What it tells the panel:

Wild Card

‘Based on this interview and the role, is there anything I have said today which doesn’t make you 100% confident that I am the right person for the job? Can I elaborate or clarify any of my points for you?
What it tells the panel:

This question isn’t for everyone. It can come across quite pushy, but you can soften it up by bookending the question with a statement such as

Of course, there are many questions you can ask the panel, the 3 questions here and the wild card options have been put together based on advice taken from heads of departments who have collectively employed hundreds of coaches and feedback from senior management at a large multi-national recruitment firm.

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Josh Fletcher

Josh is a Strength & Conditioning Coach with over 10 years industry experience. He has worked across multiple sports and nations and is previously worked as an EXOS Performance Manager on a tactical project. His particular areas of interest is coach development for the next generation of S&C coaches.

More content by Josh

The post 3 Great Questions to Ask at an Interview appeared first on Science for Sport.

Your weekly research review

By Josh Fletcher
Last updated: August 29th, 2023
3 min read

Original study

Collins, D. and Collins, L., 2020. Developing coaches’ professional judgement and decision making: Using the ‘Big 5’. Journal of Sports Sciences, pp.1-5.

Click here for abstract

Introduction

The development of professional judgment and decision-making is an important part of enhancing the expertise of a coach and influencing an athlete’s performance (see HERE). Having a clear process of how to achieve these aspects allows coaches to make more informed and considered decisions in their planning. It improves their ability to adapt session content and direction during the session, before reflecting on the quality, appropriateness, and outcomes of these choices (see HERE). Decision-making in this context refers to the choices a coach is making regarding the session format, timings, exercise/drill selection, logistical consideration, and health and safety.

A decision-making process looks to reverse engineer the desired outcome in order to define what choices need to be made and when to facilitate best practice (see HERE). Combining clear decision-making with reflective planning and practice aims to provide coaches with an in-depth assessment of their environment and promote situational awareness. Using a tool or framework to facilitate this also allows a more collaborative approach within the multidisciplinary team. This article investigated the appropriateness of an experiential learning method referred to as the “Big 5” for use as a decision-making and reflective practice tool for coaches in action sports (AS).

What They Found

Over a twelve-month period, forty-seven AS managers, centre leaders, and experienced AS instructors were provided training via workshops and practical sessions on how to integrate the Big 5 into their daily practice. Following semi-structured interviews, the researchers found that:
⇒ The mean reported score for learning adventure managers was +3.1 and AS
instructors was +4.1 (based on a scale of -5 to +5).

⇒ The participants noted that the model has some good utility, with staff discussions relating to planning and reviewing of safety incidents to inform better practice.

⇒ Instructors confidence to challenge each other’s practice was reported as a positive impact.

⇒ Participants reported an important benefit of the Big 5 was creating awareness for different options and courses of action.

What This Means

It was clear that adding structure to the planning, decision-making, and reflection process can have a positive impact on multiple areas, such as:
⇒ Safety and execution of AS training by expanding health and safety considerations, as well as considering alternative scenarios, courses of action,
and outcomes.

⇒ Staff interaction and communication specifically, that which relates to approaching challenge and feedback in a defined, constructive, and nurturing manner.

⇒ The self-confidence of both AS instructors and managers to review and improve their own practice, the practice of their colleagues (through effective challenge and communication), and the organisational standard operating procedure.

This study highlights the requirement for greater research into the utility of the Big 5 model amongst different sports and roles in order to establish its efficacy in general coaching practice. However, the basic principles and premise of
structured, agreed-upon planning, and reflection, should form part of every coach’s professional development.

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Practical Takeaways

Coaches can use comprehensive questions, such as those presented in
the Big 5 model. To plan and reflect on your practice by asking yourself
the following questions:
⇒ What are the most important variables I must consider in order to
ensure positive outcomes?
⇒ Who are the key stakeholders?
⇒ What are the environmental considerations?
⇒ What variables may influence a positive training
outcome?
⇒ How else could I have approached this situation?
⇒ Why did I choose that course of action?
⇒ Did I consider all the most relevant and important
information prior to making my plan?
⇒ Did I exhibit high levels of situational awareness?
⇒ Was my planning holistic and directly in line with the
desired outcomes?
⇒ During the session/activity, did I consider the needs
of the athletes, logistics and safety appropriately?

Josh Fletcher

Josh is a Strength & Conditioning Coach with over 10 years industry experience. He has worked across multiple sports and nations and is previously worked as an EXOS Performance Manager on a tactical project. His particular areas of interest is coach development for the next generation of S&C coaches.

More content by Josh

The post Methodical Planning & Reflection for Coaches appeared first on Science for Sport.

Communication tips for listening, thinking & decision making

By Josh Fletcher
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
3 min read

Introduction

High-performance sport is full of strong personalities, challenging training methods, thoughts and opinions, which in truly elite environments are not just important but encouraged.  But disagreements can escalate quickly if you don’t apply some principles to your communication with other people.  A catastrophic loss of rapport is when a relationship is damaged through poor communication, to the extent that it is no longer functional or positive for yourself, the environment or the athletes (1).

The results of this can be a loss of trust, respect, and the spread of negativity throughout the environment and in some instances a loss of employment. Challenge and constructive discussion are valuable to the multidisciplinary team, and this article is not advocating for coaches to roll over and concede in discussions that are critical to success.  But it will present some basic rules of engagement to avoid a catastrophic loss of rapport in situations where understanding, communication and cohesion can begin to break down.

Rule 1

It is not about you

Does this fight for your athletes or your ego?
Do the athletes lose a lot if you don’t fight this battle?
Could I be spending my energy in a more beneficial way for the athletes?

Rule 2

Pick your battles

Is what you’re discussing so important that you might actually cause more harm to the players and your own career?
You can’t win every battle. Learn when to engage and when to back off.
If you don’t fight this battle, what will the outcome be? How bad is that?

Rule 3

Pull the handbrake 

Stop. Pause. Think. Is what you are about to say part of the problem or solution?
If you are repetitively hitting a dead end, re-group and live to fight another day
What do your instincts tell you to do? They are usually the first to speak or the ‘don’t do this’ – don’t ignore these thoughts.
What do they want (their agenda)?

Rule 4

Know your audience 

What is this individual’s personality type?
What sort of communication has worked/not worked in the past (history)?
What is this individual’s preferred communication style (primary recognition system)?
What do they want (their agenda)?

Rule 5

2 ears: 1 mouth. Use them in the correct ratio

Listen and soak all up information before responding
Emotional intelligence is important, but logical thinking should not be ruined by overwhelming emotions
Employ breathing or calming techniques to ensure you don’t lose composure and self-sabotage
Stand in their shoes and try to understand their agenda

Rule 6

Stay in control

Emotions, all verbal and non-verbal communication, body language, temper, space, tone, volume, pitch, and facial expression should all be controlled, whether that’s controlled enthusiasm or emotion
The direction of the conversation (see rule 3)

Rule 7

Plan your important interaction meticulously

What do you want to achieve? How will you do that?
Visualise your outcome.
Practice the delivery, what will you say/not say? Consider reactions to negative responses
See rule 4 again.

Josh Fletcher

Josh is a Strength & Conditioning Coach with over 10 years industry experience. He has worked across multiple sports and nations and is previously worked as an EXOS Performance Manager on a tactical project. His particular areas of interest is coach development for the next generation of S&C coaches.

More content by Josh

References

The post 7 Rules to Avoid a Catastrophic Loss of Rapport appeared first on Science for Sport.

1. Summary
2. Why is strategy important in sports?
3. Reverse engineering
4. Build a malleable plan
5. Summary
6. About the Author
7. References

Summary

When we speak of strategy, we often first think of the military, business or perhaps politics, and we may consider the term as ‘our plan to achieving victory or success’. These environments have been instrumental in our conceptual understanding of what strategy is and how to move our ideas to actions. As such, coaches can and should take the lessons learned, theories and concepts to guide our athletes towards reaching their performance goals.

A strategy is your athlete’s road map to achieving their performance goals. It is usually quite easy for athletes to identify what the desired goals are (destination), the issues often lie in how to achieve these goals (the route). As coaches, we are in a unique position to be able to facilitate building the route and even more importantly the daily habits, checkpoints, courses of action and contingency strategies for the journey.

This article will provide some recommendations and discuss some tools you can use with your athletes that can be used to ‘reverse engineer’ or work back from their outcome goals to fully understand the process and actionable tasks required to construct a winning strategy.

The next section of this article will discuss three principles that can add some structure to the process. They include some frameworks that coaches can use with their athletes to create their performance strategies.

1. Know the landscape
2. Reverse engineer
3. Build a malleable plan

A high-level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty’ (Freeman 2013).

Why is strategy important in sports?

This principle has two main considerations:

1. Know Your Athlete
2. The Environment.

Know Your Athlete

This relates to understanding where your athlete is right now concerning their goal. It is non-negotiable to conduct an open and honest assessment of all aspects that can be controlled. Ranging from individual physical qualities such as speed or tactical knowledge, to lifestyle, funding, or coach/teammate relationships. The notion of self-awareness in a competitive/battle-type situation is supported by the famous author of ‘The Art of War’ Sun Tzu (2007) who stated;

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle”.

To help your athletes to improve their self-awareness and identify where they are on their journey to their goals, they can use a popular business analysis tool called a S.W.O.T analysis.

Create an extensive list of every possible controllable factor and place them into one of these four categories: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (Fine 2009). Once you have a long list, take the top 3-5 essentials from each category. Now you have your major blocks to focus on.

Here is an example S.W.O.T analysis for an aspiring backrow rugby player who has given an honest, open assessment of themselves.

The Environment

The environment refers to all aspects generally outside of your athletes’ control which they need to have an awareness of to build an effective plan. Such as competition schedules, expected performance standards, club status/reputation, teammates, coaches’ personality/approach and the pathway to the top in your sport.

Whilst your athletes may not be able to directly influence these aspects, they do need to understand they can indirectly influence these through their decisions and actions. For example, how they conduct themselves in training and around the club/training environment or their reactions to adverse decisions/setbacks such as non-selection, loss or injury.

Alternatively having a realistic image of self is invaluable, such as the awareness of a player signed as third or fourth choice in a position may not be likely to get extensive game time and may be loaned out for game time. Understanding and knowing their landscape can help them to set realistic goals and manage the expectations of their rise to the top. This is useful in avoiding disappointment and crushing confidence as a result of unrealistic expectations.

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Reverse Engineering

Reverse engineering refers to working backwards from the finished product or desired outcome to establish the exact pathway to success. Your athletes can work from a broad goal long-range goal back to the daily tasks which must be conducted to achieve the outcome.

This flow chart below is a section of the plan built for a Premiership football player who reverse-engineered their goal of becoming an England International. They were supported in building the plan from the top-down until they reached the daily actions that needed to be done. They used big sports-specific metrics such as minutes played, goals scored and assists as barometers. As well as smaller measures including jump height, goals scored in shooting practice vs. the goalkeeper in training and back squat 3RM.

Build a malleable plan

The first part of building a malleable plan is to have a plan in the first place. Once your athletes have reverse-engineered their plan, you can help them assign checkpoints or gateways to assess progress. These gateways can act as an excellent way to step back and take an objective 30,000ft view of how the plan is going. If it is working, then continue; if it needs altering then support your athletes in adjusting focus and pushing on.

The checkpoints can be defined by yes/no or pass and fail metrics, and the success/failure of the plan can be made quantifiable through a rating or scale.

Some examples may include:

• On a scale of 1-5, how successful would you say you have been in achieving your goals? (5 being very successful).
• Out of 10 practice sessions, how many sessions did you complete?
• How many shots did you score out of 100 attempts?

The most important part of building a malleable plan is having the ability to take stock and then adjust.

A gateway or checkpoint is an effective way to help your athletes hold themselves accountable for their progress if the plan has assessed the landscape and then reverse-engineered the outcome, then it will be able to easily identify the specifics of why the plan was a success or not. This is an invaluable process in the revaluating and resetting practice which needs to be done regularly to check the route to success.

Not all elite athletes will make it to the highest level of their sport. Some sports pay well if you make it to the top, but the vast majority do not. The reality is that your athletes can’t afford to have a detailed, structured plan and their time and effort need to be correctly distributed to areas of their personal development such as deliberate practice, physical competencies, movement skills, regeneration, mental performance skills, technical tactical knowledge.

Furthermore, sport can be a cruel world and your athletes can be one injury away from their dreams being swiped away. Help your athletes to do their due diligence for life after sport and set up some contingencies or exit strategies through continued education, work experience, savings and health insurance.

Summary

In summary, talent alone is not enough to make it to the highest level in sport and have longevity there. Building a road map and a route with your athletes will take out the guesswork, increase engagement with the process and keep things fluid in times of difficulty and change. Benjamin Franklin summarised strategy in this context succinctly when he said ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’.

The post 3 strategic principles your athletes need to achieve their goals appeared first on Science for Sport.

Contents 

1. Introduction
2. What is P.A.C.E. planning?
3. P.A.C.E. planning a career as an S&C Coach
4. P.A.C.E. planning S&C sessions
5. Summary

Introduction

Primary, Alternative, Contingency, and Emergency (P.A.C.E.) planning is a military acronym used to describe communications strategies used in every imaginable eventuality in combat. The goal is to try to mitigate points of failure within the communications system, to ensure the highest possible level of success in that situation is achieved.

This system has been extended and accepted beyond just communication by military personnel, into just about all areas of their mission planning, training, simulation exercises and education delivery.

As coaches, we can and should be taking lessons learned from the military and business worlds, to broaden our understanding of effective planning and execution strategies. As such this article will use the PACE planning principles in two areas where coaches can plan more effectively to avoid losses in time, energy, stress and income. The two cases outlined in this blog post are 1) career development and 2) a strength & conditioning (S&C) session.

What is P.A.C.E. planning?

Outlined below is an overview of the concept of P.A.C.E. planning:

Primary
The first choice, best-case scenario method is used to achieve the desired outcome.

Alternative
A Plan B. The secondary and next best option if the primary and best-case scenario fails.

Contingency
This is less convenient and effective but the desired outcome can still be achieved. However, this is sometimes at a cost.

Emergency
If all else fails, then this is the worst-case scenario. This can be used to avoid being severely compromised.

P.A.C.E. planning a career as an S&C Coach

Primary
Running a successful and secure S&C business with freedom and time to develop and grow this business over time.

Alternative
Full-time employment with a stable income and job security in an S&C sports role of choice, running a successful supplementary revenue stream alongside good work and life management.

Contingency
Several part-time or small S&C roles provide a good, stable income with a side hustle or opportunity to collaborate as a secondary income.

Emergency
Stable income options may include some outside of coaching or general responsibilities where skills can be re-applied in coaching. Build connections and drive networking build links to establish new primary choices.

The general premise of the career P.A.C.E. plan is to have an exit strategy at each point to ensure they are not financially compromised should the primary options fall through.

P.A.C.E. planning S&C sessions

Pace
Athletes arrive to the session feeling good and require no session adjustments and have no time restrictions. The whole session completed is as prescribed and, in some cases, performance is exceeded beyond what was expected.

Alternative
Athletes arrive slightly sore or have a time restriction. The session is slightly adjusted, and the session is adjusted appropriately based on the athlete’s state and/or time.

Contingency
Athletes are very sore, or the session has a significant time cap. The session is adjusted to work on technical movement competency, mobility, active recovery, athlete education and rapport building.

Emergency
The session was cancelled. The athlete is injured, can’t make it due to unforeseen circumstances or hasn’t turned up. Schedule a time to check in with the physio and athlete to begin returning to function, play and perform strategies or contact the athlete to re-arrange session and/or prescribe missed work to compensate for the missed workload.

Summary

In summary, the principles of P.A.C.E. planning can be applied to multiple areas by the coach. The framework can be beneficial in an attempt to get upstream of issues, variables, and eventualities which aren’t always within the control of the coach.

Coaches cannot control everything, but they can employ a multi-layered approach to their thought process which covers the major bases. What transpires as a knock-on effect of strategic thinking is an increased ability to adapt on the go to unforeseen situations. This reduces the negative impacts of the unexpected and gives the coach the skill of thinking multiple steps

The post Two Ways P.A.C.E. Planning is Crucial for S&C Coaches appeared first on Science for Sport.

1. Introduction
2. What do S&C coaches do on a daily basis?
3. Roles and responsibilities of an S&C coach
4. What’s an average day for a S&C Coach?
5. Does a S&C coach work with athletes?
6. Summary

Introduction

The role of the strength & conditioning (S&C) coach has typically been well defined as one that supports the athletic development and sports performance of competitive athletes (5).

This is a broad statement, but the specific roles and responsibilities may include a gym and pitch-based program design and delivery, athlete evaluation and monitoring, accompanied by extensive individualised reporting and warm-up and cooldowns for training and match play (1).

Due to the diverse range of responsibilities, the S&C coach needs to have a broad skill set and is essentially a master generalist. This raises the question – what do S&C coaches actually do?

As part of this article, a short online survey was conducted with 35 S&C coaches working in elite sports to establish an understanding of what they actually do as part of their daily routines. The statistics presented in the ‘What we know Vs. What we do not know’ section is taken from this survey.

Therefore, this article will discuss some of the well-known responsibilities, but also some of the lesser-known roles, duties and expectations which tend to fall under the small but significant phrase at the bottom of many job adverts ‘and all other duties as assigned by the organisation’.

What do S&C coaches do on a daily basis?

The daily tasks for S&C coaches can vary greatly depending on whether you work in a team or individual sport, the level of the club or athlete, what resources and facilities are available, how much of your time has been contracted and perhaps most importantly the club or athlete culture.

Some clubs adopt the All Blacks type philosophy of ‘always sweep the sheds’ whereby an inclusive team approach towards menial non-performance tasks such as filling water bottles, carrying equipment and tidying the changing rooms after training and matches (4).

Whilst other clubs prefer for the staff to take care of all logistical tasks in order to remove all other non-performance-related considerations for the players. It relates heavily to the culture the leadership are nurturing and their individual expectations of you.

Roles and responsibilities of an S&C coach

It is important to determine what clubs’ and organisations’ expectations are of the S&C coach and their roles and responsibilities. These can alter significantly based on the variables presented above, so in order to gain a clearer understanding of what an organisation wants and expects from an S&C coach, 5 job descriptions were coded to identify essential responsibilities. The job descriptions were taken from elite-level organisations and clubs including an institute of sport, Rugby, Football, University Elite Program, and Basketball.

Below are 5 common tasks or duties that appeared on all job specifications in exact or similar terms.

1. Design of periodized weight room training programs, including the coaching of all sessions.
2. Delivery of on-field/court conditioning in addition to gym-based coaching
3. Administer and subsequently maintain detailed, accurate and updated records of athlete testing and monitoring, to be presented to the coaching team periodically
4. Work with the multi-disciplinary team to increase athlete availability and readiness to train through effective injury prevention and improved movement competency
5. Maintain excellent lines of communication and reporting with the line manager/head coach relating to player readiness and general physical performance

These roles and responsibilities could be defined as what S&C coaches know and can expect. There was however no mention of the specific additional duties undertaken by the S&C coach outside of the ‘all other duties deemed necessary by the organisation’ type statements.

These tasks and duties could be defined as what we do not know and perhaps did not expect when signing a contract. According to the survey conducted for this article, 80 % of coaches took part in duties that were not listed in their job description and 57 % did so on a weekly basis. Some of these duties included but were not limited to.

• Cleaning gym equipment
• Cleaning water bottles/shakers after training or competition
• Holding pads/bags/equipment during technical sessions
• Loading and unloading equipment for training
• Loading and unloading matchday/competition equipment
• Transporting matchday/competition equipment
• Running as an extra man in training drills
• Preparing training & matchday kit
• Water boy
• Nutrition advisor
• Supplements management
• Fundraising

Of these non-performance-related duties, 41 % of the coaches surveyed said they do what needs to be done for the good of the team or because the athletes will suffer if they do not (13 %). So, it is important to be clear when stepping into a role as an S&C coach that not all of your daily tasks and duties will be glamourous, enjoyable or stimulating and most likely, not all on your job description. Furthermore, you may feel pressure internally (morally) or externally from your superiors to undertake such duties.

What’s an average day for a S&C Coach?

An S&C coach’s schedule and daily duties will vary considerably in line with the sport itself, the environment (camp, institute of sport, national team, pro sport) and the stage in the season. Below are examples of an average daily schedule for 4 different S&C coaches from 4 different sports.

There are some small differences here, but the commonalities are long days with early starts with a blend of coaching, meetings and administrative tasks such as programming, report writing and coach/athlete communication.

All coaches had at least 5 hours of direct contact with athletes per day which highlights the importance of excellent man-management and interpersonal skills.

Does a S&C coach work with athletes?

What can be guaranteed as an S&C coach is that you will be working closely with athletes, and other coaches and be part of a multi-disciplinary support team. This can at times firmly place the S&C coach as the middleman which can be a difficult space to navigate.

Coaching athletes is a people-based occupation, communication with either groups or one on one is a fundamental part of the job.

Throughout a training cycle, your athletes will experience highs and lows which will be expressed through a range of emotions from sadness, disappointment, frustration and anger to satisfaction, pride, honour, happiness and elation.

A large part of your role as a coach is to provide the psychosocial support that each group or athlete needs when they need it (3). Essentially ride the emotional roller coaster with your athletes and act as a guide/support network throughout.

This may include acting as a sounding board for athletes who have got injured, been dropped, searching for a new team, had a disagreement with the head coach or have family problems, all of which can cause stress for the athlete and impact performance. For the coach not only can this be exhausting, and draining but occasionally put them in compromising positions where they have more information than they might need (2).

The reality of the job is that there are also psychosocial demands on the S&C coach which rarely enter onto a job description or get discussed at interviews. Whilst at times challenging, it can also be an incredibly rewarding experience and allows for a greater connection with athletes which can be highly beneficial for buy-in, team cohesion and ultimately job satisfaction for the coach.

Summary

In summary, all jobs have some tasks and duties which we prefer over others. This article has shed some light on some of those unspoken expectations of the S&C coach, which appear to be generally accepted by coaches as being part of the job. To ensure you have clarity on the daily tasks and responsibilities, be sure to define your duties explicitly with your line manager.

When speaking to the head coach or your line manager phrases like the ones laid out below could help with creating transparency in a non-confrontational manner.

• What do you need me to do for the team?
• Are there any specific tasks or duties not on the job spec that you need me to do for the team?
• I just wanted to check in with how you guys do things here and define what it is you need me to do daily.

As previously discussed, no two elite sporting organisations are run in the same way, so take some time to understand the culture of the organisation that has employed you, get to know what the expectations are of you as a coach, but also what that looks like in reality, on a daily task-specific basis.

Keeping open lines of communication with your line manager and taking a proactive approach to clarifying your left and right limits as a coach will help to align expectations between the organisation and the S&C coach. Potentially leading to better working relationships and increased job satisfaction.

The post A Day in the Life of an S&C Coach appeared first on Science for Sport.