500 Words a Week - UKSCA Conference Highlights

Over the weekend I attended two days from the UKSCA conference, below are 1-2 highlights I took from some of the speakers.

Tracey Neville

The three things need to be a successful S&C coach, listed in order of importance:

1, Be a good person

2, Coaching ability

3, S&C Knowledge

Richard Husseiny

How much of your development is aimed at you? Are you spending any time looking at developing yourself as a person, not just as a coach.

Upon thinking about the beliefs we have of ourselves, are they serving you or limiting you?

We must become clearer on our definition of success. We can’t place all of what we think about success on external accolades, or achievements of the people we work with. “Success is liking you, liking what you do and how you do it”.

Tulshi Varsani

Be wary of our narratives and check our biases.

Be more accepting of people for who they are.

Nic Gill

Upon trying to build a successful relationship with head coaches, trust must be built. This is built through being honest and be willing to have robust discussion where you both might not agree.

Try to make self-sufficient athletes, who are confident having a conversation with you when they may be fatigued or hurting, and who know strategies they can use to help them when they feel this way.

Des Ryan

Before you can lead others, you need to understand who you are, including your strengths and weaknesses. 

Time must be spent understanding head coaches’ philosophies, in order to make you a better practitioner.

James Baker

“Find what matters, measure what matters, change what matters” – Matt Jordan

Jump height, relative power and mean concentric power some jump metrics that are correlated with 60m sprint times in youth athletes.

Stretch shortening cycle ability still very much developing throughout youth athletes and is very varied, a reason why this isn’t correlated with 60m sprint times.

When testing or screening athletes, it’s not about that snapshot, its about their journey, about where they progress to.

Simon Hartley

Why should athletes choose to engage in the process you are delivering? Are you and they clear on the why behind what you do? We might assume those we work with know the why, but in many circumstances, we are mistaken.

You need to build a bank of trust with those you work with. For this to happen, those you work with need to know you have their best interest at heart. The way we develop this is through evidence and time.

A common trait in successful leaders is humility.

Bill Knowles

Injured athletes are like youth athletes, movement patterns need to be relearned.

Atherogenic muscle inhibition – muscular inhibition post trauma. Usually affects fast twitch muscle fibres. Can last for extended periods of time 18-33 months. Need to help the athletes relearn firing patterns.

Focus less on what could go wrong and think more about what could go right.