Conner's Limitations

Coach Steve Rocker is one of the most successful high school basketball coaches in Kentucky’s history. Coach Rocker was very successful in previous years. Strangely, this year was very different for him. For the first time in his professional life, he is falling short of his expectations, the community expectations, and the team’s expectations. His team lost a lot of games, but most importantly the boys had no motivation or desire to bring the team out of the rut they found themselves. His players have lost their will to win, their love for their teammates, and their passion to play. Coach Rocker’s motivational methods that have always worked before and resulted in success are now failing, and he doesn’t know why. He argues that his players have become selfish and bored with winning because they have been so successful in previous years. “And there’s no question that my guys have lost their drive to win because they’ve won so much in the past. Now all they want is individual ‘wins’…which just doesn’t cut it on a team” (Gongwer, 2010, p. 17).

Competition is a unique situation in life to analyze. If you can focus on the small details outside of the game, there’s a possibility that you can understand the way an athlete is performing and why a coach is behaving a certain way. In the heat of the moment, if not properly trained, one can not perform to their potential due to the pressure that the moment of competition can place on an individual. This can be just as much for coaches and how they react and act as much as it goes for player. Effective coaches know how to use the situation to their advantage and know what to do or how to react at the appropriate time. In this paper, I’ll examine the competition of the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh Titans and the St. Thomas Tommies in a NCAA Division 3 playoff game. I’m watching this game from the UW-Oshkosh side, so I will be observing the UW-Oshkosh football team for the most part. With this competition between UW-Oshkosh and St. Thomas, I’ll break down this paper into four talking points and the effects of said points. These four points are pre-competition routine, feedback and reinforcement by coach, game flow and interruptions and then other thoughts and factors that I noticed during the game.

Through his years of playing and coaching, John Wooden has become a wise man and has gained high-priced knowledge. Sharing his success with others, is one of Wooden’s main goals. Some people believe that success is always winning; however, this is not true at all. Defeat helps a team to be able to come back even stronger. Losses are not always terrible; they can help you learn from your mistakes in order to be able to execute better the next time. Wooden says “much as I hated to lose...this defeat was beneficial” (Wooden 155). With success, comes defeat. In order to succeed, you may need a few setbacks. Even though you might be fighting your hardest, you still might come up short, and that is acceptable. In this novel, Wooden tries to help the reader understand the different elements that come along with success. He uses his own personal experiences to inspire and impact the lives of coaches and players with his same

Before my soccer games, I used to always get overconfident that I can easily score by myself. All the people on my indoor soccer team are 2 years older than me, and they are always scoring without any help. I always wanted to be able to do the same as them, however, whenever I try to go up and down the field with the ball by myself, I would always get stopped by the other team. By trying to do the whole play by myself, I’ve learned how important teamwork is. However, overconfidence always gives me a boost of adrenaline before my games, making me excited to play. The characters of Alex from Perfect Chemistry and the narrator from “The Bass, The River, And Sheila Mant” show overconfidence by trying hard to impress others by showing off, by trying

“Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.“ John Robert Wooden is considered the greatest teacher, coach of all time and believed character was the ideal key to success. Wooden taught his players to work and achieve at their best ability. The Pyramid of Success was invented by Wooden that consisted of fifteen qualities that guided his players and others to achieve what they desired. To be able to reach full potential, Wooden’s players had to follow his coaching. As a result of Wooden building character in his men, they listened and followed the rules which allowed them to focus on their necessity.

Para 21). This positive approach to coaching helps reflect most on the athletes capabilites, rather than his/her

I believe Jimmy Connors best embodied my attitude toward failure in his iconic quote, “I hate to lose more than I love to win.” As someone who has actively participated in sports all throughout high school, as well as serving captain of the varsity football team this senior year, I am no stranger to Failure. As time goes on I have noticed the losses tend to stick more than the wins. I believe this is because of all the ‘what if’s that accompany failure. What if I had been a little bit faster? What if we didn’t drop that pass? What if we stopped that play? No matter the team, no matter how hard we played, every loss always left me with these same questions times 1000. However, no loss was more impactful than this year’s Thanksgiving day game

Reflecting daily upon these values will increase my ability to articulate a holistic coaching philosophy. A personal coaching philosophy can be used as a tool itself, enabling a coach to question their practices and develop their own understanding and knowledge (Nash, et al., 2008). Already being interested in Sports Psychology, the reflective learning practice was already something I was aware of and keen to know more about.

The intended audience for this book are athletes, but anyone can read this book because his philosophies can be used in our daily lives. The book spreads forty lessons in four parts: Part I - Welcome to the Inner Game Part II - Living the Dream Part III - Mind-Set for Success

“You will never be good enough. You are not trying your hardest. Why can you not do anything right?” These are common phrases from parents who put too much emphasis on sports. The parents from the documentary, Trophy Kids, push their children as if they were professional athletes, yet they’re only high school age or younger. As these parents push their children they are doing more harm than good. These parents may believe that they are using positive reinforcement, in reality, they are just tearing their child down. They tell the child everything they are doing wrong rather than helping them understand what they can do improved. In America today, AAU sport involvement is at an all-time high. Club sports are so large no one knows quite

In his book “Wooden on Leadership,” the coach reveals that he never focused on his teams’ records or gauged success or failure on wins versus losses. Rather, he defined success as “peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are

The main barriers to the successful use of coaching can be caused by individual self-doubt. Hindmarch (2008) defines self-doubt as the negative feeling associated with evaluating one’s abilities and perceiving them as inadequate to carry out a piece of work effectively. Therefore, this barrier is a work related phenomenon which may affect performance at work in an adverse way. Leonardeli and Arkin (2002) found that when doubts about one’s abilities are not addressed, then damage to self-esteem can follow. This can develop into a negative evaluation of one’s self at a more profound level, and therefore potentially be more damaging. It seems that positive beliefs about oneself may augment performance. Taylor and brown (1985) indicate that excessively positive self-evaluation are characteristics of normal individuals that helps lead to

The coach tirelessly pursues personal education, formally and informally, both in the performance related sciences and in liberal arts. He sees the journey to coaching excellence as a never ending story; seen not only in terms of a chosen sport and coaching theory and practice, but in understanding how to successfully live a balanced and full life, while facing tougher and tougher challenges in the chosen field of endeavour.

Perry says, “ Victory is in my veins / I know it, I know it / and I will not negotiate / I’ll fight it, I’ll fight” (Perry 10-13). Showing that all it takes for an athlete like me to be prepared for an upcoming game is to believe in oneself and to know that if I do my part then my team will succeed. Self-reliance is one of the biggest part to winning. Without it, a player is unconfident and it will need them to make more and more mistakes. Rise shows how athletes need to be self-reliant and that they when they believe themselves they can accomplish

The first step I am going to reflect on is competence. This is what my nephew had to say, he felt I could evaluate any situation and come up with a solution, I am comfortable asking for help when needed, and takes step by step approach’s to any situation. I feel comfortable with his analysis when it comes to family and how I am at home. It is when I leave my comfort zone I feel I could improve upon my competence. I lose confidence when making decisions at work. It is just easier asking for help.