As a current professional within the higher education athletics arena and 10+ years of experience as a practitioner, I have seen so much change, forward enhancement of the field, and improvements made for the overall well-being of today’s athlete. For example, just 10 years ago we had some of the following areas emerge: MOOC’s (massively open online courses) essentially set the stage for the online learning community that we have today. Big Data which was primarily a tactic to improve learning by looking at data to predict trends and consumer behavior patterns, schools are now finding that such "learning analytics" are critical to gaining any competitive advantage.
Within our space as sports performance coaches, we are expected to decipher the latest information, be cognizant of the latest scholarly articles, make comparative analysis of the latest technology used while gathering the most pertinent information from proctored weekly or monthly testing.
This is the job description and for most of us this is why we chose the profession. Depending on your list of demands as a sports performance coach it becomes chaotic fast. In fact, Schumaker, R., Solieman, O., Chen, H., & Sports Data Mining., Integrated Series Information Systems 26., Springer they state, “Properly leveraging Sports Data Mining techniques can result in better team performance by matching players to certain situations, identifying individual player contribution, evaluating the tendencies of opposition, and exploiting any weaknesses.”
Open-Mindedness & Best Practices
So, being in the field you do have technological aids that will assist you in a wide variety of ways while managing your athletes, gathering real-time data, and of course adjusting your plan. Choosing an open-minded outlook or viewing challenges, limitations, and indifferences can help when variables are constantly changing.
With women’s soccer on campus during Summer II leading up to the start of their Fall Season my ideology is that of ‘Habit Stacking.’ In many ways the fixed schedule, the time spent on campus facilitating training sessions, and the absence of other teams provides an opportunity to build healthy habits.
Some researchers postulate that the more you do something, the stronger and more efficient the neuron connections become. Cara Rosenbloom, RD wrote in an article. To begin habit stacking, you need to understand the four stages:
Cue: The first thing you do begins the process. For example, you wake up and walk to the bathroom with morning breath.
Craving: Your motivation. It’s what drives your need to do something based on the cue. In this case, you feel the need to brush your teeth to clean your mouth.
Response: The habit you perform, such as brushing your teeth.
Reward: What you gain from the response to the cue. In this case, it’s fresh breath and clean teeth.
Placing these above steps in context with women’s soccer here at the University of Massachusetts of Amherst:
Cue: Upon walking into the office, I take a seat, pull out my journal and create ‘3 MVP’s’ for the day. The ‘Most Valuable Points’ are what matters most on the day.
Craving: All my actions should be based underneath the overarching ‘3 MVP’s.’ Being purposeful within my time on campus is predicated off tasks completed leading to one of the ‘3 MVP’s’
Response: To list a few tasks associated with being exemplary with the usage of technological aids for women’s soccer.
Ensure all catapult GPS devices are accounted for and that all athletes have vests for wearable technology.
Implement the usage of the Just Jump Mat and the Force Plate as a part of the ‘Team Training Session’ to collect pertinent data.
Provide a briefing on the ‘Sports Science’ questionnaire that athletes should have submitted prior to the start of any team training.
Reward: As a result of executing tasks related to checking the box of my ‘3 MVP’s’, I can rest assured that knowing that the most important details of the day related to women’s soccer were handled.
Food for Thought
Being a coach requires constant introspection and self-awareness. That said, building good habits is a part of behavior change and should not be taken lightly. Being open-minded becomes less daunting when you have various methods available to build solid habits. These habits are acquired over time rather than implemented over a couple of days. Lisa Markley, MS, RDN, LD discusses a few on the Advent Health website.
Chain Method
Chaining involves linking a new habit to an established one. For example, you might want to start taking recommended supplements every day, so you chain it to an existing habit like brushing your teeth. Every time you brush your teeth, you take your supplements right after.
Sequence Method
Sequencing involves doing a series of existing, related habits in order and adding in a new one. For example, if you're looking to increase your intake of water, you might want to wake up, make coffee, drink a glass of water (the new habit), eat breakfast, and then brush your teeth.
Pairing Method
Pairing involves pairing two habits together so that they happen simultaneously. This can be particularly powerful if you "temptation bundle" - pick something you really love doing and add a new habit to the mix.
