Confidence

Confidence is believing in your own abilities. You know you're the goods and you believe you can win or succeed. This is where I would ask the staff to look at themselves and their role in the school structures. Success is a truly wonderful feeling. But to gain more confidence, you need to understand one crucial thing and teaching is the one area which highlights the following:

Confidence is NOT a choice.

Most sport psychology books we ask the learners to read, tell you it is. They tell you that if you want confidence, all you need to do is ask yourself for it. You're supposed to repeat to yourself things like:

"I feel great today."
"I'm calm, confident, and cheerful right now."
"Elvin, go out there and be confident."
"The school is going to have a great day today!"

Sort of a 'fake 'it till you make it' approach. Rubbish ...because it doesn't work. You can't trick yourself. Let me repeat: You CANNOT trick yourself.

Here's why...

If you're not feeling confident, it means you're feeling fear, doubt, anxiety, or depression.
And when you're feeling these feelings, it doesn't work to pretend you're not. It doesn't work because 9 times out of 10, your fear is there for a reason. The learners pick up on that fear, doubt or anxiety. They feed off your emotions.

When your body is saying, "Awe! Wake up! Pay attention!” Your blood pressure is through the roof, you are short tempered, these are the signs that your confidence is low.

And when someone as important as your body is talking, the right thing to do is LISTEN.
Usually your body is making a request. Confidence is the gift that keeps on giving.

It keeps you motivated, passionate, and ready to compete.

Win-Win

October is a very tough month for both teachers/coaches and students. If you pace yourself, you can accomplish everything. Don't worry - everyone feels like they had the toughest workout of their life during the fourth term of school. The best piece of advice I have come up with is to not skip lunch - or breakfast. Many teachers do it; few can keep their eyes open when they return home. Remember to eat regularly during the day.
Most athletes are so competitive they want to beat everyone - even when it's inappropriate.
If you've ever tried to show up a teammate or sibling, you know what I mean.

You realize it's bad for "the team" to be competitive, but you can't help yourself.
You still want to outshine them.

This sometimes carries over into our classrooms and with our dealings with the learners on the sport field. In all conflict and arguments we want to win and so do the athletes we teach/coach, thus tensions rise. Both parties when arguing think “I’m better than you.” When challenged by learners we tend to react poorly. There is a better way. It's called thinking Win-Win.

We need to find a better way of handling challenges. We’d have to think Win-Win. We have to imagine a game in which both of us excel. We must think, how can both of us win in this current situation? The end result must be that we supported each other completely. Rivalry is not a problem. You as a teacher/coach must think...

“Good You want to challenge, you want to argue! You’re making me better!”

This is called a positive rivalry...you feel inspired, not threatened. If we learn these key decisions we can make it will assist us to becoming a teacher/coach. Then we can start to be a team that challenges conflict in the school as one with the same goal. It will fill you with confidence allowing you to win under pressure consistently in the classroom or on the field.
Recognize that anger is nothing more than an outward expression of hurt, fear and frustration.
Trust yourself to come out from behind your desk, clipboard or whistle and deal with what happens, and love them through it.
We are sometimes the only support these children have.

Divorce

When I was 11, my parents divorced. My mother moved 2,000 kmaway and my father plunged into an intense affair with his new girlfriend. For the first nine months after the divorce, I did not cry. In fact, I did not think about the divorce at all until my sister said, "Dad thinks you hate him."

Her words shocked me. As far as I was concerned, I wasn't upset at all. I even prided myself on my stoic nature.
See, I thought I could outsmart emotional pain by stuffing it down. No, I wasn't feeling intense pain. But I wasn't feeling confident either. My trademark as an athlete - my unstoppable confidence - was gone almost overnight. Plus I was overwhelmed with negative thoughts about myself, including my skills as an athlete. These thoughts really alarmed me.

I was a great athlete and a nice chap. Why was I filled with negative self-talk?

Simple.

Because confidence is not a quality. It is not a character trait. It is an emotion. And if you want to keep your confidence strong, you need to be able to FEEL. You can’t be depressed, shut down, or numb - for any reason.

But this is exactly what happens when we have trauma, loss, disappointment, and failure - in sport or life. When we are traumatized, our instinctive response is to shut down.

Negative self-talk a symptom that we've stuffed down fear and failure from sport or life. Maybe you lost a big event or maybe you had your personal life turned upside down.

If you watch yourself carefully, you'll see that your negative self-talk happens when you're agitated about a failure or disappointment of some kind.
But you are denying the depth of your emotional reaction. So instead of healing yourself, you're plugging along, hoping your negative self-talk and low confidence goes away on its own.

Your mind is your basic tool for survival. Betray it by stuffing down your fear and disappointment - and doing nothing - and your self-esteem always suffers.
My story has a happy ending. I made an appointment for counseling. There I finally touched my true feelings about the divorce. When the tears finally came, my sadness was so great I feared my chest would split open.

I didn't run away though. Running from myself made no sense. I stayed the course and healed my heart. Little my little my confidence and self-esteem were restored. The wins came back too.

Negative self-talk is a typical stressor or distraction we face in sport. It's easy to defeat IF you know how.

Size Does Matter

Success is intentional, through your conscious use of choice and decision.
The teaching/coaching world is full of opportunities, but you will only get there by boldness and conviction, by being decisive for the goals you want.

Teachers/coaches are born with great capabilities, but most will not achieve their potential until they call upon themselves to fulfil it. You must rise to the occasion when it presents itself; you must provide occasions to rise to.
Clearly defined goals in your teaching/coaching career path allow you to travel toward another horizon that represents the end of one experience and the transition to a new and better existence. The objective is to choose the right goals.

The difference between what one coach/teacher and another achieves depends more on goal choices than on abilities. The profound differences between successful coach/teachers and others are the goals they choose to pursue. Individuals with smaller talents, intelligence, and abilities will achieve different results because they select and pursue different goals.

Each decision affects what you become. Never overlook the obvious: The nature and direction of your life change the instant you decide what goals you want to pursue.

Once you make a decision, you start down a path to a new destination. At the moment the decision is made, your decision to pursue a goal alters what you are becoming. Just one step - a single choice - can alter your life, your destiny, your legacy.

Think about it - your goal decisions represent and express your individuality. You seal your fate with the choices you make. You define yourself by your decisions. Decisions and goals made must be your own if you are to call your life a success.

Everyone has an official wish list of things they think are "reasonable". What about the unofficial wish list? The one that common sense tells you to ignore? The list that exists deep in your mind, the list that keeps you up at night, that makes your toes wiggle when you think of it? Why not choose that list for a change?

How long have you dreamed of being, having, and doing what you really want? Think big, as when it comes to your goals, the size of your ambition does matter.

Marketing WCSS

Our halls and gyms at the Western Cape Sport School, should have huge banners that read such as ‘superior performance’, ‘popular’, ‘challenger’,
‘competitor’, ‘family friendly’, ‘prestige’ and ‘true blue’ (i.e. unique Western Cape values and style).

In each case the nature of the competition, the status of the team or the form of the training we offer must deliver a distinct type of emotional association to the school brand, the relevance and value of which can only be judged in terms of each individual athlete’s particular opportunities and challenges that come their way.

Sport is a reflection of society and we must acknowledge that sport like many aspects of our society sometimes encompasses the worst of human traits, including violence, corruption, discrimination, cheating and even drug abuse.

Our role at the school should be to outweigh the negatives with loads of positives, fulfilling lives from excess loads of core values, the bridging of cultural or ethnic barriers, developing peace and tolerance. The athletes should willingly establish new friendships, enjoy discussions after matches with the opposition and always strive for participation in a sporting code for life. Sport is critical to a child’s healthy upbringing and we should assist them to focus on community wellbeing.

As staff we can all play our role, so go out there and cover your walls with saying s of inspiration and drive. Beautify your surroundings with excellence and sport quotes, uplift the area in which you work and just maybe we can uplift those who need us most.

Enjoy the newly laid lawn and flower bed, a small token of the beauty that lies within and without the walls of the Western Cape Sport School.

Enjoy the sunshine and the rain...

Coach, Trainer or Teacher?

A Trainer is a person who educates others on specific topics of specific importance
A Coach is someone who offers advice, ideas and perspective when appropriate and in a way you can use them.

A Teacher is a person who provides formal education for others.

"Teaching is the art of assisting others with discovery." Teachers impart their knowledge and wisdom freely to help others develop and grow within them. Trainers focus on specific areas of development, soft skill and technical, to transfer best practices in action and thought process to others. Coaches observe others to understand their strengths and weaknesses then guide them down paths that will assist in developing or correcting those weaknesses. To be effective, especially in the area of adult learning, you must understand how and when to be all three.
I believe that to be truly effective, you need to be all three and because of this overlapping, there is no difference.

Many ways to define this. Just one option is:
a. teacher tells a group of people about certain knowledge,
b. trainer shares his knowledge while working with a group of people,
c. coach shares his knowledge while working with individual people, but also transfers skills, and provides (mental) support,

What they have in common is transferring knowledge. The difference is important when you have to deliver to a customer.

In most cases a trainer is responsible for delivering information - knowledge passes from the trainer to the trainee, and the trainer's success is measured by the trainee's ability to retain and repeat what they learned.

A teacher is similarly responsible for delivering information, however teachers are often more invested in the development of passion for their subject matter. The measure of a successful teacher is that his/her students are inspired to continue to pursue learning.

An effective coach works with clients to help them find tools and resources to answer their own questions and achieve their own goals. The measure of a successful coach is that their clients become increasingly self sufficient and self directed in the pursuit of their own goals.

A teacher teaches you what is fish(conceptual knowledge).
A trainer trains you how to fish(technical skills).
A coach motivates you to fish(empowerment).

No respect?

I've learned a secret about what's going on when someone is not giving you the respect, admiration you want. Let me explain...

Most of us are taught that when a relationship is struggling, we should be extra nice, thoughtful, and giving. However, they are usually not the key to getting respect and appreciation from people who are withholding it from you.

Sometimes, we irritate people in oblivious ways:

We wait around for moans instead of making plans;
We ask for direction on tasks when we're really seeking approval;
We talk and tell them about how miserable our work place is;
We socialize when people are trying to work;
We complain too often;
We check up on people and judge their choices;
We become bossy or controlling;
We complain about not being give responsibility; and,
We lay guilt trips on our colleagues should they disagree with our feelings.

When you lean psychologically or emotionally on people or
toward them, it makes others feel uncomfortable.

They resent the weight you are laying on them, and they will
react by denying you.

They don't like your self-indulgence, and your insecurity
reminds them of their own vulnerability; it rattles them.

Consciously and subliminally, they sense the weakness your
moaning creates.