High Performance Manager Darren Roberts looks into the ‘Coaching DNA’.
Words: Darren ‘Conehead’ Roberts Photos: Seb Schieck and Ben Winder
Sport can be a closed shop, in many different ways and on many different levels. This is to be expected in certain aspects, the manufacturers of equipment for example – what they’re doing, how and why are things they’d like to keep to themselves to maintain a competitive advantage, it stands to reason. However when it comes to the human component (the ‘human performance’ element), the same veil of secrecy descends over methods and ideas. This is of course to maintain competitive advantage, but this really is a perception rather than reality.
“that is the elegance of the framework, making the complex look simple”
The reality is (as I’ve written many times before) what works for one person does not work for another. However I’m not talking about simply cut and pasting another athlete’s physical and mental preparation onto your own; the ‘what’ is very rarely the issue, but it is the ‘how’. As coaches we develop methods, ideology, systems, paradigms and beliefs all underpinned by some old fashioned science but with the magic ingredient… experience. We develop this ‘performance framework’ over many years which is the core of what we hang everything else off for each athlete, it’s our ‘Coaching DNA’. A few minor changes to a few things get you very different results and outcomes, however that is the elegance of the framework, making the complex look simple.
