January 4, 2025 • 14 mins
Early January is the time for resolutions, and many sport teams will be planning ahead at how they can make 2025 their best year yet.
Coaching guru Wayne Goldsmith joins Jason Pine to discuss how coaches can reflect on how a team has performed, focus on the achievements implemented change can create, and implement change going forward.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport Podcast with Jason Fine
from newstalksb.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Early January is the time for resolutions and many sports
people and particularly coaches, we'll be looking ahead and planning
how twenty twenty five can be their best year ever,
whether it's elite or grassroots that they're involved in. Coaching
guru Wayne Goldsmith has joined us earlier in the year
to give us some tips. You sent me a great
article Wayne, how not to fail at keeping your New
(00:36):
Year's resolutions. I found it very interesting. Is a good
place to start when you're looking ahead, to look back
at the year that's been and reflect honestly upon that.
First of all, it.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Is a happy new year to you, pointing to all
your listeners and millions and millions that I know are
writes are in New Zealand and the rest of the
world if they want to follow sport and learn all
they can. But yeah, look, it's what we know about resolutions.
It's a very common thing you grow up with and
dad saying, right, it's a new year, let's get up
(01:09):
and get into school, and it's the year you're going
to be in the first eleven soccer team and all
those things. Yet we know, and the research has been
around for years and years, we know that by the
end of January about sixty to seventy percent of those
resolutions have been abandoned. And look, if I said to
you a pointy let's go and do something, but there's
(01:31):
a seventy percent chance it's not going to work, you
probably want to take another approach. And you know, thanks
to the work of people like Mark Manson, I'm sure
people have come across his book and other people who
have looked at changed differently, there's a much much better
way of reflecting on what's gone, but being better focused
(01:52):
on the achievement of change in implementing change going forward.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So let's look at how you do that effectively. Let's
look at how we well might first of all, get
past the end of January for starters, and then implement
things which are going to have a concrete positive effect.
When you look back and you look at what has
been working, what hasn't, what you'd keep doing, what should
(02:18):
you stop doing, what should you start doing, And how
do you work out which of your actions fall into
which of those categories.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah, and that's a question that even the professional teams
I'm sure when the All Blacks came back from the
spring tour, they came back from Europe and they went
through a process of saying, well, what did we do
that workers? There's always things at work, and then what
did we do where we went, well, that just didn't work,
that strategy didn't work, that player didn't work in that position,
(02:51):
or that preparation didn't work, or the travel didn't work.
And then we go, you know, what did we learn
about this? What did we learn along the way that
we can start doing. And that's a very simple but
very effective model. Keep doing, stop doing, start doing what's working,
they're doing it, what's not working? Stop doing it? What
did we learn along the way? What did we learn
(03:12):
in the last week. I think the problem that I
see with coaches finally, is they tend to abandon too much.
There's a great line that says, if you stand for nothing,
you'll fall for anything. So instead of being analytical and say,
let's sit down from it, what actually worked, what didn't work,
(03:32):
and what can we do differently and ask the players,
or sit down and talk to the parents or the
committee or other coaches, or look at the data or
whatever it is, and try to get a bit of
an objective assessment of the things that work, didn't work
and what did we learn and look at it if
they can almost from a distance, almost a helicopter perspective
(03:54):
of looking at the inside from the outside and go, well,
you know what, what actually worked, because otherwise they might
be laying on the bench and they're going there's an
article from the I don't know the timber in the
NBA and the coach says, you know what we've found
really worked is we train Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and we
(04:14):
have the rest of the week off. And he goes,
that's it. We've got to do that from now on
with my under apes because that's what somebody else is doing.
Wrong way to go about it. It's not about following
trends and saying we're going to change by following what's
working for other people. It's that methodical, systematic We're already
(04:34):
doing some things that are great, let's hang on to
those some things we know just did not work, and
then what did we learn though, We've got to introduce
some smart change to make things better.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Just on the keep doing the things that worked. I
guess the overplaying of that is not changing too much
at all. And another one of our favorite sayings is
insanity is doing the same thing over and over and
expecting a different result. How challenging is it for coaches
who might have been successful, maybe very successful in twenty
(05:07):
twenty four to actually say, okay, we still need to
look at things that we can change.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, I think you and I talked about this on
a recent call about this need for intelligent and smart change.
It doesn't have to be big change, but this differentiation
between what's working and that those horrible words or those
really negative performance living in words of that's the way
(05:33):
we do it here. This is why there needs to
be a bit of a process of thinking, because otherwise
you go, well, we did that last year and we
came first. Therefore everything we do is great and it's
all working. Then you step back and say, well, hey,
go on a minute, if we hadn't have got that
penalty with five minutes to go in the semi final,
(05:53):
we wouldn't have even been in the final. And if
that player hadn't been yellow carted after the first fifth
three minutes, we may not have won one nil, or
we may not have had that extramends good to try
and the corder, so you could success could almost blind you.
You can look back and say, well, okay, the performance
was this. Therefore we know everything, and even at the
(06:13):
other end of the scale pointing you could have come
last in the competition, it doesn't mean that every single
thing is wrong. There's always things that are working. And
sometimes that's the art is knowing what the tweet, what
to change, what not the change, and how to go
about changing it. And quite often the evidence is right
in front of you if your eyes are open and
(06:35):
you're not blinded by ego, you're not blinded by habit
and tradition and ritual thinking that the things I do
are all right. It's just circumstance or one of the
big ones that I see Piney and I wrote an
article about this year in the Week is you can't
buy success. But the coaches go, you know what, Sure,
(06:57):
we lost every game last year, and our tackling was awful,
and our tack was terrible, and we couldn't kick, and
we couldn't asked, you know what, we need some new
gym equipment. Break the mold of thinking that things you
buy will fix your problems, and you probably just lost
(07:17):
whole bunch of sponsors. I'm terribly sorry, but try to
get the mindset of I as leader. I need to
lead the change. I need to change what I'm doing
and the way that I look at things. I then
need to inspire change in the people who are around me.
And then when I got those things and play, sure,
let's look for maybe some equipment choices. But I see
(07:40):
a lot of you know, there's that The story I
like to tell, the way I like to describe it
a people pinty, is that if I'm a terrible driver
and I break too late or too early, and don't
accelerate the right way and I don't know how to corner,
given me a Ferrari doesn't make me a better driver,
(08:01):
and I think it's a lot of copaches go well,
you know what, the skills are not great. There's not
a lot of motivation. The culture and the team isn't
really working on a lot of problems with parents. You know,
we need a new gym, or we need everyone needs
to get a new uniform, or we need some new
goal paste. No good coming up with a great solution
to the wrong problem. So first of all, figure out
(08:23):
what's working. Figure out what's not working, and then what
did you learn that you can systematically implement and make
it better?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Change can be daunting, though, can't it wane? So can
even small steps make a difference?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Absolutely? And if you get a chance to read that
Manson book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving Up root word,
which I'm sure everybody's either heard of or soon, but
it's great, And he's got a wonderful series on YouTube
about making change, James Clear with Atomic Habits. There's a
lot of material you can buy or read for free
(08:59):
online through social media by those two, but there's a
lot of others where the message is small steps matter.
So a lot of people going right, this is the
year I'm going to change everything about the way I
train for rugby. Everything's going to change, every single thing
is well, No, just first little step, Turn up five
(09:21):
minutes early and do a few stretches. The next week,
turn up five minutes early, do a few stretches and
do ten kicks, or go by yourself. The next week,
turn up five minutes early, do some stretches, have a
few goal kicks, and do a little bit more of
a warmer or just little steps and the cumulative effect
(09:42):
of those little steps and achievable steps. What we know
from the research about things like New Year's resolutions in
broader society, most of them fail because steps are too big.
So you might have someone like me is about ten
fifteen colos overweight on a good day, and you say, right,
this is the day, this is the time, this is year.
(10:04):
I'm going to lose all the weight. I'm going to
run marathon, I'm going to play NBA, and I'm going
to do it all by the end of February. Let's go.
And it's not sustainable. The steps are too big, and us,
being human beings, we want to see results. We want
to see things happening, so I want to go. If
I go to the gym, I want to look watch
(10:24):
towards the Nigga the next day, so we know that
just doesn't work, and your brain sooner or latter says,
what's the point? Why bother? I'm not getting Whereas if
I go to the gym and say, my only goal
to the gym today is to get there on time
and to do ten or fifteen minutes of exercise that
I enjoy. That's all I need to do today. All right,
(10:46):
tomorrow I'm going to turn up, I'm going to go
twenty minutes and I'm going to end it five minutes
on the bike or five minutes on the treatment. All right,
next week, and those little steps achievable steps, but you're
getting immediate feedback going, wow, I'm getting better, I'm seeing progress,
I'm seeing improvement. And if so, I can give one
(11:07):
piece of advice to coaches, to parents and athletes is
tiny steps. It's the cumulative effect, the impact of And
I say to swimmers, okay, what are you going to
do this year and they say I'm going to make
the national team or I'm going to break a national record.
All right, how far is that? How far are you
(11:27):
off your target? And they might say, oh, look I'm
four seconds away, which is a huge chunk of improvement,
and it can be daunting, but say, look, all you've
got to improve is a tenth of a second every session.
That's it. Can you improve a tenth of a second,
yes they can, they tell me back, Well, that's all
you need to think about, because the cumulative effect over
(11:50):
a week is half a second, the cumulative victo two
weeks is and those little steps matter.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Such instantly usable advice. As always, Wayne, thank you, for
your time. Now I understand you're hitting our way, seing
up with a bunch of tennis coaches over the side
of the ditch.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I am. I am. On Monday morning, I'm speaking at
the Tennis New Zealand the Classic Tennis tournament in Auckland.
I'm looking forward to it. I'm talking about the importance
of coaching choice and the whole theme will be about
(12:30):
taking coaches on a journey on how they can go
from coaching kids by what I call bob coaching, bucket
of balls coaching and just trying balls across and getting
them to hit them back, which is quite off from
what we've seen in the really early years and introductory
years of coaching, through to helping athletes become independent, to
(12:53):
become self accountable, to become responsible for their own actions behavior.
So to be taking coaches through a process of how
do I help kids go from coaching coaching, following my
coaching and doing the coaching process that I'm suggesting for
them to taking ownership, responsibility and accountability for their own destiny.
(13:14):
So it's the ASP Classic and then we get to
go to the tennis that night. What a day. So
I get to work with coaches in the morning, hang
out and listen to some other presenters during the day,
and then we all go to the tennis at night.
Carrot Waite's going to be really really good.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Fun outstanding well. I know they'll get great benefit from you, Wayne,
as we always do. Thanks for taking the time as always,
look forward to catching up regularly as twenty twenty five
rolls on.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Cannot wait for talk again, my friend, have a wonderful week.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
You have a great week to Wayne. Wayne Goldsmith there
with some great advice as always from more from waynewg
Coaching dot Com is his website WG coaching dot com.
Heaps a great snippets and articles and other bits and
pieces on there, and he's a regular contributor to Weekend
Sport across the year Wayne Goldsmith.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Faine, listen to
News Talks It'd be weekends from midday or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Sport Podcast with Jason Fine
from newstalksb.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Early January is the time for resolutions and many sports
people and particularly coaches, we'll be looking ahead and planning
how twenty twenty five can be their best year ever,
whether it's elite or grassroots that they're involved in. Coaching
guru Wayne Goldsmith has joined us earlier in the year
to give us some tips. You sent me a great
article Wayne, how not to fail at keeping your New
(00:36):
Year's resolutions. I found it very interesting. Is a good
place to start when you're looking ahead, to look back
at the year that's been and reflect honestly upon that.
First of all, it.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Is a happy new year to you, pointing to all
your listeners and millions and millions that I know are
writes are in New Zealand and the rest of the
world if they want to follow sport and learn all
they can. But yeah, look, it's what we know about resolutions.
It's a very common thing you grow up with and
dad saying, right, it's a new year, let's get up
(01:09):
and get into school, and it's the year you're going
to be in the first eleven soccer team and all
those things. Yet we know, and the research has been
around for years and years, we know that by the
end of January about sixty to seventy percent of those
resolutions have been abandoned. And look, if I said to
you a pointy let's go and do something, but there's
(01:31):
a seventy percent chance it's not going to work, you
probably want to take another approach. And you know, thanks
to the work of people like Mark Manson, I'm sure
people have come across his book and other people who
have looked at changed differently, there's a much much better
way of reflecting on what's gone, but being better focused
(01:52):
on the achievement of change in implementing change going forward.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So let's look at how you do that effectively. Let's
look at how we well might first of all, get
past the end of January for starters, and then implement
things which are going to have a concrete positive effect.
When you look back and you look at what has
been working, what hasn't, what you'd keep doing, what should
(02:18):
you stop doing, what should you start doing, And how
do you work out which of your actions fall into
which of those categories.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah, and that's a question that even the professional teams
I'm sure when the All Blacks came back from the
spring tour, they came back from Europe and they went
through a process of saying, well, what did we do
that workers? There's always things at work, and then what
did we do where we went, well, that just didn't work,
that strategy didn't work, that player didn't work in that position,
(02:51):
or that preparation didn't work, or the travel didn't work.
And then we go, you know, what did we learn
about this? What did we learn along the way that
we can start doing. And that's a very simple but
very effective model. Keep doing, stop doing, start doing what's working,
they're doing it, what's not working? Stop doing it? What
did we learn along the way? What did we learn
(03:12):
in the last week. I think the problem that I
see with coaches finally, is they tend to abandon too much.
There's a great line that says, if you stand for nothing,
you'll fall for anything. So instead of being analytical and say,
let's sit down from it, what actually worked, what didn't work,
(03:32):
and what can we do differently and ask the players,
or sit down and talk to the parents or the
committee or other coaches, or look at the data or
whatever it is, and try to get a bit of
an objective assessment of the things that work, didn't work
and what did we learn and look at it if
they can almost from a distance, almost a helicopter perspective
(03:54):
of looking at the inside from the outside and go, well,
you know what, what actually worked, because otherwise they might
be laying on the bench and they're going there's an
article from the I don't know the timber in the
NBA and the coach says, you know what we've found
really worked is we train Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and we
(04:14):
have the rest of the week off. And he goes,
that's it. We've got to do that from now on
with my under apes because that's what somebody else is doing.
Wrong way to go about it. It's not about following
trends and saying we're going to change by following what's
working for other people. It's that methodical, systematic We're already
(04:34):
doing some things that are great, let's hang on to
those some things we know just did not work, and
then what did we learn though, We've got to introduce
some smart change to make things better.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Just on the keep doing the things that worked. I
guess the overplaying of that is not changing too much
at all. And another one of our favorite sayings is
insanity is doing the same thing over and over and
expecting a different result. How challenging is it for coaches
who might have been successful, maybe very successful in twenty
(05:07):
twenty four to actually say, okay, we still need to
look at things that we can change.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, I think you and I talked about this on
a recent call about this need for intelligent and smart change.
It doesn't have to be big change, but this differentiation
between what's working and that those horrible words or those
really negative performance living in words of that's the way
(05:33):
we do it here. This is why there needs to
be a bit of a process of thinking, because otherwise
you go, well, we did that last year and we
came first. Therefore everything we do is great and it's
all working. Then you step back and say, well, hey,
go on a minute, if we hadn't have got that
penalty with five minutes to go in the semi final,
(05:53):
we wouldn't have even been in the final. And if
that player hadn't been yellow carted after the first fifth
three minutes, we may not have won one nil, or
we may not have had that extramends good to try
and the corder, so you could success could almost blind you.
You can look back and say, well, okay, the performance
was this. Therefore we know everything, and even at the
(06:13):
other end of the scale pointing you could have come
last in the competition, it doesn't mean that every single
thing is wrong. There's always things that are working. And
sometimes that's the art is knowing what the tweet, what
to change, what not the change, and how to go
about changing it. And quite often the evidence is right
in front of you if your eyes are open and
(06:35):
you're not blinded by ego, you're not blinded by habit
and tradition and ritual thinking that the things I do
are all right. It's just circumstance or one of the
big ones that I see Piney and I wrote an
article about this year in the Week is you can't
buy success. But the coaches go, you know what, Sure,
(06:57):
we lost every game last year, and our tackling was awful,
and our tack was terrible, and we couldn't kick, and
we couldn't asked, you know what, we need some new
gym equipment. Break the mold of thinking that things you
buy will fix your problems, and you probably just lost
(07:17):
whole bunch of sponsors. I'm terribly sorry, but try to
get the mindset of I as leader. I need to
lead the change. I need to change what I'm doing
and the way that I look at things. I then
need to inspire change in the people who are around me.
And then when I got those things and play, sure,
let's look for maybe some equipment choices. But I see
(07:40):
a lot of you know, there's that The story I
like to tell, the way I like to describe it
a people pinty, is that if I'm a terrible driver
and I break too late or too early, and don't
accelerate the right way and I don't know how to corner,
given me a Ferrari doesn't make me a better driver,
(08:01):
and I think it's a lot of copaches go well,
you know what, the skills are not great. There's not
a lot of motivation. The culture and the team isn't
really working on a lot of problems with parents. You know,
we need a new gym, or we need everyone needs
to get a new uniform, or we need some new
goal paste. No good coming up with a great solution
to the wrong problem. So first of all, figure out
(08:23):
what's working. Figure out what's not working, and then what
did you learn that you can systematically implement and make
it better?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Change can be daunting, though, can't it wane? So can
even small steps make a difference?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Absolutely? And if you get a chance to read that
Manson book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving Up root word,
which I'm sure everybody's either heard of or soon, but
it's great, And he's got a wonderful series on YouTube
about making change, James Clear with Atomic Habits. There's a
lot of material you can buy or read for free
(08:59):
online through social media by those two, but there's a
lot of others where the message is small steps matter.
So a lot of people going right, this is the
year I'm going to change everything about the way I
train for rugby. Everything's going to change, every single thing
is well, No, just first little step, Turn up five
(09:21):
minutes early and do a few stretches. The next week,
turn up five minutes early, do a few stretches and
do ten kicks, or go by yourself. The next week,
turn up five minutes early, do some stretches, have a
few goal kicks, and do a little bit more of
a warmer or just little steps and the cumulative effect
(09:42):
of those little steps and achievable steps. What we know
from the research about things like New Year's resolutions in
broader society, most of them fail because steps are too big.
So you might have someone like me is about ten
fifteen colos overweight on a good day, and you say, right,
this is the day, this is the time, this is year.
(10:04):
I'm going to lose all the weight. I'm going to
run marathon, I'm going to play NBA, and I'm going
to do it all by the end of February. Let's go.
And it's not sustainable. The steps are too big, and us,
being human beings, we want to see results. We want
to see things happening, so I want to go. If
I go to the gym, I want to look watch
(10:24):
towards the Nigga the next day, so we know that
just doesn't work, and your brain sooner or latter says,
what's the point? Why bother? I'm not getting Whereas if
I go to the gym and say, my only goal
to the gym today is to get there on time
and to do ten or fifteen minutes of exercise that
I enjoy. That's all I need to do today. All right,
(10:46):
tomorrow I'm going to turn up, I'm going to go
twenty minutes and I'm going to end it five minutes
on the bike or five minutes on the treatment. All right,
next week, and those little steps achievable steps, but you're
getting immediate feedback going, wow, I'm getting better, I'm seeing progress,
I'm seeing improvement. And if so, I can give one
(11:07):
piece of advice to coaches, to parents and athletes is
tiny steps. It's the cumulative effect, the impact of And
I say to swimmers, okay, what are you going to
do this year and they say I'm going to make
the national team or I'm going to break a national record.
All right, how far is that? How far are you
(11:27):
off your target? And they might say, oh, look I'm
four seconds away, which is a huge chunk of improvement,
and it can be daunting, but say, look, all you've
got to improve is a tenth of a second every session.
That's it. Can you improve a tenth of a second,
yes they can, they tell me back, Well, that's all
you need to think about, because the cumulative effect over
(11:50):
a week is half a second, the cumulative victo two
weeks is and those little steps matter.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Such instantly usable advice. As always, Wayne, thank you, for
your time. Now I understand you're hitting our way, seing
up with a bunch of tennis coaches over the side
of the ditch.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I am. I am. On Monday morning, I'm speaking at
the Tennis New Zealand the Classic Tennis tournament in Auckland.
I'm looking forward to it. I'm talking about the importance
of coaching choice and the whole theme will be about
(12:30):
taking coaches on a journey on how they can go
from coaching kids by what I call bob coaching, bucket
of balls coaching and just trying balls across and getting
them to hit them back, which is quite off from
what we've seen in the really early years and introductory
years of coaching, through to helping athletes become independent, to
(12:53):
become self accountable, to become responsible for their own actions behavior.
So to be taking coaches through a process of how
do I help kids go from coaching coaching, following my
coaching and doing the coaching process that I'm suggesting for
them to taking ownership, responsibility and accountability for their own destiny.
(13:14):
So it's the ASP Classic and then we get to
go to the tennis that night. What a day. So
I get to work with coaches in the morning, hang
out and listen to some other presenters during the day,
and then we all go to the tennis at night.
Carrot Waite's going to be really really good.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Fun outstanding well. I know they'll get great benefit from you, Wayne,
as we always do. Thanks for taking the time as always,
look forward to catching up regularly as twenty twenty five
rolls on.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Cannot wait for talk again, my friend, have a wonderful week.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
You have a great week to Wayne. Wayne Goldsmith there
with some great advice as always from more from waynewg
Coaching dot Com is his website WG coaching dot com.
Heaps a great snippets and articles and other bits and
pieces on there, and he's a regular contributor to Weekend
Sport across the year Wayne Goldsmith.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Faine, listen to
News Talks It'd be weekends from midday or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
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