Comments on: A Reader Writes: Please Help Rescue My School’s Crummy Facilities!

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:11:40 +0000

This gave me some ideads, there is research showing that we become happy/satisfied not if what we have is luxurious but what we have in comparision to our neighboors/acquantancies.

I guess I would investing in having top medical facilities and scientists/coaches/nutritionists/psychologists but having a day to day beat up ground to train would be great to spurt growth.

Just thought about one problem of doing this for top teams (professional level), you will need to pay more for athletes and their work to get out of the club might mean causing ruckus since they don’t need to build their reputation.

By: Alec

Alec — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 14:55:54 +0000

http://blog.startwithwhy.com/refocus/2012/08/how-to-innovate-like-a-shark.html
The truth is that most innovations don’t come from money. Innovation comes from being forced to find a way to make it work.

By: Richard

Richard — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 10:40:44 +0000

Some great points mentioned.
Casey, love the Kaizen mural idea, big fan of the concept and having that as driving force.
Re the facilities, agree with most sentiments that they can create a sense of entitlement or feeling of having already “made it”. I have seen this repeatedly with our private school system, recruiting the best young talent and they dont achieve anything in the long run.
One factor thatseems to be overlooked is the change of approach by the coahces and staff when they get new or super facilities. How much do they influence they attitude of the players or athletes. If the coaches stay hungry and keep driving the standards expected the quality of the facilities, should not be as big a factor.

By: TJ

TJ — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 20:43:44 +0000

And of course we perform monthly evaluations with the athlete that has the athlete rate their effort, their growth, their failures, and their successes during the previous 30 days as well as set concrete small and large goals for the next 30 days. We try to focus on effort as opposed to performance measures. In fact, we praise effort and at times, especially with our males, ignore positive performances.

By: TJ

TJ — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 20:38:32 +0000

I’m in the exact same situation. I’m in the process of building a new athletic training facility at my gym. We’ve outgrown our existing one, and safety has become a concern (we share it with the general public). At the same time though, I also don’t want to give the impression to my existing athletes that they’ve made it with a brand new facility just for them.

We’ve decided we’re going to hang quotes around the new facility to gently remind the athletes the importance of hard work. For example, before entering the facility, there will be a sign on the door “If you’re not willing to give 100% every second, do not enter.” Then a huge banner across one of the walls reads “If you are happy with mediocrity you are in the wrong gym.” And before they leave, the door poses a questions to them “Are you better now than you were before you entered those doors?”.

We’re also hanging school banners in the hallway entering the gym of our former athletes who are currently in college hoping they motivate our current athletes to follow in their footsteps with regards to hard work.

We also hope that because the new facility is larger, some of our younger athletes will get to be in the gym at the same time as some of our older athletes so that they see positive role models.

And if those measures fail, we’ll reinforce our commitment to hard work and growth and remove any athletes that aren’t ready yet.

By: Walter

Walter — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 23:05:13 +0000

I like Ian’s points! I coach a U12 boys soccer team and we have done very very well the last 2 years. Our club heads keep trying to give us a nice field to pactice on, or some of the greener better fields, but we are quite happy with our field that is not lined, not very green and come summer time the ground is hard as nails and the ball takes weird bounces. I figure if our boys learn to control the ball and play on that kind of surface, it’s no wonder their passing and soccer skills look so much better when we play our games on those nice “greener” and better fields.

By: Ian McClurg

Ian McClurg — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 18:41:10 +0000

During the last 3 years our soccer academy has trained at a “run down” tennis club facility for winter futsal training and at a private school’s outdoor grass facility, which is currently in “transition”. One young player proclaimed that the “bad bounches” were helping his 1st touch! In the last 18 months, we have taken 1 player to Sevilla FC (Spain) for a trial, had 6 players invited to train with Toronto Fc academy and 16 players have been invited to the Wolves FC academy in England in spring! Creating a strong “training” environment is key and I am a disciple of the importance of “struggle” during training! May have something to do with my Northern Ireland background! Maximize what you have in terms of facilities and the importance of “earning” must not be lost in the path towards excellence!

By: Doc

Doc — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:45:07 +0000

I would like to link this to one of Seth Godins ideas in his Education Manifesto. He believes that schools were created to prepare students to become complient workers in the idustrial system and since we were producing productive, complient workers we needed complient consumers. If we give students all the best facilities then they will probably never go back. If they have had great high school facilities and then even greater college facilities they will probably want the same or higher level of comfort in their personal lives which means buying and owning more stuff. I believe the coach has to be a great salesman/saleswoman to sell the simplicity idea to both players and parents. And, of course the coach has to believe this as well. However there are great players and individuals being turned out by both philosophies so maybe the idea of “What works best, works best” is best.

By: Ángel Sanz

Ángel Sanz — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 08:44:09 +0000

I have been working with elite talented athletes for the last 6 years to take the, to their highest and it is working quite well (16 years old girl just became Masters Champion n Tennis. 19 years old boy made it to the Paralimpics in London 2012, 22 years old driver is in Mclaren High Performance Program or 25 year old man won the Golf Spain PGA Championship and now playing Asian Tour).

Regarding the issue, what I have learned is that it really makes the difference when they(athletes) are hungry enough. If they are hungry, they improve, they work everyday and stay motivated because they understand that is what it takes. Having the best facilities might give them the false sense of achievement. In addition, they need to stay hungry because they are going to compete against other athletes who are really hungry and sometimes, winning is about who wants it more (who is the hungriest!!!). And that is easier to train in “not so fancy” facilities where the environment helps

Top facilities make more difficult to work on the hungerness and it is a draw back for talent development that has to be managed.

By: gpo613

gpo613 — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 04:05:38 +0000

My daughter is part of a huge swim team. They practice at 5 pools now. We are the smallest group and only get 5 of the 8 lanes of the local college’s pool. The younger kids get to see the older kids practice even if it is just for 15-30 mins. But they also get to know the older kids some. The other pools are much more segregated. Older kids at one pool and younger kids at another pool. Also the pool is not real spacious. There is not a ton of room on the pool deck. There is no viewing area and the parents who stay for practice have to sit on deck. I would describe it as cosy. The kids like it and it seems to work. I would hate nice facilities for anything especially high school.