I had the privilege to be with over 250 sport coaches and both participate and speak at the 2011 Coaches Conference in London Ontario. Sport coaches are highly motivated, deeply committed and skilful people who are in the business of developing high performance athletes while developing them into great people through sport. It was a delight to ,see my old friend, Peter Jensen, in good form and inspiring us all by sharing his wealth of experience from coaching Olympic athletes for the past 25 years.

Here are 11 things I learned from being there that fits with our work to help people make positive change in their lives, relationships and results.

1. Inspire not tire. It’s great to be around people who are serious about helping others develop – the more time I spend with sport coaches, the more inspiring it is and the more I can learn about what it takes to really develop people – focus, commitment, perspective and deep technical knowledge applied to progressive stages of learning. FI need to find more people who inspire not tire me.
2. Focus on the process not the outcome – getting better is all about focusing on what you do and how you do it. That is what great coaches focus on, not the outcome. Do the former really well and the outcomes will take care of themselves.
3. In setting goals, always choose goals that focus on getting better than being good. Getting better goals focus on using every experience to get better versus confirming how good you already are. Getting better goals focus learning – failure is an option and a key to learning from experience and to getting better. Being good goals focus on confirming – failure is not an option because it confirms that you are not good, therefore you choose not to push yourself.
4. Give feedback fast, accurately and deliberately.  The best feedback is short, focused and instructive. It is based on what you see, feel and hear, not what you think happened. The sooner the better and the more rich in information on how to get better, the better it is.
5. There are 4 keys to getting better: deliberate practice, deliberate programming, diversification of approaches and alternate pathways. These four streams reinforce each other over time. There are no overnight champions in sport or in life. Getting better and getting great takes a long time and is full of ups and downs along the way. One estimate is that the woman who wins an Olympic Gold Medal in figure skating has likely fallen hard on her butt on a cold hard surface approximately 20,000 times. That is what it takes and great coaches use a variety of these four keys to get the athlete to the highest levels.
6. Deliberate practice is a structured approach to getting better. It is focused on learning specific elements of skills, over time, by trying things out and getting rapid corrective feedback to improve the way you execute. Learning happens by repetition, fast focused feedback, refinements and repetition.
7. Deliberate programming initially focuses on building strengths then shifts to expanding skills . However to become a high performer, it is vital to develop skills in all aspects of the performance – not simply the ones you like and are good at. Beware of falling into the ‘strengths based’ trap – I only do what I am good at and what I like to do. This is a recipe for stalling out. Think of a baseball player – you have to be able to catch, throw, hit and run. In our work, the smartest people are those that take time to  build their skills in becoming creative, more understanding, better decision-makers and build out their personal spirit. Yes and to become a high performer, one needs to use deliberate practice and a step by step progression to get better in the other skills you will need to succeed.
8. Keep your kids from specializing in one sport too soon.

One key is to ensure your kids engage in as many different activities as possible, especially early on. All of these different activities help build a physical, emotional and cognitive base of skills and experiences that transfer from one sport to another and to life. Get a balance between fun and hard training; play and competition. All work and no play lead to burned out kids who walk away from the sport

9. The journey changes from fun to hard work. The path to high performance is usually based on shifting from extrinsic rewards to intrinsic motivation – getting better and achieving mastery.
10. Over time, understanding deepens and expands and the focus shifts to subtle adjustments and fine-tuning. The benefit of selecting one activity to get better and succeed at is that you fine tune understanding and refine skills at increasingly more subtle, difference making levels. Small changes can make a significant impact at the highest levels.
11. Use the platinum rule to coach from. the only person who controls change is the other person who is performing. Get better at shifting your approach to fit who they are and give them what they need. Get out of your mind and get into theirs to help them grow. If they are in yellow, give them the information, step-by-step guidelines and compassion they need. If red, cut to the chase and tell them what to do. If green , go with what they are thinking and don’t cut them off or dismiss them. And always, always help them take responsibility for building their resilience and persona spirit.