InstantForum.NET v4.1.4Better Rugby Coachinghttp://www.betterrugbycoaching.com/rugbyforum/forum@betterrugbycoaching.comThu, 24 May 2012 16:18:53 GMT20http://www.betterrugbycoaching.com/rugbyforum/Topic3186-4-1.aspxThanks for such detailed responses, I'm in the process of digesting the info. and researching. One of the issues with some confidence players is the self-imposed pressure to play the perfect game. Thu, 09 Sep 2010 23:14:26 GMTcrookedfeedhttp://www.betterrugbycoaching.com/rugbyforum/Topic3186-4-1.aspxAbsolutely agree with everything John P says.</P><P>Although I work a lot with mental toughness and mental skills preparation in the sporting environment, I find most issues do not have anything to do with a player's sport. However...</P><P>Cannot remember your location crookedfeed, but if you are in the UK, sportscoachUK provide an excellent workshop entitled Performance Profiling... worth attending.</P><P>Performance profiling is an excellent tool. It makes the player analyse their own performance, technical, tactical, physiological and psychological. They are encouraged to express where they want to be, where they are now and how <STRONG><EM><U>they</U></EM></STRONG> intend to bridge the gap. By taking responsibility, they have a vested interest to make it work.</P><P>Encourage the players to set 'process' goals rather than 'outcome' goals... micro, meso and macro.Mon, 06 Sep 2010 20:14:26 GMTEKWhttp://www.betterrugbycoaching.com/rugbyforum/Topic3186-4-1.aspxI actually think that this is a slightly bigger question than just dealing with what you call 'confidence players'. My experience from working in the field of leadership and management development is that you need to treat everyone in ways that they need to be treated, not in the ways you want to treat them. This is probably the principle reason why, for example, a brilliant footballer flourishes under one manager but turns into a donkey for another. Brian Clough used to be a master of this, but there were players who would not play for him.<br><br>The confidence player is likely to be one with a significant, big but fragile ego, who may be prone to attention seeking. He may well have a combination of a high opinion of himself and a constant need for praise. It is possible that he is always seeking attention and praise, because he fears rejection - his drivers may well be of a personal nature. In my world, this kind of person is likely to be quite vocal, a little bit 'flash' in some way or another and enjoy being in the limelight. Don't give him detailed tasks to do, though, because you will be disappointed.<br><br>There are lots of models for personality. The above assumptions are based on the DISC model, which you can read a little about in Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DISC_assessment. You may not find this helpful, or it might help. I have found it useful in giving clues about the possible drivers, motivations, turn offs, characters etc, of people. I noted one example of it just yesterday. A young player who is growing into a very good one after only a few months was desparately embarrassed when I praised him in front of his mother. He is shy by nature and I should have noticed from his personality type, (deliberate, quiet, non-demonstrative etc), that he would not react well to praise given in public situations, so would question something about what I said. In this case, he denied that the praise should have been for him. If done in a quiet, one to one session, this feedback would have had much more effect. Each of these personality types, (and indeed, anyone), has a series of intrinsic fears that are to an extent primal, and these are likely to hold people back in certain circumstances. So, for example, the quiet person may have a fear of being put in the spotlight. The driven person may have a fear of failure. The analytical person may have a fear of disorder, and so on.<br><br>Another thing to bear in mind is that a young person's personality and psychological profile changes with time, so they will have a different set of drivers at different times within their playing careers. You might also find some info on this in the long term player development stuff provided by the four home unions and others. For example, U13 / U14 age groups have a general tendency to attention seeking, because their overall psychology is changing and they are moving into a bigger wider world in which they are being asked to centre more on themselves and less on their group. It is no coincidence that this age group coincides with a change in school regime, that it occurs around puberty and that the education system does not look for vital decisions to be made in this time. If you speak to secondary school teachers, it is a fair bet that they will find this age group most challenging! (They may even be given to more forthright views, at least in private!!!).<br><br>If I read this right, I think I would tend to look for the good things your confidence player is doing - always a good principle in coaching anyway - and praise it. Once you have a positive balance of praise, deal with general coaching points that relate to what you would like to develop with the whole group and then deal with the development points for your specific player away from the group. Then, when you see the positive aspects of play coming through with this player, praise them again. I think that, if you use this approach with him, you will get good results, because you will be removing his fear of rejection and ridicule. If this becomes wearisome, balance it by gently poking fun at the player, but not at his ability. This will mean that he will try to move away from the rejection he feels when his personal behaviour gets over the top, but not away from the excellent, 'showy' rugby he is capable of producing.<br><br>There is, as you can imagine, a lot of academic learning about this subject, much of which will be theoretical and unapplied. My personal findings are that, if you can find a way of identifying someone's drivers and fears and deal with them based on that, you will not go far wrong. I always try to live by the maxim above - treat people how they need to be treated, not how you want to treat them - and it seems to work.Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:46:09 GMTJohn Phttp://www.betterrugbycoaching.com/rugbyforum/Topic3186-4-1.aspxmaybe goal setting is a key to helping them maintain a more consistent input?<br><br>e.g. a prop ... three tackles this half, plus two ball carries<br><br>e.g. a winger - as blind side, coming inside offering an option to the centres at least twice this half; make touch every time you kick inside your 22 (unless the unit/team call is otherwise).<br><br>etc.<br><br>May help to provide some focus?<br><br>diddsThu, 02 Sep 2010 20:17:19 GMTdiddshttp://www.betterrugbycoaching.com/rugbyforum/Topic3186-4-1.aspxWithin the team I help to coach we have some players who in old money would be regarded as confidence players. For these guys a consistent level of performance seems hard to achieve, other players with less natural ability however seem to maintain a relative higher level of performance. Such players in my experience have had a more realistic view of their own abilities and of the game itself therefore they target specific areas. What approaches to feedback and performance analysis would therefore be appropriate for the 'confidence player' who in many cases don't always reach their potential.Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:01:52 GMTcrookedfeed