Today in our business what are the Basic Skills that need repetition and reinforcement? What can we put into practice to ensure success? This is the path to mastery and excellence.
When I took over a girl’s youth soccer team as its coach mid-season because their coach was asked to leave, I hadn’t a clue how to start. This team had not won a game.
I decided my best course of action was to carefully study what the elite European football (soccer) teams and players were doing. I began to watch the Italian Serie A and the English Premier League games on television. This was the time before there were dedicated Soccer (Football) channels on TV.
What I noticed was that everything these top players were doing was a variation on the Basic Skills of the game.
To master the playing of this sport, each player must become facile, nimble and exceptional in the performance of the skills of the game. They are handling the ball (with feet) and controlling the ball, moving the ball, passing, trapping, protecting, shooting, running to the open space and more.
What struck me is that every elite player and team continues to practice and refine their abilities through these basic skills throughout their daily in-season team practices as well as their pre-game warmups. All activities revolve around these basic skills. This is how they become the best.
Their mastery becomes second nature and then their intuition kicks in. They can be fully in the moment letting their skills carry them and be in anticipation for where the ball may go next. It’s breathtaking to behold.
Our team’s practices were now set up to reinforce these very skills through repetition. To make it engaging practice routines and games were played that had these skills built inside them. The girls loved them.
To our excitement, this girls’ team pulled together and began to win games. The players were fully invested in the basic skill practices and knew exactly what to do. They taught me how to coach them.
Today in our business what are the Basic Skills that need repetition and reinforcement? What can we put into practice to ensure success?
In recent years, have you noticed that your people have become insecure about losing some of their basic skills sets – such as their ability to connect? Have they become less confident about their ability to relate in person?
Finding ways to authentically connect is becoming harder. Reinforcing the basic skills of communicating – not just the technical skills – is critical to the success of your people and to the organization.
These basic skills are well worthwhile investing in.
Reach out to me to learn about coaching and training (some online) for those critical connection skills. www.presence-impact.com
