So it has been a while, since I wrote the last time. With a new job in France, there has been enough to do lately, so that's maybe why! Also the season has ended, and it's time to evaluate and look forward. For the athletes that I'm helping it's really important, that they a good job evaluating, setting new goals and making a good plan for next year. So I spend some time on this process as well trying to help them as much as I can. So time goes by, no worry!
My first camp with the French team
So I've had my first camp with the French team. It was nice to get started and meet everyone for the first time. The camp was located in relevant terrain for WOC middle distance next year. The spirit in the team for doing technical training is high and I'm impressed with the level of the trainings. No wonder the French are good technical. Still there are also things to improve and things I want to focus on. So in December I will go back to France and introduce the master plan for 2012. Looking forward for that.
3 lectures
14 days ago, I made 3 lectures in just 2 days. The first were for coaches in orienteering, about a mastery approach, in a training environment. I hope that everyone got something out of it and that my points will make some difference for some environment in Norwegian orienteering. It's so easy only to focus on results in the way we coach, but science has showed that we as coaches should have more focus on mastery. Just being in sports gives a lot of focus on outperforming others, and especially for younger athletes, I believe it's not the best way develop. So my points were, how we make mastery focused environments in orienteering. Some of my suggestions were; focus on the individual person, good goal settings and having many different levels on trainings. I think that more focus on this will make the athlete develop in an even better way, instead of only comparing with your training friends or the top level in your class. I also believe that even senior elite level has a lot to learn from this stategy.
The next two lectures were in the Norwegian School of sport science, in the bachelor program of applied sports psychology. The first topic was changes in motivation during competition. That is the topic of my master thesis. I tried to give an overview of my thoughts about that issue. My thoughts are that we can gain some time, by becoming more aware of what changes the motivation during the race, and how you can avoid that it will have a negative effect on your performance. Fore sure I will get back on that, when I deliver my thesis.
The last lecture was about my mental work with Tue Lassen. Tue visited from Copenhagen and helped me do the lecture. We talked about how we are working together and especially on the use of Mindfullness. The last years I have really gotten into using mindfullness in the mental work for the athletes. I see that it works really well especially handling the stress situations before and under the competition. Mindfullness is linked up to the feeling of flow and that is where I first, got my thoughts from. It's about learning to stay in the moment, accepting who you are and the situation you are in. Just to stay focused on what you are doing. The principle is really simple, but hard to learn. That is also a reason to believe in it because I believe some theories are too complicated to use in real life situations. For me Mindfullness is the ultimate strategy for dealing with some really important aspects of performance. The work with Tue seems also to prove that, so I’m up for using it even more. A good book I can recommend is The Inner Game of Tennis. So if you need something to read, try that one.
Great posibilities for technical training in Oslo.
It's nice that the early winter has been warm in Oslo. That means that there is possibilities to train a lot of technical training, before the snow comes. All the technical training that I make with Wang Toppidrett (the school where I work) are open for everyone who wants to join. First of all I'm glad that my students seem to agree with my about doing this type of training now. Their spirit is good and it motivates me a lot. Still I wonder why only 2-4 athletes of the, so to speak elite athletes living in Oslo, take advantage of this possibility? We even have sprint on the program ones in a while!
Anneli and Håkan in Sweden
Last but not forgotten, it was nice to read that Anneli and Håkans work in Swedish orienteering is appreciated. I know both of them and I know that their hearts are beating for orienteering. They focus on seeing the athlete as a whole person, working with athlete in the center and not just coach for their own glory. So, it’s good to see that coaches that have some of the same values as I, get confirmation that they are doing a good job.
