10 things that require zero talent is a staple of the coaching circuit, setting out simple requirements for players to succeed. It appears on social media and bulletin boards and dressing room walls wherever you look. It’s the things that players with ambition within their sport bring to the table and maintain without the necessity for talent, effort or support. Easy, right? It’s a certainly fantastic list of desirable qualities to see from your players. It’s also a list of qualities that are no more talent, practice or effort free than a cover drive or a pinpoint cross. To suggest otherwise is either disingenuous or ill-informed. Every item on the list is a coachable skill, requiring regular maintenance and development, all but the rarest of talents can manage alone. But it is a wonderful list so how can we use it to optimise our athletes? Being on time and being prepared. Nothing is as disruptive to the development of the individual athlete or team environment than players arriving late or failing to be ready to go when you need them. It requires planning and organisational skills, discipline, self-reliance and motivation; transferable life-skills that should be part of any sport program, especially those at youth level. Adolescence is a lengthy transition during which positive adaptive behaviours are shaped and reinforced. Effective sport programs promote social, interpersonal, and behavioural competencies through positive organisational cultures and coaching environments that enhance self-belief, self-efficacy and social cohesion. Facilitating athletes social and organisational life-skills should be the cornerstone of any effective sport program to develop skilled performers, learners and group cultures. An effectively structured goal-setting program, clear objectives and a learned understanding of logistics are key elements of developing life-skills that contribute to player performance. A knowledgeable and experienced mentor alongside a supportive structure for activities facilitates the learning of self-management skills that benefit players as well as the team for whom they perform. Jones, M. L. & Lavallee, D. (2009) Exploring the life skills needs of British adolescent athletes. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 10, 159-167. Having a strong work ethic, making an effort, being high energy and doing a little extra. These elements are hugely significant for player performance and learning, as well as the team environment. I have written about the value of enhancing intrinsic motivation elsewhere but suffice it to say all of these factors are influenced by player motivation. Coaches develop and enhance intrinsic motivation among players by creating environments and activities that support player autonomy, perceptions of competency and a sense of relatedness and significance of the activity. In turn this translates to increased energy, focus, confidence, curiosity and persistence. Supporting extrinsic motivations through social comparison, threat, punishment and coercion correlate with lack of energy, reticence, anxiety, loss of focus and confidence and diminishing performance. A strong work ethic, putting in the effort, displaying high energy behaviours and being motivated to do extra are all signs that a positive, intrinsically motivated environment has been cultivated and maintained. Ryan, R. M. & Deci, E. L. (2000) Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68-78. Using good body language. Non-verbal communication reflects internal states, emotions and traits. Interestingly it is both regulated and unregulated, players have some control over their non-verbal expressive behaviours and this control is often only partially successful. Motivation and competence are two factors that can support or undermine the production of self-presentational behaviour. Body language is linked to emotion, the triggering of muscles can be involuntary and the information conveyed is intensely personal, the presentation of performative, positive body language demands ability, practice and experience so players experiencing stress or anxiety will find positive self-presentation difficult even under optimal conditions. Goal-setting, guided imagery and well-structured, autonomy supportive coaching provides conditions in which players allow automatic body language cues to convey emotions while learning skills to overcome situations in which self-presentation is constrained. Making non-verbal identity claims is a skill that requires knowledge, ability, experience and confidence, all of which can be developed with the right support. DePaulo, B. M. (1992) Nonverbal behaviour and self-presentation. Psychological Bulletin, 111(2), 203-243. Having a positive attitude and being passionate. We want to have a team of passionate players, who find significance enough to invest time, effort and energy, and incorporate the activity into their identity. Autonomous internalisation of sport occurs when players accept it as important to them without contingency; authentic but not overpowering, volitional but not in conflict with other life experiences. Autonomous integration of sport and identity is harmonious and fostered by positive coaching environments structured around quality rather than quantity of engagement and high on positive outcomes. This harmonious passion leads to greater focus, commitment, satisfaction, learning, performance, and behavioural engagement. By contrast passion integrated through methods of external control leads to maladaptive obsession. Controlled integration through external contingencies, social acceptance, rigidity, external pressure and the prioritisation of quantity over quality leads to negative sport and life outcomes. Conflict, low self-esteem, difficulty concentrating, rigidity and a lack of creativity as well as unhealthy valuations of sport within the life context. Coaches are key to creating and fostering harmonious passion among players through intelligent and creative session planning, culture building based on autonomy, relatedness and competency. Understanding players as individuals with differing orientations towards sport and identity is crucial in creating a harmonious environment and avoiding the pitfalls of creating obsessively passionate players. Vallerand, R. J., Blanchard, C. M. & Dumais, A. (2006) Passion in sport: A look at the determinants and affective experiences. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 28, 454-478. Being coachable. Far beyond the tenets of physical, tactical and technical the coach is a relationship builder. Barriers to being coached are removed by creating healthy and productive environments that positively influence a players psychological and emotional well-being. By making learning a key objective in psychologically safe environments, promoting innovation, creativity, autonomy and challenge, enhanced coachability positively influences performance, cohesion and confidence. The coach controls the learning environment and determines whether it is a positive and productive place for players to learn their craft. Coaching that is well prepared, organised, enthusiastic and in tune with the players and teams’ feelings enable players to maximise their potential. Clarity in communicating team standards and work required, modelling high standards of both performance and behaviour, offering supportive feedback and tolerance of mistakes, providing clear and open expectations, and trusting the players, all contribute to growth in motivation to learn and improve, desire to achieve and most importantly the strength of their relationship with the coach. For a player to become truly coachable she must wholeheartedly trust the process and agree to being coached. Beswick, W. (2015) One Goal. The Mindset of Winning Soccer Teams. Human Kinetics, Aus. Everything on this list is vital for the development of successful players and people, thats why it resonates so well, but the zero talent line is way off the mark and often used to excuse sub-optimal practices. The whole list requires experience and knowledge to implement. Sitting alongside the technical, tactical, and physical, these are the psycho-social skills needed by athletes and coaches at all levels. It is unreasonable to expect players and coaches to have the expertise or time to devote to implementing performance psychology programs, in exactly the same way it is unreasonable to expect them to act as nutritionist or physiotherapist or S&C coach. This is where the profound benefit of the sport and performance psychology professional can be felt. 10 things that require expertise and coaching to optimise performance. There, fixed it. Get in touch to discuss how I can help you to elevate the mental performance of your program or athlete to truly optimise performance.