Quentin The Coach on the Sideline is Either the Thermometer or the Thermostat Issue 145- Jason Payne, CMPC The Coach on the Touchline The camera cuts to the manager twenty times a game. Maybe more in this World Cup. FIFA loves the super-slow-motion shots of fans and managers. Some project calm. Even though they aren't calm. They handle the ups and downs of the game evenly. They sense the emotional temperature of their team and adjust accordingly. Others give off very frenetic energy. Everyone...
10 days ago • 5 min read
Quentin Joy is a Non-Negotiable Issue 144- Jason Payne, CMPC A few years ago, I was brought in midseason to consult with a team in crisis. 25 percent of its roster walked away from the sport mid-season. I made assumptions about what I would find when I started working with the team. I expected a toxic environment that left these young athletes little choice. I was wrong. The culture was relatively healthy, although morale was low. Athletes weren't leaving due to injury. They weren’t being...
17 days ago • 6 min read
Quentin The Psychology of the Knicks Historic Comeback Issue 143- Jason Payne, CMPC The Knicks came back from twenty-nine points down in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, and the coverage you saw probably focused on the run. The shots that fell. Wemby's missed free throw (you could see the tension he felt), OG's block of a questionable Fox layup. OG's amazing tip-in of the Brunson miss to win the game. That is the obvious story. But there is another story that coaches can learn more from. The...
24 days ago • 6 min read
Quentin Your Bench Is Breathing Different Air Than Your Starters Issue 142- Jason Payne, CMPC When Amy Edmondson coined the term "psychological safety" in 1999, she administered her survey to individuals in a work setting. Not teams. That detail is easy to miss, and it changes the conversation. What Edmondson found, and what Google’s Project Aristotle reaffirmed a decade later in its five-year study of 180 teams, was that two people on the same team would routinely give wildly different...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
Quentin Focus isn't a Trait; it's a Performance Enhancer. How to Improve Your Athletes' Focus. Issue 141- Jason Payne CMPC I start every practice with three minutes of silence. No music, drills, bouncing balls, random shots or chatter. The athletes find a comfortable place and focus on their breath. When their attention wanders, and it does, they bring it back without judgment. I felt ridiculous the first week. I worried about how they would react, what a parent would think if they walked in...
about 1 month ago • 7 min read
Quentin "I Am So Tired"- What You can Learn from the Burnout of the World's best coaches. Issue 140- Jason Payne CMPC Pep Guardiola broke down in tears after Manchester City’s final game of the season, a 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa. A few days later, he stepped in front of a press conference and gave coaches everywhere the most honest thing any manager has said in a long time. “I am so tired. Seriously, I am so tired.” He had a year left on his contract. Twenty major trophies in ten years at...
about 2 months ago • 8 min read
Quentin The Story Athletes Tell Themselves: Coaching Confidence by Embracing the Hero's Story AI believes that Jeff Probst has got ups. Issue 139- Jason Payne CMPC I have been a fan of Survivor since the show debuted in 2000. I never miss an episode. The social and psychological experiment that unfolds each week is always entertaining. It has kept my attention for 25 years. Season 50 wrapped up this week, and it was a fun season with twists and turns. During the finale, Christian, a member of...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Quentin Your Most Committed Athletes Are Often Your Most Fragile Issue 138- Jason Payne CMPC Every coach has one or two of them. The athlete who arrives first to practice and leaves last. Who treats a missed shot like a personal failing. Who can’t take a Sunday off without anxiety creeping in? Who takes every piece of feedback as a personal attack on who they are. What you’re watching isn’t elite commitment. Though many coaches believe it is. It’s actually identity foreclosure, and it’s one...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Quentin For The All Blacks, The Mission Became Bigger than Winning Issue 137- Jason Payne C.M.P.C. In 2007, the New Zealand All Blacks lost in the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup. To France, on French soil. The country treated it like a national disaster. This was a team that had never lost at the quarter-final stage of a World Cup. A program with a 76 percent all-time winning percentage going back to 1903. A nation of five million people that had punched above its weight in rugby for a...
2 months ago • 6 min read