The problem with common sense is it's not very common! Totally agree with you on freshening up coaching team. I was hoping to see Harry bring someone else in this year for that. Be good to see someone introduced after conditioning training. Great comment SB.
Joey said last year that Steve helped him enormously. We had a motivator, able to get the boys playing together, pulling together, and when ie mattered, winning together. You can't underestimate that. And I'm talking about JOEY BARTON there. The thug, the renegade, the 'I don't want to play for QPR' that somehow, through his own efforts and in no small measure the efforts of Steve Black, became a QPR hero on the pitch. If Steve Black can do that for Joey, what can he do for the rest? At the end of the season we still needed some points, and when our place in the playoffs was sorted, we still needed to stay up for the fight and redouble our efforts to #findaway to win. And we did. Credit the guys, credit Harry, credit Tony, but some credit has to go to Steve, because the players' attitudes and approach was his domain, and you all saw what happened against Wigan and against Derby. Good news.
A good signing i think TBH not everyone is receptive to these types of people (Stan you misery) but a lot of sports people are. they dont look to closely at the Dow Jones or own small countries (Like Stan) but have a desire to achieve excellence. At their level, mistakes and bad performances can hammer them worse than any of us having a bad day at work. Now for some, money is a MASSIVE motivator. if i offered you 500k a week if you could get yourself fit enough to get selected for a prem club, how many would take it? maybe some of us but not all.....now offer that to an young african guy from the slums with a family to support..what do you think ? Now obviously this isnt aimed at africans or anything like that, just trying to ....anyway..stop digging. When Arsne Wenger arrived at Wrsenal with his sports science techniques and analysis, he was laughed at by the likes of Redknapp, Aladyce and managers of that time. The smarter ones (SAF & co) listened at took it in. Steve is only the next step in this development. If he can positively influence a single player in our team...then he is a bonus. Good luck to him and hope he helps ,ok.
There was I thinking I was being honest and balanced....and I'm trying to reduce the cynicism in my make up too! Done a couple of pieces of work in the last few weeks on things which look pretty hopeless. But working in multi national groups it was clear that only the Brits wanted to give up and move on.. The others - Americans, Germans, a Turk, an Argentinian, French, a couple of Chinese - all bust a gut to explore every possible solution. I enjoyed it and decided to up the 'can do' quotient though not to the level of stupidity(mind you, being a cynical old fart hasn't done me much harm). So on Mr Black, for personal use I remain sceptical, but if he helps the team, brilliant.
The first step to self improvement is to accept your own faults You, young jedi, are on your way to enlightenment
It works in a lot of other sports, golf, tennis with proven results. These "head Doctors " get sports people to focus on their own perfornace and how individually they are responsible and how they can positively affect a game. This is better than when things go wrong players go missing and seem happy for the manager to take the blame. Can only be a good thing
You are indeed correct, but id suspect the success rate is higher in "solo" sports as you have named than team sports......? afterall, your performances only affects others performances to a limited degree.? just a thought
I agree. I think Sports is possibly the best forum for it - professionalism and self-motivation get you through the week but the key part is the 90 minutes at the end of it. At this point, complete unerring focus is key, confidence is key and knowing what you can achieve at your best and how that feels is up there too. Personally, I tend to not put limits on what I can achieve (although time, money and often motivation probably play against me a bit) but I think I'd be a bit skeptical of it all in the drudgery of normal folks daily life (I'm just not a happy believer). That said, I do wish someone would focus me on trying to get a Black and Decker joke out of Steve and his toolkit.....
These days any footballer who makes a PL squad for a season or two is pretty much guaranteed to be financially secure no matter how well or badly they play in the future. So once signed, there is virtually nothing a club can do to motivate a player financially and with the big boys totally dominating the major trophies there is also little in the way of further career success on offer to those that will never quite breakthrough to the highest level. We all know it should be the coaching staff who provide the atmosphere and encouragement to overcome this but that doesn't seem to be the strong suit of HR and his team (whereas McClaren clearly has it of course). So if this guy can somehow help fill the incentive gap then so be it.
Here he is http://www.steveblack.co.uk/ Only a tiny clip of him on YouTube, surprisingly, saying something along the lines of 'winning teams always believe tomorrow will be brighter'. Gave up being a bouncer in Newcastle and went to college after the rising levels of violence clashed with his strict religious and moral code. He hasn't added us to his list of clients yet. Or Barton.
I guess he'll be drilling it into them what "Mitre" happened if they hadn't planed for the future and continued to batter(y) at the door of Derby. They saw a squeaky hinge and kicked the door in. If Zamo (L)adder missed he'd be plane down in the dumps and grinding out results against teams we should hammer.... Will that do...? I'm here all week !
