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- Know Thyself
First, WELCOME to the 30+ people who have signed up for this newsletter in the past few weeks. Thank you for allowing our FREE2COMPETE team serve you through these resources. Our goal is to provide you value, so if there is something you need please let us know!
When I work with a team, or 1-on-1 with an athlete, at FREE2COMPETE one of the first activities I do is to have the team or individual scout themselves. This gives me an early insight into the situations where they tend to struggle. These insights help me identify the areas that I need to address with them. In a team setting these self scouting reports often shine a spotlight on areas where the perceived strengths/weaknesses differ between players. This opens the door to healthy conversation as we try to build understanding between these teammates.
You don’t need us to run this activity for you, although we’d be happy to do that for you. You can do this with your own team. Use our form below or create your own.
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
SELF-SCOUTING - TEAM
Here is how I use this activity with a team:
Give them a heads up a day or two before you plan to use this activity and encourage them to start thinking about how they would answer the questions on the self-scouting report attached below.
In a team meeting setting, organize the seating so that they are in groups of 4-5.
Give them 5 minutes to complete the SELF-SCOUTING REPORT for the TEAM individually.
Give them 5-10 minutes to share and discuss their observations within the groups they are seated in.
Take 10-20 minutes to have a conversation as a whole team where the players share and discuss their observations.
It is important to tell them that if their is disagreement they need to ask questions that will help them understand their teammates perspective. Conversations that turn into one teammate telling another why they are wrong are not helpful. This activity is intended to provide an opportunity to gain understanding, not determine who is right and who is wrong.
SELF-SCOUTING REPORT - INDIVIDUAL
While this version of the form is designed for when I work with an individual. I do believe there is great value in having your entire team complete this form. When I use this form with a team, I generally follow the same steps listed with the team form. However when we get to the part where athletes share with each other, if you have your team use journals, I encourage them to pull out their journals and take notes about what each teammate shares. To be the strongest team we can, we need strong individuals. One way to be a great teammate is to know when my teammates struggle and to be proactive in helping them through those situations.
I would collect these completed forms and look for common themes within the answers provided by the individual athletes. This insight gained from these forms be helpful to you as you prepare them for competition as their coach.
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UPCOMING EVENT: JOURNALING WITH YOUR TEAM 101
Interested in using journals as an intentional mental training tool with your team? Join us for this FREE online session where we'll share what we've learned over the last 12+ years of having our teams journal. We'll give you the keys and you'll be ready to do this with your team the next day! We’ll also have two athletes joining us towards the end. They’ll share how using a journal has impacted them and you’ll have the chance to ask them questions as well.
WHEN: Monday, August 5th - 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm (CST)
To get the ZOOM link, RSVP here:
