The 1% Solution...

In mid January, ASU hosted a coaching clinic from Gold Medal Squared. It’s a comprehensive 3 day clinic that goes over theory, methods, drills and statistics to help coaches develop systems to meet their team’s needs.

It’s a daunting three days for coaches. They are inundated with so much information that often times they will go back to their practice trying to implement 10 new drills and new techniques and share their new wealth of knowledge with their athletes but then get discouraged when their athletes struggle with the concepts and techniques.

Whoa…slow down a bit coach.

The world has become immediate: Social media can transmit messages and news faster than a phone call. Pictures, movies, audio can be transmitted across the world, and sometimes the universe, in a blink of an eye. Everything is at this moment, instantaneous.

But is that practical for our athletes in a learning environment?

The British cycling team hired a new General Manager and Performance Director in 2010 by the name of Dave Brailsford. Before his hire, no British cyclist had ever won the Tour de France. His approach wasn’t revolutionary and in fact, based on simplicity. He called it the ‘aggregation of marginal gains’ which translates to being 1% better at things.

He searched out all the areas that he could improve his team’s performance by just 1%. He purchased better pillows so his riders could sleep and recover better, a way to wash their hands better to reduce infection. He worked on the bike frames, the seats and the team’s nutrition. No stone was left unturned in his pursuit to be 1% better.

He was asked to turn the team around in 5 years.

It took three. His British riders won the Tour de France in 2012 and again in 2013. They won 70% of the cycling medals at the 2012 London Olympics as well.

One percent? Can it make that much of a difference? Tom Connellan wrote a book called “The 1% solution for Work and Life.” The gist of his tome is simple: “There are just a few key actionable ideas that you need to improve yourself in whatever you do.” Connellan says. “You don’t have to compete with other people. You just have to focus on being better today than you were yesterday.”

With this new wealth of information from whatever coaching clinic you have attended, what is a small 1% difference you can make in practice today that’ll help your team get to where you want them to be? Maybe it’s NOT running and stretching before practice this week and going forward to focus on more touches. Maybe it’s introducing one drill this week and another next week. Maybe it’s better food on tournament tables or an impromptu team building moment. What is that 1% for you today, for this week, this month, this season? What is the 1% for your coaching knowledge and performance going forward?

Connellan writes, “You may never be the very best in the world at what you do, but you can be better than you are right now. The Olympic motto is ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius,’ which translates into ‘Swifter, Higher, Stronger’- NOT into ‘SwiftEST, HighEST, StrongEST.’ That means working at getting better every day.”

Take one of those Gold Medal Squared suggestions and implement it this week. Go to another coaching clinic and grab something from that one and implement it a little at a time.

The 1% solution can help make players and coaches a little bit better today than they were yesterday.

It’s all about tomorrow…