The ELM Approach

After the USA Men's National Soccer Team lost to Brazil in the finals of the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, Responsible Sports wrote an article on the similarities between goal setting in youth sports and the goals that Coach Bradley set for the Men's National Team.

The complete article can be read here.

The similarities are based on the ELM Approach:
1.Effort -- always give 100%
2.Learning -- improve constantly as you gain more knowledge
3.Mistakes are OK -- mistakes are how we learn.

Coach Bradley’s focus is supported by the leading sports psychology research available today. The research shows: teams and athletes who take the ELM Mastery approach (giving 100% effort, constantly learning, and bouncing back from mistakes) consistently win more contests. By moving a team's focus off their scoreboard results and on to their effort, players are happier and more self-confident. And, the wins will come.

Another good article in this issue focuses on how anxiety increases when players/coaches focus on the scoreboard. This article can be read here.

Research shows that when coaches focus solely on the scoreboard, players' anxiety increases. Athletes spend more of their precious emotional energy worrying about whether they will lose. Higher anxiety causes them to make more mistakes because they play tentatively and timidly.

Ultimately, anxiety undercuts self-confidence, which affects performance and takes the joy out of sports.

Why does the focus on the scoreboard increase anxiety? Because players can't control the outcome on the scoreboard! And players become anxious about things that are important to them that they can't control. A win on the scoreboard depends a great deal on the quality of the opponent, which is outside of the control of the athlete or team.