I am lucky to be in the position that I am in with so many resources around me, a great coaching staff to work with, and the ability to travel and experience things outside our organization. All that in addition to my more formal education puts me in a great spot. I remember writing this post on how things change last year. In all honesty, I could update this again and say that compared to now, I knew much less this time last year. Although slightly scary, this is how it should always be. Always moving forward and upwards.
Most of you reading this may have a harder time due to the situations you are in. It can be especially hard to expand horizons and learn new things from different people when you are busy all the time with a professional team as the pressure is on for you and the team to do well. Many people will be working for free. In this case they likely will have another job that pays the bill, hence making free time to develop even more difficult.
These challenges aside, CPD has to be a priority. Plan regular times to get together with other people in the field. Put it in your schedule. Down in stone. Also put down regular times slots during the week to read the literature and/or talk to people you trust on the phone. Get in touch and network with new people. In the offseason this is especially true. Visits and phone calls, meetings at conferences, and taking time to evaluate previous practice and then plan again is all part of our job. It should therefore be part of our working day / week / month / year just like other duties.
If we stop progressing (or even worse, if we regress), it is not just ourselves that take the hit. Our athletes, and teams will suffer even more as the opposition moves forward. It is our duty to ourselves and our team to do this.
Now to catch up on some journals...
we always say this to our selves, if only we knew that then but then that's life. its about picking ourselves up after and learning for next time
ReplyDeleteWell said. Thanks for visiting the blog!
ReplyDeleteHoward