Wednesday 28 September 2011

It's All About The Little Things or CNes To You And Me





Recently I was asked by a few coaches to give them my top 10 coaching management books. Number one on my list was a book called “Winning” by Clive Woodward.

I had the privilege to be a part of an amazing lecture about team management around five years ago. In this lecture, the speaker told us about the book “Winning!” The book is about the process coach Clive Woodward went through in turning a struggling England’s National Rugby team into an international Rugby powerhouse.

In an effort to take his team from good to great, Woodward set out to create a unique and incredibly special experience for the players coming into his program. His ultimate aim was to make the environment so good that once the players had experienced it they never wanted to be left out of it.

Woodward created this experience and environment by focusing on the little things he called Critical Non-Essentials (CNE’s). CNE’s are all of the little things or details that make your program what it is. Not just any kind of detail, but the development of things that would and could set your program apart from everybody else.

These CNE’s that he focused on include: the locker room (seating, equipment, lockers, extras, decorations, laundry); dress code (home games, away games); sports information (web, game, media guides, TV, radio, other); practice (before, warm-up, training, cool-down); equipment (practice gear, game gear, logo’s, colours); match day environment;(medical/rehab/recovery; nutrition; fitness/strength and conditioning.

Clive Woodward's team subsequently won the World Cup!

See? It's all about the little things!

Jessica De La Souza
MINDSi SPORTS PERFORMANCE
www.MindsiOnline.com

Critical Non-Essentials

“THE AREA OF IMMENSE INTEREST TO ME WAS THE
IMPORTANCE OF DETAIL, NOT JUST ANY KIND OF
DETAIL BUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THINGS THAT
WOULD AND COULD SET US APART FROM ANY
OTHER TEAM IN THE WORLD: WE HAD TO ASSUME
THAT OUR MAIN COMPETITORS WOULD ALSO HAVE
THE SAME QUALITY OF PLAYERS, THE SAME
RESOURCES AND THE SAME STANDARD OF
COACHING. IF WE ACCEPTED THAT THEN TO BE
EVEN BETTER WE HAD TO DO EVERYTHING IN OUR
POWER TO FIND HUNDREDS OF IMPROVEMENTS OR
CRITICAL NON ESSENTIALS THAT WOULD SET
US APART FROM OUR RIVALS.”
Clive Woodward



MINDSi SPORTS PERFORMANCE
www.MindsiOnline.com