Professional Practice, Development and Careers
Sport & Exercise Professionals: Do you know that 'News' means YOUR news?!
We're starting to see some really positive signs that sport and exercise professionals are warming to using iStadia to develop their networks, caeers and business. Membership is accelerating, we see more people posting (though we'd like some of the early adopters to come back!) but one thing isn't happening: NEWS.
Does this mean that our members have no news? Is there nothing interesting happening in their professional lives? Are there no new contracts being won? No changes to their professional discipline? No interesting developments in their market? No new courses being offered, products launched or services delivered?
Of course not.
So, do they know that 'news' means their news? Perhaps sport and exercise professionals don't like to blow their own trumpets. I bet there's some truth in that (as you are such an ethical bunch), but sharing news doesn't mean overstating the truth or making other unethical claims.
But I'm sure that there is some of the former. I know that we have members who share their news with a mailing list. I'm on some of them. So, that must be part of the problem.
Of course there's at least one other explanation: They don't think it will make a difference. Well, you'll never know unless you go (as one advert used to say). But what we can say is that:
Some other members of iStadia - other sport & exercise professionals will see it AND
Other people that are searching for content like yours - potential customers - will see it.
So let this be a rallying call. Tell us what you're up to. Share your news. You are interesting. We do want to know. The world WILL be a better place for it, and if you do it regularly, it probably will make a difference.
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
The iStadia Twitter Rollcall: Sport & Exercise Professionals Who Tweet
iStadia is a mine of knowledge and experience in a whole range of sport and exercise disciplines. Of course, many of us use multiple platforms to get our message out. Here are a selection of the sport and exercise professionals who are using both iStadia and Twitter.
sportshypgaz on twitter / Gary Baker, Sports Hypnotherapist on iStadia
Sports Psychology Consultant and Director of The Centre for Sports Hypnosis
liannepacker on twitter / Lianne Packer, Sport Psychologist on iStadia
Philosopher, intellect, ponderer, theorist and general all-round master procrastinator.
johnnyfontana on twitter / John Fontana, Fitness Trainer on iStadia
Fitness Professional, Fitness Writer, Entrepreneur...
L_I_W on twitter / Jonathan Monks, Event Manager on Stadia
Looking to build online network for leisure sector inc attractions, health and fitness, sport and the licensed trade
Sportstest on twitter / Garry Palmer, Physiologist/Sport Scientist on iStadia
Fitness testing, nutrition and coaching for runners cyclists & triathletes
Sports_Nut
on twitter / Matthew Renton, Sports Social Media Marketer on iStadiaI play, watch, referee & work in sport & always have an opinion! I work for a sport science publication called Peak Performance
keithirving
on twitter / Keith Irving, Specialist in Performance Psychology & Psychometrics and co-owner of iStadia Co Founder iStadia and expert in performance psychology and related psychometrics
mikegarth on twitter / Mike Garth, Sport Psychologist on iStadia
Helping racing drivers perform better - love it!
BenWilsonUK on twitter / Ben Wilson, Personal Trainer on iStadia
micoach / David Hinchliffe, Cricket Coach on iStadia
Cricket coaching and athletic development
tennisopen on twitter / Michael Peterson, Tennis Professional on iStadia
pindaregirl on twitter / Gina Block on iStadia
SPORT LEISURE COACHING THIS IS PINDARE-DYNAMI CELL PHONE DIRECTORY AND MORE
annetteht on twitter / Annette Huygens-Tholen, Sporting Mindset Coach on iStadia
Olympian, Athlete Transition Coach, NLP & Master Results Coach
brianmccormick on twitter / Brian McCormick, Basketball Coach on iStadia
Coach. Entrepreneur. Author. Filmmaker. Globe Trotter. Gypsy.
DrDickB / Richard Bailey, Consultant on iStadia
Writer. Researcher. Geek. Interested in sport, learning, philosophy, macs and almost everything else.
dmfreedom
/ David Fuller, Sports Marketing Specialist on iStadiaCEO of Pilote Media. Specialist in Sports Marketing, sponsorship, activation and the use of emerging technology to bring sports stakeholders together.
DanielPeterson / Dan Peterson, Sports are 80 Percent Mental on iStadia
By day, IT stuff; by night, writing about sports, brains and science @ my site & LiveScience.com
BadenBall_Tam / Tam Nguyen, Sales & Marketing Manager on iStadia
I have an unhealthy and potentially dangerous addiction to all Seattle Sports Team.
Why not add your ID as a comment, or by sending me a message and I will update the roll-call.
Let's all support each other as we try to get our message out there.
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Follow me on Twitter@sportpsychrob
Sports Consulting Careers: What's the Best Route to Take?
Sports Consulting, whether sport psychology, marketing, sport science or any other form of consulting, is becoming a popular career choice but it can be hard to get into. This post explores one particular approach, in response to an interesting question from Mustafa Sarkar,:"do you think with the service of sport psychologists being so competitive nowadays and depending so heavily on their reputation, that it may be necessary for up and coming sport psychologists to initially start in academia so that everyone in the field is aware of them as an expert in a particular research area (mental toughness for example)?".
I'm going to share my opinion, but would welcome any other views - whether in agreement or not. I'm also not going to focus on psychology, because I think the response is relevant to consulting in any area of sports performance or business.
Quite categorically, my answer in "No". Indeed, it may be "No No No No"!
OK, let me qualify that.
I'm not suggesting that recognition as an expert won't help open doors. It might even open doors at the highest level, if you specialize in the right area. But what happens when you get in front of the client?
If you want to be a consultant, then what you need first and foremost are consulting skills. If you are an expert, but a crappy consultant, all you are to your clients is a crappy consultant with some great bits of paper.
If you are good, you will get more work. Don't expect people to queue at your door, but that's basically what it boils down to. If you are good, you have a story to tell, and you'll have clients that are willing to recommend you.
If you want to become an academic, go and do it. The grass is always greener, and some academics might not agree with me but as an academic you have the opportunity to pursue a narrow field of enquiry in great depth. You are reasonably well paid, you get a lot of freedom, a lot of time off, and opportunities to travel and learn.
But, if you want to be a real expert as an academic, you need to work hard to build that reputation, first through your PhD, then by doing a lot of research, getting your platform through the formal publishing and presenting route. It takes time. With the best of intentions, a career as a consultant will have to take a back seat, otherwise you might just find that you are a mediocre academic, in a mediocre institution doing mediocre consulting work on the side.
The other thing is that as an academic, your primary audience is other academics. As a consultant they are not your target market!
It is about focus.
Likewise, building up a reputation as a consultant will take time and effort. In many ways, it is easier though. You are in control. First of all, you can give yourself away to gain experience, but do this with care. You don't want to be in demand because you are free. You want to be in demand because you are good. If you do a good job and build good relationships, you will get repeat work. You can also ask clients to refer you to people in their network.
Second, you are in control of your output. You can publish opinion pieces and practical material (here and/or on your own blog/site) that will bring you closer to potential clients. You don't have to jump through the hoops of the editorial committee. Your audience is your judge. If you build up a following on the web, it is because what you write is interesting or helpful.
If you have enough knowledge and the right skills you can bridge the gap between the academic world, which is unfathomable to your client, and your client's needs. That's your expertise as a consultant. You need some depth, you need broad knowledge too, but you don't need to be the foremost expert in a specific area - you just need to be able to assess your clients needs and deliver a solution that meets them. What if you are an expert in mental toughness? What if that's not the client's problem. But you've been building up this expertise over years. They say that when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail!
It boils down to this. Set yourself a goal. Focus your activity around that goal. Only do the things that will contribute to that goal (holding down a job in a supermarket for a while might contribute if it means that you have a basic income from doing shifts that allows you to go out and start building experience). Forget the rest. Every time something comes up, think critically about the contribution that it will make. But don't get tunnel vision (I know that sounds contradictory - stay focused on the goal but do keep an open mind and review the appropriateness of your goal from time to time. Don't flog a dead horse).
I make this last point because I dreamt of being a sport psychologist. By the time I got out and did it, I had so many commitments that it wasn't realistic any more. I didn't have the time I needed to build my reputation without a regular income at the level that I'd come to need. I did it for long enough to stratch the itch, but I moved on.
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Blogging on Peer Reviewed Research in Sport and Exercise
One of the comments that we've had back from members is that they would like more reference to peer-reviewed research. Well, thanks to Dan Peterson (an Information Services Director from Wisconsin, USA) and Mark Helme for leading the way, and showing how it can be done.Practitioners in the field don't have access to the latest databases and journals a lot of the time. When someone like Dan blogs on a subject that relates peer-reviewed research to the practical world of sport, it is very helpful. It gives someone like me a reference to explore. And as I've argued before, the more we all blog, the more we all learn and develop as professionals.
What Dan also shows is that you don't have to be an academic to blog on research and make yourself a valuable part of our community. But, let's be fair, there are many students and academics on iStadia that have peer-reviewed research at their fingertips.
I'm sure that I speak for many sport and exercise professionals when I say that, no matter how confident you might be in your writing style, or whether you think you have anything unique or interesting to say, blogs that keep us informed about what is going on in the world of research are of great value.
So thanks, Dan and Mark, and to the rest of the community: Next time you see an interesting piece of research, please tell us about it!
P.S. It also gives us another place to promote your material, which we love to do:
Rob Robson
iStadia - Networking for Sport & Exercise Community
New Coaching Framework Announced by Sports Coach UK
This week Sports Coach UK announced their new UK Coaching Framework, which is designed "to create a cohesive, ethical, inclusive and valued coaching system where skilled coaches support children, adults, players and athletes at all stages of their development in sport, and that is world-leading by 2016".The emphasis appears to be not only on elite sport, but on helping create coaches that can build participation at grass-roots level too. The framework will also create a clearer career structure for sports coaches, "within a professionally regulated vocation".
I'd be particularly interested to find out if anyone knows more about this. I was only able to find the executive summary of the framework. The rest of the story is here.
Join the world's sport and exercise community today!
Sport business development: How do you respond to enquiries?
I received a call this evening from an athlete that wanted some help.So, I did what I would normally do. I asked her what was happening and instigated a conversation.
After about 15 minutes we started to explore some of the practicalities - where was she, could we meet etc.
At that point she made an interesting comment. She said that she had called a few people and only felt that she'd clicked with me. This wasn't the first time I'd had a comment that suggested we were developing rapport already, and I was genuinely interested to know: What was different about me?
She said she was put off because the other professionals she spoke to didn't seem to really be that interested in her issue, but just wanted to set up a consultation. In other words, they were rushing to get to second base without getting to first.
I've been in consulting for 10 years, and I'm still a relative novice when it comes to business development, but I thought I'd share some thoughts on how to deal with consulting enquiries.
1. This is first step in a process. Don't try to rush to next steps.
2. Find out what the key issues are from the enquirer's point of view. Ask questions and more questions, and demonstrate understanding by playing back the issues to them.
3. Be prepared to invest some time in the person on the phone. It doesn't matter if you don't know straight away whether they have a budget, or whether there are other barriers to you working together. Yes, establish these, but not at the expense of rapport.
4. Try to help them, even if that means passing them on to someone else in your network. What goes around, comes around.
The first call is about establishing that you are competent and trustworthy enough to move to the next step with. For an individual client the next step might be a paid consultation, while for a bigger prospect it might simply be a meeting to discuss their needs in detail. If you treat the person on the end of the phone as a person, you're more likely to get to that next step.
Share business development tips and experiences in the sports entrepreneurship and business development club.
What's harder to find? A Sport Psychologist or a consumer of Sport Psychology?
I'm not sure how much the question in the title makes sense, but let me enlighten you. By no means for the first time this year I had a call from someone in another part of the country that was looking for a sport psychologist and was having trouble finding one. That's a customer (a professional sports person, by the way) that can't find someone to buy from.How crazy is that?
I immediately thought of two people in this guy's area that are members of iStadia. He wanted to get started with some face-to-face work very quickly, so needed phone numbers. One, it turns out, the guy had done some work with before and he was looking for something different. Fair enough. The other didn't have a phone number on their profile. A consultant that doesn't want to be called by a prospective customer...?
From where I'm sitting, it seems like this:
Sport psychologists often believe that the market for their work is limited or hard to access, that it is difficult to make a living in sport psychology.
Sportspeople that don't have access to sport psychologists through a programme of support often find it difficult to find the help that they need.
Think about that. If you aren't a sport psychologist, maybe you could just substitute the words and the issue would be just the same...
Are you making yourself easy or difficult to find?
Maybe you've got lucrative work coming out of your ears and don't need to put yourself out there....
Maybe you do, but don't know how.
If it's the latter, I'm not a marketing guru, but I'm more than happy to share what I've learned through my own experiences. Give me a shout. That's what networking is about.....
One small thing you can do if you are a member of iStadia: tick the box near the bottom of this page. It will certainly help us to promote you.
Something else - check out Keith's blog on forming an entrepreneurship and business development club.
If you aren't a member, maybe it's time to sign up?
Rob Robson
Sport and Business Psychologist, WarwickshireBASES and Human Kinetics Guide to Careers in Sport and Exercise Sciences
The British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) have, in conjunction with Human Kinetics publishers, released a guide to careers in sport and exercise sciences.It includes:
- Choosing courses at school and college
- Choosing undergraduate and postgraduate courses
- Funding for postgraduate courses
- Career opportunities
- Managing your careers
- 17 Career profiles
Download the guide here.
The pendulum swings... ...is positive psychology simply a new blindess?
For those that are interested in psychology, you will have noticed the rise and rise of "positive psychology" since its conception towards the end of the 90's.Positive psychology is "the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive." (according to the University of Pennsylvania, Positive Psychology Centre). It focuses on positive experiences, positive emotions, and generally "optimal human functioning". "Employee Engagement" as a concept is a product of the positive psychology movement.
According to Dr. Martin Seligman, its founder "The most important thing, the most general thing I learned, was that psychology was half-baked, literally half-baked. We had baked the part about mental illness; we had baked the part about repair of damage...The other side's unbaked, the side of strength, the side of what we're good at."
I'm in no doubt that psychology was blind to the positive before, focusing on deficit, mental illness, emotions such as anxiety and anger rather than happiness, but to me, building a whole psychology, as a reaction to the past, that excludes all of the negative aspects of humanity, is just as blind as that which went before. OK, so they may be addressing an imbalance, but it seems that students and professionals are signing up to positive psychology as a "paradigm", and not as one half of a complete whole.
There have, however, been frameworks developed that allow us to coherently explore both the positive and negative aspects of human experience and functioning. One such framework is Reversal Theory, which was conceived by Michael Apter in the 1970s and now has over 30 years of research and application behind it. It gives us the mechanism to understand the positive and the negative side-by-side rather than having to figure them out separately.
In doing so we can explore what really motivated people, what makes them happy, what makes them unhappy, why they perform and why they don't, why they change and why they don't. We can put all of these explanations on the same page.
Surely any movement that excludes one half of human experience simply limits our ability to understand - and therefore to act.
Rob Robson
Sport and Business Psychologist, WarwickshireWhere is the value-add in sport psychology?
I often find myself thinking about where the real value is, or should be, in sport psychology, and whether we have the balance right.I've always been struck by how much emphasis there is in the literature on the tools of the trade - the interventions like imagery, goals setting, self-talk, counselling skills, etc.
As a profession, we do talk about "evidence-based practice" but I do wonder to what extent this ideal is really achieved.
Is our value in sport a function of our practical skills or our depth of analysis? In reality, it has to be both, and more than that it has to be our ability to turn insight into intervention. But I have a nagging suspicion that there are "sport psychologists" out there that are more intervention than insight.
I believe that because of the language that I see written out there - the implication is that sport psychology equals goal setting plus imagery plus relaxation plus self-talk - although I'm aware that you have to make material accessible to the customer and they can relate to practical stuff. But I've also come across practitioners that have no real sense of what underlying principles are guiding their work.
I also find that an awful lot of the sport psychology literature - the frameworks and theories out there in the mainstream - lacking in real insight. What does it explain? I get frustrated when I read journals at what seems to me to be a lack of ambition in the academic sector to really get to the bottom of the big issues, whether that be in sports performance or exercise promotion. There's just so much incremental reseach out there. There's also a lot of rubbish. I remember reading that we need more sport-specific models in sport psychology. "Funny, I thought. Almost everything I ever found useful in my practice came from elsewhere in psychology".
If we can offer deep insights into performance, then we become valuable. If we focus on the toolkit, the we become a commodity. The imapct of this is that it will never become a really well-paid profession. Sure, a few people can do well on the golf or tennis tours, or maybe in professional football, but on average sport psychology is just not a lucrative business.
Why do I say this? Well, surely a good coach, with years of experience, that can learn to teach imagery, relaxation, goal setting or go on a counselling skills course will add more value than a sport psychologist who cannot demonstrate that they bring the insight required to fundamentally improve performance?
Rob Robson is a Sport Psychologist and Business Consultant based in Warwickshire, UK who specialises in helping individuals to and organisations to achieve high performance.
