James (Jim) Davis, Ed.M., MA excerpt from Get Steady: Essays at the Foundation of Sustainable High Performance “Find your passion” is bad advice. I have yet to meet someone who is ‘passionate’ about their work on a daily basis. Athletes, actors, professionals in the music industry, all sorts of people…
Coaches love to talk about toughness. Grit. Work ethic. The willingness to pursue a heavy attempt even when it might not go well. These are real qualities, and developing them is part of the job. Somewhere along the way, however, many coaches have come to associate toughness with an environment…
James (Jim) Davis, Ed.M., MA, RSCC*E Proprioception is the body’s quiet cartographer. It is the internal sense that continuously draws and redraws a map of where we are in space (Proske & Gandevia, 2012). Without requiring sight or thought, it allows us to know the position of our limbs, the…
Editor’s Note: The UL Vikings are an American football team from Limerick, Ireland. The Vikings have won three IAFL Shamrock Bowl titles – 2007, 2008 and 2009 – and the Atlantic Cup in 2010. Author Liam Ryan was a founding member of the team. His reflection provides an insight into his passion, which provided the seed that sprouted one of…
The SEC is a DOMINANT conference in college football. They are, in many ways, the standard toward which other programs strive. But in the world of sports journalism, making assumptions about games before they are played – which seems to be rampant in this year’s postseason – is both a…
By Pat McHugh This week of the school year reminds me of the legacy of the North Shore Country Day School athletic department and the values of the school’s longest serving athletic director, Mac McCarty. I share an annual task this week which he took pride in and reflects his…
This article was originally published by Coach & AD Magazine. Jim Davis, Ed.M., MA, RSCC*D Strength training has enormous potential in the development of team culture. The weightroom is a fantastic place to improve physical performance, mindset, and inter-team communication. In the pursuit of improved performance, every moment can be…
by Chris Dertz Competition Review: In Part I, I outlined a general plan for promoting, recruiting, and organizing a high school powerlifting team. In Part II, we will talk about competing in a meet. Finding a Meet Not all of the kids on our team here at Eastland High School…
with Nicole Brinker, by Chris Dertz Nine months after first emerging in the United States, it is clear that the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are both unprecedented and wide-ranging. The raw data is grim. Currently, 22,000,000 Americans have been infected with the virus and the Centers for Disease Control…
In 2009, Northwestern University battled Auburn in the Outback Bowl. They lost 35-38 in overtime. It was Pat Fitzgerald’s second Bowl Game as NU’s head coach, and his second consecutive overtime loss (they played Missouri in the Alamo Bowl the year prior, and lost an 23-30 in OT). In today’s…