Coaching In Different Sports 

Helen Ranson has worked in a number of different sports – in both team and individual sports. She has extensive experience of -

  • improving the performance of individual athletes
  • improving coaching techniques for those who train teams or performers

It doesn’t matter whether the sport is high or low budget – the issue is the attitude of the performer. Helen has repeatedly demonstrated her ability to analyse performance and then offer new ways of behaving and performing that will bring about rapid improvements.

These are some of the areas that Helen has successfully worked in -

  • Elite youth – this is a specialisation of Helen’s. Younger athletes tend to be more open-minded to different coaching techniques, but they also have less experience to rely on. This can make them prone to negative attitudes when faced with new situations. Helen enables them to see that the only limits to their performance are those they place upon themselves. If this habit is ingrained early in a performer’s career, it frees them to achieve so much more.
  • Team / individual dynamic - motorsport is a dynamic blend of highly-focussed individual performance in a closely-bonded team context. Awareness of the different dynamics is critical to working in this area. Helen has worked extensively with the Porsche GT3 team and others, helping them to manage the interrelationships of the team and the individual.
  • Coping with failure – in some sports, competitive performance always ends in failure. How is this? Well, in sports where the target is continually advanced, the competition is only over when all competitors have failed. So the last thing that weight lifters and high jumpers do in a competition is fail. Performers have to learn to accept this as part of competition.

    The target is also a tangible, visible thing. They can see the height of the jump they are about to attempt, the weight on the bar they are about to lift. Helen has successfully helped performers in these fields change the way their attitude to these issues, and go on to greater levels of performance than previously achieved.

  • Working with coaches – Helen has improved the coaching methods of trainers in fields as diverse as martial arts, athletics, soccer, golf, swimming and cricket. She helps them realise how they can empower the performers they work with – and conversely, how they can trap them in a performance box if they use the wrong approach.