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Is Home Where The Heart Is?

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Is Home Where The Heart Is? By Daniel Ferguson I'm a Nottingham Forest fan and I've always found we play better at home. Even look at Sunderland this season: they've only lost to Liverpool and Fulham at home. Does playing at home really make a big difference, is there more chance of winning? The City Ground Home Advantage? Factors such as travel, familiarity and crowd support have their influence but just that feeling of playing at home connects us: to the fans, to the team, to the sport. This feeling influences our psychological state including our emotions and anxieties which in turn effects our body and energy ( Courneya and Carron, 1992 ). In 2015/16, it was revealed that home teams won over 55% of their games across sports such as NFL, basketball and baseball. Why is this? Familiarity  Home feels like home right? It's something we are used to. Potentially it means our family and friends are more present, we have more of a routine and simply less factors creating a...
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Threat or Challenge?

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Threat or Challenge? By Daniel Ferguson Often in sports, it's not the event itself, it's how an athlete perceives it. Boxing Andy's Story Andy is a boxer: he loves his sport. However, he struggles on fight day. Why? Because he views fight day as a threat as he views his nerves as a bad thing, the pressure gets to him and the crowd and noise make him shy. There's nothing wrong with how Andy feels: you can't avoid how things make you feel, but you have a choice how you react. If Andy viewed fight day as a challenge: that it's good to be nervous, it's okay to feel pressure, it's just how he chooses to face it and the crowd can be used to his advantage, he would be better off right? There's a link to our bodies... When an athlete is in a challenge state, they experience better blood flow and heightened arousal that is better for performance . When in a threat state, they experience restricted blood flow and anxiety that impairs performance . This shows t...
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Helping People Open Up

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Helping People Open Up By Daniel Ferguson A friend is struggling, you can tell. You want to explore your friends mental health but don't know how to. I'm not an expert by any means, but recently I went to a men's mental health talk and the biggest takeaway for me was don't ask people to be open, don't try get it out of people: create a place where they naturally do. Train Platform Being Open Perhaps be open yourself to a mate and it might make them be open too. Ask how they have been, they may go deeper. Or simply just listen when they talk: they may go on. Typically people say men don't talk, I wonder if they don't listen too? These are very generalised statements but I know as a man I want to give solutions, you want to be that hero who saves the day for someone's problems in life: but majority of the time people just need to get things off their chest. These days I just let people talk, I'll never forget  Simon Sinek on the Diary Of A CEO podcast ...
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Let It Naturally Occur

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Let It Naturally Occur By Daniel Ferguson We want things to happen. Change. Meeting a lifetime partner. Our mutual friends to be best friends too. We can't force life. What will be, will be; sometimes the beauty of life is letting it naturally unfold.  A Leaf It's not easy. We want things now, we remain impatient. But can you think of a time when something just happened just because it did, or you met someone without meaning to, who became a great friend. I remember really wanting a girlfriend and I was trying to force relationships: yes you should still go out there and seek, but when I actually met who my girlfriend is now our relationship felt a lot more natural, it just felt right: I didn't need to force anything. Now this wasn't instant, however, I always had that good feeling about her. Tom and Tim Tom was seeking a friend similar to him: he had great mates but still felt he needed someone in his life who he could connect with on an even deeper level. He tried net...
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What's The Impact of Culture?

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What's The Impact Of Culture? By Daniel Ferguson We've all seen Manchester United beat both Manchester City and Arsenal after Carrick's appointment. Yes, it's early days, but can we label this as a culture thing? Michael Carrick Being an ex-player for United, Carrick has a relationship with the club, he understands the culture: the club is in his heart. Do you think this has an impact? In my opinion, I think it does. Culture creates so much, can you remember a time you really enjoyed being apart of a team or felt connected to a group of people? It makes a difference right? I don't know what Carrick has done asides from change the formation, but I imagine he's made sure to try and create a good team environment. Kenyan Basketball Players In Kenyan basketball, teams with better cohesion (more togetherness as a team) won more often   and there's been a significant relationship found between team cohesion and better performance  . It's evident that a better ...
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What's Purpose?

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What's Purpose? by Daniel Ferguson Purpose. The word that gets thrown about quite a bit, what's your life purpose, why are you here, what are you doing all this for? Something we feel we should know, but it's not easy. I often hear from friends and just in general, why do I need to decide what I need to do with my life by 18? Typically the age when people are deciding what to do after full time education. Perhaps even 16 too, with that decision of sixth form, work, college or an apprenticeship.  A lot of people struggle when they don't feel like they have a purpose, a  report by Harvard Education  discovered 58% of young adults they studied experienced having no/little purpose in the previous month and 50% of young people said their mental health was negatively influenced by, 'not knowing what to do with their life." Can you relate? Purpose When you google the definition of purpose it says, 'it's the reason something is done or created' and, 'it...
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How does a coach impact their athletes?

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How does a coach impact their athletes? By Daniel Ferguson "You're rubbish, you can't string a pass together!" yelled coach Jim. Jim's team were 14-0 down at this point. "You don't know how to play rugby at all, do you guys!" yelled Jim again. The players heads were down: another try was conceded. "Why can't you help us rather than shout at us?" asked Pereira (one of the players on the pitch). The team ended up losing 37-5.  Coach Jim "It's okay you made a bad pass, let's go again!" coach Tom told Lewis. "I messed up though," said Lewis. "It happens, react, focus on the next action!" replied Tom. Lewis went onto make some very good passes throughout of the rest of the game, despite messing up a few times: he bounced back. Coach Tom Which coach language is most effective? You would say Tom right?  I coach football at my university and too many times I see coaches shout at their players, but the langu...
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