TED videos

I’ve been enjoying TED videos recently and I just wanted to share some of them I consider worth watching.

They go pretty well with The Switch and The Happiness Hypothesis book. I’ve found these two books very interesting and one of the best non-training (at least on the first glance) books I have read in a while.

The positive psychology approach (concentrating on your strengths) is very interesting to me and it goes pretty well with ’Finding the bright spots’ for the Rider (if you don’t know what the hell am I talking get your hand on The Switch book).

I suppose this can be used in sport coaching as well. For example, in a group of athletes, coaches are often focused on bad performers and provide critique to them („Lift those damn knees when doing skips John!“). Instead I think one should concentrate more on good performers and provide positive reinforcements and specific feedback for them ("Great knee height John. Great arm action"). This is easier said than done of course, because we are biased toward negative stuff. Been there, done than. Trust me. This approach demands a lot of work.

Another fine read on this pedagogic aspects of coaching is Lyle’s mega series Because We Let Them. Really good read when it comes to Motivation 2.0 (see The Drive book) or carrot~stick, punishment~reward. Anyway, behavior can be explained by context as well (’what looks like a human problem is often a situation problem’) as presented in some of the videos above. 

The more I am involved in coaching the more I realize that psychology is crucial things. To be honest, I suck at it. But hell, I admitted and I am learning :)