Published by Nathan Wood
Nathan Wood is a former professional sportsman and youth international, mentor to professional sports coaches, and a certified Level 4 master coach.
He is Head of Coach Development at the ECB, and also operates a sports performance consultancy which supports and challenges athletes, coaches, and sporting organsiations to increase their potential and improve performance.
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Nathan Wood Consulting 
From Colin Evans: Nathan, I’m interested in your line of work and I feel that a lot of the ‘growth mindset’, to me, seems obvious. But I accept that it is NOT obvious to many sportspeople – players, coaches and fans. One problem is communication. How do you get the message across simultaneously to all the people who need to hear it? It’s little good persuading a young footballer, for example, that it’s not bad to take risks if his father or coach is bawling from the touchline ‘Get rid of it’. Perhaps growth mindset is a little easier to convey in individual sport, athletics perhaps, than in team games like soccer.
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Hi Colin…..is this the M.E.N. version? If so, lovely to hear from you, been a long time! If not, apologies, but great question nonetheless!! Yes, this is a real challenge. In my view, our environment shapes our behaviour, so if we go along these lines, then an environment that an athlete spends a lot of time in (i.e. home/sports club) will have a signficant influence upon them. Your example of the father/coach on the toucline is a salient point. This is why clear communication and good leadership is so important (both at home and in the sporting environment), but unfortunately it is also far from commonplace. ..pro clubs included. Would be great to catch up with you if you’re still around Manchester? If so, best to drop me an email – nathan@nathanwood.consulting
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