Critique Papers

Critique Papers

1- Whitmore, John, Sir. Coaching for Performance. London, Clerkenwell: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2006.

John Whitmore's Coaching for Performance book is light and well laid-out. The book is ideal for professionals wanting to take the next step in advancing their careers. Readers are guided through many areas from coaching principles to assessments to team building techniques. Each chapter suggested action steps that will enhance your performance, the performance of the coachee, and raise the profile of your business. John Whitmore offers great insight into the reasons why coaching to people strengths is so beneficial, backed up by sound ways to use proven techniques in applying the science of Coaching for Performance.

The effective questions giving throughout the book helps to raise awareness and responsibility of the coachee. They have worked well for me and I'm excited about putting this new skill into practice. typical of the challenge which Whitmore's radical approach to coaching delivers to the sporting establishment. It's his contention that businesses have embraced the power of what he calls the 'new coaching' far more than sport; that is why he finds warmer welcome in the board rooms of blue chip companies than in the sporting arena. A champion racing car driver in the 1960s, Sir John studied psychology before going into business and meeting Timothy Gallwey, creator of the Inner Game. Sir John's acclaimed book, Coaching for Performance, is a general introduction to his techniques, newly into its third edition. Sports coaching has for too long been based on the dominance of a reductionist approach - the insistence on analysing everything down to its basic components - and lines of authority between coaches 'in the know' and those supposedly without knowledge. This approach goes hand in hand with the denial of the innate, the instinctual and the intuitive, and it has held back sports coaching in UK and elsewhere by 25 years. That is a large claim and a strong accusation to level at the sports establishment, but I will lay out the charge in this article and invite you in the process to question long-held beliefs, think for yourself, engage your emotions and make your own decision. In so doing, you will be putting into practice the very elements of good coaching that I contend are so undervalued and underused.The beliefs and assumptions that coaches grow up with are the very ones that undermine learning, performance and enjoyment. The Inner Game process aims to eliminate these internal obstacles to performance, learning and enjoyment and thereby liberate your potential. All sports people are familiar with such internal obstacles and keen to overcome them, but far fewer share Gallwey's confidence that, as these obstacles recede, a natural, technically proficient player somehow emerges from within, without expert input. Non-critical focused attention on experiencing (awareness) thereby dissolves internal interferences. The increased quantity and quality of feedback and the absence of fear delivers the technically correct position for that person. There is no one correct position for everyone because we all differ in ...