Raising Talent - How to Fast-Track Potential into Performance

Book excerpt: High performance in general, and in sport in particular, is becoming more and more competitive. Today's parents and the coaches of talented youngsters face many challenges. They know intuitively that they need to do something to help their children achieve their full potential - but what is that something? Executive coaches Tim Goodenough and Michael Cooper are highly experienced at working with people who want to develop that elusive balance between work and life, while at the same time trying to develop their potential to get the most out of both. They also work in the world of high performance sport. In Raising Talent they set about discovering, understanding and learning what the key dynamics and challenges are for developing talent, especially that of children. As their thinking became sharper and their principles better defined, several models and techniques emerged and this book explains their context and how they may apply in your home. They provide an accessible and quality self-coaching programme and a solid foundation of high performance theory for fast-tracking development. This unique system of accelerating performance means that the hard-working individual now has access to many of the mental coaching techniques and benefits that normally only a highly skilled professional would be able to provide. Although aimed at parents more than any other group, the principles and techniques in Raising Talent can be applied to the development of performance, regardless of the level of talent, at any age. In fact, these same models and principles have been successfully used to accelerate the performance of Olympians, executives, international athletes and performers in multiple sports and contexts - as well as to develop Tim's karaoke singing ...