{"id":19446,"date":"2023-08-08T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=19446"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:11:11","slug":"do-your-teams-behaviours-truly-match-their-performance-ambitions","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/do-your-teams-behaviours-truly-match-their-performance-ambitions\/","title":{"rendered":"Do your Team\u2019s Behaviours Truly Match their Performance Ambitions?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 8 Aug 2023 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Do your Team\u2019s Behaviours Truly Match their Performance Ambitions?<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Coaching & Development<\/a>, Human Performance<\/a>, Leadership & Culture<\/a> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/do-your-teams-behaviours-truly-match-their-performance-ambitions\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n
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In the first instalment of our two-part interview, physical performance coach Ben Rosenblatt considers the benefits of behaviour mapping a programme.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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By John Portch and Sarah Evans<\/h6>\n
What causes athletes to develop self-defeating behaviours in a high performance environment?<\/h6>\n

\u201cMy starting point is that no one is trying to do it,\u201d says physical performance coach Ben Rosenblatt.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a high performance athlete, everyone\u2019s got the intent to go and win. No one turns up to training every day thinking \u2018I\u2019m going to be difficult today\u2019. You can turn up and say \u2018I don\u2019t really fancy it\u2019 because that\u2019s what humans do, but no one has the intention to be bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosenblatt was the Lead Men\u2019s Physical Performance Coach at the Football Association between 2016 and 2023 and was part of Gareth Southgate\u2019s staff at two Fifa World Cups and one Uefa European Championships. He has worked across a series of sports and has worked at both the English Institute of Sport (now UK Sports Institute) and the British Olympic Association.<\/p>\n

In the first part of our interview, Rosenblatt makes the case for a framework that enables a practitioner to bridge performance gaps.<\/p>\n

\u2018Things didn\u2019t match up\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rosenblatt explains that his approach when entering a programme has evolved, although his principles remain unchanged. He says: \u201cIt is a case of identifying what the team\u2019s ambitions are, seeing how resonant they are with what they\u2019re trying to achieve, and then identifying the behaviours that should be in place to deliver that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recalls an example from an Olympic sport where those two were misaligned. \u201cOne team wanted to be the best in the world and the most physically dominant,\u201d Rosenblatt continues. \u201cFor me, those things didn\u2019t match up, particularly when I spoke to the athletes and coaches and heard a different narrative.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I dug into it with the athletes and coaches and asked \u2018what are the hallmarks and successful traits of teams you think are going to enable you to win and how are we going to do it?\u2019 Then I quickly realised that their ambitions around being physically fittest and the most dominant were probably not the thing that was going to help us win in the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n

A gold medal-winning performance did not require a well-executed 30-15 intermittent fitness test or bleep test. \u201cThere were problems with basic things like stability and robustness and just being able to train frequently enough. We can go and chase all the sexy stuff, which physical conditioning coaches really want to do like speed and agility, strength and power, but what we really need to do is keep the players playing consistently and increasing volume and intensity for their sport-specific training because that\u2019s what will make them a better team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018How does that individual learn?\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why might a team fall into a poor behavioural pattern in the first place?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt typically comes from a gap in capabilities, knowledge, skills and experience,\u201d says Rosenblatt. \u201cIt can also be their opportunity, so the social environment they\u2019re in; and then their motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explains that a coach\u2019s understanding of athlete motivation may be flawed. \u201cA coach might say \u2018they just don\u2019t want it enough\u2019 or \u2018they just don\u2019t know enough\u2019 then you can end up in a fight with an athlete who says \u2018what are you talking about? I\u2019m doing everything I can\u2019 or you can try to bamboozle them with knowledge that they don\u2019t really know how to receive,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn example might be: \u2018I\u2019m going to give you some detailed information about why strength training is important\u2019 and they\u2019re like \u2018I don\u2019t really care\u2019 or \u2018I don\u2019t have the framework to understand what you\u2019re telling me\u2019. You\u2019ve got to identify where those gaps in behaviours and opportunities are. So if it is around knowledge, skills and experience, then you\u2019ve got to ask the question \u2018how do they learn? How does that individual learn? How do they best receive and retain information?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat might be different as a head coach compared to a young athlete or even a seasoned athlete. They\u2019re going to learn and experience physical training differently. They\u2019re also different generations; they\u2019re going to have different social values placed on them as well. Understanding the individual and how they learn and receive knowledge is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Not everyone had seen Rocky\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rosenblatt\u2019s understanding came from a growing appreciation of motivation science, which he had previously overlooked.<\/p>\n

The penny dropped prior to the 2016 Rio Olympics, when he worked concurrently with GB judokas and women\u2019s field hockey players. Whilst the Judokas wanted to receive a training programme and be told what to do, this approach didn\u2019t work with the women\u2019s hockey team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to understand the motivational science behind it,\u201d he says. \u201cI assumed my generation, my background, I was brought up in a boxing gym and I assumed everyone had watched Rocky<\/em> and that\u2019s what kind of motivation meant to everyone else. But actually, it\u2019s about the athlete needing to have autonomy and feel like they\u2019re making a decision; is there a connection between the work they\u2019re currently doing and what they\u2019re aspiring to achieve and do they feel like they\u2019re getting better?<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if you really want to make sure an athlete is motivated to commit to the programme and commit to certain behaviours that are different to the ones they\u2019re currently engaging in, is there a connection between what they\u2019re trying to do and what they\u2019re trying to achieve? The tangible \u2013 can they see it? Have they had a choice in the path that they\u2019re taking?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey might not have the skills and experience to write the programme or to take all the direction, but there still has to be a choice somewhere along the line. \u2018Do you want to train at 3 or 3:30?\u2019 If there\u2019s some level of choice it makes people feel more connected to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other one is progression. Do they actually feel they\u2019re getting better and it\u2019s achieving the things they\u2019re really interested in? I think that was the biggest mistake I made with the hockey group when I came in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat comes back to helping the players connect and recognise what\u2019s important to the things they\u2019re trying to achieve. I think that\u2019s always a tricky one when people start introducing strength training, in particular, into team sports or any kind of training for athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve certainly had that experience in football. There\u2019s a big disconnect between lifting weights and performance. Particularly when the first thing you experience when you lift weights for the first time is that you get sore and you can\u2019t move for two or three days. There\u2019s a real disconnect with that. So I think you\u2019ve got to recognise the experience that the athlete is actually living. That\u2019s really important. Also, work out the different solutions and strategies that are available for that player at that particular time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Rosenblatt is the Founder of 292 Performance.<\/em><\/p>\n

Want to discuss performance behaviours\u00a0with Ben?<\/em><\/p>\n

Email: ben@292performance.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Twitter: @ben_rosenblatt<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

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