{"id":8392,"date":"2022-05-09T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=8392"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:11:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:11:37","slug":"designing-experiences-of-meaning-and-value-for-athletes","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/designing-experiences-of-meaning-and-value-for-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing Experiences of Meaning and Value for Athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 9 May 2022 <\/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

Designing Experiences of Meaning and Value for Athletes<\/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> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/designing-experiences-of-meaning-and-value-for-athletes\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n
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    The way we feel is the biggest variable in performance \u2013 we need to better understand the power of feelings when designing learning and development experiences.<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n
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    Consider: what is it about your experiences that makes you experienced?<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n
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    Look to create uncertainty, learn from performance limitations, begin to bridge those gaps.<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Why experiences matter<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \u201cAll experiences are transformative \u2013 they change people and allow them to adapt,\u201d Glenn Hunter, a performance innovation consultant formerly at the English Institute of Sport, told an audience at the 2019 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in London. \u201cThe challenge in high-performance sport is to keep designing new experiences that can engage athletes and coaches, turning ordinary into great.\u201d<\/p>\n

    How we feel \u2013 one of the biggest variables in sport<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Hunter, whose role involves the assessment of training strategies, believes that understanding how athletes feel, as a consequence of their experiences, is essential. \u201cI will be bold enough to say: that in my research over the years, looking for the big step in performance, this is up there as a contender,\u201d he said. \u201cOur experience changes how we feel, how that changes how we act, and how that changes how we perform. The inconsistency in performance plots very closely to variation in how people feel and the experiences they are having.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIf we could understand this a bit better, make it a discipline that\u2019s central to performance, and do this a little bit better through our understanding, to create better human and performance experiences, I think that would be a really good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

    What is it that makes you \u2018experienced\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Defining experience by years on the job is not enough. \u201cThe thing we\u2019re talking about here are these two critical aspects of performance that are missed in day to language: something that happens to you that affects how you feel and the way something that happens to you and affects how you feel. To express this a different way: you\u2019re all experienced, but what is it about the experiences you\u2019ve had that makes you experienced? Focusing on that means the end-product, the experience you have, becomes more vivid, fruitful, therefore more rich and valuable.<\/p>\n

    Authentic experiences that appeal to people\u2019s values<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Central to better human and performance experiences are the need for uncertainty<\/em>, which sits in contradiction to our desire for certainty<\/em>. \u201cAs human beings, we\u2019re most relaxed and comfortable when we have what I might call the \u2018illusion of certainty\u2019,\u201d said Hunter, who cited both science and religion in making his point. \u201cIronically, when we\u2019re most alive as human beings is when we\u2019re in situations of uncertainty.\u201d This is an evolutionary trait in people. \u201cIn essence, uncertainty is part of performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Designing meaningful experiences does not necessarily mean happy or joyous moments. Hunter continued: \u201cIt can be a failure \u2013 meaningful moments are things that move you on, that make you who you are, that you learn from and makes you better even though the experience at the time might not be a great one.\u201d<\/p>\n

    But it\u2019s not just learning from failures or setbacks. \u201cHow might you design your next game? How do you enjoy an experience when you\u2019re in it, and having had the experience, how might you look back on it, learn from it quickly, so that you change the next experience into a better one? The point being that it\u2019s not just when things go wrong, it\u2019s how we can design and shift ordinary into great?\u201d It is much like a designer and a successful design process understands its audience and listens to their world.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIn the dynamic environment of sport, you must continue improvising to create performance experiences that are authentic and appeal to the values of different people. By doing this, you are helping those people to stay ahead of the competition and be true to who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

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