Random Thoughts – Ashley Jones

Author Ashley Jones

Advice, Ideas & Thoughts

As Robbie Deans is often to be heard saying “start with the end in mind”

Coaching is an extension of teaching, so get out of your office and teach, especially in the gym, you are always correcting wee aspects of a lift, our aim is perfection of technique, so if you are not lifting yourself, start, it makes a lot of difference for your athletes and for you.

Whenever you lift, you are on show, be a technician and lift well, you do not have to be the strongest but you should try at all costs to have the best technique, whether you like it or not you are a role model, so what behaviours do you want your athletes to follow.

With position comes responsibility and I would hope that the greater the responsibility one has is directly correlated with a greater humility and empathy.

Meditation helps me to clear my mind, but Olympic lifting training (moving meditation) allows me to focus my thoughts.

If you do not know, then ask someone, there will always be someone smarter than you or I for that matter who will be able to help, with the exception of Mel Siff and Louie Simmons, they are the only genuine genius’ that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting in our field of endeavour..

One of my favourite all time quotes from Louie is, “everything works, but nothing works for ever” I have included a selection of methods chart with this article, this was compiled by Damian Marsh, Luke Thornley and myself, any errors are my own doing though.

Don’t judge how good an s & c coach/program is in rugby by the results of the team he/she coaches, in my own situation when you have possibly the best ever numbers 10 and 7 playing together you are going to win more games than you lose, they are the rock stars, people like me are the roadies.

Go to conferences, you will always pick up at least one useful idea and often you will have what you are currently doing re-enforced by a few speakers, but do not be surprised to find out that you learnt more by sitting around between sessions with other people just chatting about what they are doing.

As Confucius is reported to have said “find a job you enjoy and you will never work a day in your life”, enjoy, ashley

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Very good short note Ash, highlights a number of the key things I have learnt from you in the short time that I have known you.
Also from making sure I always put time into gathering and forming my own thoughts and ensuring I set aside time to develop myself further in my knowledge and ability to ask good questions of others.
We will never know everything but the ability to find out what you don’t know is surely the most important ability you can have, perhaps second only to the ability to realise and say in the first place…. “I don’t know”

Simon 15