Summer 2023 - 19

That memory is as fresh to me as the blood
that poured from that young athlete's head on
that warm sunny evening. To me, it represents
the closeness that athletes have to one another
and the respect they have for each other even if a
player from an opposing team gets into difficulty.
It was a little experience like that which
stayed with me throughout my time researching
and working with elite professional athletes
and coaches from the world of sport. Learning
their feelings about why it's important to forge
unstoppable bonds within teams showed me
that coaches can always improve the dynamic
within a group of athletes. With every passing
game, there will be a new challenge to improve
some aspect of the play. There will always be
someone within the team who needs to hold
their hand up and admit they got the last play
wrong. When the video analysis is completed
there will always be unspoken words of what
should have been done in the situation that was
shown by the camera. This is true in any team
sport because behind every group of athletes
is a group of human beings. And the bigger the
group the more faults in the personalities.
Yet that's when empathy can glue individuals
player health and safety that it had at that time.
Back then I was a teenage athlete playing
on an adult team and was the second player to
come across that particular head injury. Although
not qualified to asses anyone at the time, I
instinctively knew that what the elder statesman
of the team was doing was, at best, medically
questionable but I also trusted his judgment.
What he felt was the biggest immediate
worry demanded a quick self-designed head
assessment of sorts so he could then let a yell
to the sideline to see if there was gauze or
bandages available to stem the tide of the flow.
together.
Empathy is the ability to understand and
share the feelings of others around you. It
demands that you are able to put yourself in
someone else's shoes and experience their
emotions, perspectives, and situations from
their point of view. Empathy helps us connect
with others, build relationships, and show
compassion and support for those around us.
It is an important skill in both personal and
professional settings, and it plays a crucial role
in effective communication, conflict resolution,
and teamwork.
tacticaltrainingandconditioning.com | 19
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Summer 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Summer 2023
