Last year we had some phenomenal conversations. We chatted to experienced athletes like Matt Renshaw, Cameron Carr, Jess Jonassen, Romelda Aiken and Adam Treloar. We’ve also spoken to experiences coaches and professional athletes who also coach. We’ve spoken about sporting journeys, technical tips, coaching and mentoring insights and just provided an avenue for you to understand what goes into creating a love of play and success in sport. You’ve loved the conversations and we just wanted to recap a few of the highlights. Here are 15 pieces of great sporting advice from some of the conversations we had in 2018.

Advice from PlayBook Mentors

1. Make sure whatever training you are doing has a purpose and is replicating what format you are going into. –Jess Jonassen (Australian Cricketer)
2. Keep trying and don’t be afraid to ask for help. – Alana Thomas (Melbourne Rebels Super W Head Coach)
3. Every coach you have, try and take something away from them. Karina Brown (QLD Rugby League Player)
4. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. It is about enjoying your cricket and enjoying the moment when you are going well. – Matt Renshaw (Australian Cricketer)
5. An athlete’s ability to bounce back from obstacles and to thrive is what is really important. You can’t use obstacles as excuses for your bad form. – Dave Shillington ( former QLD/AUS Rugby League player)
6. Practice! If you enjoy shooting, shooting in not just a one day kind of job. Make it fun and challenging and just keep shooting. – Romelda Aiken (QLD/Jamaican Netballer)
7. If you go to a game with a clear mindset or a mindset that is focused on achieving a goal you are going to perform. – Adam Treloar (AFL player)
8. Mentors are important. You need a sounding board and someone you can talk things through with. – Cameron Carr (Paralympian in Wheelchair Rugby)
9. Listen! The real art of coaching is listening, listen to the players and the people around you. – Murray Davis (Brisbane Lions Assistant Coach)
10. You need to enjoy what you are doing, no matter how badly you want to achieve your goals, if you aren’t enjoying it at the end of the day you aren’t going to have the drive to go the extra mile and do what you need to do. – Kate McCarthy (AFLW Player)
11. Take what you can out of a bad performance, put it into a box and move it aside and then realign your focus on what is coming up, like what you can do to improve. – Taylor Mckeown (Australian Swimmer)
12. Train with someone who is qualified. Find someone who understands your sport. Start slowly, a high training load can be a good thing, it just needs to be prescribed well. – Tiernan Stewart (Strength & Conditioning Coach for National Netball and AFLW teams)
13. To make it professionally you have to be competitive. You may have all the talent, but being competitive is a big factor. I had to make conscious choose and said that is the way I need to play. I believe you can foster competitiveness within people. – Daniel Merrett (Former AFL player and Brisbane Lions AFLW Assistant Coach)
14. I wasn’t ever really talented, I just trained hard. I was always in the backyard, passing the footy or kicking it around. I honed my skill by accident and just through the love of the game. – Matt Ballin (Coach & former NRL player)
15. You can take something from every coach. Some will help you with the technical side and some will provide you with the emotional training that is important to your development as a player and a person. – Chris Lynn (Australian Cricketer)