One of my favorite books from 2017 was without a doubt Game Changer by Fergus Connolly. The other day I picked it up again and was looking through all the things that I highlighted. Here are a few of those highlighted quotes;

1. The less versatile you are, the better you have to be at what you do well. – Bill Belichick
2. There must be a single coherent message throughout the entire organization and even in the game plan, strategy, and tactics.
3. The game itself is the only true test of player and team performance.
4. Athletes should be told as little as possible about the drills they participate in and should instead be allowed to learn through discovery.
5. You simply cannot put athletes through high-intensity sessions day after day, or sessions that are dense or have high volume. Otherwise you’ll compromise learning outcomes and the players will be worn down going into the next game. This is why the nature of tactical sessions must be balanced within the morphological programming approach.
6. If there is one central point underpinning sustainable success, it’s that athlete health is the most important factor in achieving maximal and sustained performance, for both the individual and the team.
7. If the athlete can ensure proper recovery through adequate rest, sleep, mobility, and nutrition, the para-sympathetic response should be enough to facilitate restoration and adaptation to training stimuli and experiences.
8. Health has to come before performance.
9. The generalized concepts of peaking and tapering make no sense.
10. Do all that you need to do to make an athlete better and nothing more.
11. Structure and consistency create perfection.
12. There should never be anything accidental in a training session. Every activity must be geared toward the accomplishment of a specific goal or set of goals.
13. He who can handle the quickest rate of change survives. – John Boyd
14. Intensity and quality always trump volume and quantity.
15. If the leader is positive and energetic, this is contagious and impacts everyone else.
16. Glittering stadiums, new gear, and fancy facilities do not win sports games: a dedicated, committed team of happy, healthy people does.