The life of a coach

As we approach the end of the collegiate season I wanted to share some of what I have seen of the life of a coach these days.

We all want to be coaches right? Everyone who played sport as a kid sees the appeal. The chance to be around a sport we love, and be paid to do it, who wouldn't want that. And besides it's not that hard really, I mean all you do is just put a few cones down at training.

If you're reading this, you probably are a coach. As such you've probably been exposed to the thought process above a few times. And it probably infuriates you. In very few other professions would you see this assumption that anyone can do what you do. This led me to think about what coaches actually do.

When I was a kid I took up hockey at aged four, struggled with soccer between ages 8 and 12/13, sailed between ages 13 and 17 and stuck a toe into some other sports along the way. In each setting I was exposed to some very different coaches, but in each setting I received (at the core of it) most of the following:

Technical instruction - How you do what is needed in the sport
Tactical instruction - When and why you would do these things
Situational/cultural instruction - What is appropriate behavior when practicing this sport
Vocabulary enrichment - Sometimes sport related, often times rude words!

But, is that all that a coach does?

If my coaching journey is anything to go off I hope the answer is no. This past weekend I hosted my team at my house for pumpkin carving. Picture the scene, 22 athletes and staff crammed into my living room for some lunch before taking to the front lawn to have a pumpkin carving competition. Bear in mind these are college athletes, aged 18-22, not children. I have to say it made for some interesting viewing!

What struck me most about the whole experience was firstly how competitive my coworkers got when the carving started. But, more than that, it had nothing to do with sport. We were just enjoying each other's company, and relaxing as a team. The whole event was enjoyable and natural, with everyone getting plenty of food!

The lesson in this? For me this year, and every year in coaching, has seen my role within our staff and team change. That's normal in coaching. Every group is different and every group needs something different from their staff. I tell people now that my job title is "Assistant Coach" not "Assistant to the Head Coach". My role is to help. Each athlete, each staff member, everyone we work with. Not just today, but everyday. In doing that I'm finding that I'm getting to enjoy myself a lot more. This season we've had highs and lows like every team. The highest highs for me have come from celebrating our athletes success, not just on the field.

So... what is the role of a coach?

BUILD an environment where everyone can flourish in pursuit of your team's goals.
NOURISH the group you're working with athletically and socially.
ENJOY yourself. It's got to be natural, and fun. If you're not enjoying yourself why would they?!?
CELEBRATE everything that's worth celebrating. Wins come in many forms, find them and celebrate them!

Hooked on Phonics

What phonics and how we learn to speak and spell can teach us about coaching.

In my previous life I worked as a Primary School Teacher. One of the most interesting parts of the development of young students is how they learn to spell and read. Children are encouraged to sound out words, and to use a phonetic approach to language. This approach allows the children to find the keys to language and to recognize words by breaking down the letters that make them up.

I can only assume that everyone who is reading this has been a small child. The English language is not an easy beast to bend and mold to your will. But somehow we have all reached a point where we can. These days people do that through the use of phonics and a phonetic alphabet.

Watch the first minute of this video. You'll see that while the student may not be finding the right spelling, the spelling they do find works for them.

So here's the question that phonics poses for me. The idea of phonics is that children learn the variety of sounds associated with a letter. They choose the letter that best matches their word, and see if it works. But at some stage they need to know the correct spelling. How do we know when to give that specific answer?

As coaches we are encouraged to teach athletes through experiences. Put them in situations where they are exposed to a range of experiences, and then allow them to find the solution that works best for them.

From a phonics point of view this could be as simple as:
Teacher: "How do you spell cat?"
Pupil: "K - A -T - KAT"

This spelling is perfectly serviceable and we can see how they would arrive at it. However at a point in their development they will need to choose the letter C.

As coaches we do a similar thing. We pose a question, and allow the athlete to solve it. We put them in a game with infinitely more choices that the 26 letters of the alphabet. They problem solve to find the right solution for their choosing, and they get a response of "correct/incorrect" based on their success in the situation.

The real question as coaches we need to ask ourselves is, when do we correct the spelling? When it comes to technical skill instruction, do we jump to showing them the "right" way to do something or do we let them sound it out?

What should we do? Is that sport specific? Is it technique specific?

Personally I am finding that I'm starting to really enjoy setting challenges and letting the athletes solve their own way. It's facilitating discussion on the challenge and allowing the athletes to demonstrate significantly more understanding.

I'm starting with the man in the mirror...

Self reflection in the modern coaching world. Who, how and why?

Over the last number of months I've been very lucky to have an opportunity to get involved in some Coach Education. As part of this journey I've started to self reflect a lot more. It got me thinking that as coaches we regularly hear and say a lot of similar things to our athletes. Most, if not all, of us are guilty of getting frustrated and blaming our athletes "Why don't you get it?!" "If only they were smarter/more game aware..."

At times the frustration seen by this coach

may have been shared by some of us!

But ultimately who is responsible for what these athletes are learning, and as such developing the knowledge base to deal with. Our job as coaches is to work with our athletes where they are. We need to be chameleons who can change and adapt to the needs of our athletes. Our questioning and session design should be targeted towards our athletes level, not what works best for us.

Once a session ends as coaches we should take the time to reflect on our session. How did we speak to our athletes. How did they respond. What aspects of the conversation went well. What would you have done differently.

Your session design, and how it's received may end up in very different places. As coaches we should be conscious of people's understanding of tone, content and delivery style.

So, other than self reflection what can we do?

Here are a few ideas:
1. Try having someone video a session and recording yourself. Listen to what it is you're saying and how you're saying it. What you thought was a good comment at the time, would you make it again?
2. If you work with a staff, ask one of them to watch a chunk of practice and take notes. Become reflective as a group, and provide each other with feedback on your sessions.
3. Talk to your athletes. See what activities and behaviors they enjoy and don't enjoy at practice. If these activities are crucial see if you can reframe them so that your athletes understand them better. If they're not - get rid of them! Ultimately you and the athletes are a team, you expect them to listen to you, why not do the same for them.

Over the past few months I've really applied myself to this, and it's reaping rewards. The athletes I work with are enjoying and understanding our sessions better. If a part of practice doesn't work well I find out relatively quickly and as a result our practices are becoming more efficient. The athletes are engaged and challenged and our questioning sessions are becoming more worthwhile.



At the weekend I was really lucky to have one of my athletes participate in a coaching course I was helping with. As we worked through the day I kept wondering was she seeing what we were talking about as best practices in the sessions we have together. That experience is going to give us a framework to talk about future sessions, and hopefully a part of my reflection process is going to be a really informed young coach who is an active participant in the session.

"I’m starting with the man in the mirror

I’m asking him to change his ways

And no message could have been any clearer

If you wanna make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself and then make that...

Change!"