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.