"THE VISION TO SEE PLAYERS FOR WHO THEY CAN BE IN LIGHT OF WHO THEY ARE"
COACHING INSIDE THE GAME
"We can't coach beyond what we have the capacity to see and understand in the game. And we should not...
We can't effectively coach at our capacity until we develop the capacity to understand what the athlete sees and understands..."
We can't effectively coach at our capacity until we develop the capacity to understand what the athlete sees and understands..."
GAME DAY ACTIONABLE CHECKLIST FOR MASTER CLASS COACHES
GAME DAY COACHING TENETS
TAKE THIS ACTION
1. Set the tone. You lead, you decide. Your team has an identity you have helped shape? Take action upon arrival to "set the tone" (is this being on time, being focused, being loose, being detailed, being prepared, being flexible, working hard, tactically aligned, some of each, you decide). Most important you must activate the tone you wish to be set.
2. Activate the mindset. You want a growth mindset? You want a competitive mindset? A selfless mindset? A risk-taking or risk-averting mindset? Activate this in your staff and players on game day. The game is the best distractor of everything you might preach inbetween. It can also be the best incubator.
3. Be focused. You should be "ready" and "attentive" so that you can be "intentional". The game is of major consequence to every athlete. Your focus is your responsiblity to the work the athlete has put in and the importance the game is to them. When you make the game more important to the athlete, you will achieve at higher levels.
4. Every Athlete is Important. Every one deserves your attention. You are better, your team is better, when each athlete is valued, nurtured, led, and recognized for their unique capacity to contribute to the shared mission of the team.
5. Notice. Pay attention to each athlete. It can become exhausting, and it will become the most rewarding. When you provide the effort and energy to notice each athlete, the impact you will see, will magnify itself exponentially. This is why you are there.
6. Socrates. The "Socratic Method" refers to the use of questions to provoke thought by the learner. It also will be largely revelatory to the teacher/coach. If Maradona has just used a prep touch when you believed he should have hit the ball first time, the options are "hit that first time next time and we'll score" -- or "What did you see that required a prep touch?". You'll learn the athlete's perspective or if nothing else if the athlete is confident enough and trusting enough to tell the truth. When this method works, the athlete will think. Remember you can't teach beyond what you are aware the athlete can see and understand. And the athlete can't learn unless the athlete is permitted to process and think. And noone can become their best unless they believe in their best and you help facilitate this belief by trusting the athlete to participate in the process.
7. Point of View. Your point of view from the sideline is not the athlete's point of view from inside the game. This is remarkably simple, and yet often overlooked in concept. To develop the "other's point of view" will take time to develop. The game moves fast, and the athlete is multi-tasking, sometimes managing the ball, opponents, cover defenders, time, space, finding teammates, listening, and potentially managing something physical, such as fatigue, or mental, such as fear of failure -- all within a nano moment of time. While you on the other hand have the privilege of a spectator's view and can "see all" without having to track any of the aforementioned. You will teach at the level you can empathize.
8. Be Quiet & Still and Know When. The best coaching moments are most often the times you have processed about a dozen ways to teach or explain, and choose not to intervene. Knowing when to intervene, and when not to.... is hyper critical to the amount of learning the player will gain from you. The times you said nothing at all, the times you observed, and simply noted, and took no action, may be your best coaching moments.
9. Distinguish & Discern. Masterclass coaching requires understanding what is being "coached" in a moment for the purpose of "immediate results", essentially to help win, or "future growth and application". These moments require different voice, tone, intensity, conversation tactics, timing, and follow up. They intersect and might orbit in the same sphere for periods of time. A master class coach manages those differently understanding that there is a difference between a desire for "immediate results" and "forward, future application to growth."
10. Conditioned Behavior is Not Learned or Transformational. One of the all-time greatest mistakes of a teacher, leader, boss, director, orchestrator, etc... is that a "conditioned" behavior is classified as learned. We have not learned until we have transformed. If you are after "conditioned behavior" you will be have failed to reach your capacity no matter what you achieved in your roles as a leader, coach, or teacher. Transformation is a process that is usually subtle, slow, gradual, and not immediate. And it is permanent. It is wildly more profound to have helped transform a mindset, a self esteem, a value system, than have to conditioned a behavior. Conditioning behavior is easy, fast, quick and works. It is also temporary, false, and non reliable. You choose who you will be. And in so doing you choose who your athletes be-come. Conditioned? Transformed?
11. Honor the athletes, the game, the history and all that you belong to and the distinct privilege afforded to you to participate.
TAKE THIS ACTION
1. Set the tone. You lead, you decide. Your team has an identity you have helped shape? Take action upon arrival to "set the tone" (is this being on time, being focused, being loose, being detailed, being prepared, being flexible, working hard, tactically aligned, some of each, you decide). Most important you must activate the tone you wish to be set.
2. Activate the mindset. You want a growth mindset? You want a competitive mindset? A selfless mindset? A risk-taking or risk-averting mindset? Activate this in your staff and players on game day. The game is the best distractor of everything you might preach inbetween. It can also be the best incubator.
3. Be focused. You should be "ready" and "attentive" so that you can be "intentional". The game is of major consequence to every athlete. Your focus is your responsiblity to the work the athlete has put in and the importance the game is to them. When you make the game more important to the athlete, you will achieve at higher levels.
4. Every Athlete is Important. Every one deserves your attention. You are better, your team is better, when each athlete is valued, nurtured, led, and recognized for their unique capacity to contribute to the shared mission of the team.
5. Notice. Pay attention to each athlete. It can become exhausting, and it will become the most rewarding. When you provide the effort and energy to notice each athlete, the impact you will see, will magnify itself exponentially. This is why you are there.
6. Socrates. The "Socratic Method" refers to the use of questions to provoke thought by the learner. It also will be largely revelatory to the teacher/coach. If Maradona has just used a prep touch when you believed he should have hit the ball first time, the options are "hit that first time next time and we'll score" -- or "What did you see that required a prep touch?". You'll learn the athlete's perspective or if nothing else if the athlete is confident enough and trusting enough to tell the truth. When this method works, the athlete will think. Remember you can't teach beyond what you are aware the athlete can see and understand. And the athlete can't learn unless the athlete is permitted to process and think. And noone can become their best unless they believe in their best and you help facilitate this belief by trusting the athlete to participate in the process.
7. Point of View. Your point of view from the sideline is not the athlete's point of view from inside the game. This is remarkably simple, and yet often overlooked in concept. To develop the "other's point of view" will take time to develop. The game moves fast, and the athlete is multi-tasking, sometimes managing the ball, opponents, cover defenders, time, space, finding teammates, listening, and potentially managing something physical, such as fatigue, or mental, such as fear of failure -- all within a nano moment of time. While you on the other hand have the privilege of a spectator's view and can "see all" without having to track any of the aforementioned. You will teach at the level you can empathize.
8. Be Quiet & Still and Know When. The best coaching moments are most often the times you have processed about a dozen ways to teach or explain, and choose not to intervene. Knowing when to intervene, and when not to.... is hyper critical to the amount of learning the player will gain from you. The times you said nothing at all, the times you observed, and simply noted, and took no action, may be your best coaching moments.
9. Distinguish & Discern. Masterclass coaching requires understanding what is being "coached" in a moment for the purpose of "immediate results", essentially to help win, or "future growth and application". These moments require different voice, tone, intensity, conversation tactics, timing, and follow up. They intersect and might orbit in the same sphere for periods of time. A master class coach manages those differently understanding that there is a difference between a desire for "immediate results" and "forward, future application to growth."
10. Conditioned Behavior is Not Learned or Transformational. One of the all-time greatest mistakes of a teacher, leader, boss, director, orchestrator, etc... is that a "conditioned" behavior is classified as learned. We have not learned until we have transformed. If you are after "conditioned behavior" you will be have failed to reach your capacity no matter what you achieved in your roles as a leader, coach, or teacher. Transformation is a process that is usually subtle, slow, gradual, and not immediate. And it is permanent. It is wildly more profound to have helped transform a mindset, a self esteem, a value system, than have to conditioned a behavior. Conditioning behavior is easy, fast, quick and works. It is also temporary, false, and non reliable. You choose who you will be. And in so doing you choose who your athletes be-come. Conditioned? Transformed?
11. Honor the athletes, the game, the history and all that you belong to and the distinct privilege afforded to you to participate.
GAME DAY DONT'S - AVOID BEING THE DONKEY
THE COMMON ERRORS - THE DONT'S
1. Never coach out of anger. When you have lost the plot regain it. Then begin again.
2. Avoid rhetorical commentary, "What are you doing?" -- or -- "Why would you do that?" An athlete should not have to "waste energy" deciphering your wasteful use of breath. Avoid obvious commentary "Finish that next time!". The athlete knows. Or ridiculous directives "Run faster!" -- or -- "Just put that in the back of the net!". If you as a player were "so awesome" that you could take difficult and challenging tasks and make them easy, possibly you were so good that you cannot RELATE to the athlete's struggles and challenges, and thus should not coach. Or possibly your memory of you as a player is warped.
3. Steer away from sarcasm not meant to provide levity. Sarcasm can be a tool carefully crafted or a weapon that severely impedes. Do not abuse your platform of authority.
4. Humor at the expense of another is NEVER worth it and indicates your own inadequacy.
5. Tone is yours to set. If you yell, become overly intense in speech, or aggressive in action, you have cultivated the atmosphere everyone must live in. You are the tone-setter. Likewise if you are apathetic, non-engaged, other-focused, loose with your body and verbal cues, non assertive, you have created an atmosphere for others to live in.
6. Never use FEAR as a motivator or mover. This is an abuse of your authority. You enter the situation and circumstance with a power and authority you may not have earned or deserve, simply by being named the coach. Respect this place of authority.
7. Quit saying ME and I. "I need you to do this for me". Bologna!!! The team is first. If you matter that much find another vocation that is not contingent on teamwork and teammateship. The proper way to state the same "The team needs this of you." "This is your responsiblity."
8. Do not accept excuses or dismiss bad attitudes. "This is why we can't play you or rely on you". Change that to "You are bigger than the game." Or, "This situation will not defeat you today." It conveys the same message of a need for better, and prevents you from becoming an accepter of excuses. If you participate in the excuse mentality of the athlete, you are sharing the same vice.
9. If you can out maneuver the opponents, this is not a huge achievement for an adult coach, unless you are coaching against top level older players. Do not remote-control your athletes and consider that successful growth. Strategical application of in game directives that balances competitive results with growth is fine - in moderation.
10. If you can't keep up with the game, do not "over coach" the game as it happens. This simply slows down the thinking and processing time of the athlete and puts them "behind". You are probably seeing the game way behind, because great coaches have prepared their athletes prior to game day, and not great coaches are always trying to "catch up" to the game. An offensive truth. Check the mirror. Tell yourself the truth. And if you can't use less words, spend time growing as an understander of the game information, a conveyer of the game information, and become a better communicator. Use less words.
11. It is not about YOU. Clear and simple. Just see Inky Johnson's message.
1. Never coach out of anger. When you have lost the plot regain it. Then begin again.
2. Avoid rhetorical commentary, "What are you doing?" -- or -- "Why would you do that?" An athlete should not have to "waste energy" deciphering your wasteful use of breath. Avoid obvious commentary "Finish that next time!". The athlete knows. Or ridiculous directives "Run faster!" -- or -- "Just put that in the back of the net!". If you as a player were "so awesome" that you could take difficult and challenging tasks and make them easy, possibly you were so good that you cannot RELATE to the athlete's struggles and challenges, and thus should not coach. Or possibly your memory of you as a player is warped.
3. Steer away from sarcasm not meant to provide levity. Sarcasm can be a tool carefully crafted or a weapon that severely impedes. Do not abuse your platform of authority.
4. Humor at the expense of another is NEVER worth it and indicates your own inadequacy.
5. Tone is yours to set. If you yell, become overly intense in speech, or aggressive in action, you have cultivated the atmosphere everyone must live in. You are the tone-setter. Likewise if you are apathetic, non-engaged, other-focused, loose with your body and verbal cues, non assertive, you have created an atmosphere for others to live in.
6. Never use FEAR as a motivator or mover. This is an abuse of your authority. You enter the situation and circumstance with a power and authority you may not have earned or deserve, simply by being named the coach. Respect this place of authority.
7. Quit saying ME and I. "I need you to do this for me". Bologna!!! The team is first. If you matter that much find another vocation that is not contingent on teamwork and teammateship. The proper way to state the same "The team needs this of you." "This is your responsiblity."
8. Do not accept excuses or dismiss bad attitudes. "This is why we can't play you or rely on you". Change that to "You are bigger than the game." Or, "This situation will not defeat you today." It conveys the same message of a need for better, and prevents you from becoming an accepter of excuses. If you participate in the excuse mentality of the athlete, you are sharing the same vice.
9. If you can out maneuver the opponents, this is not a huge achievement for an adult coach, unless you are coaching against top level older players. Do not remote-control your athletes and consider that successful growth. Strategical application of in game directives that balances competitive results with growth is fine - in moderation.
10. If you can't keep up with the game, do not "over coach" the game as it happens. This simply slows down the thinking and processing time of the athlete and puts them "behind". You are probably seeing the game way behind, because great coaches have prepared their athletes prior to game day, and not great coaches are always trying to "catch up" to the game. An offensive truth. Check the mirror. Tell yourself the truth. And if you can't use less words, spend time growing as an understander of the game information, a conveyer of the game information, and become a better communicator. Use less words.
11. It is not about YOU. Clear and simple. Just see Inky Johnson's message.
GAME TYPOLOGY
A prerequisite of the WSA Way is understanding the significance of the Game to the Athlete. The game "incubates" the Athlete Experience. The WSA Way has produced a GAME TYPOLOGY rubric for helping coaches, athletes, and parents come to a common understanding of a very key component of Game Day: "Playing Time".
SEE WSA WAY GAME TYPOLOGY
SEE WSA WAY GAME TYPOLOGY