The Art of Coaching
Coaching is an art, a skill, and a constant case of behavioral science. A good coach needs to be a good scientist. He or she must take careful notes through observation and constantly test out hypotheses. To get an athlete to improve is a serious responsibility. The coach must incorporate different environments, various motivations, and a specific set of tools to ensure the athlete can reach their maximum potential.
Tools Needed
1. Mastery
It takes 10,000 hours to master a particular skill. So they say. This involves patience while you learn from every mistake. You will not do it right all the time. Take notes of each workout and conversations you have with your athletes. How are you communicating and executing your plan? Is it well received?
What are you teaching your athletes? Are you teaching? Regardless of the level you coach, you must reinforce the basics every day. Do you know the basics? You should be a student of your sport. Learn the science behind each movement (Newton’s Laws of Motion, kinesiology, energy systems of the body, the central nervous system, hydration, nutrition, specific race plans). Take your new knowledge and apply it in light of your goal for the athlete and season. Observe and report. Remember, you are a scientist just as much as a motivational speaker. Read, listen, and take someone out for lunch to learn from their experiences. (I personally have a goal to take 3 coaches out to lunch/coffee a year. This has helped me greatly).
2. Simplicity
There is such a thing as too much. Know when to stop. Under training is better than overtraining. Have a plan, but keep it simple. The more complicated the workout or training plan does not mean there is a need for a complicated explanation. The athlete may lose what you are trying to have them achieve in their training. This loss in translation can make or break a workout and a season.
3. Specificity
A simple Google search will bring a long list of activities one can do to get better (for example, 400m workouts by Clyde Hart or Jim Bush or Sprint programming with Tony Holler). If every coach did this, wouldn’t everyone be successful? Only you know your culture, school, team, and athlete. The big question here is how does it all fit in with what you are trying to accomplish. It is the task of the coach to write a meaningful training regimen with this big picture in mind. The coach is preparing the athlete to succeed at the highest level in and during competition. Do not waste practice and be intentional with every minute you have in regards to your overall goal. This takes planning and preparation.
4. Demonstration
The best teacher is the one that can demonstrate what is being taught. Literally, show the athlete what the skill should and can look like when done right. This does not mean, for example, the coach needs to be fast or faster than the sprinter, but what is important is for the coach to demonstrate the proper form, posture, and technique (even if in slow motion). This will give the athlete a visual to mirror.
Try downloading the free apps Ubersence or Coach’s eye. Your slow-motion videotaping at practice has never been easier.
5. Observation
Earlier, I called the coach a scientist. Observation is one of the key elements of any good science. The coach must learn how to watch their athletes. I videotape practice and meets, put it in slow motion at practice, and observe the movements of the athlete. Good observers know where to place themselves physically to capture the correct movement. I once heard that John Wooden used to sit in the nose bleed section to observe and watch his team from a different perspective during practices.
6. Memory
Practice to compete. This happens when you slow down and teach the correct movements. If the athlete hurdles, jumps, throws, vaults, or sprints in the wrong way, they will only learn how to continue to do it wrong. “Perfect practice makes perfect.” My warm-up is full of Sprint mechanic drills and I teach while they warm up. You have to walk before you can sprint. We walk our A-skips, C-Skips, straight leg bounds, etc. before the athletes go full speed. Then go FULL SPEED. Athletes need to be fast to be fast.
7. Vision
A good coach creates a vision plan with strategic goals for the season. If you want to get from point A to point B you must identify where point B is. For my athletes this season, it is the State Championship. We work to that end goal. I work backwards from that date and create a template for the work I would like the team to accomplish. Each week I write the specific workouts based on the needs of the team in light of my vision plan. I then teach about the journey and how important the process is day to day.
Too many coaches show up the day of and make up the workouts. This is preposterous. You will see so much more improvement if you have a plan.