Ideas, Insights and Curious Observations
Creating environments where the athlete curiously explores a new challenge, and then discovers real solutions that they truly understand and can apply.
One of the most difficult realizations I had in my development as a coach, was the moment I realized that in order for my athletes to learn, I would have to stop correcting-and instead inspire them to explore on their own.
In my early coaching years, my strategy had been to teach my athletes to perform each movement or skill with precision and consistency. I knew what I wanted it to look like. I knew why it was important. I was in control. I had a system that worked. I had the all the answers.
As I have come to realize, if you know all the answers…you haven’t been asked the right questions.
In training they looked amazing—moving exactly how I envisioned. Then they confidently stepped into the arena and found themselves unprepared.
In training, there was a synchronized order of actions that lead to the perfect outcome . The game was faster. The movements were different. They were physically prepared, but not prepared to adapt to the dynamic environment of competition. My teaching had made them robotic. Able to replicate my instructions in a controlled environment, but never actually learning to perform on their own.
Reproducing the ideas of others is the illusion of learning.
Copying, mimicking, or mirroring the ideas of others is a great start, but truly learn a skill—to fully understand it—runs much deeper. It cannot be taught, It must be experienced. In fully engaging in the experience, we learn. Learning to ride a bike is not achieved as a parent holds the seat to stabilize the child as she pedals forward down a level side walk. The real learning takes place as they adjust their body as they turn, increase speed as they start to climb the hill, then stand up and pedal as the hill gets steeper. Fully engaged in the dynamics of leaning and feeling the bike to move underneath their body as they simultaneously orient their body on the bike to navigate each new challenge they encounter.
Sure, they will fall (at first). But they will get back on and try something different. This is learning—fully engaging in the experience—testing limits, finding solutions, and gaining a much greater perspective as to what they are capable of.
A coaches role is to inspire an athlete to engage in the experience, the process, the curious exploration of their talents. It’s not about teaching them to replicate your ideal version of success, but rather to actively seek their own vision of success through each experience. When things break down, we can provide targeted feedback, ask guided questions, and continue to engage them in the process of deep learning.
Meaningful learning, is the ability to see the bigger picture, organize your thoughts and actions, and execute optimal solutions based on the conditions in which the problem you encountered was presented. This requires much more than rote memorization of a controlled pattern, under ideal conditions, where no problems were experience, and no strategies were explored in an attempt to solve these problems.
They say a man never steps in the same river twice. For it is not the same river, and he is not the same man.
It’s the same with our athletes as they learn. With each experience, they are changed. They gain understanding and awareness about their potential and the unique ways they can optimize the skills and abilities they possess. With this understanding, new ideas and options emerge. Confidence in their skills is changing, and this unlocks new strategies for how they might solve potential problems as they execute the task.
The game changes as well. The opponents have different levels of skill, speed and strength. The tactical ways they choose to defend or attack will change. And as the conditions, weather and expectations change, new physical and psychological challenges present themselves. Unexpected problems emerge, and creative solutions must be attempted in real time. With no prior knowledge or experience to draw from in these situations, the athlete must be able to think fast and adapt to what is happening.
As coaches we need to prepare our players to be able to think on their own. They must run their own race, they must adapt to the changing conditions and flow in sync with this new environment. And this, unfortunately can’t be taught…it can only be learned.
Our responsibility as coaches is not to ask our athletes to memorize or replicate our ideas. That’s not learning. Instead, we must create an environment where they explore potential solutions to the problems we have created. It’s in the exploration of problems that the athlete learns. They must engage their bodies and their minds in the task, synchronizing their movements with their environment. They must not perform the task, but instead experience the task. Experiment, make mistakes, re-evaluate and reconsider other possibilities. Then try again, this time with a much better understanding and clearer strategy. The learning process has begun.
To truly understand a subject, one must be able to debate it clearly, from different perspectives and provide insight from experience on how to adapt our thoughts or actions to the changing conditions.
The most effective learning environment therefore might be a series of stages.
This is where we get them excited by unlocking a whole new way to view the task. Brining them from a state of not knowing that what they don’t know, or not understanding what needs to be done, to the point of understanding they currently lack the required skills or abilities, but seeing a clear path to success. And to get through this stage we must remain excited and optimistic about exploring the skills we are trying to master.
And as we all know, we are most interested in things that we do well. With this in mind, we should familiarize our athletes with the required skill, and build an efficiency with the skills to the point at which they can be performed with very little active thought. Moving from the point of focusing hard and performing the skill efficiently to performing efficiently without thinking about the skill. This gives us the opportunity to focus less on the skill and more on our environment, tactics and potential solutions that emerge.
In this stage the coaches must change the conditions. The athlete must synchronize with their environment, learning to alter the speed or technique of the skill to become more versatile under a variety of conditions, pressures, or potential problems. Although the coach can’t teach the athlete how to learn in this stage, the coach must provide the perfect environment for learning and confidence to grow. By asking the right questions, challenging the skills at a level in which they are excited to lean and not discouraged by the failed attempts. The athlete comes out of this stage with a versatile problem solving skill set and a greater understanding of how to use their skills in unique ways, they are ready to enter the final stage.
They learn to eliminate skills that are not uniquely fit to their ability, and to use their own talents and traits to optimize their ability to impact the game. At this point, they have all the tools, they have explored how these tools can be used under different conditions and they now can optimize their own uniqueness in real time. Becoming a master of the moment.
They are now more curious than ever. They want to take on new and interesting challenges. The process makes sense, and their understanding reaches a new level. They have learned to use the basic skills in unique variations, unlocking creative new ways of navigating the task under different conditions. They see connections that were hidden in the beginning, and gain confidence in their problem solving ability. They overcome difficult situations through deep and deliberate focus and endure the hard times through their own intrinsic curiosity and desire to find solutions by exploring, innovating and finding their own way.
Instead of mimicking the path of others, they create their own path. This is not the illusion of learning. This is dynamic learning and the foundation of creative innovation.
If this is true. And it’s the athletes responsibility to learn on their own. What’s is the responsibility of the coach? Do they even need us?
In my opinion, the best coaches create interesting environments, ask interesting questions, lead the athletes towards discovery, and then try to stay out of the way.
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