In my degree program (B.S. in Kinesiology) we learn a great deal about coaching. We learn about injury prevention so that we can coach athletes safely and we also learn about how people (athletes and nonathletes) learn and retain skills so that we can coach them to success. A lot of the material makes sense to me, not just because I’ve been coaching for 10 years, but because a lot of it seems like common sense. We live in the information age. But, as you know, information does not equate to wisdom. You have to apply what you’ve learned, Sucka! You can’t just read some shit and file it in the back of your brain! You have to absorb it and bring it to your athletes while thinking about the individual’s longitudinal experience. Think beyond the season. If you haven’t guessed it, this blog post is directed at all coaches. Sport specific coaches, strength coaches, group fitness coaches, life coaches*, financial coaches, et al. Coaches, remember that practice is designed to prepare your team for anything. Remember that holding the hands of your athletes and coddling them in practice won’t help them on game day (there is evidence to support this). Remember that coaching the way that you were coached because “that’s the way it’s always been done” is another way of saying, “I’m not going to bother trying anything new or different I’m a mindless drone.” Remember that punishing your athletes with fitness (e.g. running laps for missing penalty kicks) is a great way to make them resent you, the sport, the punishment, and activity in general.
Practice is designed to prepare your client/team for anything. Holding the hands of your athletes and over structuring (aka blocked) practice won’t help them on game day. When teams ran a blocked practice (meaning repetitive drills that didn’t resemble a game specific situation) and were tested in a game situation they performed very well during practice and performed poorly on game day. When teams ran a variable practice (meaning random drills/plays/situations that bore a closer resemblance to a game specific situation) and were tested in a game situation they performed poorly during practice and performed very well on game day. When we discussed this in class my hand shot up. I asked the obvious question. “Assuming this information is available to all coaches, why do coaches still run blocked practice?” My professor laughed. He laughed as if it was an obvious question and he didn’t have an answer. “I wish I knew!” he said. He did point out something that many of us have experienced, the dog and pony show for the top brass. If you’ve ever worked in corporate culture (especially in a retail environment) then you’ve experienced the upshift in workload when corporate will be on site. I once worked in a gym wherein my Fitness Director asked me to change the lighting setup for my class because an executive was going to be touring the gym that day. My response? “Fuck that dude! My responsibility is to the 30 people in that room that are here every week. I’m not going to change what works for the group for the sake of one person, that doesn’t workout, doesn’t know my name, and decided to drop by to see how things are going.” Coaches, what do the team owners want to see when they pay a visit to the practice field? They want to see a team that performs well. How can you make that happen? Blocked practice, of course. Make the team look good during the visit from corporate and keep your job, I get it. What if you shifted your thinking? What if you said, “Fuck those owners! My responsibility is to this team and I want to set them up for success, even if they seem to struggle in practice, we’ll learn from those struggles on the practice field and perform well when it counts (on game day).”
A classmate that was in that same lecture and an athlete for the school took the information from these multiple studies and asked her coaches why they were running blocked practices since it wasn’t generating wins. The coaching staff got defensive and condescending. They defended their use of blocked practice to make the athletes feel good/positive about their abilities in order to provide an ego boost before game day. They kept throwing the word science at her (suggesting that tests prove their methods despite us learning the exact opposite about such experiments). To the best of my knowledge there’s no/minimal scientific evidence that backs their theory of blocked practice generating outstanding game day performance. When the player told us this story about the coaching staff not listening to the concerns of their athletes, we all congratulated/supported her in her decision to speak up. The world needs more coaches like her. The world needs coaches that will pay attention to what’s not working, think critically, and challenge it. I hope that she becomes one of those coaches.
One of the first questions that I ask new clients is about exercises that they love and exercises that they hate. The love/hate labels aren’t as relevant as the reason why they feel the way they do about specific exercises. What I’ve found (and this is anecdotal evidence, not scientific) is that people often hate certain exercises due to a negative association from past punishments. How many of you remember running laps because you fucked up in practice? For those of you with that memory, how do you feel about running today? If you’re not a fan of running, I wouldn’t be surprised. In Volleyball, we were tasked with running sprints because we’d missed too many serves. After running those sprints, I still sucked at serving. Shocking news: Sprinting doesn’t make me a better Volleyball server. Those of us that hated running (not me, others) focused more to avoid missing future serves. But, to perform a sport specific drill with an embittered attitude is a negative motivator. (I wrote about that a few weeks ago.) Coaches often make people run laps because that’s what they were made to do when they played. It can be traced back to the military. If you fucked up, you did some extra PT (physical training). That mentality found its way into public school PE classes and coaches have been making kids do some extra PT every time they fuck up for decades. It’s time to update the curriculum. Besides, why should running be a punishment? The ability to run is a privilege and should be celebrated! What if you took your team down to the beach for a run to celebrate the big win! Imagine the positive association that would create! Remember that your athletes may only be with you for a few seasons. But, your lessons will stay with them a lifetime. Would you be a different coach if you could see the individual futures of your athletes? Coach the team and mold the individual. Update your thinking as a coach and have an open mind if one of your athlete’s questions your methods.
*A note on “Life Coaching”. I can never take someone seriously when they tell me that they’re a Life Coach. The word coach dates back to the 16th century and is of French/German/Hungarian origins. It comes from Kocs a town on the main road between Vienna and Budapest. The word refers to tutoring, from the conception of the tutor as one who carries the student through examinations. I think we can all agree that any tutor must have first passed the examinations before coaching someone else to pass them. Therefore, the title Life Coach sounds like a person that’s boasting they have passed life’s exams. Ha! Jive Turkey! You must be outta yo damned mind! I once met a “Life Coach” in her twenties. She had more drama in her personal life than a Youtube comment thread. She was asking me for advice. WTF!? I’ve never met one person on this planet that has passed life’s tests and thusly been able to legitimately call themselves a coach (or tutor) of life. We all fumble and learn from life’s tests. If you’ve hired a Life Coach, think critically about what qualifies that individual (and their completely different set of life experiences) to coach your life. If you are a Life Coach and you’re making a living telling people what to do, express gratitude daily that your clients have not realized your hustle. We live in a capitalist society so… get money!
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