Coaching is an art, and you constantly have to reevaluate which hat to wear and when. Whether it be psychologist, teacher, personnel manager, leadership facilitator, role model, or game manager. It can get complex quickly, and you need some principals in place to keep you on course.
We train using Gold Medal Squared methods. This means we obey the laws of motor learning and the rules of teaching for learners. But there is so much more happening in practice then just running drills. Is it being done at the pace of learner? Will it transfer to a game? There are strategies we have to employ to help kids achieve all they are capable of giving. Two major parts of the coach’s role is to helping an athlete develop a self correction strategy, as well as to guide their efforts and motivations to effective ends. Coaches have a lot of things to help kids with—for example, learning to learn, learning to lead, learning self-discipline, learning to be a teammate, learning to commit your life’s choices towards goal achievement.
That’s a lot to get done by the coach, and it’s a very long road for the athlete. Since we need to be effective at teaching at the pace of the learner, logic based principals, teaching methods and strategies are of the utmost importance. We are not big fans of making it up as you go, to quote William Edwards Deming “In God We Trust; all others must bring data” There are a few principals we have adopted like “all skills can be learned and they are not dependent on genetics” that greatly affect our coaching methods. We have a few favorite papers our coaches have read that help us in accomplish our tasks. Enjoy (aka. geek out with us)
Motor learning considerations We don't subscribe to the Mr. Miyagi style of teaching. (Wax On -Wax Off will just get you hurt if thats the training method you used to get ready for a fight)
Deliberate Practice (10,000 hours starts now!) This is also a nice article on the subject Click here
Making them think. Presenting challenges that are just hard enough to learn something new without going over their head is an art form.
“Effortless performance is a terrible way to learn”
