Who coaches the coaches?

Who coaches the coaches?

Coaches play such an important role in player, athlete and team development. But, regardless of the particular sport, who teaches them how to coach their human beings? I started my coaching career at a very young age - straight out of college I was teaching outdoor education and water sports, and I’ve been qualified as an athletics and running coach for nearly 20 years.

When you go on a coaching course to get your qualification in your chosen sport or discipline you learn the fundamentals of the sport, how to tackle, how to stretch properly, how to teach a certain technique etc.

In my experience, however, one vital component is missing.  When do we cover the module on coaching the individual?

In short, we don’t really. It’s kind of an experience thing.

This kind of ‘coaching’ is about helping someone grow, helping them to solve problems for themselves. We do this by building trust and facilitating a state of psychological safety.  We help them identify a clear goal and direction. Then we can help them to overcome obstacles and develop their strengths, and we guide them through the options. Ultimately you support them on race/game day, then reflect and feedback.

How can we do all of this when we often have numerous members and players to coach and support, all of whom bring their own experiences, emotions and unique learning and communication styles?

Well, it’s tricky. Firstly, you must know your human being. I do this by asking people I work with to complete my psychometric test and this tells me how they tick and operate, how they take in information and their preferred learning style. I understand you may not have a psychometric test of your own. 

But you can use powerful questions which are open and non-leading, and this will really help.

A few sample coaching questions would be: -

•       What would you like to achieve by then end of this session?

• How will you know when you’ve reached your goal? What will you see, hear and feel when you have it?

• What’s the biggest challenge you are facing right now?

• If nothing were limiting you, what else could you try?

• What’s the smallest step you could take to help you move forward?

A few coaching skills to develop are: -

• Active listening - this means really listening and not waiting to talk

• Reflection and paraphrasing – to show you have understood their gist

• Silence – strange as this may sound, this gives your ‘human’ thinking space

• Accountability for your actions, without pressure on theirs

• Empathy and challenge - support them but also stretch them.

Culture and Environment

Those who follow me on social media will have seen my high-performance model.  In the middle of it sit ‘culture’ and ‘environment’.  These can have a monumentally positive impact when done right and a devastatingly negative impact when done wrong. The attitude and behaviours the individuals in the team bring to the party will inevitably have an impact on the ‘culture and environment’ of your team (and beyond that, the club), which ultimately will impact on performance and results.

Challenges of coaching

There are many but these might include:

1.      Barriers from you - the coach

•     asking leading or closed questions, giving advice instead of enabling people to find their own solutions, poor listening and difficulty holding silence

•    biases and assumptions - assuming you already know the answers, judging the persons choices and by letting your own personal preferences influence direction.

Solution

•   practice active listening in a 3:1 ratio, listen 3x more than speaking

• use open questions that start with ‘What’ or ‘How’

• ask yourself silently, ‘What assumptions am I making right now?’ Reflect back on their words, not your interpretations

2.      Barriers from your athletes and players

• lack of readiness - they don’t feel the need for change, experience low or no motivation or display a defensive attitude – do they understand their ‘why’, their reason for doing this in the first place?

• lack of trust – they have a fear of being judged, hesitate to share personal challenges and concerns

• mindset blocks, a low self-awareness or a ‘fixed’ rather than ‘growth’ mindset

Solution

• connect your coaching to their personal goals, not your organisational goals

• start with, ‘What would make this conversation valuable for you?’

• explore what drives them, motivations, pain points

3.      Organisational barriers

• no time or place for quality conversations

• a culture of telling and not coaching

• lack of leadership support

• misaligned goals and unclear expectations

Solution

• plan a structured agenda to maximise time

• shorten sessions into blocks if needed - even 15/20min sessions are adequate if focused enough

• introduce coaching Key Performance Indicators (KPI) such as rating feedback quality and player growth, using metrics appropriate to the setting

4.      Communication barriers.

• unclear goals and direction

• misunderstandings

• poor feedback culture

• emotional tension that isn’t addressed

Solution

• start every session with ‘What’s the goal for today’s session?’

• summarise decisions and next steps to confirm their understanding

• encourage players to restate their action plans in their own words

How can I help you be a better coach? How can I help your team’s coaches to improve?

I understand that clubs have limited funds so I can help in a few different ways and have developed 3 flexible options:

1.      A coach can have a one-to-one session with me. This would be two hours long. We would look at how their athletes and players tick and operate and how best to support them. We would also work through any real time problems they may be facing.

2.      I could run a workshop or seminar for your club and take all your coaches through my high-performance model and psychometric test. I’ll also cover topics such as performing under pressure, delivering feedback and we can look into any real time issues the club may be facing.

3.      After a group session, if any individual coaches from the club feel they need some extra support (or you can see they would benefit from additional development), they can self-refer or be referred to me for a one-to-one session for a discounted fee.

Want to know more?

If you have any questions about the content above, or you want to find out more about a one-to-one session or my club seminars, please email me at andrew@kandrynperformance.co.uk

So, who coaches the coaches?  I do.

Many thanks,

Diesel.