Clear Coaching

---

BOOK’S BIG 3

1. WHY do you coach? Every coach needs to know and understand what their driving purpose or objective of coaching is (Chapter 2: Clarity of Purpose)
   
2. WHERE you want to go matters. It is the coach’s job to have a direction and destination. If you do not know where it is you’re going, then any path you take is acceptable. Be specific and clear about your vision. (Chapter 3: Clarity of Expectations)
   
3. The coaching journey BELONGS to the player. You have to start with where the player is at that moment in time, regardless of how humble it is. You then set the ideal or the desired destination and working on shortening that gap. You are the guide, but the journey belongs to the player. (Chapter 4: Clarity of Action)

KEY POINTS:

• Specifying and articulating your purpose for coaching will serve you well on this journey
• If you coach to provide opportunities, teach values, and promote joy, then the metrics must measure whether or not you are achieving these objectives
• Over 50 years of research on the Rosenthal Effect has shown that learners are affected by what the educators think about them
• When you set high expectations for your athletes, you do so for yourself as well. Both you and your athletes will accomplish more than you expect
• There is always a justification for someone wanting to lower expectations. These excuses can be heard everywhere. The question remains, “Are you going to make excuses or create solutions?“
• As a coach, when you see the athlete in front of you, you have to keep in mind that the athlete can be an admirable athlete, a brilliant athlete, a capable athlete. If you don’t have this vision for your athletes, you will not help them realise this vision either.
• What do you want your athletes to know? What do you want your athletes to be able to do? How do you want your athletes to behave? You have to know the answers to these questions first before you can teach them.
• Practice is not learning. Learning is learning. Practice is just one of many interventions to promote learning.
• If a child in your charge must learn, then you must commit to understanding how they can learn.
• A lot of coaches spend a high percentage of time learning the technical and tactical components of team performance. Yet, they do not spend nearly enough time learning strategies that will promote players ability to learn or their well-being.
• In the age of information, it is important for coaches to know what is not important. This way they can spend more time on the things that are important.
• As coaches, our job is to nurture and develop the complete athlete. If the athlete is one that competes with intellingence, skill and character, then we should be actively developing these attributes witin the practice environment
• The best coaches in the world don’t keep adding. The best coaches in the world focus on removing the excess. They remove what is unnecessary.
• If athletes must play the game in context under pressure, then we must allow them to practice in a similar manner.
• At the end of the day, coaches have to let it go. Go home and take care of your loved one. They, too, deserve your best. This is an area that coaches can improve on.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS FOR COACHES:

1. Define your WHY

Why do you coach?

Take the time to write it down!

What is your driving purpose or objective?

Be clear on what you stand for as a coach and your coaching philosophy.

2. WHO do you coach?

Who are you coaching? Are you coaching children who are just playing for fun and to get out of the house? Are you coaching teenagers who want to be professional players.

Understanding who you are coaching allows you to align your why with the who.

If you are coaching to help players get to the next level, but are coaching kids who just want to get out of the house, that is not a good match-up.

3. WHAT is the ideal outcome?

What does the ideal player look like to you?

• What can they do?
• What do they know?
• How do they behave?

By answering these questions, you begin to see where it is that you want to go. You will also understand what skills your players need to have.

One thing to note here, is that less is more. If you have written a huge list of skills, knowledge and characteristics, you will need to refine and prune this list.

4. HOW are you going to get there?

You have aligned the WHY with the WHO.

You are clear on the WHAT. Now comes the HOW.

How are you going to take your players from where they are now to their final destination. How are you going to build your practices? Run your drills? How are you going to instill the knowledge, develop the skills and teach the characteristics?

Clear coaching is all about being specific with what you are trying to do. Take the time and develop clarity in answering the above questions.