Learning IS growing.
Being motivated to “grow” involves being able to get OUT of one’s “comfort”
zone in order to “be the best you can be”.
Experiencing “growth” through consistent and incremental improvement of
one’s skills breeds confidence and stimulates the motivation to continue to
push the envelope of one’s potential. Improving one’s self is fun!
In Final Word, All
Black’s Head Coach Graham Henry recounts how he created a new All Blacks
“Culture” by creating a learning environment that helps the athletes grow as
both rugby players and as PEOPLE. One of the players described the outcome of
this type of environment: “When you are learning, getting better, you are
stimulated and WANT to keep improving and you WANT to stay and be part of the
process.”
As noted by James
Kerr in Legacy, “Human being are MOTIVATED by purpose, autonomy and a
drive towards mastery. Accomplished leaders create an environment in
which their people can develop their skills, their knowledge and their
CHARACTER.
“Excellence is a process of evolution, of cumulative learning,
of incremental improvement.”
Tom Peters, author
of Thriving on Chaos, describes
the process towards excellence as the following: “The drive towards
excellence is fueled by the idea that “Excellent firms don’t believe in
excellence, only in constant improvement and constant change.”
What we as coaches
need to create a true learning environment are the means by which we “empower”
the athletes with a “growth mindset” that begins with the daily
challenge of asking the question “how can I improve myself today?” Coaches,
in turn, create this atmosphere by constantly asking themselves “how can I
do this better? How can I meet the needs of my athletes to continue to
improve?”
By asking these
questions daily and weekly, coaches and athletes develop true growth
mindsets which will enable them tackle challenges, lose their fear of
change, of making mistakes, and embrace learning from mistakes. It is this
sharing of goals between coaches and athletes to “improve” a little bit each
day that creates a true “process oriented’ approach to daily practice
with a purpose.
In my next post I
will explore some means by which coaches can create learning environments that
challenge the athletes to improve by stimulating them to “get outside their
comfort zones” through the challenge of fresh goals aimed at continuing individual
performance improvement.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE READ THE TWO ARTICLES BELOW. After
the first article, ask yourself “What type of coach would I want coaching my
child ?” or “What type of coach do I WANT TO BE?.” Then read Vern Gambetta’s blog on “Guru or Coach”.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The effects of a coach’s reaction to
mistakes By Brian McCormick, PhD
Last weekend, I refereed five u14
girls soccer games. In the opening game on Saturday morning, the host’s u14s
played another local team. The hosts won 2-1, and all of the goals were flukes:
a striker tried to dribble around the goalie, kicked it too hard, and scored; a
fullback tried to clear the ball and it deflected off a striker and bounced
over the goalie’s head; and a fullback and goalie ran into each other, leaving
the ball at the striker’s feet.
The first two were scored by the
hosts, who won the game 2-1. Throughout the game, their coach screamed at the
players. “Player X, you have two minutes to play harder or you’re never going
to play for me again.” “Wipe that smile off your face; that’s not funny.” As
the coach criticized the players, the players started to yell at each other.
“What are you doing?” “Do this.” “Do that.”
When the girl ran into the goalie, the
coached yelled at the fullback that it was her fault, and it was because she
wasn’t taking the game seriously enough. He drew this conclusion because when
she shanked a clearance earlier in the game, sending the ball out of bounds off
the side of her foot, she smiled. She was embarrassed. It clearly was not an
intentional mistake. It is the kind of play that happened repeatedly over the
weekend because many players lacked coordination and control. They knew how to
play soccer, but they did not know how to control their bodies. After the game,
despite the win, more than one player was in tears, including the fullback who
ran into the goalie and was criticized throughout by her coach and her
teammates.
In the second game on Saturday, I had
an out of state team. In this game, there must have been five chances for the
teams to go one on the keeper, and they missed four of them in a 1-1 draw. I
never heard the coaches yell critically at the players. When one girl kicked
the ball wide of the goal on her chance against the keeper, she put her head in
her hands, then laughed, then threw back her head and rolled her eyes before running
back to play defense. She reminded me of the toddler in this old article. The coach applauded her effort.
After the game, I walked by the coach as he talked positively to his team,
mentioning all the chances they had and that they would convert in their next
game.
On Sunday, I had the out of state
team in the semifinals. They won 4-2 after falling behind 1-0. They played the
same way that they had on the previous day, they just converted their chances,
as their coach said that they would. They did not play the hosts in the final.
One coach encouraged and applauded the effort, and mistakes were corrected from
one game to the next. The other coach belittled his players and criticized them
for entire games, and they did not win again, likely because mistakes were not
corrected. I continued to hear stories on Sunday from several referees
about the coach screaming at his players, and every story turned out to be
about the same coach!
In the first game, with about five
minutes left, a father yelled at his daughter, “Have some fun!” This after the
father and the other parents had spent the previous hour yelling, instructing,
coaching, screaming, etc. at the players. I turned to the girl closest to me
and asked, “How are you supposed to have fun when you’re being yelled at the
whole game?”
She rolled her eyes and said, ‘Tell me
about it.”
------------------------
Guru or Coach
The difference between gurus and
coaches:
Guru
|
Coach
|
Guru
is all about style
|
Coach
is all substance
|
Guru
is a fountain of information + disconnected facts
|
Coach
is about knowledge
|
Guru
has secret training methods
|
The
coach is open and shares
|
Guru
puts other down to make himself look good
|
Coach
uplifts and gives credit where it is due
|
Guru
expects everyone to drink the Kool-Aid
|
Coach
offers pure water
|
Guru
has no question, all the answers
|
Coach
is guided by questions
|
Guru
makes exorbitant claims of success
|
Coach
lets actions speak for themselves
|
Guru
is on the front page
|
Coach
is on the back page
|
Guru
follows the $$$$
|
Coach
is driven by principle
|
Guru
complexifies
|
Coach
simplifies
|
Guru
is exclusive
|
Coach
is inclusive
|
Guru
is in the spotlight
|
Coach
is in the background
|
Guru
is conditional
|
Coach
is unconditional
|
Guru
is a shooting star
|
Coach
is a shinning star
|
No comments:
Post a Comment