Very often as coaches we seek the answers that evade us – more than any other time in history there is more data and more information than we can digest; nobody in uncontactable in the digital age; we could attend in person or on-line seminars for 24 hours per day.
However rather than seeking answers should we maybe use some inverse logic and instead seek better questions??
I’ve pulled together a 12-question review sheet that I find useful to follow whatever the task – be it on-field coaching, gym-based S&C, consulting with teams/clubs, advising on new technologies etc
As coaches it’s imperative that we are bringing our best to the players and athletes all the time – they can only perform to the level they are coached…..as the Navy Seals say
“We do not rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.”
Therefore if we are not continually improving as coaches we are merely repeating the same experiences year-in, year-out.
Better questions will help us get better answers to inform continual improvement in our coaching
Humour me and use these questions once to see where they take you – I’d be happy to hear your thoughts and if you have anything from your experience that you can share that works for you??
- What do I want to achieve?
- Why do I want to achieve it?
- How will I know when I’ve achieved this coaching goal? (What does success look like?)
- Who are my audience?
- What are their present competency levels?
- How will I go about the task?
- What coaching style is required?
- What is my desired outcome?
- Who will assist me?
- What resources do I need?
- How long might this take?
- Who has done this (or similar) before? and What can I learn from them?
And finally when you have all the answers to the above it’s time to review it and ask “Is there a better way”??
Simple…..but not easy 🙂
(PS. Share with many – the more interaction we get on this type of matter the more we’ll all learn!!)
