Posts now on a new site: www.hughlawrence.org

Thanks for following me on Blogger. I'm now on hughlawrence.org or hughlawrence.nz

Women's sport - what: not newsworthy?? (follow me at www.hughlawrence.org)

"Nothing makes my blood boil like when I'm told I can't do something because I'm a woman". Well said that woman co-presenter on TV3 news on Sunday evening. Her male co-presenter agreed, making a relatively soft comment about the importance of women's rights. Apparently lost on both of them and their two newsreader colleagues (well, no one said anything) was the irony of the previous sport segment of the news reporting only, and in detail, on men's sport. And that included a rugby league biting incident. The only female sport item was the very last item on a woman world champion paddle-boarder being denied access to a major event on account of her being a woman. BTW, nothing stopped any of the newsreaders making a throwaway comment about the obvious irony. Well they make such comments on the weather!!

​​MLXLS

This is not unusual. The media hype around much of men's sport means news reporting goes into increasingly extraordinary detail on their events.  How newsworthy really is a weekly shot of F1 drivers squirting champagne on each other and the crowd?

I'll keep this post short, as the issue speaks for itself. It's not new, but endures as women's sport struggles for mass media recognition and access to resources. I'll leave coaches to think about their contribution to fair treatment for women's sport. Maybe a first contribution is to raise our expectations of women and help them raise their own performance expectations. And please, none of this nonsense about men being stronger than women - so that's a reason for no profile. Women's world record snatch - Tatiana Kashirina at 155kg and a 193kg clean and jerk!

(photo source: Associated Press)

It's the putting right that counts (follow my blog on the new website www.hughlawrence.org )

A well-known New Zealand electronics retailer of the 1980s, the late Alan Martin, had a strap-line on TV adverts in which he appeared, "If it's not right, we'll put it right and it's the putting right that counts". I always thought he would have been a useful contributor to coaching conferences. He understood the importance idea of a personal commitment to service and actually putting things right. Anyway most of my younger athletes have never heard of Alan Martin!

A very large part of coaching is technical or skill correction, or a change in conditioning practice, or new ways to think. The question is, where do we start. Athletes mostly arrive with preconceived ideas about how something should be executed. When you are coaching the elite - how they execute a skill is what made them successful. Some achieve international team status by imperfect means. That creates two challenges. First, international competition is a massive leap in standard when compared to national competition.

One of my athletes came back from her first international event saying words to the effect, "I completely underestimated how tough it would be". Substitute 'fast' for 'tough' or 'intense' or 'non-stop' - athletes have different ways of describing the experience. First question is whether the athlete's technical competence can adapt to that 'intensity'. Second, if not, how willing is the athlete to adapt or modify technique to cope better with the greater demands of international competition. Third, there's a judgement call for the coach on whether the athlete's potential is more or less likely to be realised by a change.

That said, doing less of the wrong thing is not the same as doing the right thing. Your judgement is about what can be classified as "wrong". Right and wrong are not absolute. While the mechanics of great execution are largely well known, it's the ability to execute the right thing in the right way at the right time that sets our best athletes apart. That's mostly about their judgement and ability to play in the moment. A cornerstone of my coaching, however, is to ask "How much better could you be?" and "How much better do you want to be?" It's the balance of answers to both questions that clear the way ahead for a plan of action.

One (and not the only) element in my value to an athlete is if I can help to improve technical, tactical, physical and mental delivery. There's always something we can make better. Judging the balance of change(s), gaining the athlete's belief in the need and value of change and then performance are the art and science of coaching. Not easy this putting right - but it's the coaches commitment to service.

(photo source: pitch vision.com)

Michael Jordan failed: then succeeded (and new web address)

"I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. And that is is why I succeed." (Michael Jordan, 1998)

This is one of Michael Jordan's best known quotes and many coaches reference it. I go further today as many young athletes already don't know much about Jordan - amazing how history seems to count for little in the online world of 'now'. But that's for another day. Back to Jordan. When I ask those athletes who know who I'm talking about, "what was Jordan's three-point shooting percentage?", many (older athletes too), suggest around 70% to 85%. Jordan's career number for three-point shooting was 32.7%! But it was the critical shots he took that reflected the trust his team had in him. Before making the comment at the start of this blog, he also said, "I've missed over 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games.... 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed." (BTW, he made 25)

But back to our day-to-day coaching. This all comes back to practice. First, training the way you want to play including the difficult or high stakes situation. There are few competition situations that cannot be simulated in training. More importantly, however, is that next phase of learning to compete. Regular and frequent competition, even early in the athlete's career, has two big benefits. First, it's what athlete's want to do! They train to play, not the other way round. Second, not all competitions are of the same importance. While I have never coached to lose, I'm aware that my athletes need to experience the mental and physical challenges that will eventually turn up, amplified in the big competitions.

This can be done by competition target setting or putting players into challenging situations. And many coaches do this. But we often forget to follow up by spending time with athletes to reflect on what happened. How did they cope? What were they thinking? Did the practice routines work? If they did, we need to reinforce them and make them stronger. If they didn't, we need to go back into the practice, set up the situation and find out what works. Thinking for success is a critical partner to the physical, technical and tactical preparation for success.

(This blog now appears on my new site: www.hughlawrence.org check it out and follow me)

(photo source: NS Butler, Getty Images)

Jordan's words quoted in Nike Culture : The Sign of the Swoosh (1998), by Robert Goldman and Stephen Papson, p. 49

"Coach - I got this"

Sometimes we need to know when to keep quiet!  We have a lot to say in practice. Skill or technical correction is a critical part of our role. And when our athletes are rehearsing or training to competition standard, we should use our moment with the athlete, because in the game they are on their own. And there's the thing. In an earlier post, I talked about the need to train the way we wish to compete, and that includes training athletes to draw on their own resources to make corrections. I do this in two ways.

First, if the workout require a set number of repetitions, let the athlete or team complete the repetitions a set of five or 10 or whatever. As a rule, I don't intervene until the set is over. Then I ask the athletes for their comments first before giving mine. We want them to learn, to make adjustments during the practice repetitions - so let them learn and adjust. Too many of us have too much to say too often.

I used the second approach today with a weightlifter. At the end of a session of squat cleans, she had arrived at a personal best by over 8kg. Quite something in itself. Having done the build up, discussed the approach, she made the attempt - and missed. Although in her sight line, I kept quiet. She wasn't looking to me, she was clearly determined to make the lift. We had focused on a specific technical element all workout. Forty seconds later, she stepped up to the bar and made the lift - a new PR - all class!

That's what competition is about, if there's no need to say anything - don't. The question we must ask ourselves, are we sufficiently self-aware to know when to remain silent? Because if you aren't, you're unlikely to read the situation where the athlete has got the situation under control. The unspoken  words today? "Coach, I got this".

​​SLXLM

Programme philosophy - the why

Coaches often talk about their philosophy. But what we often then get is less philosophical and more about 'what' coaches do. So let's look at two things. Philosophy -  put most simply, it means that approach or attitude you bring that acts as a guiding principle for behaviour. A more academic definition might come up with a study of proper behaviour and the search for wisdom. Common to all definitions is the idea of wisdom and behaviour. Of course, many philosophers came up with their 'own unique' definitions just to keep us on our philosophical toes. But for now, let's stay with the idea of behaviour.

I coach to develop players as people. Player on-court behaviour reflects their off-court behaviour and attitude. I aim to help players become better learners, better thinkers, better listeners and understand what it takes to be a winner. I apply best-evidence principles to our practice design. That means finding out what leads to learning and understanding, and to design my coaching and practices around it. Just a minute. What's that bit about "winning". Well my go to coach on this subject is John Wooden " You cannot find a player who ever played for me at UCLA that can tell you that he ever heard me mention “winning” a basketball game. He might say I inferred a little here and there, but I never mentioned winning. Yet the last thing that I told my players just prior to tip-off, before we would go on the floor, was, “When the game is over, I want your head up, and I know of only one way for your head to be up. That's for you to know that you did your best. No one can do more. . . . You made that effort.”

The British writer and thinker suggests we can spire people to great things by being clear about why we do things. If we are not clear about why we have come to practice, the cause that inspires to train and compete, then we are not clear about where we are going. And if we don't know where we are going, how will we know we've got there? I'm reminded of the high school basketball coach who drove his team hard all season long, created sophisticated practices, ran daily practices and won every game in the regular season. Upon arriving at the national championships (his clearly expressed goal for the season). He could not understand why his players seemed to lack the drive and purpose of the regular season. "We're here" he said " at the nationals... we have a chance to win". What he had not checked was his players' goals for the season. Put simply, they just wanted to make the trip, To get away from school and have a good time. Lesson? Check your players' "why"... it might be different to yours. And I'm afraid it's their motivation that counts.

Reference: John Wooden, quoted in Wienberg and Gould (2007), Foundations of Sport and Exercise Physiology.

'Secret sauce' for the teacher coach

It's common for coaches and players to think that the effective elite coach has 'secret sauce' in their coaching that lower level coaches don't. But most research into effective coaches reveals that the best coaches do basic things that all coaches do - but the best coaches do them better.

So what is the 'secret sauce'? First, international coaches are working with the very best with the goal of making them even better. In other words, those players have to learn. In the case of team sports, players have a greater chance of learning if you follow seven learning rules - which aren't so secret!

1. Let players learn by doing, not from you talking
   • reduce your talk time and get them going – it increases player time on task
   • with familiar drills set it going with two or three “cue “words
2. Repetition leads to learning
   • BUT, only perfect practice makes perfect (and permanent)
   • SO make sure you provide enough “goes” in each drill for learning to happen
3. Making mistakes is part of getting it right
   • don’t critique individual repetitions; let the drill run and make comments after everyone has had a chance to try or to work it out
4. Don’t provide all the information
   • hold some back so players have think
   • some coaches like to add an element of confusion to each drill to force players to think – just like a game
5. Take players through the base stages of skill experience:
   • uncontested walk through
   • uncontested at around 50% (applies to individual skills and team combinations)
   • uncontested at 80%-90%
   • partially (or soft defense) – allow the skill to succeed
   • intermediate defense where pressure is now applied (offensive or defensive) again allowing the skill to succeed
   • fully opposed, where the player must execute the skill in a decision-making mode (just like a game).
6. All players should expect to be spoken to personally in every session. Technical correction or refinement is core business for coaches.
7. Rules 1-6 work in harmony, they overlap and apply at all times, so: “Apply each rule without breaking any of rules 1-5.