Wheat from the chaff and other foreign phrases

At a recent weightlifting session, I pointed out to one lifter that the clean and jerk component of a competition “sorted the wheat from the chaff”. Blank look! Yet again it reminded me of how we older (mature) coaches will use phrases from our own upbringing to describe a situation or behaviour. Time and again, those phrases are not used by or outside the experience of young athletes. So it's fortunate that I picked the blank look and did not assume she knew what I meant. Ï then gave her a choice, “men from the boys”, “girls from the women”, or “weak from the strong”! – “Got it!”she said, but the moment had passed.😕

BTW, “wheat from the chaff”- it’s a centuries old farming practice, after the wheat harvest, of sorting out grain (for making flour) from the useless husk of the grain. But you already knew that.😊

Other similar phrases that ‘fell on stony ground’ (well that’s another), have been that a particular aspect of the game 'is your Achilles heel’; ‘Bob’s your uncle’(or Bob’s your father’s brother!); and in basketball, the ‘foul line’, charity stripe’; ‘down to the wire’ (sorry US readers) some of my young athletes had no idea. And ‘a road to Damascus experience’[don’t ask me how that came up at training -  but I had to explain it]. 

So to we coaches who use a lot metaphors, idioms, phrases and so on from our childhood - your athletes may nod as you say it , but do not assume they know what you are talking about. I’ve been a basketball coach and the game is full of jargon and idioms. Those players would never “run the lanes, come in on the 45, hit the foul line, crash the boards and then get out of there on D like a ‘rat up a drainpipe”.👈

(photo source: YouTube https://youtu.be/Nz5IPul3C58)

Low scores and good course management

There’s an old saying in golf, “low scores require good course management”. And mostly that means to plan and think your way around the course. Broken down that then means a plan for each hole and a set of strategies for what to do as the round unfolds. But the idea of managing your way around a course starts in practice rounds. And it’s not an idea special to golf.

I look for signs that my athletes are managing their workouts. For instance, each member of the Kiwi Barbell weightlifting squad has a prescribed programme – a plan of action? Well not quite. I expect athletes to take the session prescription to be well organised around the platform, to be clear about what the finishing weights will be, to have a consistent approach to the bar, to apply optimal recovery times. These are all skills that have to be taught and practiced. How they organise themselves through the workout to achieve their session goals - is about session management. Watch the best athletes. They are well organised and manage their training with goals in mind.

The better your players get at self-managing their training, the better they’ll be in competition, but importantly, you will freed up to do more coaching. This is about athlete accountability. Invest heavily in an expectation of session management and you’ll get much better returns downstream.

(Photo source: Football Gameplan)

Watch German weightlifter, Max Lang, in this eight minute video, managing his workout in the training hall at the 2015 World Championships Max Lang 

Old dogs and new tricks

"You can't teach an old dog new tricks". With many of us now coaching older adults who either want to learn new skills, or in one case I'm about to start, to revisit long abandoned ones. Research is clear, getting older is no reason not to learn 'new tricks'. We all know it takes a bit longer. There's a couple important ideas, however, that apply not just to older athletes but to coaches of elite athletes. First, anything that has been learned can be unlearned. That's a combination of good teaching and the athlete's desire to get better. Second, it's a judgement call for coaches whether the benefits of a skill done better outweigh the costs of doing so. Many fine athletes defy all the 'rules' of how a skill (closed or open) should be executed: famously, PGA golfer, Jim Furyk. Many world champions have become champions despite their poor form but with a will to win that overcomes other deficiencies. So that's a coaching judgement call - your ability to assess the critical or root cause fault rather than the symptom. 

Now to those older athletes. Research shows that when older (50+) athletes) get positive feedback (knowledge of results or KR) after a series of good vs poor trials. They seem to learn better. So no surprise there .... because that's what research tells us about young learners! In other words, good teaching counts whoever you are coaching. My experience tells me the way young athletes learn in class room (or in some cases struggle to learn) turns up in sports practice. Long term, bad teaching/learning experiences stay with us for years. Older athletes need plenty of reassurance that they can learn ("You're not at school any more!") - it just might take a few more trials and a few more breakdown drills. Example of that research? Clark and co-workers (2016) in a big sample in 2016 found that: "Our study demonstrated that motor learning in older adults benefited from KR as well. Although the 65year-olds in our study tended to be generally less proficient relative to the 21-year-olds in Chiviacowsky and Wulfs (2007) study, the group who was provided KR after good trials demonstrated more effective retention performance than the group who received KR after poor trials." Hmm, time to review how I'm coaching again.😔

(photo source: National Geographic Channel)

Sport, political freedom and the cost

Why do we coach? Events in sport today present us with a teachable moment.

At the 1968 Mexico Olympics, 200m Gold medallist, Tommie Smith and Bronze medallist, John Carlos, raised black-gloved fists on the medal dais in support of the civil rights struggle in America. One of Olympic history's most famous photographs tells a story of two athletes' courage. Courage that would be repaid by being sent home in disgrace and subjected to death threats. Today, Smith and Carlos are civil rights heroes. Statues of both athletes can be found at their alma mater, San Jose State University. 

This story would not be complete without mention of the Silver medallist, Australia's Peter Norman. He too, took action in support of Smith and Carlos. You can see the badge supporting civil rights on the left side of his tracksuit. He paid a great personal price, being sidelined and ignored by Australian athletics, to the point that he was given no pride of place in ceremonies surrounding the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

I, and I hope 'we', coach athletes to be better people. To be ethical and make right decisions. And when they do, we should support them. History will not judge their critics kindly. But they will be remembered for what they did as being the right thing.

Training hard - the easy day

US Navy SEALs have a saying, "The only easy day was yesterday". The military has a long history of preparing its soldiers for combat readiness with physically and mentally demanding training regimes. The idea is that men and women of the military will learn and be conditioned to cope and, more than that - excel, under extreme physical and mental duress.

Comparisons between the military and sports training are symbolic rather than real (more on that in a future posting). Fitness is specific to what you want to be fit for. The elite marathon runner would likely excel over 26 miles and 385 yards against most SEALS. But does that make either fitter than the other? Clearly not.

The advent of Crossfit has brought us the new strap line - the "world's fittest athletes". The same question arises. Fit for what? So far, a Crossfit Games Champion has yet to win a world marathon title, and vice versa!

Training regimes must be designed to meet the physical, mental, technical and tactical demands of the sport. Sports with a high physical conditioning component will have more of the SEAL-type challenges to operating under conditions of extreme fatigue and oxygen debt. Those with a high level of technique and little speed-strength and endurance challenges - won't. 

But then again, training hour after hour, day after day, month after month and year after year, is the world of elite performers in any discipline. Ask a concert pianist, violinist etc; or a ballet dancer. They too will tell you that "the only easy day was yesterday". 

(photo source: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre)

Motivating the new lifter - the message.

New lifter in the training hall. Two weeks in and the lifter discovers that it's not possible to lift as much as the New Zealand rep on the next platform. (really!). Or finds the snatch and clean technique tough to master. Or is intimidated by the skilled and powerful lifters around them. 

Not a new situation for many athletes and coaches meet it regularly. So what's the central message?

Well, I find it useful to remind the lifter - "Remember, even a world record holder had to lift the bar for the first time." [for 'bar' read 'golf club', 'tennis racquet', 'basketball' and so on]. It's often worth inviting the novice to ask a skilled performer how they felt when they first started. It can be reassuring.

(photo source: Hugh Lawrence collection)

Coach as a teacher (2) - Good coaches

Good coaches act like good teachers. They care about those over whom they have responsibility and constantly engage in reflection on what they do and how they do it.

Legendary US Football coach, Paul Brown, had no doubts about the teaching side of coaching[1]:

“A pro… coach is a teacher, no matter what. The players must learn. No matter what you teach, you must get people to want to learn. People think there are great mysteries attached to the game, but there are not. It comes down to fundamentals and they must be taught.

If we tell [our players] ‘why’ — and I’ve always insisted on telling my players why, why we do everything we do, whether it’s on or off the field — they are more apt to accept it and get in the spirit.”

Hall of Fame coach, Don Shula (who worked under Coach Brown early in his career), said that “Paul Brown was the greatest influence on me, especially in the teaching aspect of coaching.”

“I’ve found that answering the ‘why’ has made me a better coach. It’s not what you know but what your ball players know that counts. We make it as much like a classroom as possible, using all sorts of teaching aids, followed by practice on the field, followed by going over mistakes and improvements in the classroom.

The important thing is not what Don Shula knows or what any of my assistant coaches know. The important thing is that we can transmit to the people we’re responsible for. That’s what coaching is… the ability to transmit information.”

Novelist, Amelia Barr, once said “It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.” And good teachers keep it simple.

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[1] Clary, J. (1976). The Game-Makers

It's all about angles

A couple of pointers:

👉Many coaches stand at the oddest angles to watch the athletes train. In competition, you mostly don't get much choice, but on the training floor, you are in charge. Pick a position where you have the best line of sight on the performance path. For instance, I watch my weightlifters from the side (to check bar path), from the back (to check extension through the shoulders) on the 45, to get a sense of foot work and heel drive) and so on. But pick the main angle for what you want to achieve in that workout.

👆👇👈👉But group/team situations are different. As well as paying close attention to individual performance, you have to 'keep an eye' on the rest. In an earlier blog, I commented on the need to be scanning the training area every minute. So keep a wide viewing angles. The athlete or group under close scrutiny should be at the centre of your field of vision, while the rest of the group is in the wide angle. This gives you the opportunity to go straight to another athlete or group and provide immediate feedback. Athletes appreciate it. It sends a message that you are paying attention whereever you are on the training floor.😍

The sayings of Coach Lawrence - "just saying"

Of course, not a lot of the standard sayings we have as coaches are original. Often we appropriate the clever words of others and use them to inspire, cajole or critique our athletes. One of the best known in that category is "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."

The great Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi did indeed say that, but it's probable he heard it for the first time from UCLA Bruins Coach 'Red' Sanders who is reported to have said "Men, I'll be honest. Winning isn't everything......Men, it's the only thing!"

But being sure about the source of sayings isn't my main point, it's the context in which you use them that matters. My athletes are well aware of what I mean when I say "Do or do not. There is no try!" I'm not trying to channel Yoda (well, not most of the time), nor am I suggesting they're not trying. But in our squad sessions, that phrase has come to trigger thoughts of determination, a focus on success factors (process goals), the pre-performance routines and a commitment to succeed.


I'll chat about phrases I've found useful over many years, another time

Trying hard is not enough

The great inter-galactic coach, Jedi Master Yoda had it right: "Do or do not. There is no try." Trying is a default. Rarely will the best athletes say that they weren't trying. Not a good look. The odd (as in occasional rather than strange) professional tennis player has admitted to not trying. And 'tanking' is rightly frowned on across many sports. So what am I getting at?

The ideas of "try", "try your best", "try hard" are vague and fail to draw the athlete's mind on the need for a sharp focus on success factors. All athletes try and all try hard - ask them; they tell you that. But if their effort is channelled into thoughts that narrow down onto the technical element(s) that create a great performance then:

1. external and irrelevant information is excluded

2. all is in the moment

3. execution is repeating what has been practiced.

We'll have some real life examples in a future post.

Thinking about what?

"Concentrate!" "You have to get your head in the game!" and other unhelpful phrases. These vague instructions rarely work unless the athlete has a strategy and the skills to do that.  'Concentrate' is a suitcase term - lots of different meanings for different athletes. So you're on the right track but not specific enough. And as for "Get your head in the ...." What does that even mean?

So I have a few ways to deal with this subject and they come under the general heading of 'Thinking skills'. Like any skill, they have to be taught and they have to be practiced. And not just practiced now and then or in games, but a lot and in games. How many free throws do you need to get a good technique. Some coaches would say thousands. And we do know the mechanics of a good free throw. But how many times is the shooter practicing helpful thoughts to bring the percentage free throw stats' up to the high 80s and beyond.

First summary tips for closed skills (golf shot, free throw, snatch lift, tennis serve etc). Just before your step up: see yourself succeed, 'feel yourself' succeed, decide on a technical cue word (one only) and step up. Sounds simple: the idea is, the teaching is a little trickier. More in an upcoming post. 

Tailored coaching in a team or group setting

This might be an odd title. But it's a long-standing topic. How to ensure your athletes get a meaningful amount of your time in a team or group session. This is the opposite of the one-on-one or two situation, where athletes may often say, privately of course, that they probably get too much of you!!

There's a lot to say about this and I'll spread it over a few posts. The first and most important principle is that your athlete should have an expectation that you will speak to or interact with them at least once in the session. Now that does not mean you have to give quotas. Do the math, it's often not easy. But it's about the 'expectation'. If your athletes are on task then they shouldn't be looking at you. But they should be conscious that you are looking at them! Sometimes it can a just a nod, a word of encouragement, reinforcement or critique across the floor. Over time, athletes come to know whether or not you're paying attention.

So here's the first tip and a nod to the coach as a teacher. Good physical education teachers scan the whole class probably once every thirty seconds. Seem a lot? Sure is, but you get the hang of it. Good team players do it constantly to size up the situation on the field. Even when you are paying close attention to an individual or small group, position yourself so you can scan, so that your peripheral vision is working well. That way, my athletes know my radar is fully functional.

Are you a coach or a teacher?

It's a provocative title, as I've often been asked this question, or versions of it. My answer is simple. When I coach - I teach. And that's the simple answer. While the sports (or music or dance) coach is concerned with the specifics of the sport, you want something to change. A physical, technical or tactical component, a better way to think or implementing a new strategy. Whichever it is, your job is to set the scene for the athlete to learn that change and to implement it in competition. How may times have we heard coaches bemoaning their athletes' performance ? "I spent the last three weeks teaching them the play, and they haven't learned it!" Sorry coach, if they didn't learn it, then you didn't teach it. More on this in future posts.