Your Job is To Improve This Quality
The great news about the overabundance of social media and YouTube videos is a never-ending supply of videos to use in your training. The bad news about the overabundance of social media and YouTube videos is a never-ending supply of videos to use in your training …
Your job is not to be an entertainer before you are a coach. Being able to entertain is very important to keeping athletes engaged and allowing the daily training process to be enjoyable. At no time should your entertainment get in the way of your athletes learning from you.
Far too often, coaches turn a drill into an “amusement park ride.” Athletes are running through hoops, jumping over hurdles, and balancing on kettlebells!
Coaching is about leading your athletes down a path to improvement and helping them solve problems.
A session should be built on a foundation that looks something like this:
- Giving a needs analysis or evaluation to discover what needs to be improved, adjusted, or reorganize regarding movement.
- Creating a list of 1-2 skills that are your primary focus for the session.
- Creating a list of 1-3 drills that support the skill.
- Choosing the drills based on their ability to attack a specific characteristic you find lacking. For example, if the athlete lacks lateral push-off power in the legs and hips, you might use a band-resistant acceleration drill.
- Implementing the drill, evaluate the athletes’ response to the drill, cue, and feedback when and where needed.
- Repeat.
If your drill is chosen because of how many likes it got on social media, you are sadly missing the meaning of coaching.
A Drill is a Conduit to the Skill.
The skill is a conduit to the athlete’s performance level for their position and sport or activity.
My advice is never to choose the drill first. The drill fills in the gap based on the skill, which is based on the performance need.
This thought process keeps us, as coaches, in check. It allows us to make sure learning is occurring. It makes us better coaches and our athletes better learners.
Coaching is about having an understanding of what the need is and then filling that need. If your experience limits you, your job is to continue to grow your knowledge and relevant information.
I offer unlimited videos and courses on my online store. You will find these resources are designed to help you with concepts and principles of why and how to use the various drill to fix a skill.