Transcript
Speaker: Action! Welcome to the Captains & Coaches Podcast. We explore the art and science of leadership through the lens of athletics and beyond. I'm your host, Tex McQuilkin, and today I'm going to be sharing a presentation that I just delivered to the Soldiers to Sidelines Sports Performance Online Certification. If you don't know what Soldiers to Sidelines is, and it's an amazing organization, nonprofit that helps take soldiers,
Speaker: retiring, career change, take all the tools that they learned during their time of service and then translate that into sport or strength coaching. Amazing organization. Check it out. Soldiers, T-O, sidelines.org.
Speaker: Do a lot of presentations for them, and I'm going share this one that I just gave. I'll be putting the slides up as I talk about them. This presentation is coaching and cuing. Talk less, teach more.
Speaker: I'll be referencing the weight room or the sport of lacrosse because that's where I live right now, but the aim is for you to translate this into your sport, whatever it may be.
Speaker: All right. Let's get into it. The empowerment promise for this presentation, I'm covering three things. The first is going to be where the brain, the body, and behavior connect for your athletes.
Speaker: Yes, we are coaching movement, but at the same time, we're utilizing movement to develop character-based Leaders, just like Soldier's Sidelines leads character-based coaching, we want to take these tools because everyone's athletic career ends.
Speaker: Who do we want our athletes to be after their career ends? Learning objective number two, what, when, and how to coach. We understand our sport. We understand the weight room.
Speaker: we know all this information but sometimes we get paralyzed by what to say when to say it and how to say it that it can be heard and then applied by our athletes and last we're going to introduce a cue triage okay we saw what went wrong but now yeah that was 15 things what do i say so i'm going give you a triage and how to think and then hand it off to you here we go okay so as you can see in our slide here this is what i've experienced processes we deliver a movement a skill or a scheme as a coach and then especially if you're working with treat teenagers you're going to face resistance and rebellion that's anticipated it is healthy for them to have that skeptic up i like this rebellion
Speaker: Because one, it makes me work harder to get to know the athlete and what specifically they'll connect to. And two, I like that attitude out in the field. I want them to take risks. I want them to not accept what the the limitations are by what the other team is saying. Have that rebellion. So I acknowledge it. I compliment them and how grateful I am. And then I find ways to work around it.
Speaker: So anticipate this athlete resistance. They're going to try their own way. In lacrosse, it's shooting sidearm because they think it looks cool, but it's less effective and they can't control it.
Speaker: So they're going to try their approach. It's going to fail enough times that they will come around, especially if I'm being proactive and aiming to develop a relationship. They're open to coaching. During this red phase, I encourage you to not be a jerk.
Speaker: Allow them to go out there and make their mistakes so that way you're repeating the same cues, directions, and enthusiasm that they're there with you. And eventually it's going to allow this green light open to coaching.
Speaker: Then they need more reps and feedback and we start to shape their movement. And eventually we're going to build trust. And then they go back to learning a new movement skill, scheme, whatever it may be.
Speaker: So that is what we're aiming do. This, if we do it enough times, it becomes a pinwheel and really goes fast. And that red, that rebellion, eventually it goes away and we can accomplish so much more.
Speaker: But if I'm a jerk in the beginning because they don't value my experience or they don't want to listen to me or they had a negative experience with authority and a coach somewhere else and they assume that I'm that that same person, then this rebellion will grow and they're going to be resistant and they won't listen and they could potentially be toxic towards our team.
Speaker: So, yes, anticipate the rebellion. That is normal and you're gonna want that swagger and that attitude come competition time and it forces us to develop a relationship with our athlete.
Speaker: So the big thing here is I anticipate and I wanna reframe for my athletes that there is no failure, only feedback. And I too as coach need to take that advice.
Speaker: I'm trying to say the same thing 17 different times trying to find one way that connects and sticks with that athlete and guess what i'm going to do with somebody else to say the same thing try another 17 different ways there's no more than one way to say all these different things that we need them to listen to so i need to be the coach that i want coaching i need to be the athlete that i want to coach and accept that there is no failure only feedback
Speaker: All right, so now we're going get into my framework and my mindset for teaching movement. I like to differentiate coaching and teaching. Teaching, in my mind, means a great understanding from a all the way to Z of movement, schemes, sports, whatever it may be. And then coaching is delivering the one thing that my athlete needs at the right time.
Speaker: Two different things here. So we're going to explain teaching in this movement. And for me teaching movement, I lean into Bloom's taxonomy with the objective and the aim to meet an athlete where they're at.
Speaker: So we can see here at this pyramid development, the baseline of the pyramid is remembering, recalling facts, basic concepts within sport. This is where to do, where to be.
Speaker: what to do once I get there. If I'm not going to be able to remember the specific area that I need to go to on the field in this particular moment, it's going to be a long season and I probably won't get a lot of playing time.
Speaker: So remembering the basic facts, what to do. In the weight room, this is going to be how our rack is arranged at the start and the end of the day. What the basic movements are that are on the card so that way I can get set up and set free to move.
Speaker: key here I'm gonna do my best to teach them in a way that they're able to remember the sticky stuff so we can move on to the fun stuff next up is understand okay we've established a remember a baseline you hold on to these facts now we can start to understand why these are important or where these ideas and concepts are coming from so that gives depth and clarity and range to this so remember Then we progress into understand.
Speaker: A lot of coaches, they want to start with why and over explain lot of purpose here. Well, if we can't remember the purpose or remember the basics, I'm not going to get into the purpose.
Speaker: They need to be in a position to learn to then understand. So stick with remember. Here's what you do, ah where to be, what to do when you get there, and then how to do it.
Speaker: then we're going to okay here's why we break out and get to those positions here's why i need you to shoot overhand versus the sidearm but leading with why they won't have enough experience to understand that then this leads us to apply that's where they're using the information that we taught them in new scenarios. This is sport. We learned all these different skills, small-sided games, and then we set them free. We taught them, okay, here's our offense. Here's our offensive plays. Here's defense. Here's how to play defense against this formation. Okay, here's how to clear the ball and transition to the opposite field. We learned all that in chunks.
Speaker: Now we've got to put it all together in a new situation, which is game that they've never performed before. So now we're in the the realm of apply and a lot of people are stuck here and that's A-OK within sport.
Speaker: The level's up. This is going to be more experienced varsity into college where we're really looking at film. We're not just watching the game and seeing what we did wrong and where we forgot and didn't remember what to ah to do on specific plays.
Speaker: We're actually learning and analyzing our scheme against their scheme and how we can properly prepare. We're evaluating our our coaches are presenting and justifying like, hey, that was the scenario.
Speaker: Here's what we saw and here's why we did it. And we just got beat. we're but We have to evaluate that. We can't just blame the the athletes for this. I saw an awesome reel of a coach on Mississippi State. He was on the defensive side of the ball.
Speaker: And this is when Johnny Menzel was a quarterback Texas A&M. And he's going on of being like, okay, we installed the scheme. Johnny Menzel went out on Halloween on Thursday night before the Saturday game. That's how much he doesn't respect you on defense, yada, yada, yada, coach hype.
Speaker: and then they played them and mississippi state got blown out so head coach said okay offense you're dismissed defense meet me in the film room and then they spent the next six hours analyzing the film and guess what they saw that they made the right calls they're analyzing this they're evaluating their decisions However, Johnny Menzel was just too creative.
Speaker: Everything was schematically lined up and correct. They made the proper calls in those moments. But then dude just out-athleted them. which is all right. So we need to understand Bloom's taxonomy and go from basics when we're installing these different schemes, meet our athletes where they're at and gradually build this experience for them and put them in a best position to succeed. This is why middle school and JV sports are so important. So we get these reps
Speaker: It's not about just putting rushing people to the higher level because if they're at the apply stage and they can't read and react properly against a grown ass man that is starting on varsity as a senior, well then it's going to be a long freaking day and that may diminish any learning and progress that we have going forward. So This is the anchor of how I'm teaching, installing movements, offensive defenses, whatever it may be, trying to get our kids to meet them where they're at.
Speaker: Remember where to be, what to do, and how to do it. Understand why it's important at this specific time, and then we're going go out and apply it. With enough experience, then we can get into a position to analyze our decisions and our movements, et cetera.
Speaker: So Bloom's Taxonomy. Alright, so now whether I'm teaching strength or performance, this is the teaching framework that I really lean into. And I learned this from an old basketball coach years ago.
Speaker: So he summarizes motor learning in four phases, define, model, shape, and reinforce. So define, I'm establishing expectations of execution. This is how we set up. This is how we shoot a basketball. This is how we set up in our squat.
Speaker: Then we're going to model it. Okay, well, this is the best squatter on the team or the best shooter on the team. I want you to watch him, how he sets up, how he takes his time, how he follow through, how he finishes movement so we have a model and a representation.
Speaker: The beauty of being a strength coach or a coach in general, I just got to be good at modeling one time. If I can't personally do it, then I find the best picture on the team and have them execute the movement and use them as the example.
Speaker: So in define, I'm establishing expectations and execution sets, reps, et cetera. What the drill is named, that's important. But model is even more important-er.
Speaker: Because my words get lost, kids are going to remember the visual watching that person move and how they execute it and that's going to be the value add. Shape, this is now I'm coaching. So teaching and modeling, that ah defining and teaching ah modeling, that is teaching, shaping, this is going to be where coaching comes in, where I give the kid one thing that they need to fix.
Speaker: And then reinforce if they mood well, they made the correction, their attitude, their efforts, great. Pat on the back, reinforce that. If it's not, shape it and correct it. If I don't say anything after it is poorly executed, in attitude, movement, behavior, all that stuff, then I'm actually reinforcing that negative stuff.
Speaker: All right. Then I had define movement. We were doing a sports performance seminar for the soldiers of sidelines. So I introduced how i filter and view movement that puts me in a position to teach it better. So we cover that.
Speaker: Then model. Okay. This is how I teach movement. Setup, execution, and faults. For the setup, I go from the head down. Head to hands to trunk to hips.
Speaker: All the way down to the feet. This is how we're going to set up this specific movement. I also aim to increase my bandwidth and the understanding and accelerate the learning for the student athletes by having similar setup and execution.
Speaker: Head, hands, trunk, hips. It's all going to be the same whether I'm talking about the press, the squat, the deadlift, even the pull-up. What changes now is going to be my foot position.
Speaker: So deadlift, I'm heels underneath my hips, toes pointing forward, squat, I'm heels at or outside, my shoulder width, toes pointing forward. So now grip on our a barbell is going to be one thumb distance away from the smooth, whether I'm bench pressing, pressing, squatting, or deadlifting.
Speaker: So find the parallels. OK, grip, head, position's all the same, trunks is the same. So I teach all those things from the top down and then change it once I get to the feet. Then for execution and teaching execution, I go from the ground up. What do I want their feet doing?
Speaker: So they're going to have a hard time remembering everything that their body's going to do in all these movements. So I usually just coach at the feet and then give them a direction for the initiation.
Speaker: So press your toes down like piano keys and push the ground away. So that'd be a great representation of the execution. I can't tell them everything their body's going to do. I like an external cue for them to focus on, push the ground away.
Speaker: versus saying, okay, well, your ankles are gonna do this, your knees are gonna do that, hips are gonna do that. That's overload. So execution, I like to give an external cue if you want more on that.
Speaker: Nick Winkleman podcast, awesome experience. And then faults. I don't model faults. I acknowledge them when I see them with the kids. If I'm working with more advanced athletes, I can give them a heads up of what will go wrong.
Speaker: But if they're younger freshmen, I'm not going to cover faults. I'm going to cover exactly what to do because, again, their mirror neurons, their eyes, are going to be tracking faster than my words.
Speaker: So if they see me do perfect rep set up execution, but then I show them faults, that's the last thing that they remember connected to the movement and it's a high likelihood that they're going to default and get into that so i don't even cover faults but aim to correct it all over the floor because you're gonna see it okay here's what to coach and i my I was very fortunate my coaching career began with sport and strength combined.
Speaker: strength Strength and conditioning coach, self-proclaimed as a graduate assistant lacrosse coach. So I would use the field to teach in the weight room. And then vice versa, get the weight room out into the field. And then as I expanded my coaching bandwidth and career and started work with more and more sports, I'd look for the connection in their sport and bring it into the weight room.
Speaker: So one of which is where to be, what to do, and how to do it. Alignment assignment technique. So utilizing this within sport when I'm teaching that, this is my order of operations. Where to be.
Speaker: and when to be there. Very important. If we can start to remember those things, then later on understand why they're important, of why I need to be there at specific times, then we can go out and execute and apply it.
Speaker: Then we have assignment alignment would be how do I arrange my body in the weight room in this particular setup of this movement assignment for the weight room that would be the execution of the movement assignment within sport would be okay I'm responsible for blocking that person or when my person does this I need to rotate or initiate here so it's exactly what your job is on a particular play or reacting to ah the situation in front of me.
Speaker: Then we have technique. This is how it's done. So alignment, assignment, and then technique. Where to be, when to be there for alignment, assignment, knowing what our job is, and then technique is how to do it and how I did it open for feedback on all these so fixing alignment setup is going to go a long way for fixing assignment problems that I see so if I'm on the field I'm a correct in alignment if I'm in the weight room I'm correcting alignment if both of those are locked in now how was it executed and what do I need to fix within that so
Speaker: this also is going to be how i'm talking to them on the field again i'm back in the same role where i'm strength and sport coach i will never leave this role how i how i set it up so that is uh that's the value there talk to them in the weight room just like i do on the field nothing changes Now the most important thing here is I can see a lot go wrong in the weight room, but I want to understand where they're at in their development. This is going to be important.
Speaker: So I have four stages of development that I aim to identify when coaching my athletes that is going to dictate what I say and how I say it. So four stages of development. This is the the development model,
Speaker: Competence model is the word I was looking for. So four stages. We have the first stage. This is unconscious incompetence. This is going to be ignorance. Cue the slide here. We've got an amazing world-class fighter.
Speaker: He owns and dominates the octagon at one time, I know. For our fight fans, don't get on me on this. So... He was so confident in one skill set that he assumed that he can do anything.
Speaker: So now you place him into a new sport, and what does throwing out the first pitch from Conor McGregor at the Twins game look like? Not pretty.
Speaker: I'm not even gonna show you the video. But the confidence from something else carried into a new skill mentally, but not physically. So unconscious incompetence, you're ignorant.
Speaker: You think you are awesome at everything and then you try it and you're not. There's also a key to this stage where the individuals do not value your coaching. They know better than you. This is that rebellion.
Speaker: So if I'm a jerk during that rebellion phase and think I know better than them or that kid is this or that kid is that, they're they're going to think I'm a jerk and not be willing to work at this. Oh, this sport is stupid or that's stupid.
Speaker: And they're going to put up a self-defense mechanism. But if they start to become self-aware and see the gap between where the best player is and they are just starting,
Speaker: And they say like, oh, I want that. Now I can step in as a coach and being like, well, I remember when that person was a freshman and they were just as bad as you are right now getting started. Or I remember when I first started lifting weights.
Speaker: I couldn't even bench press the bar, you know, whatever it is. so That's not true. My first bench was 65 pounds. So unconscious incompetence. I got to meet them where they're at and not be a jerk.
Speaker: with enough reps and opportunity, then they work through the phase of conscious incompetence. This is now I've recognized the the skill gap, the deficit and where I am and where I wanna go or where the best player on the team is,
Speaker: and I want feedback to work there. I start to value coaching. You're going to see this in the weight room when a kid is like, hey, coach, come watch my set. Or did you see on that one?
Speaker: So they're looking for the feedback. They may not be able to understand or process it or even apply it. Their body's not at that coordination level. but they're valuing it and that's a big win. so with enough reps and time underneath the bar or on the wall, whatever in the batting cage, whatever your skill is, they're going to progress into the next phase, which is conscious competence.
Speaker: So if we're looking at the slide here, this is tennis athlete Rafael Nadal, who is a scratch golfer. He could go pro if he wanted to.
Speaker: So conscious competence, you are focusing on your skills so much that you're thinking about the execution every which way.
Speaker: So this is a very beneficial phase for performance. You're locked in, you're focused, you're you're you're focusing on your body. The challenge is it's slow.
Speaker: In our thought process and sometimes our movement, we're trying too hard to be perfect and not make a mistake. This is a phase, and a lot of our athletes will live in this and not get out of it.
Speaker: nothing that We want them to to progress through this, especially when they start to have an opponent. We see this in football so often. If a quarterback has their reads, but in their mind, oh, the last time this play, this wide re receiver was open to it,
Speaker: or a coach says, hey, that person's going to be open. They're locked in on that person. And then the defense reads their read and then undercuts it, gets an interception.
Speaker: So conscious competence, he was so focused on that one wide receiver option that he did not see the defense also reading that option. So conscious competence, good phase. However, it's slow.
Speaker: we we we We tunnel in. on certain things and we don't take in fact ah we don't take the environment as a factor often which then leads us to the next phase also Nadal here is unconscious competence meaning you don't have to think about your foot position your hand position or what the defense is doing you're reading and reacting and you're in this flow state your mid brain and it feels like you're flying through objectively, like we want to, in our training, in our practices, focus on certain skills. So that way we get through them all and it becomes unconscious competence.
Speaker: And we can start to level up into schemes and more advanced and more creative things. But if we jump to the the difficult schemes, the more creative stuff as a coach, because we're selfish or we're bored and they're way back in the beginning developmental phases, then the game is going to surpass them quickly and it's going to become too difficult or too hard.
Speaker: And at the same vein, if we're staying in one phase and trying to elementary school them too much, and it's not intellectually stimulating, they're going to get bored and leave the sport.
Speaker: So you get this fine line and you got to balance your whole team as they progress through all these different stages at different times and all these different skills that you're teaching them because sports are so complex. And that's what makes it fun.
Speaker: which is why it's important for us to understand what stage an athlete is and meet them where they're at and then give them specific cues and directions according to this level of competence, which is what we're going to dive in in this presentation.
Speaker: We're going to get into when to coach here. Alright, so we've established there's all these different phases. Now is when us for us to coach with a a beginner within the freshman, within the weight room, or the younger athletes, I want you to think of this as unconscious incompetence.
Speaker: The timing of our four R's here is based off the competency model. So, first one is rep it out there's athletes just starting to weight lift They need time under the bar.
Speaker: So make sure they're good on their setup and then set them free. And then reset, you're gonna do the repeater reminding them the setup and the execution of movements every single time, almost every single set, but every single time they're in the weight room and they need more more time.
Speaker: Eventually they're going to work through this and gain the coordination to actually take on your words. Watching a freshman squat for the first time, there's a lot to correct. i don't I don't ignore it, I acknowledge it, and then fix their setup.
Speaker: What's their alignment? Okay, after every single rep, you're going to return return to good alignment, and we're going to get as many reps as we can. Eventually, with another enough time underneath the bar, then they're ready to receive real-time feedback.
Speaker: They're entering into the conscious incompetence. They realize how much they suck at this. They realize the gap between them and the best player on the team or the strongest person in the weight room and they're willing to receive feedback.
Speaker: This is when I can lean into real time feedback, which is instant. So if there is a poor initiation on a deadlift or a movement, I'm going to stop them.
Speaker: We're going to reestablish the setup. I'm going to correct them in the moment. This is hands-on coaching. I can remodel if it's a sports movement and necessary there, but I want to keep this this train moving. So in this conscious incompetence, this is when I am really...
Speaker: coaching in real time. It's got to be quick. It's got to be fast feedback and the rule of one. This is also from coach Nick Winkleman. I'm going have a one thing to think about going into their, their next set as they progress through this.
Speaker: Now we're entering into the next R and this is the tool for you. This is reference. So this is when we call back to another cue or direction of that. I've already corrected.
Speaker: or if they keep doing it their way, they know better. It's conscious, comes I'll call them out. What are we doing with our hand grip there? I see it all the time in my rate room with thumbs over the bar in this low bar squat because they're stronger that way, but that's not what I want. I want athletic squat setup.
Speaker: Thumb distance away from the smooth, thumb wrapped around the bar, heels just outside our shoulders, toes pointing forward, knees over arches or in steps. We're going to set up in an athletic squat because we're squatting for sport, not squatting as a sport.
Speaker: So I'm calling them out all over the place. And then now they're in a position to understand why we're squatting this way and help differentiate. There's this squat versus that squat. They've had enough time under the bar for my words to have weight, pun intended, to them.
Speaker: So I'm referencing back to what lesson that they know so well that is in it. And we see this all the time within the fundamentals of sport. They're in conscious competence. They're trying to get crazy, goofy, and creative. It's like, no, call them out and call them back to the fundamentals ah so that they can become unconscious incompetence with enough time under stressful reps.
Speaker: Getting into deliberate practice here. And then reflection. This is going to be for more advanced athletes within the weight room and sport. And we're going to evaluate. We're going to construct, hey, what was going on? Or get them internal, in interoception.
Speaker: Hey, how did that rep feel? So we're we're high up on Bloom's taxonomy here into evaluating their movement, trying to get inside their body. How did the stick feel in their hand on that one?
Speaker: Or what were they thinking on that time? Hey, you rushed that shot. Did you did you feel ah a defender coming down on you? Like, what what's going on? du Why'd you rush that?
Speaker: so I can ask questions for them to put me inside what they were thinking and feeling and experiencing. That's going to be more advanced coaching, but they've already been through a lot of the reps and they're ready to receive that feedback.
Speaker: If I'm asking a freshman who just picked up a barbell for the first time or a stick, if they're just starting to sport, hey, what'd you feel on that one? but I don't know how to look.
Speaker: Or If they're shooting and they're in this unconscious incompetence, hey, what were you aiming for? i don't know. Okay. So I need to shape that. Okay. Well, all your next reps for the next 10, you're aiming for the top left corner on here.
Speaker: Okay. So now I can accelerate them through these stages of development because he's only aiming for the top left. I could be shaping his focus.
Speaker: Hey, were you aiming top left? No, I wasn't thinking. Okay. Focus top left. Then we can start to dial in the technique, or if he's off by five feet, all right, well, at least he's aiming, and we've got to shape his technique so we can get closer to that.
Speaker: So this helps me establish by asking certain questions what stage of development they're in, if I don't already know what this, and it drives the feedback and the coaching direction that I'm going for. so Timing, the four R's. Rep it out, real-time reference, and reflection for more advanced athletes.
Speaker: Okay, so here' here's how to coach. We're flying through this brain games. I coach the brain, not the behavior. There are three... frames of the brain that I introduced to keep this highly simple. So the first one I talked about with the soldiers to sidelines coaches was the prefrontal cortex. This is thinking. This is conscious processing. This is learning mode.
Speaker: We're to spend a lot of time within ah practice in this thinking mode where they're trying to remember. They're trying to understand and then trying to get these words and these schemes and these coaching cues to be coordinated with their body and apply the information they were giving.
Speaker: That's a lot of processing and thinking and it may feel slow at the time for us coaches who have done it a thousand times, but it's where they're at, allowing them time to process.
Speaker: What I check here is are they staying on task? Are they doing what they're supposed to do or do they lose lose focus and they're dicking around in the back with the injured guys or whatever?
Speaker: So keep them focused and thinking. So within the practice plan that I make, i have teaching time, very specific. I need focus. We're allowed to make mistakes. It's not full speed. And then there's competition time.
Speaker: And this is, we know what to do. We've practiced it at lighter speed, but now I'm gonna tick up the stress. Stress of speed, stress of an opponent, and I'm trying to get this into unconscious competence. Will it happen in the first practice? No.
Speaker: But the aim is for this this information, this movement, this decision-making to be conscious to a point that it starts to be unconscious. And I can think two passes ahead.
Speaker: and I'm in the knowing, unconscious. This is images. This is muscle memory. This is why coaches use a whiteboard. So we teach with our bodies and movement, but I can get them quick, concrete thinking. Here, recall this of what to do with X's and O's on the whiteboard, and remember what it was like to learn and feel in our prefrontal cortex.
Speaker: Then the last phase of the brain that I introduced to the coaches, this was the limbic brain, flight, flight, freeze, go into safety mode for athletes. If you want more on that, a deep dive, Captains & Coaches Podcast, episode 144 with Tim Fletcher and how our words and tone can bring athletes into their limbic phase, which they're not learning, they're not thinking, they're not knowing anything.
Speaker: They're in self-preservation mode. which is not helpful. So if we're mad if they're not learning or they're not picking up a skill as quickly as we want them to, because we're not coaching or teaching well, then they're going to get into their ah limbic brain and they're not learning anything.
Speaker: They're shutting down. So no bueno on that one. All right. This is at a point where I introduced fun equals focus. If we're able to teach with enthusiasm, to to to quote Martin Rooney,
Speaker: Captains and Coach Podcast alum who bring so much enthusiasm to teaching and coaching and practice that they can't help but be enthralled. So if it's fun, if it's engaging, then we're going to get into focus. And focus is currency for teenage athletes. We've got to pull them in and keep them there.
Speaker: So can we keep moving? And I say this often in practice, if moving, we're learning. Can we keep that focus on ah getting better? And that hopefully translates into competition and keep competition fun.
Speaker: It's not just us versus them. What can I throw down on the line to keep it engaging? It could be a cleanup, could be ball hunt, could be getting water for a week. something in there that is going to lead to intent and focus and keeping our head up and engaged within this.
Speaker: So attentional focus was the key word that I introduced to the coaches. We're focus adopted by the athletes while performing a motor skill. So they're moving, they learned it, and now they're applying that information.
Speaker: If us as coaches are leaning too much into words only and expecting our athletes to pick it up, one, that's not fun, two, we're losing in focus and then we're getting mad at them for not being able to decipher and turn our words into movements and then take those pictures in their in their brains and turn turn them into ah you know athletic action with their body, what are we doing?
Speaker: So I need to combine movement and my words. If I'm saying, hey, shooting technique is going to be this, but I'm not showing them. I got my arms crossed and talking about the perfect shooting technique.
Speaker: Well, that's not good. I'm going to step by the step, show them. All right. So we're going to set up. Pointing our shoulder down the field. Pretend, set up your feet like you're skating on a skateboard.
Speaker: Point your shoulder at your target. Elbow up. Ball's going to go where your butt end is. Point your butt end at your teammates. Okay, from here, stick up towards the stars. You're going step. Throw, shoulder step throw is what I teach these guys. This brings us back to our our coaching loop.
Speaker: Movement skill, this is where you are on how we're teaching this and being engaging and identifying what stage they're in that's going to determine the words that I use to introduce, describe, or set up my setup and execution for success.
Speaker: So movement skill scheme, I got to realize where they are and a lot of times understand where I'm at in this moment in time during practice.
Speaker: So winding down here guys, when I'm delivering a coaching message, cue, direction, or leading a specific block at practice, I got to understand which hat I am wearing at this moment and is it the right one for the occasion? Am I teaching?
Speaker: Am I coaching? Am I correcting? Or are we connecting? And connecting could be connecting the dots at more advanced level for my athletes that need to be intellectually stimulated to stay engaged.
Speaker: Or it could be connecting for my athletes that they don't have the experience yet for me to go high level ah inside baseball. So I'm going to connect with them. Hey, who are you? Why did you come out here? Why you start playing the sport as a freshman? That's wild.
Speaker: That takes a lot of risk. Thanks for taking that risk. So I'm connecting with them because their brain's not yet ready for the the major league conversation that I could have with a more advanced experience kid.
Speaker: So at this moment, I know what hat I needed to be wearing at the right time, which then puts me in a position to hold the mirror up on my teaching, my coaching, my communication, whatever it may be.
Speaker: And i go through this filter here on a self-coaching, self-analysis. Was I clear? Did I deliver the the message with confidence? Did I command presence within the huddle, within the room?
Speaker: And... Have I established a connection? Was I shut off for the first half of the day or locked in my own mind on what I wanted this to look like?
Speaker: And I didn't take the time to to check in on the boys to see if they were ready to receive any message. It could have been finals week and I had no idea because I was so focused on executing the practice plan.
Speaker: so So there's a lot to this that with enough time and reps, we as coaches go through these stages of confidence, which is what I want to put you in a position to understand. Okay, I had it in my head. it didn't go this way. Can I reflect on it?
Speaker: And here's the feedback cue, direction, triage that I want you to go through. Okay, if you catch yourself and you are consciously competent in this coaching moment, Okay, where's my kid at? If they're in the rep it out phase, they're freshmen, they're new to this, they're new to weightlifting, new this sport, they've only been playing X amount of time, okay, well, I can overcoach or I'm just going to have them rep it out.
Speaker: Just more reps, more opportunities. I can coach their setup, reset on your your throwing, your shooting, your weightlifting setup. And then I just set them free.
Speaker: And I remind them, okay, this is how we set up. And we're going on a loop here. But they need that time and those reps. I can't get bored with that. That's why you play the repeater and use jokes and humor and movie quotes to beat the sit beat the same dead horse to death until it dies.
Speaker: Okay, then real-time feedback. This is going to be so important for us. Okay, finally they're they're locked in, they're committed, but they're in the conscious incompetence.
Speaker: They see this this mountain, this hill, and this is where most kids quit. And we need to give them consistent real-time feedback, which is difficult. My guidance would be for you to give them a rule of one.
Speaker: Give them one touch point to bring into the next set. Where I would direct you for that is alignment assignment technique. Make sure they know where to be, when,
Speaker: when what to do when they get there, and then how to do it. yeah There's a lot of rule of one for you to take in there, but if they're in the wrong place, that's where I'd start.
Speaker: Okay, they're in the right place, but they did the wrong thing. Okay, take it there. And then finally, technique, infinite amount of coaching direction and reps that we can give them there. And they're gonna spend the most time on that.
Speaker: So make sure they are locked in as as much as possible during this, and you gotta stay on them constantly. Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp. Q, Q, Q, Q. All right. Then now they're getting into the next phase. This is where I want to lead into reference.
Speaker: So I'm going to reference back to a previous practice. Reference back to a game. It could be a year ago. could be last week. But I'm trying to get them to process stuff faster or reference back to a previous rep.
Speaker: or practice something in the past that they think about and then can go apply that into the future. This would be a great question like, hey, were you aiming for on that one?
Speaker: Remind me what the target is. So can they even remember and recall what I gave them in directions right before we started this practice block?
Speaker: Hopefully they can hold on to that so they can understand I can tell them why we're doing this and then they can go apply it. but asking questions, qualifying questions to understand what stage they are in.
Speaker: Reference back to past games, weeks, months, even reps of what they did last week in the weight room. You'd be shocked at how many guys cannot remember what they did on the previous set.
Speaker: That's why awesome shout out sponsor train heroic for keeping my sanity sane in the weight room. All right. Then last phase is going to be reflection. Hey, how did that feel?
Speaker: or Tell me where you were aiming on that one. What were you thinking? What did you think the defense was running there? So having them really deep dive and reflect on different experiences, past experiences for here. It's not what I said per se that they're reflecting on.
Speaker: It's more what they were thinking, experiencing, and feeling that they can take into and really accelerate their development and experience. So That was the the gist of the talk.
Speaker: Sped through it here for this podcast version. Hopefully you saw the a slideshow clips if you're watching on the YouTubes or Spotify video.
Speaker: And I encourage you, hey, like, subscribe, rate, and review. If you made it this far, I'm so grateful. for you give me a thumbs up on the youtubes if you're on spotify leave a rating those certainly do help people that are like-minded individuals that are following along in this show and then following along on other shows that you like, it'll continue to send this their way. That's how we grow and have some fun. So thank you for tuning in. i already gave them a shout out, but thanks to our our our sponsor, Train Heroic. I deliver all my strength and conditioning for myself and my athletes at the high school level and beyond through their cool platform, tracking and referencing doing all the good stuff. So
Speaker: I can't tell you how many times kids ask, hey, what's next in the workout? And I say, what's the app say? Still, okay, well, we're getting better. Guys, don't worry. All right, that does it for the show. Thank you for tuning in. i appreciate each and every one of you especially the soldier coaches that are re-watching this lesson.
Speaker: Cheers to you all, and thank you for your service. All right, see you.
