Blind men and the elephant
Take home message
AT SOME POINT, DISCIPLINES MUST LINK TO FORM CONTEXT FOR DECISION MAKING.
For Coaches
Sometimes you see only one part. Sometimes you need to link all the blind men.
For Athletes
Either be the sighted person or know the sighted person. Don’t be one of the blind men.
I’ve been reminded this week of the parable of the blind men and the elephant. For those that are unfamiliar, it is a story of a group of blind men who have never come across an elephant before. Each man feels one different part of the elephant and describes what he feels to the others, thus forming an opinion of the elephant on that limited exposure. For example, one touches the trunk and says it feels like a thick snake whereas another who feels the ear and says it’s a fan. As their experiences are all different, they suspect each to be dishonest and a quarrel ensues. It is an old story with versions in many cultures. The morale of the story revolves around the limits of perception and the importance of complete context. All men were partially right and partially wrong.
There are times in the busy team sport environment where we can act as the blind men. We have accurate information, as far as our discipline goes. And in a frantic setting, it is not always possible to get the ‘men’ (people) on the same page (for my female readers, please forgive the gender-bias; I am merely referring to the story). In an elite environment, there is usually a role, like a High Performance Manager who may be slightly removed from a part in order to coordinate the perspectives and achieves the complete context. But not every setting is blessed with such a role.
Photo by Keyur Nandaniya on Unsplash (amazing image!).
An important part of working in a team is knowing when you are the ‘blind man’ with a detailed and correct opinion, but limited to your area, and when you see the whole elephant. I think it is alright to be the blind man. That is the person that goes into a lot of detail in their area. However, as that person, we must be aware of the perceptions of other people and that we don’t have the full context - and that’s ok. I reflect on times as a younger coach when I acted as the aggrieved blind man frustrated at the different opinions of others, not appreciating their alternate perspective from their specialty. What a shortcoming. We cannot always expect our teammates (off-field teammates) to understand our area as deeply as we do. Our role can be to provide all the detail we can about our area or specialty and hand that to a person who can see the entire picture.
As a more experienced coach, I am now aware of the other perspectives that are actually needed for the complete context. I probably do get frustrated at the ‘blind man’ who is adamant they have the full story, when I know they have only touched ‘the trunk’. There are times now when I realise that I have only one piece of the puzzle and gaps in the complete context exist. I don’t know what they are, but I know the gaps exist. That’s the importance of a good team, each with their area to contribute.
I believe a strength of an S&C coach is the ability to coordinate the blind men, as one of them. In my particular role, I probably get the most communication with the athletes. I mingle with them during the warm-up and cool down at pitch sessions whilst coaches are preparing for the session. I get the players in groups of 10-12 at the gym for lifting. In an hour session, that is 5-6 minutes per athlete. Sometimes not every athlete needs their 5 minutes which may mean 10-15 with one athlete. I get to cover a lot of ground from study, to their work or home life and how they are handling training. Technology and monitoring play an important role, but you cannot beat an old fashioned conversation and it is here that we can link the ‘blind men’ - what I feel is an important role for the S&C coach.
These precious gym conversations allow me the opportunity to probe, encourage and educate. I can find out about niggles and tightness that is not going away. I can try a few things in the gym, but I don’t know everything and I do know that the perspective of another S&C coach or physio would be good - it provides another perspective. I get 6 to 7 touch points a week with the athletes so I know if the ailment improves or worsens, and perhaps further investigation may be required. I can also try linking the player with a few other players who may have had a similar experience and see what they can share. I may also need to involve the coach and bring it to their attention. The coach may be concerned by a limitation they are sensing on pitch which can help in their assessment and relationship with the player. An element of this process of linking the ‘blind men’ is educating the athlete that they actually have a responsibility to form the complete context and for linking the stakeholders. However, it is a role that as an S&C coach, I can help with. An experienced player might be able to link all parties, but a younger athlete may require assistance, encouragement. I believe that is an important role an S&C coach can fulfil given our level of athlete interaction, linking parties to help complete context and not be too focused on our ‘trunk’ because it is what we are seeing right in front of us.
As an S&C coach I think it is important that we study our area deeply, we have to be able to know our part very well. But, we also have to take the time to step back, to examine our perspective in the entire context. I believe another important task is to empower or educate our athletes to be the owner of their perspective. Yes, trust the experts around them, but not blindly, link them. To grow to be the athlete who is the centre of the network of blind men, taking in all their perspectives and creating the context.
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Thanks again. BA.