Learning Curve
Take home message
STEEP LEARNING EXPERIENCES CAN BE FOUND ANYWHERE IF YOU JUST GO LOOKING.
For Coaches
No matter how long you have been doing it, there are still steep, ‘eureka’ moments.
For Athletes
Steep learning can often be characterised by a lot of mistakes. Mistakes are opportunities for problem solving - search for mistakes.
I am a believer in life long learning. I’m constantly thinking and reflecting. I believe if you are involved in sport or high performance, learning, thinking and reflecting are foundational qualities (and if you don’t have these qualities, your duration in high performance could be short).
For example, I, like many people, aren’t satisfied with the drive to and from work solely being about transport. I maxmise the commute by listening to podcasts. One that I have been listening to is The High Performance Podcast which is incredibly good. A problem of listening in the car or on a run is you cannot take notes. Fortunately, I am a slow runner, so I get to listen to them multiple times and eventually the key points stick.
At the conclusion of a recent episode, co-host Damien Hughes dropped another of his gem insights which made me reflect on my past 12 months as a coach, and in particular, learning curves. I started thinking that as a young S&C coach, the learning curve was quite steep, almost vertical. The learning curve was primarily “X’s” and “O’s” - reps, sets, exercises, technique. Fundamental S&C tools which every coach needs to learn. As I started to learn more, the curve naturally starts to flatten out - it is never level, there is always a rise, it is just not as vertical.
However, as I reflected on the past 12 months, I felt that the learning curve in my coaching of athletes and my place within the off-field team has been close to vertical. Embarrassingly, arrogantly, I did not think my learning curve could ever be so steep within S&C as it was when I first started. Silly really, to think that I could not experience intense learning. The learning is not as much about the “reps and sets”, but so much more about the athlete and coach.
The past year has been tough for everyone, and I am certain I have had it much better than many. But it has been learning how to work with (the key word there is “with”) and serve the coaches and athletes as “high achieving people” that has been most interesting.
Cover Photo by Cade Prior on Unsplash
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Thanks again. BA.