When the student is truly ready...
Take home message
AUTONOMY IS A GOAL
For Coaches
You are there to help your athletes grow and forge their own athletic path.
For Athletes
Just as you try to be an independent person, you should be trying to be an independent athlete using your coach/es as mentors and guides.
I’ve written previously about the patience required in coaching in waiting for the athlete to be ready to be coached which is based loosely on the well known statement, “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. The full statement is actually: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready, the teacher will disappear”.
Is that not the goal of coaching? To develop our athletes to such a point where we are no longer required. As coaches, we talk about making ourselves redundant, but do we really strive for it? How different is coaching from parenting? As sad as it feels as a parent, my wife and I are trying to raise our daughter to one day not need us. Isn’t coaching similar - getting our athletes to a point where they don’t need us?
When the child is young, a parent does everything for them, the child having no say at all. Over time, the child slowly makes more decisions with the parent transitioning from making decisions, to providing widening options and finally advice when asked. That is a process that occurs over a very, very long time. With our athletes however, it could be a 10 year journey.
Photo by Thor Alvis on Unsplash
In a team environment, the coaches are the parents and the athletes are an array of babies, toddlers, teenagers and grown-ups. I work very closely with our rookies, trying to teach them how to train, the culture of the group, to listen to their bodies as they adapt to increased training loads. I reassure them when they are modified at training, that it takes time to build to high training levels. I try to teach them a variety of training techniques so they can start to work out which ones they like and respond too. It can be as simple as having the players choose their own warm-up exercises, to then picking their main lift exercise (do they want to squat, deadlift or split squat, for example) to then devising their own program.
With my older athletes, the ‘teenagers’, it’s about providing options and letting them choose. With my ‘adults’, it’s about capturing the data for them to make the decisions about their program. I’m more of a consultant, someone to offer advice or guidance when asked. Maybe that probing question from time to time. It’s a system that Ashley Jones (highly experienced and respected S&C coach who has worked with the All Black and Crusaders to name a few) has talked about often and it’s one that I am really enjoying implementing.
I think that as a coach (and parent) I look for those “proud dad” moments when I see my athletes taking ownership and making great decisions about their training, such as program development, injury management or recovery strategies. To start, they all just follow as young athletes. Then they start to question and think. Then they lead and forge their own path. Education and collaboration is such an important component of my coaching. It’s nice that my athletes trust what I program. It’s better when they can know why and can explain it to someone else, such as visiting coach or athlete. When they understand it, then they can really start to fine tune their training and take ownership of their program to a new level. It can even be seen in the way senior players lead the group in aspect of preparation or recovery. There are times when I might be conducting a one-on-one rehab session at the start or end of training and the senior players take charge and initiate the warm-up or recovery process.
And just like parenting, they reach a level of autonomy and ownership. A level where as the coach, just like a parent, I may not be needed, but they know I will always be there for them just in case, proudly watching as they forge their own path.
Thanks Dad. Happy Birthday.
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Thanks again. BA.