“An empty bucket waiting to be filled? Or search lights looking for something beyond?” Photo by Sam Shaw
This blog post has been commissioned. By an eminent Professor of Psychology no less. It draws together two recent online sessions with leading psychologists and sports coaches. I hope the richness of the sessions comes through and this captures the great insights shared.
Professor Stephen Rollnick, the co-founder of Motivational Interviewing and one of the authors of a super book Coaching Athletes to be Their Best recently invited a small group of sports coaches to take part in two webinars, exploring the question “how do people learn new skills?” I was honoured to be asked to contribute and to write up a blog post afterwards.
So here we go.
The Science of Learning
A particular stimulus for wanting to explore with sports coaches came from Professor Rollnick’s interest in a recently published book The Science of Learning by Bradley Busch and Edward Watson. This pulls together 77 headline lessons from educational research studies, drawing out the implications from each for teaching. I’m steadily working through it myself.
Some of the lessons are counterintuitive and a little unnerving. I was left recalling the long hours I spent revising for exams late into the night - studiously immersing myself in one single subject at a time, intently underlining passages in books and hoping I could regurgitate it all on the day. The research shows shorter spells, mixing subjects and a more reflective questioning of what all those underscored (and quickly forgotten) quotes meant for me would have worked better - and been less exhausting.
Moving from the classroom to the playing fields and training grounds, applications include interweaving a mix of different skills within a session, throwing in elements of unpredictability and asking our athletes to think about the relevance of what we are practising. In team sports (where most of the coaches in the sessions came from) one can imagine the power of well constructed games built around such elements. I could also see applications in the club coaching I do for young triathletes and for swimmers: extra variety, elements of surprise and more encouraging the athletes to dwell on how a particular skill might help.
Through the two online sessions I also wondered how much of the lessons from the Science of Learning lean us toward a model that holds the coach as the expert, delivering their technical know how through well designed, evidence based methods - but not necessarily rooted in a genuinely athlete centred approach we all say we aspire to. How might the Science of Learning inform the art of coaching, as in the quality of relationships, motivation and self-belief? Hold that thought.
“Interrupting forgetting”
Dr David Rosengren, a Clinical Psychologist and regular contributor to Professor Rollnick’s Motivational Interviewing webinars, set out how we bring forward a memory from deep storage (as opposed to a a short term, easily forgotten memory) and in the process give it a life in practice. In this view, learning a new skill is about what he called “interrupting forgetting.”
A key idea David emphasised is the difference between what he termed fluency and mastery. Endless repetition of drills - such as passing a rugby ball side to side - might make someone feel they are proficient at that particular skill, but that only goes so far. Undoubtedly they can develop a fluency of execution under practice conditions. Mastery, in contrast, is all about that process of pulling forward the memory of how to make the pass in the frenzy and heat of an intense, full on high pressure game - adapting, being creative and pulling off the unexpected.
So how do we coach for that? David suggested several strategies, including introducing an element of “desirable difficulty” - of devising training sessions in such a way that they require an extra concentrated effort to problem solve. Asking our athletes to figure out how and why a particular technique, or whatever it is being taught, can apply. The interweaving and intermixing mentioned above can come into its own, as does what David called “low stakes testing” - trying something out in a low risk set up and then progressively increasing the degree of challenge.
Interestingly, the discussions kept coming back to how a coach sees their role, the quality and nature of the relationship and the approach they take to how we coach the people in front of us. One of those taking part, Nick Levett, highlighted the contrasting images of approaching those we coach as if they were empty buckets, waiting to be filled with our expert knowledge; or as inquisitive learners with searchlights ready to be switched on, wanting to make sense of their world and the possibilities that lie ahead.
Learning Environments and A Story of Joy
Nick gave a great illustration of this from his coaching of young footballers. As I recall, it went along the lines of:
Footballer 1: “I’m going to give it a go… what do you think?”
Coach Nick: “Yeah, go for it.”
And his young footballer pulls off the most amazing juggle of the ball that leaves everyone mesmerised and the opposition flat footed (apologies for the lack of a detailed description but it did sound amazing)
Footballer 2: “I’m going to give it a go… what do you think?”
Coach Nick: “Yeah, go for it.”
And his young footballer attempts to pull off an audacious over-head kick and run move, only to fly headlong into his opponent and end up in a crumpled heap on the floor.
Down on the deck he turned to Coach Nick and the two of them burst out laughing.
How brilliant is that? Both young footballers are clearly in an environment where they feel up for trying out something new and creative, with their coach willing them on and relishing the thrill and uncertainty of trying, as opposed to whether it succeeded or not.
The story also illustrates a point leading Performance Psychologist and co-founder of Compete to Create Michael Gervais made in the first session - of coaching moments - and that I try to follow in my own coaching. This is about the coach having no more than around 2-3 seconds after someone has performed a particular task or move, successful or not, for our response to lift them up, encourage and it be a moment of learning. If we’re not there or have turned our attention elsewhere, who knows what lessons anyone would take. And remonstrating disdainfully, should it have gone wrong, is unlikely to build much of a bond of trust.
Interestingly, Michael Gervais also emphasised that the players at the Seattle Seahawks are encouraged to not even feel the need to look to the sidelines when things go wrong - being able to take it for granted the coaching team is still behind them and willing them on.
Ready?
What gets in the way and a story of bravery
A story from my coaching that I shared adds to this picture of the art and craft of coaching. It starts out, though, by turning attention to the things that get in the way of someone learning a new skill.
A few days before the first online session a woman came to me for help to get into open water swimming. As we talked things through it was clear that there were at least three things that would affect how we would set about the learning experience.
First, a deep emotional history, as she carried a fear of being overwhelmed by the water having nearly drowned as a three year old. Second, she seemed rather stuck in a fixed mindset, telling me long before we got going that she would be “useless” and a beyond hope challenge for me. And thirdly, I could see she had certain ingrained habits from having swum a particular way that, in some respects, needed to be un-learnt.
Three things stand out for me - the first of which was highlighted by others’ reactions when I shared the story: her sheer bravery. How extraordinary and what a privilege to be approached to help someone overcome their deep seated fears and learn something new. Secondly, it is not my job as a coach to resolve all the deeper issues. But I want to have a sensitivity to and an appreciation of how they shape and colour the challenges for her.
Now, I am aware there are many great swim coaches out there who would probably be able to teach her super effective swimming. Her confidence in the water and self-belief might well be transformed as she follows their instructions. My third point is how much richer and more fulfilling would be the coaching experience for both of us if we anchor learning techniques and skills in deeper components of self-belief and confidence? As set out in my Coaching for Confidence Learning Zone, I believe these come down to nurturing a sense of excitement, as in an anticipatory thrill of what might be possible; engendering a conviction in control and an ease with what we can’t control; and seeking out and constantly looking to attain what I call fluency. And I believe we can coach for each of these.
back to fluency
This takes us back to David Rosengren’s distinction between fluency and mastery. When I focus on fluency with my endurance sports athletes it’s not about the mindless proficiency, borne of repetitive practice that David seemed to refer to. I think of fluency as much closer to what some call flow (after Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) - the sense of being so absorbed in the moment and everything in sync and balance. It’s not effortless but every ounce of effort is directed at moving through the water or over the ground with an exhilarating fluidity and focus.
And where some people think of flow as a rather elusive, fleeting state that no one is quite sure how it comes about, I think we can coach people for it by nurturing in them a relaxed alertness and being attuned to their form, effort and movement. How things look to the coach take second place to how everything feels for the athlete. To me that’s athlete centred!
Where the Science of Learning fits in - and gives me some reassurance that the evidence backs my approach - is the emphasis on asking the athlete to take in and reflect on a particular skill so it is there in the deep memory storage, ready to be put into practice in unexpected ways. And I see the results in people surprising themselves with the amazing things they can do.
models of the art of learning
One final thought. This came from Hockey Coach Lucy Moore. She shared with us an exceptional challenge she had in taking on a very mixed ability young team, with members of different ages, different ambitions and motivations as well as different gender. Somehow - I wish I knew more of the story - she seemed to use the differences to positively bind the team together.
Lucy added to her story an extra for us to close on. After showing a photo of her wonderful team, big proud grins on display, she shared a photo of herself looking rather nervous and unsure, bike helmet perched on her head. The explanation: she recently took up cycling.
By putting herself in the place of a learner - bike handling skills to be mastered, a new level of fitness to reach for and a novice’s nervousness to grapple with - she said she felt much better able to empathise and understand her young sports people. What a great example of modelling the same openness and bravery to learn that we hope to see in those we coach.
Big thanks to Professor Rollnick for bringing us all together, David and everyone else who shared so openly their stories and insights.
As always please use the comments box below to share your reflections.