I yelled at my kid’s football team during training.
Only it was.
I clearly didn’t want competition but I had one on my hands.
It wasn’t my fault. If you had asked me what was important. What was I committed to achieving? I would have told you. I had asked them to slow down and work on the quality of their movement.
I knew my outcome.
As a coach I value kids moving well. Fundamental movement skills and a framework for the kids to understand what is required of them.
So, I don’t have to yell each week.
I had told them to remain tall while skipping driving their right knees across to their left shoulder and vice versa. Done well the drill improves coordination, balance, and single-leg landing skills.
Have these kids no idea how good I am as a coach?
So, it’s not my fault, Bloody kids! They don’t listen.
Only I had lined them up. I had asked them to go from point A to point B in a straight line. I’d made it into a competition without realising it.
It was my fault.
It is on us, as parents, teachers, and volunteer coaches to create an environment in which kids are encouraged to explore and play. We lead by providing examples. Kids learn by copying. And we are all the product of the environment we create.
I’ve written about how to create an entrepreneurial sports coaching practise. But as a parent coach the design of the game I am playing is very different. The same rules do not apply.
To change how I show up as a coach. Crawl. Walk. Run is an idea to help volunteers, teachers, and parent coaches create coaching environments in which we say less and do more.
The commitment cost for the Crawl phase is ownership. It is all your fault. It is on you.
Crawl. Walk. Run
Develop the person. Develop the athlete
| Crawl | Walk | Run |
| Innate ability to move | Retain innate ability to move | Subject to sport specialisation retain innate ability to move |
| Can YOU help me to control my own body weight? | Can I control an external load (to body weight)? | Can We create a high-performance environment? |
| Product of the environment Copy Monkey See Monkey Do | Shapeshifting Earn the right to lift external loads | It’s on ME When do I do my best work? |
| Directive bases fitness. Application of defined constraints. | Application of directives until they don’t work. | Development of directives through the creative process of trial and error. |
| You/We fall to the level of our systems | I apply/reject what I think I know | Creation of meaning through the work that we do |
| Propositional KnowledgeProcedural Knowledge | Perspective Knowledge | Participatory Knowledge |
Games need rules. Directives provide guardrails that keep us on track towards how we want to show up as a coach. Here is an example of one I created off the back of “It’s not a competition!”.
Coaching directive (Crawl Phase): Disrupt order to remove all competitive (verbal, nonverbal) cues to provide focus on the quality and control of movement.
Questions that helped me to develop this coaching directive:
Who are you? What do you value? Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS)
What is important to you? Quality over quantity.
What do you want to focus on? Execution of the movement.
How do you want to show up? Chaos > Control. I need to disrupt the kids thinking.
Here is what I should have done:
Disrupt any hierarchical organisation within the group by having the group come into a huddle. Explain the drill. Ask them to do it from the place they are standing in any direction. Then get them to teach each other.
We associate order with rank. Rank brings competition. When my football kids compete on match day. There is only one rule. Enjoy competing with and for each other. If you don’t, quit. I’ll see you Wednesday in training.
The only score I keep is how much we all enjoy what we do.