SimonHarlingBlog Posts

Dumbing down what you have to say makes it easier for others to follow.

But there is another way.

Making your partner look good is an old improv rule. It’s an invitation to contribute to the possibility of the moment. A focus on what you can do not on what you can’t.

It’s a helpful habit to get into and rarer than you think.

Footage of a 5-year-old child riding their bike on a road is doing the rounds on social media. The point of contention is the oncoming traffic is moving at pace and dangerously close to the child.

We know that the speed of collision in a road traffic accident is a significant contributing factor to serious injury and fatalities.

We also know that in the UK cars and other vehicles are to give way to pedestrians and cyclists. The highway code states “those who can cause the greatest harm have the greatest responsibility to reduce the danger or threat they pose to others.”

Social media gives us a platform for our opinions. And it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that our opinion matters. But without a testable hypothesis, facts, or the self-awareness to state that it is only your opinion is it unlikely that it does.

Irrespective of age, the driver of the car was in the wrong and should not have endangered the life of a cyclist. Fact. Anything else is just your opinion and in this case an indefensibly dangerous one.

A value chain is a process that a product goes through before it reaches a consumer.

As a coach, it is tempting to think all the value is in the delivery. Or perhaps, in the delivery and follow-up support. But that would be ignoring the chain of events prior to delivery.

Improving. Engaging. Designing. Building.

If you want to make more than the delivery person you need to think outside the box.

To make a carrot cake you whisk the wet ingredients of oil, yogurt, eggs, vanilla, and zest together.  Then mix the dry ingredients of flour, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg with a good pinch of salt in a separate bowl. Before mixing the wet and dry ingredients together with the carrots, raisins, and some nuts.

If you are late to a cookery class it might be tempting to join in where they are, not where you are. But logic tells you to follow the recipe. Without the recipe, you don’t have a cake.

The opposite is true if you turn up late in the field of physical development and training.

Recipe

I can’t chart how much I have enjoyed the creative process of writing. The people I now interact with because of the ideas I have picked up and put down. Or the feeling I get when the graph of my followers on Medium looks like a scale replica of Elon Musk’s wealth tracker.

For those starting on zero. No money. No Talent. Now what?

To the moon!

No hoop to jump through. Or expectation of a thank you. Not even a service to self.

Just because you can.

Yesterday I helped a friend plan their project. The spreadsheet was already up and running, with resources allocated and the upside calculated. There didn’t seem much else to do.

What can you afford to lose? I asked.

Understandably the project was based on what my friend had to gain, not on what she had to lose.

Home runs are nice when they come. But few of us want to stand at the plate swinging at pitches all day. One hour of practice should be enough to tell us if our luck is in. If not switch and move on.

If premiership footballers don’t want to lift weights. When the overwhelming majority of sports science and strength and conditioning practitioners in the English Football Academy setups don’t possess professional accreditation. Is that the choice of the fans, manager, players, board, or practitioner?

It is tempting to think we can each carry the culture of an organisation, team, or collective. But who is the culture for our clients, stakeholders, staff, or the board? And does it depend on who is asking and if they need the culture to fit their situation at the time?

Few consider anything beyond profit, the next game, or keeping the person in front of them happy.

If you think you are carrying a culture it might be worth asking who you are carrying it for.

Nothing says here is how I plan to rationalise my choices like a 2 x 2 grid.

But I’m a sucker for a triangle. I once read that Nasa uses a decision triangle for their rocket design projects.

Is it safe?

Is it a design advancement?

How much does it cost?

Each day I draw a triangle and write out these 3 questions. One at each point.

What can I tolerate?

Who am I being?

What can I create?

Some days one side of the triangle appears longer than the others but the point remains the same. It’s a great day when I work with the choices I make.

Is the act of provoking someone – doing something just to get a reaction.

What if the point of coaching was to provoke someone into leading?

You can’t challenge the direction of travel and be in charge of directing traffic at the same time.

Thinking about training journals, training methods, and client expectations.

To expose hidden interactions, details deemed unimportant, and where the gaps may be. Write it down.

Telepathy is way less effective.

I have long held the belief that the basics done well will trump most other coaching programs that you will see.

And for just as long I have known that selling the basics won’t make you rich or famous.

So it is easy to see why we might think the hard bit is selling the idea of mastering the basics. Or resisting the urge to sell out and say whatever makes the most money.

But what if the hard part is selling the idea that your incompetence is acceptable? In fact, it’s welcomed. 

Now that might seem like a tougher sell than selling the basics done well, but hear me out. 

To come from where we are is courageous. Yes, it’s an acceptance of incompetence. But it is  also a smart move because in the words of psychologist J T MacCurdy “courage is the mother and father of self-confidence.”

When we accept the position we are in, we are not only courageous, but we are also giving ourselves the best chance of success. 

Weakness is not only a strength but also a great place to start.

If you identify as an anarchist it is likely that you believe two things.

1. Power corrupts
2. We are capable of organising ourselves and our communities. Nobody needs to tell us how.

David Graeber suggested that the principles of anarchy are respect and consideration for others. That by listening to what others say, rather than being ruled by one, you are being an anarchist.

One of the key elements of designing any coaching environment is to decide how much chaos you are comfortable with. But it is worth remembering that chaos without purpose is just that, chaos.

Perhaps then an anarchistic coach is one who understands that the reason they got into coaching was not to feel powerful and in control. But rather to be comfortable with chaos in order for others to create their purpose.

Feel free to take the anarchist test here.

Often we think that our first offer should be our best offer. That if at some point we change then we lose face. Or worse still we lose our place. But, that’s unlikely, unless of course staying in line is the most valuable thing you can do.

Here is my theory. I think one of the most important jobs a coach can do is to put down a placeholder. Something to aim at, discuss and develop, but not take so seriously that you can’t change it for a better offer.

Has anyone got a better offer?

Thank you to Lins for adapting this summer activity program and making it her own Halloween activity sheet for Cardiff Free Play.

Why not get involved and post your ideas, pictures, and videos using #freeplay

Coaches understand the creative process and know the map is not the territory. Mentors know the territory better than anyone and have no need for a map.

Distinctions matter.

I’ve met coaches who have been on incredibly inspiring journeys to get where they are now. But, I’m not sure they are coaches. I think they are probably mentors. 

And I know coaches who behave like mentors. They have never achieved what their athletes want to achieve. And yet, they tell them what they want them to do. 

You like to lead and yet you like your own company.

You don’t like being inside but you also don’t like being outside. 

You stand on stage unless, of course, you are watching from the back of the room. 

Working with people can feel complicated. The simplest way to remind yourself might just be to create a simple coaching manifesto for each environment that you are in. Each it’s own layer with its own order.

Just as you move a fulcrum to change leverage. So you can create a coaching manifesto to move your position.

Unless of course, you fixed your position.

The job of a coach is to control the flow of information within the environment. Too much and it is overwhelming. Too little and we miss why we are doing what we are doing.  

It is tempting to say the same thing over and over in the hope the information sticks. But that is not productive. The information is passive, not active.

When considering the coaching environment that you want to create for yourself and others it might be worth considering what would happen when you take your finger off the replay button and just press play instead.

Designing a learning environment is about the level of risk you are willing to accept. Offset against the value (market and social) you can create and the impact you hope to make. 

I wonder how many coaches consider the learning environment they want to create for themselves?

Low-risk behaviours:

Attending conferences led by experts

Working in isolation

Seeking accreditations and qualifications

High-risk behaviours:

Peer group learning

Mentorship

Project-based learning

The athletic kid’s conference is an example of something that is risky but worth it. You can register your interest here.

The problem with using such a broad term is frequently the people you are speaking to don’t consider themselves “guys.”

When you speak to one person, dress for one person, or try to impress one person, other than you. It’s risky, as it’s only one, and it could so easily be none. And yet the moment passes, and the reason too.

Perhaps that’s the point and also the joy.

The world is full of throwaway rubbish. If we are going to throw something away, at least give it some meaning.

Thx Joe

“Why for the love of mustard are there never enough buns?”

It is tempting to think that the dog in the middle is the star of the show. So we focus more on getting a better hotdog. The bun and the whole experience of eating the hotdog are an afterthought.

If you can measure the difference it is worth bringing in a strength coach. And that works until the inevitable point of diminishing returns. Just like a premium hotdog served in a cheap bun, at some point a premium hotdog is no longer enough.

But by this time, it’s too late, the moment has gone.

Long-term athletic development plans are designed to create a whole experience. The temptation is to invest only in the middle. But pick up the plan in the middle and you miss the point.

It is on the industry to have difficult and hard conversations about starting at the start. When the temptation is to pick up the work in the middle and pretend that it is the most important. After all, the point of a coach is to help us with difficult. 

The saying goes that “turnover is vanity and profit is sanity.”

But perhaps it’s time to reconsider our definition of sanity. Because the relentless pursuit of something that in the end does not make us any happier does not sound much like sanity to me.

Whenever I watch coaching videos I’m always interested in the coach’s tic. The last thing you hear before the athlete begins their effort. What’s really on the coach’s mind?

“Remember! Follow the process, enjoy the moment and let’s go and get that win.”

” Don’t forget to breathe.”

“Set yourself up, now engage the core. “

Does anyone really need a reminder about any of these things? Probably not. Do they need to understand how to do them effectively on their own? Probably yes.

Don’t forget to breathe.

If the Conga has taught us anything it is that you don’t have to be the best dancer to get others to dance, you just need to be easy to follow.

Recently my mum had a tough time of it. And it was tempting to pander to her needs. My sister is a neuro physiotherapist and had other ideas.

Part of the deal of being a neuro physiotherapist is that you don’t do anything your client can do for themselves.

And that has got me thinking about my kids.

What can they do?

What would they like to be able to do?

What should they be able to do?

The list should be ever-changing and that’s something I’m looking forward to exploring.

Can you change the tyre on your bike?

A friend of mine recently went on a company outing to develop team spirit. Dinner was in a fancy hotel where the directors were staying. A hotel further down the road housed the others.

We find more meaning in our actions than we do our words,

You like the rules but dislike the situation you find yourself in.

So you jump a red light. Play up to the referee. That crisis is on you.

Stay classy

Because Free Play is led by kids it is likely to involve things they can do or things they would like to do.

The What’s App group for the parents of kids who could go to free play is full of messages about what they can’t do.

Jumping to a conclusion speeds things up. Training content from Instagram. A new coaching plan from Twitter.

We can see it works and provided we follow the instructions we should get the same outcome.

But here is the rub. If you can slow down long enough to answer it.

What has to be true for it to work for you?

Inconsequential is something that is of little importance. We rarely insure against loss for things that are inconsequential. Exactly because they are inconsequential, we don’t fear their loss.

The opposite of inconsequential is consequential. Which means to follow on from something. And we often insure against consequential loss because of the consequences we face as a result of the loss. A house flood for example.

As parents, teachers, and coaches of kids on the sides of sports pitches. What consequences do we think we are protecting ourselves against?

When you focus on the finish line, you keep your eyes on the prize, narrowing your attention. It just might change your perception of how far away the line is. Perhaps encouraging you to move faster toward completion.

The finish line will come into focus when you are ready. But don’t confuse that with thinking you are not yet ready to start.

One step and a time will do it.

This last week I have been lucky enough to talk to two coaches who are doing things differently.

But there is one similarity.

One created their own role, the other their own club, and both created something where once there was nothing.

With success has come the idea of scaling, putting it all in a box, and sending it on its way to create the same change that has gone before.

Some things scale well, but the change only you can make won’t be one of them.

When another large chemical company sponsors another successful cycling team what are we to make of it?

Ineos Grenadiers are there for the win but British Cycling is also there if you just want to take part. At least, that’s the story. And whether we like it or not sponsorship is part of the story of sport.

Sport at its best gives us all the opportunity to create our own stories, write our own headlines, and own our change.

But let’s not forget that sport doesn’t build character it reveals it.

Take the shortcut often enough and the cuts add up. Maybe they add up to another win. Perhaps the cuts add up and in the end, we don’t have enough.

Or just maybe the point was never the shortcut.

Our response to the situation we face might just tell us all we need to know.

What needs to happen before?

What needs to happen after?

The middle is less important than you think, and more frustrating than you can imagine. Much like herding cats, I imagine.

We can’t all be above average. In fact, 50% of us are below average in whatever we are measuring.

The percentage of 6-12 year-olds who play sports on a regular basis is below average. And it’s worse if you come from a poor family.

So here is a hedge bet, an opposite position in a related asset.

A wide-ranging movement vocabulary in a deconstructed environment. The opposite of a narrow movement vocabulary in a structured environment.

Deconstructed because one of the assumptions in free play is that kids can find their own solutions. Largely I’m happy to play along. But, kids by the age of 10 are losing their ability to squat fully to the floor, I suspect through poor breathing patterns. And no amount of free play will bring that back.

The first rule of free play is not to talk about free play. So instead let’s talk about the 3 Ds of free play.

Deconstruct then Design for Development.

If everyone else is doing it and there is safety in numbers how risky can it be?

I mean very little effort for a big return. What’s not to like?

Even if we know we are playing the lottery, everyone else is, so why not you?

But playing a hit-and-miss game of lottery is a risk-seeking strategy. Risky, because it has a very low probability of working out. 

We dare to dream.

Raising active, healthy, and curious kids might feel messy and uncertain. Even unknown. But the odds are in your favour when you compare them to a coach trying to create a sporting superstar.

Perhaps you are hoping to blend in. Maybe you have found the perfect hiding place. Or you are just happy to keep the game moving on.

But there is another way.

And that way is the proposition of possibility. A way of generating and governing the problem space. You might call it a pitch.

Done badly, I’m with you, it is a shot to nothing, a pitch.

But done right it creates meaning, trust, and change. And perhaps that is the point.

Keep painting the same horizontal line on a canvas and soon enough paint will accumulate and begin to drip down. Once a drip begins to roll, it’s not clear how far it will roll.

The metaphor created by Kent Beck describes a generalist who acquires specialised knowledge when required and for as deep as is necessary.

Most coaches are technical specialists who like to paint in vertical lines. Going deep into a skill set on the assumption that it will be necessary.

The problem comes when a specialist needs to generalise. Because the paint runs in a vertical line when it comes to painting a horizontal line there is little or no paint to take across.

Parents, coaches, and teachers when it comes to kids be careful where you put the paint.

Maybe you have a love-hate relationship with your coach. And maybe that’s the point. To explore the edges try this at the end of a session, a workshop, or an event.

I like…..

I wish….

A chance to build on what is working and suggest improvements for what is not.

Change is hard and unreasonable but that doesn’t mean it always has to be that way.

In the gap between converging and diverging ideas lives possibility.

Close the space, crowd out the senses, and soon enough possibility disappears. If we understood sensory and cognitive load would we still act the way we do? I doubt it.

Possibility requires space. A space big enough for ideas to breathe, unfold and take shape.

Like a beating heart, the opening and closing of space bring to life our ideas.

Maybe it is true you have chosen to self-publish. But it is hard to believe.

Much more likely that your writing is not up to scratch. After all, why self-publish when agents who specialise in placing you with a publishing house can maximise your exposure and increase your chances of success?

A team full of specialists will take care of the dull stuff, from typesetting to typos and the optimal positioning.

Let’s face it, years later you will be telling tales of how you could have been a great writer. But you were unlucky, not spotted or you just didn’t want to sell out.

Nobody will believe you if you tell them self-publishing was a long-term plan. A chance to build a readership, interact on a personal level and control future formats of your work. And create the change your book talks about.

I mean who thinks long-term?

Sure you can control the pricing. The finer details of the cover, and even where you sell your work. But, really, you are not good enough to be, what we think of as a successful writer.

You guessed it, this is a metaphor. For the publishing house, think coach and for the author, think parent.

Until we give parents an option that is better than the fear of missing out on success, we can expect more and more parents to fall for the narrative of success even if it is a chance no better than playing the lottery.

You want your idea to develop and blossom to fruition as any parent would.

Your agent wants your idea to sell, just like any agent would.

Ideas like kids don’t come with instructions, but if they did, they would say, handle with care.

“Go for Quantity”

Put plenty of ideas in a room and guess what? You get more. Chopped and changed, mutated, and reformed. Maybe that’s the point but not when you need to make a choice.

“Defer Judgement”

Exactly what you want to hear when you need to change your mind. Not what you want to hear when you need to make a choice.

“Let’s stay focussed”

You might be on task yet you want to focus on the future.

Confusion or clarity is created in the moment. Don’t waste it.

When you stand up for something different compared to the others what you are actually doing is creating a choice.

Create enough choices and it is clear that paths begin to diverge. And that’s interesting because if a company chooses to stand up for the customer, not themselves. At first, not much appears to change. But do it enough times and the gap between what they were and what they have become is unrecognisable.

If you want to be like the rest, compromise.

No question it pays to have skills that pay the bills.

Knowing how to make a coffee

Lifeguarding

Serve a table

Skills that have a market value.

The problem comes when the value of the skills is not clear.

Sure we can teach skills in the hope we find a use for them in the game we are playing.

But perhaps it makes more sense to play the game and only then work to acquire skills that actually help us play a better game.

It’s clear most people like a list. Lists can make us sound clear and decisive, providing us with an illusion of control.

But not everyone likes a list.

Maybe we are avoiding things or worried about control and authoritarianism.

If lists are power, making a list of what you actually control is a good place to start. I’ve made a start for you.

Your time

Your response

How you show up

When we play along we end up in places we don’t belong.

“It is advisable to look up from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again”. John Steinbeck

Behind every kid who receives a participation award is a parent who has dragged their kid to practice when they don’t feel like it.

My kids had a lie-in today. I quit coaching football on a Sunday this season, and the kids have no obligations.

I struggled with it for a while, I felt the urge for them to be doing something until I realised that I trust my kids. Day after day, hour after hour, cycling to school whatever the weather, does that.

There is no punchline. Just a point of reflection. Who is it for?

I’ve been thinking about designing a free play space for kids in my local area.

One rule for the coaches and the kids. “I don’t have to do it, I get to do it.”

Everyone is free to play.

I once queried the order in which a famous coach worked. And that was the answer I got.

I never did get the chance to offer a riposte. So here it is. Any idiot can offer a solution.

And maybe that’s the problem.

Few of us slow down long enough to know if our problems are real and our answers helpful.

“Player-centered” youth sports programs and clubs are growing in popularity. But what does that actually mean? And if we are saying words, like “player-centered” what are we doing?

I am not clear.

But what I am clear on is this. If your program is “child-centred” then free play and exposure to a range of athletics skills are fundamental. You don’t need to be the sole provider but you do need to ensure there are clear pathways available for every child.

Feel free to use this audit.

Saying and then doing is different from doing and then saying. One approach may be better than the other but both are better than saying and not doing.

Your customers are not your friends. The exchange is one of economic value.

A social business, therefore, is not one that chats to its customers. But one that changes something in their customers’ lives. And that change brings value. Social value.

As a coach do you offer market prices and value for money?

Or do you solve a problem, the value of which the market can’t put a price on?

A man who didn’t have it his way found a way and in doing so owned his way.

The true test of extraordinary is when you are missed because no one else can do what you did. Eddie Butler

My kids used to sleep on a bunk bed in the same bedroom. I could go into their room unannounced and be in their space.

Recently, we decided to split the bunkbeds and gave them each their own bedroom.

I now have to knock on a closed bedroom door, for either of them to peer around it and decide if I can come in. Within 24 hours the game changed and with it the rules.

How changing an environment can change how people behave, right there.

We like to think we want something new when actually what we want is something that works.

America won the inaugural Women’s World Cup in 1991, some 30 years ago. If you think that was slowing moving it was.

But not anymore.

Women’s football is the fastest-growing sport in Europe. What was hard to do, over the last 30 years, is no longer hard at all. Football clubs are experiencing unprecedented periods of growth.

To cross the chasm and become mainstream products and services need to earn trust.

Football has clearly gained the trust of parents. Kids need to be active and if kids are happy to play football 3 times a week, then it appears to be a win for both parties. It works.

What doesn’t work is that girls are no longer throwing and catching, hitting or striking a ball, or moving to music. instead, they are playing football 3 times a week.

Perhaps, it is time for Women’s football not to seek parity with the men’s game but to forge a new path, its own path, that builds on the trust it has to do things differently.

Tony’s Chocolonely exists because it wants to change the cocoa industry.

More confectionary companies offering more choice does not change what the industry does or stands for, it simply provides more choice.

More choice for the consumer may be why the cocoa industry exists. But I doubt it.

We think “grassroots” sports are about offering more choice, but in truth, it is about changing the industry. More choice is not the hard part.

We exist becuase…….

A lot of strength coaches talk about what being strong means.

For some strong enough is bodyweight on the big lifts. Others think the game changes when you can lift 1.5 x body weight. While others suggest you focus on something else when you can lift x 2 bodyweight.

In a rush few talk about what it means to take your time.

A utopia is an intentional community, a community of optimal or near-optimal conditions. Many of us dream of designing a utopia. A place where the wind always blows in the right direction.

Would you like to sit with success in Utopia or would you miss the ebb and flow of success and failure?

I wonder if there is a name for a community of people who exist just above selling out (the last rung on the ladder of human hope). Far enough away to keep you motivated to stay away but not so far away that you become complacent.

While we wait for a near-optimal name for the group from those living in Utopia. Let’s agree to call it a collective.

Is the go-to answer for strength and conditioning coaches. A way of suggesting that the answer to a question will vary from person to person.

Assumptions are things we believe to be true and constraints are things we know to be true. If your project, attitude, or next answer depends on your assumptions. We all need to hope the response is “on what?”

An intentional statement has a mind-to-world fit. By making our intentions known, the hope is of course that the world is organised in such a way that our intentions hold true.

To my disappointment. I found out that the world was not organised to help me become bold. No matter how many times I wrote it down.

It was, after all, a desire.

The shift happens when we let go of trying to make things fit.

When the only constant is change, one thing never changes. Right here, right now.

Penelope Trunk.

Some judicial judges have reputations for handing out harsh sentences. For example, a “hanging judge’s” attitude to sentencing is one of deterrence and incapacitation. There is no interest in rehabilitating criminals.

If you are a judge that is interested in rehabilitating criminals. A judgment handed out by a “hanging judge” goes against the grain.

Few of us, actively manage our attitude towards the roles we occupy. Often we fall in, muck in and try to make it work. And if that is true then it is harder still to imagine that we are capable of creating a culture that fits our attitude.

A coach who thinks coaching is leadership will function best in a role that offers authority and legitimacy.

A teacher who thinks teaching is about inspiring and engaging their pupils will thrive in an environment in which “A” grades are not the only outcome to shout about.

Your attitude might well stink. But it is much more likely that you have paid no attention to what you think you actually do.

That’s it, that’s your job, to create meaning.

What impact are you having?

Whom are you influencing?

And what culture are you involved in creating?

This week my eldest was looking forward to her first PE lesson at senior school. Her class failed to change in the required 3-minute allocated slot. So they practiced changing the entire lesson. For now, she hates PE.

“What do you think you are doing?” is a useful challenge but when used on others, it pays to be clear who it is that is feeling challenged.

In the world of sport, numbers provide measures and measures provide direction.

Here is a list based on the order of importance.

The sport

The sports club

The people who play the sport

We create infrastructure around sport to support it, no infrastructure no people; build it and they will come.

When we change the order it looks like this.

The people who play the sport

The sports club

The sport

Changing the order in which we do things changes the message we send. The sport is less important than the people who play it.

Now that is an order worth fighting for.

An admission of failure, a lack of guts, or an ability to see the bigger picture.

Not all quits are the same, some are more powerful than others but all create change.

When we put things in the wrong order we send the wrong message.

Is a tool that opens bottles, breaks the foil seal on wine bottles, and takes the cork out of wine bottles.

In a busy restaurant, having one tool for three jobs is invaluable.

Sport was once for recreational purposes. Now it is a tool to make money, provide opportunities for young people to make something of their lives, and of course, keep people active.

Sport has always given us an opportunity to do something. I’m just not sure that in its current format it is quite the friend we think it is.

Struggling to create the change you seek?

Try changing the order in which you do things.

The latest National Audit Office report on grassroots participation in sport and physical activity is difficult to read.

Since its inception in 1997, Sport England has spent £50 Trillion pounds of lottery funds and £300 million from the Exchequer.

The report suggests that a lack of communication, teamwork, and clear goals as possible causes of failure. Everything that sport is supposed to teach us.

The Yunnus Sports Hub has 7 principles that define a social business.

1. Business objective will be to overcome poverty or one or more problems (such as education, health, technology access, and environment) that threaten people and society; not profit maximization

2. Financial and economic sustainability

3. Investors get back their investment amount only. No dividend is given beyond investment money

4. When the investment amount is paid back, company profit stays with the company for expansion and improvement

5. Gender-sensitive and environmentally conscious

6. Workforce gets market wage with better working conditions

7. …do it with joy

At a national level, Sport England has attempted to create change at a local level. And it clearly has not worked. The definition of a social business provided by Yunnus Sports Hub provides us with a new direction in which to look.

“A social business is measured by its ability to solve a problem.”

Starting with the end in mind is not the same as knowing what the end looks like. If that’s the case you are probably not trying hard enough.

When a creative project has value but the endpoint is not clear, keep going, you will know when you get there.

I’m excited to be able to share my book project with you in the coming months.

Working title: Good Coach Bad Coach.

I didn’t see the end of the book coming until I was ready. You won’t either if you are trying hard enough.

Sports organizations are not always clear as you would think about who their customer actually is. For example:

Is it the sport?

The club?

The people who run the club

Or the people who play the sport?

So here are two questions for people who run sports clubs

Who is it for?

What is it for?

Do something about doing nothing.

Most things are not sudden as you first thought, you just weren’t paying attention. When we want to look and feel like we are all headed in the same general direction. The trap is to pay no attention to the particular.

The particular slows us down, threatens to take us in a different direction, and magnifies our mistakes. It’s little wonder it doesn’t appear on many agendas.

I wrote a paper whose results I analysed using the “95% limits of agreement”. We would do well to remember to spend some time testing our limits of agreement. Far better than creating an illusion of agreement.

Teaching people how to catch fish is preferable to simply handing them your catch. For a little extra time spent, you get to keep your own fish.

If the task is to catch fish, then the skill is to be successful at catching them.

But the ability to catch fish is more than simply the knowledge required. It is also the environment in which we work, subjective and objective in its reality.

Before you assume you can teach anyone to fish, best you walk in their shoes for a while too.

I’m sure you are aware it’s a metaphor. Only fools rush in.

Don’t feel that you have to go with your first answer. You can change your mind. 

In fact, it’s worth remembering that we won’t think any less of you if you do.

What to do? When the kids stop following your drills. Or one of the kids puts their bib on in a way that makes them look like a tube, not a human being.

I can tell you that it’s easy to just reach for games that everyone will enjoy like tag or bulldogs. Or maybe set up a kickabout so they can do what they want.

What is not easy to do is figure out a way to engage kids in a way that will progress their skills.

Behaviour problem or engagement problem?

If you want to know what that struggle looks like you could do worse than watch Andrew Flintoff’s Field of Dreams.

The long game is to encourage constructive dissent. But in the short term, it can simply feels like dissent. One way to win is to make it about something bigger than you.

If you did what you told others to do. What would change?

Authority is a specific position occupied within an organisation. An organisation that has influence over the way you do things. Legitimacy is the right and acceptance of authority.

Authority without legitimacy is like a punch without power. You can keep throwing it. But at some point, people are going to notice that nothing much is happening.

The term “grassroots” means to gather everyone up at a local level and create change at a national level. Yet, sport is run at a national level, top-down, in an attempt to create change at a local level. The opposite of grassroots. 

Maybe you think the term  “grassroots” can also mean “foundational” or “developmental” and that a misunderstanding about terms doesn’t matter. So let me give you an example. 

If I am going to develop a plot of land I want to know what I can build and at what cost. If am going to put down a foundation on a plot of land, I want to know what I can build on that foundation, the dimensions, specifications, and cost. 

Whenever we put down a foundation or we develop something we want to know what we are getting and at what cost. Grassroots movements care about creating change. The cost matters less than the change.

The terms we use. The questions we use. The conversations we have about what we do. It all matters. 

At a grassroots level, If we care about increasing participation then let’s talk about how we increase the number of people participating

If we care about development let’s talk about the development plans we have, what we get, and at what cost. 

And if winning is all we are really worried about then let’s only talk to each other when we want to organise fixtures. 

It once attracted your attention and because you craved it, you changed your behaviour to get it. Now it goes unnoticed but the behaviour remains the same.

To improve control manipulate your surroundings.

You can find my Atomic Habit book notes here

It is clear that more coaches are asking for mentors. What is not clear is where the coach expects to go.

Any road will do if you don’t know where you are going.

So here is a suggestion.

Write to 3 very different people whom you admire within the industry. For each cover the following.

What you are looking for

What type of help you would like from them

The outcome that you seek

When asking for a lift being on the right road is helpful, knowing where you want to go, is better.

I took my desk-bound, screen-watching, teenage nephew out on his mountain bike.

2.5 hours later I returned him to his worried mother.

Kids are not broken. They don’t need fixing.

Kids are capable, durable, and above all fun to be around.

We just need to make the time.

Props to Mountain View Bike Park. We need more places like this where kids can go and be themselves.

Hard on the outside and soft in the middle.

Being clear on what is nonnegotiable creates a strong force field. While on the inside letting go of what requires control provides the space to play.

Of course, you could try appearing soft on the outside, while quietly seething on the inside.

The boiling frog story goes like this. Put a frog in boiling water and it will jump out. Use tepid water brought to a boil and the frog stays put.

When the situation changes, but slowly, if we are not paying attention, we don’t notice until it’s too late.

The good news is that changing locations is a natural thermoregulation response for frogs.

You know what to do if you want to be as smart as a frog. Pay attention to your surroundings.

What comes easily to you?

What could you drop that would not change what you do?  

Under what conditions do you get the best out of yourself?

What is essential in what you do?

Would people miss what you do?

Related to education and scholarship

Not of practical relevance; of only theoretical interest. 

Courtesy of Oxford Languages. 

Here are a few questions a coach should ask before attending a conference, event or talk. 

Who is benefiting? 

How does it help me?

Who is it for?

The Athletic Kids Conference has no panel of experts. Just coaches like you, meeting, connecting, and working to figure out how to take your next best step forward.

Let’s get to work.

Small-sided games are very forgiving. No time to sulk or overthink it. If your first touch was bad, maybe your second touch will be better. Opportunities to correct your mistakes come thick and fast.

The opposite of standing out on the wing, waiting to fluff the only chance you will get all game.

36 days to find a new rental property.

2 more stories to finish your book.

£1000 to hit your income target for the month. 

Nothing wrong with a deadline, it can tell you where you are just don’t confuse it with what you stand for and how you want to show up.

Shoulders back.

If you put a bunch of strength and conditioning coaches in a room it’s not long before the conversation turns to bargains and trade off’s.  

“Pre-season is 6 weeks long and aerobic conditioning requires longer than that to make a significant difference. “

“Racket sports players show up for 2 weeks blocks of fitness training, at a time, which is never long enough.”

And so it goes on. 

The job of the strength and conditioning coach is to understand the principles of strength and conditioning. A way of understanding the forces that might be at work when applying training doses without consideration for social conventions.

The alternative is to dose the training to fit social conventions. A rather “Hobbesian Bargain“. In exchange for protection, peace, and stability (income) we confer our rights and freedoms (obedience) to the client.

We imagine our bargain to be time versus the desired effect. “If I had more time then I could produce a bigger effect”. But the bargain is much more than that. It is the freedom to think.

After all, caution will get you nowhere. 

When we capitalise it, in marker pen, using large writing, it feels good. Like we are shouting it out for others to hear. 

And yet writing BOLD every day in a journal means that at some point soon, the desired effect will wear off. In fact, it was unlikely to have ever paid off. 

To move intentional statements to action. Try this small step. 

Before your marker pen runs out and the novelty wears off, share it with someone. That way, you have done another bold thing. From your head to paper and now the world. 

Be. Do. Say.

Define it.

Do it.

Talk about it.

To become bold we first need to begin by doing bold things.

“White middle-aged white men are dinosaurs.”

Dinosaurs once ruled the school with a brain about the size of a walnut. 

Being inflexible, slow, and entitled might be on brand but it’s not helping the cause.

The four stages of competence model, used by psychologists to help explain stages of skill acquisition is helpful.

Unconscious Incompetence. The equivalent of cold calling. The value of your idea, skill, or task is unknown. With kids and novice learners this is a problem. 

But problems have solutions. 

Broadly speaking coaches show up using one of 3 strategies:

Prestige; “Take my word for it”. The hope is that your clients are star-struck and will follow you’re every word.

Dominance; “You have to do it or else.” Compliance. Bullying is a proven strategy but that doesn’t make it right.  

Principled; This approach can be slow, chaotic, and requires an understanding of the creative process.

Here is a simple way to think about it. 

A Fundamental Movement skill for kids is jumping and landing. To improve the skill of jumping and landing it would be reasonable to offer kids the task of skipping. 

Watch what happens when you leave a pile of skipping ropes on the floor during practise. Some kids will pick them up and excel, a few might try and get bored. The rest will show no interest. 

Now you could tell them all to skip for 5 minutes before practise starts. But what happens when you are not watching? The chances are the status quo returns. The kids who love to explore and are curious will play. The rest do something else. 

Nothing really changes. 

To move from Unconscious Incompetence to Conscious Competence is dependent on the stimuli to learn. Fear, status, and a curious environment are all options. A well-drilled team can look like success but a kid who can think for themselves might just be a better moonshot. 

Perhaps a better question might be. How do I get them to care?

Try the skipping rope test

Resources that might help

What do you focus on?

Qualifications
Experience
The sport or activity
The values of the program

Here are some links that might help

Centric

An example not a challenge

Skills come out of necessity

Click here for the podcast mentioned in the skit

What do you think when you see kids on social media videos using battling ropes in gym classes?

If you think it’s better than nothing. Here are 3 resources to come off the fence.

And if you are a youth coach. What is behind the answer you give to the question?

What do I want people to see?

The bar is set very low. We want kids to be active. Perhaps with better questions and honest answers we can do better.

The culture of MORE in coaching.

More clients
More qualifications
More income

Perhaps there is a better way. A culture where you feel you can belong.

What better way to do that than to create it yourself?

Links that might help

Getting out of your own way is to recognise the doubts you have and do it anyway. But that doesn’t happen as often as we would like. 

The mechanism of choice when choosing a new student council, a coach for the village team, or just about any other elected position is based on popularity. And that means that we don’t get who we need for the job at hand we get the most popular. The prize is not the chance to do the work but the chance to elevate status. 

What would change if the coach of the local football team was chosen via a lottery? 

Choosing to wing it or the secret sauce approach would no longer be an option. Coaching mentorship and peer group support would support the coach, driven by the change they create not the qualification they hold. And of course, the players move from passive to active, since they carry the culture through the age groups. 

When we hold status we fear losing it. The more qualification you have the more entitled you feel. Perhaps it’s time to create a system where the only currency is the change we create. 

Are you willing to change? If not perhaps you are in the way. 

Thank you to Malcolm Gladwell for bringing my attention to the idea

https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/the-powerball-revolution

Asking anyone to trust the process, is like asking someone to trust in magic. Of course, you don’t trust magic, why would you? After all, it’s an illusion, a mind trick. 

Can you remember the last time you made an elephant disappear?

Forget the processes that are well-trodden paths of compliance. I’m talking about following a process that has no fixed outcome. A process that provides value, often in an intangible, unmeasurable way. In a way that makes you feel good about what you do and who you are. 

Just like magic, you can’t fully trust it, but you must fully buy into it for it to work.