Friday, November 4, 2011
Our Brains Evolved to Coordinate Movement
As coaches we are in the business of teaching movement, one of the most complex things in nature:
http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_wolpert_the_real_reason_for_brains.html?awesm=on.ted.com_Wolpert&utm_campaign=&utm_medium=on.ted.com-static&utm_source=t.co&utm_content=awesm-publisher
charlie
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Trying Not to Be Blind to Our Blindness
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/magazine/dont-blink-the-hazards-of-confidence.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&pagewanted=all
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Two Nice Reads
Check these out. First link is to an interesting research study about pushing athletes to perform at their best. The 2nd is to a video interview with the 100 year old man who just ran the Toronto marathon. File that under the "nothing is impossible" column:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/health/nutrition/20best.html?_r=2&emc=eta1&pagewanted=all
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15358137
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/health/nutrition/20best.html?_r=2&emc=eta1&pagewanted=all
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15358137
Thursday, September 1, 2011
The Emotions of Coaching Part 2
In part 2 of this series on the emotions of coaching, I want to explore the issues new coaches face, and the particular emotional characteristics needed to work effectively with teenagers. I think both topics connect around trust, because trust takes time to build and the older the athlete, the longer that process.
As coaches we are often in the position of changing teams, or changing roles within a team. And because of that, the kids we coach, especially the teenagers, have many years of history with other coaches. We do not coach in a vacuum, and their history of good or bad experiences with previous coaches is always at work in the present moment – the past is always with us. For those of you who have been running your system in the same place for 5 or more years, you do not currently face the same challenges, but new assistants may.
A new coach (and by “new” I mean having worked for a team for a year or less) has to win over the trust of the athletes. Do not confuse trust with how much they like you. The swimmers may like you as a person before trusting you as a coach. Until they have a track record with you, or until you have a track record with other swimmers they know, they will be unsure of your effectiveness. This isn’t usually a calculated, cognitive skepticism on their part, it’s emotional. And it’s also historical, they are likely to have had at least one coach prior to you that they succeeded with, and that coach will be their standard. And do we not sometimes do the same to them? We probably have had athletes in our past who did very well under us. Do they not become the standard by which we judge our new athletes? Neither mindset is fair or useful, the more you (and they) can start fresh with a blank slate, the faster a real connection can be made.
The new coach must be aware of this dynamic and appreciate that only an accumulation of good coaching over time will build trust. The new coach must be patient with the kids and not take comments like, “The old coach told me to do it this way” personally. The past is always present, you must understand that as they learn your new ways.
Part of trust building are “tests” the athletes will put you through. I use quotes around tests because they may not be testing you consciously, but they are doing it. They will see if you are consistent in your rules, your promises and your reactions. It’s imperative to be consistent with kids of all ages. Don’t say, “We will start this set over if anyone doesn’t streamline” if you aren’t prepared to start the set over! And if you make that rule not just for today but always, you really better be ready to stop the best set of the season! You can’t lecture them about treating each other with respect and then join in when they are teasing each other or making jokes. You can’t say “no cursing” and then not call someone out after they curse – what you allow, you endorse. Threats or promises that aren’t kept break trust. This is just like the back and forth they have with their parents, testing boundaries, testing resolve, and that is all a natural part of forming their own self-identity. I’ve found the better athletes actually do more of this. The most obedient, most cooperative kids are often lower performing on average. A group of sheep isn’t the best group.
As a side note, almost all of this applies to the parents as well. Their good or bad history with a previous coach (or with the club in general) is always at work in your interactions. Some will be thrilled the old coach is gone, some will be mad, and some will test your resolve. Youth factors into that as well, the younger the coach, the longer it takes for the parents to respect you. Do what you say, and say what you do. Be fair, friendly and consistent.
With the athletes on deck, beware of overcompensation. Say you want to prove to them you are a good coach, so you keep referencing the success of kids on your old team. Do that often enough and they’ll think you don’t value them. Or say you want them to believe you know the science of swimming, so you talk over their heads using big terms. Keep that up and they will tune you out. Or say you want them to like you, so you make lots of jokes and tell funny stories. Too much of that and you have a group that sees you as the “easy coach.” Or say you want them to think you are tough and that they must respect you, so you yell and punish and snap at them. Too much of that generates hatred. Overcompensation is a manifestation of insecurity. Examine that, address it in yourself, and you will be a better coach.
The athletes will also judge you based on how the experienced staff talk about you, talk to you and act around you. You may not be able to control that, but you can control your reactions to them. It’s easy to act friendly toward the other coaches you like, but perhaps the one you don’t get along with was the favorite of the best swimmer in your new group. The swimmers judge you against their histories and the attitudes toward you by people they respect.
There is certainly more to talk about regarding the challenges of being a new coach, but let’s move into the emotional challenges that are particular to coaching teenagers. I’m thinking more senior age swimmers here than the 13-14s. If I had to put my finger on the emotional challenge that is front and center each day with a teenager it is “attitude.” Some of them are blessed with positive attitudes; they smile, they work hard, they make jokes, they listen, they are respectful, which makes them the ones we like to see each day. In others, the attitude can range from grumpy/whiney, to sarcastic/not caring, to downright hostile. What’s a coach to do with all this in his underpaid, over-worked, face every day?
When Bobby Cox, the long-time manager of the Atlanta Braves, retired after the 2010 season, he was asked by a journalist what advice he would give young managers coming up. He had a one word response: “Patience.” You must have great patience. And you must have perspective on where they are at in their own lives. It is a bit cliché but nonetheless true, you don’t know what’s been going on in the past 22 hours at school or at home. They may feel like they deserve a pat on the back for even making it to practice that day, and then when you hammer them on their bad attitude, it’s going to get ugly.
I don’t know about you, but looking back I must have been unpleasant to coach in high school. I won’t get into all the reasons for that, but trust me, I was no ideal swimmer. Were you? Actually, if you were, if you were the apple of the coach’s eye, if you were really fast and hard working and the team captain, and if you won the award for “best guy ever” at the end of the year, I’m not sure you will make a great coach. Well, maybe you will, but you will have to work hard at understanding the rest of us who were jerks as teenagers. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to be you and see all these kids who you were better than as a swimmer, and a person, constantly screwing up, yet again! Empathy will be your goal.
For me, and for most of you, just try to remember what it was like to be that age for a little while. Let all those negative memories come flooding back and you will start to be less reactive to their attitudes. And that’s the key, less reactive in the moment. Accept their failings and shortcomings, accept them as people whose brains are far from fully developed, whose judgment is impaired, whose life experience is tiny, whose identity is not set, and whose main goal is being liked by the other teenagers. If you can do that, then you can relax, be patient, be yourself more fully, and keep the focus on instruction, correction and motivation.
I know some of you are squirming right now thinking, “This is some touchy-feely nonsense. Our job is to make these kids better swimmers, better people, improve all those things you just said to accept. This is sports, you got to be tough to win!” Well, I agree actually. I think the best way to change someone is to bring them closer, not reject them. You accept them as people, with their faults and all, and then you nudge them to be better than they are. You nudge them every day, and if they don’t interpret what you are saying as a rejection and devaluation of them as people, then they will be more likely to change.
When a teenager really gets under your skin, try to take a step back and look at him/her as a child. When I would coach 9-10s, me and another coach of the same age group would always reminder ourselves (and the parents) “they are only 10!” when our expectations would get too high, or our frustration would boil over. Well, that teenager is 16, and don’t forget that while he may be as big as an adult, or try to talk like one, he is still a child.
9 out of 10 kids are doing their best each day, and what we are trying to do is teach them to reach past their current best to find out they can do way more, be far better, and be much faster. The motto of the Leadville 100 mile ultramarathon is, “You are tougher than you think you are, you can do more than you think you can.” Accept, instruct, correct, motivate, and be patient. Repeat daily.
As coaches we are often in the position of changing teams, or changing roles within a team. And because of that, the kids we coach, especially the teenagers, have many years of history with other coaches. We do not coach in a vacuum, and their history of good or bad experiences with previous coaches is always at work in the present moment – the past is always with us. For those of you who have been running your system in the same place for 5 or more years, you do not currently face the same challenges, but new assistants may.
A new coach (and by “new” I mean having worked for a team for a year or less) has to win over the trust of the athletes. Do not confuse trust with how much they like you. The swimmers may like you as a person before trusting you as a coach. Until they have a track record with you, or until you have a track record with other swimmers they know, they will be unsure of your effectiveness. This isn’t usually a calculated, cognitive skepticism on their part, it’s emotional. And it’s also historical, they are likely to have had at least one coach prior to you that they succeeded with, and that coach will be their standard. And do we not sometimes do the same to them? We probably have had athletes in our past who did very well under us. Do they not become the standard by which we judge our new athletes? Neither mindset is fair or useful, the more you (and they) can start fresh with a blank slate, the faster a real connection can be made.
The new coach must be aware of this dynamic and appreciate that only an accumulation of good coaching over time will build trust. The new coach must be patient with the kids and not take comments like, “The old coach told me to do it this way” personally. The past is always present, you must understand that as they learn your new ways.
Part of trust building are “tests” the athletes will put you through. I use quotes around tests because they may not be testing you consciously, but they are doing it. They will see if you are consistent in your rules, your promises and your reactions. It’s imperative to be consistent with kids of all ages. Don’t say, “We will start this set over if anyone doesn’t streamline” if you aren’t prepared to start the set over! And if you make that rule not just for today but always, you really better be ready to stop the best set of the season! You can’t lecture them about treating each other with respect and then join in when they are teasing each other or making jokes. You can’t say “no cursing” and then not call someone out after they curse – what you allow, you endorse. Threats or promises that aren’t kept break trust. This is just like the back and forth they have with their parents, testing boundaries, testing resolve, and that is all a natural part of forming their own self-identity. I’ve found the better athletes actually do more of this. The most obedient, most cooperative kids are often lower performing on average. A group of sheep isn’t the best group.
As a side note, almost all of this applies to the parents as well. Their good or bad history with a previous coach (or with the club in general) is always at work in your interactions. Some will be thrilled the old coach is gone, some will be mad, and some will test your resolve. Youth factors into that as well, the younger the coach, the longer it takes for the parents to respect you. Do what you say, and say what you do. Be fair, friendly and consistent.
With the athletes on deck, beware of overcompensation. Say you want to prove to them you are a good coach, so you keep referencing the success of kids on your old team. Do that often enough and they’ll think you don’t value them. Or say you want them to believe you know the science of swimming, so you talk over their heads using big terms. Keep that up and they will tune you out. Or say you want them to like you, so you make lots of jokes and tell funny stories. Too much of that and you have a group that sees you as the “easy coach.” Or say you want them to think you are tough and that they must respect you, so you yell and punish and snap at them. Too much of that generates hatred. Overcompensation is a manifestation of insecurity. Examine that, address it in yourself, and you will be a better coach.
The athletes will also judge you based on how the experienced staff talk about you, talk to you and act around you. You may not be able to control that, but you can control your reactions to them. It’s easy to act friendly toward the other coaches you like, but perhaps the one you don’t get along with was the favorite of the best swimmer in your new group. The swimmers judge you against their histories and the attitudes toward you by people they respect.
There is certainly more to talk about regarding the challenges of being a new coach, but let’s move into the emotional challenges that are particular to coaching teenagers. I’m thinking more senior age swimmers here than the 13-14s. If I had to put my finger on the emotional challenge that is front and center each day with a teenager it is “attitude.” Some of them are blessed with positive attitudes; they smile, they work hard, they make jokes, they listen, they are respectful, which makes them the ones we like to see each day. In others, the attitude can range from grumpy/whiney, to sarcastic/not caring, to downright hostile. What’s a coach to do with all this in his underpaid, over-worked, face every day?
When Bobby Cox, the long-time manager of the Atlanta Braves, retired after the 2010 season, he was asked by a journalist what advice he would give young managers coming up. He had a one word response: “Patience.” You must have great patience. And you must have perspective on where they are at in their own lives. It is a bit cliché but nonetheless true, you don’t know what’s been going on in the past 22 hours at school or at home. They may feel like they deserve a pat on the back for even making it to practice that day, and then when you hammer them on their bad attitude, it’s going to get ugly.
I don’t know about you, but looking back I must have been unpleasant to coach in high school. I won’t get into all the reasons for that, but trust me, I was no ideal swimmer. Were you? Actually, if you were, if you were the apple of the coach’s eye, if you were really fast and hard working and the team captain, and if you won the award for “best guy ever” at the end of the year, I’m not sure you will make a great coach. Well, maybe you will, but you will have to work hard at understanding the rest of us who were jerks as teenagers. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to be you and see all these kids who you were better than as a swimmer, and a person, constantly screwing up, yet again! Empathy will be your goal.
For me, and for most of you, just try to remember what it was like to be that age for a little while. Let all those negative memories come flooding back and you will start to be less reactive to their attitudes. And that’s the key, less reactive in the moment. Accept their failings and shortcomings, accept them as people whose brains are far from fully developed, whose judgment is impaired, whose life experience is tiny, whose identity is not set, and whose main goal is being liked by the other teenagers. If you can do that, then you can relax, be patient, be yourself more fully, and keep the focus on instruction, correction and motivation.
I know some of you are squirming right now thinking, “This is some touchy-feely nonsense. Our job is to make these kids better swimmers, better people, improve all those things you just said to accept. This is sports, you got to be tough to win!” Well, I agree actually. I think the best way to change someone is to bring them closer, not reject them. You accept them as people, with their faults and all, and then you nudge them to be better than they are. You nudge them every day, and if they don’t interpret what you are saying as a rejection and devaluation of them as people, then they will be more likely to change.
When a teenager really gets under your skin, try to take a step back and look at him/her as a child. When I would coach 9-10s, me and another coach of the same age group would always reminder ourselves (and the parents) “they are only 10!” when our expectations would get too high, or our frustration would boil over. Well, that teenager is 16, and don’t forget that while he may be as big as an adult, or try to talk like one, he is still a child.
9 out of 10 kids are doing their best each day, and what we are trying to do is teach them to reach past their current best to find out they can do way more, be far better, and be much faster. The motto of the Leadville 100 mile ultramarathon is, “You are tougher than you think you are, you can do more than you think you can.” Accept, instruct, correct, motivate, and be patient. Repeat daily.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Quick Thoughts on Being a Coach
This comes from the author John Maxwell. On what a coach should do:
People are insecure . . . . . . . . . . . So give them confidence.
People like to feel special . . . . . . . So sincerely compliment them.
People want a better tomorrow . . . . So show them hope.
People lack direction . . . . . . . . . . So navigate for them.
People are self-centered . . . . . . . . So speak to their needs first.
People get low emotionally . . . . . . . So encourage them.
People want success . . . . . . . . . . . So help them win.
People are insecure . . . . . . . . . . . So give them confidence.
People like to feel special . . . . . . . So sincerely compliment them.
People want a better tomorrow . . . . So show them hope.
People lack direction . . . . . . . . . . So navigate for them.
People are self-centered . . . . . . . . So speak to their needs first.
People get low emotionally . . . . . . . So encourage them.
People want success . . . . . . . . . . . So help them win.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Doing 1 Thing Really Well
I got wrapped up in the end of long course season, didn't have time to post.
I put out a lot of quotes on Twitter but this one, coming from Chris Ritter, has stuck with me more than others: “I don’t fear the man who practiced 10,000 kicks one time. I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times” – Bruce Lee
I used to kid around that I would give up my average abilities in many sports to be remarkably good at one, even if it were something like darts. Just to be that incredibly skilled at one thing held great appeal for me. I have made peace with that fact that my skills are spread evenly across many areas, but I still admire someone who does one thing really well. Why? It's the almost obsessive pursuit of the best, the years of training, refining, perfecting. And the result of that is something extraordinary.
I like the restaurant that is known far and wide for doing one thing really well. Whether it's barbeque, or burgers, or roast duck, or soup, or sandwiches, or high-end french food, the place becomes a mecca. A place like that makes an impact. It's opposite is the diner, where the menu is gigantic and the food is ok but not great.
We are bombarded with knowledge of all there is out there, all the types of things we could be doing. The endless stream of new information, new ideas, new approaches: "You still do/like _that_? I used to, but now I'm onto _this_." The cult of the new, it's like a disease in NYC.
I too don't fear the man who has done 10,000 kicks one time. Take the time to get really good at fewer things
I put out a lot of quotes on Twitter but this one, coming from Chris Ritter, has stuck with me more than others: “I don’t fear the man who practiced 10,000 kicks one time. I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times” – Bruce Lee
I used to kid around that I would give up my average abilities in many sports to be remarkably good at one, even if it were something like darts. Just to be that incredibly skilled at one thing held great appeal for me. I have made peace with that fact that my skills are spread evenly across many areas, but I still admire someone who does one thing really well. Why? It's the almost obsessive pursuit of the best, the years of training, refining, perfecting. And the result of that is something extraordinary.
I like the restaurant that is known far and wide for doing one thing really well. Whether it's barbeque, or burgers, or roast duck, or soup, or sandwiches, or high-end french food, the place becomes a mecca. A place like that makes an impact. It's opposite is the diner, where the menu is gigantic and the food is ok but not great.
We are bombarded with knowledge of all there is out there, all the types of things we could be doing. The endless stream of new information, new ideas, new approaches: "You still do/like _that_? I used to, but now I'm onto _this_." The cult of the new, it's like a disease in NYC.
I too don't fear the man who has done 10,000 kicks one time. Take the time to get really good at fewer things
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Bring Back Monkey Bars
There have been many articles in the last few years about increasing rates of injury in youth sports. While I know there are ignorant coaches out there who do not properly teach movements and overtrain kids, I think that is not the primary cause of these rates. If anything, there is likely less bad coaching now than in the past when exercise science was in its infancy.
I think the main cause is unfit children entering youth sports. They are less fit than they used to be because they are more sedentary and weigh more. Many also do not play outdoors like they used to. This article highlights that it's been overly worried parents and lawyers who have forced playgrounds to remove things like monkey bars which go a long way to building fitness in kids, along with helping them learn to deal with fear and challenge.
I remember my elementary school digging up our playground and replacing it when I was in the 5th grade (1991-92). We all ran onto it during the dedication ceremony and within 5 minutes the consensus was "this new playground sucks." Gone was the big slide and huge swings, the giant tires and the massive monkey bars. In it's place were lame, low structures that were little fun. I guess we all became "safer" that year.
The picture at the top of this article says it all -- those are little _girls_ hanging upside-down!
The photo at the top of the article says it all
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/science/19tierney.html?_r=1&ref=science
I think the main cause is unfit children entering youth sports. They are less fit than they used to be because they are more sedentary and weigh more. Many also do not play outdoors like they used to. This article highlights that it's been overly worried parents and lawyers who have forced playgrounds to remove things like monkey bars which go a long way to building fitness in kids, along with helping them learn to deal with fear and challenge.
I remember my elementary school digging up our playground and replacing it when I was in the 5th grade (1991-92). We all ran onto it during the dedication ceremony and within 5 minutes the consensus was "this new playground sucks." Gone was the big slide and huge swings, the giant tires and the massive monkey bars. In it's place were lame, low structures that were little fun. I guess we all became "safer" that year.
The picture at the top of this article says it all -- those are little _girls_ hanging upside-down!
The photo at the top of the article says it all
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/science/19tierney.html?_r=1&ref=science
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Ideal Club Coach
He is an independently wealthy man who volunteers 60 hours a week for the team. He has a very attractive, fit girlfriend or wife who spends her free time around the swim team, perhaps volunteering to teach yoga classes. Both are triathletes, don’t have children if they are young, or have children if they are 35+. They never miss church. Despite all the time spent coaching, he takes frequent trips around the world involving exercise. He did the Ironman last year, adventure hikes in Papa New Guinea, runs marathons on all continents. Upon returning from these trips, he gives out souvenirs to the kids, shows them photos, and tells grand tales of adventure, tying it all back into swimming and the team values. How does he get the time off for this travel? The rules don’t apply to Ideal Coach. Imagine a cross between James Bond and Superman. He makes it work!
He is a technological wiz, who uses his own expensive cameras to take photos and video of practice and meets. And he puts the photos online (but only the photos which demonstrate great technique or smiling faces, preferably both) and uploads hours of video which he narrates describing what the kids are doing well and what they could be doing better. He drives a fast car which gives him a “cool” factor. No regular club coach could afford all that, of course, but Ideal Coach is independently wealthy, which makes him a better coach than you or I.
He was a former top collegiate and national swimmer, who came out of a high-yardage club but who now forsakes that training in favor of technique, yet is also willing to do that training when necessary, yet when he does it’s with great technique. He is also up on the latest ideas in swimming, yet not minding being old-school, and having a complete detailed, progressive season plan keeping it all together. He also knows how to fix anything and everything very quickly, from a lane line to a pool filter, and buys all necessary parts/materials himself without billing the club. He can be extraordinarily loud but without ever being angry. He has an amazing no-finger whistle that has at least 10 distinct pitches that the kids can recognize while swimming, each pitch communicating a different message. His work with the parents is nothing short of amazing. Those 11pm emails from parents don’t bother him one bit, he responds immediately to all communication – he only needs 4 hours of sleep a night. He has numerous ties with rich people in the community. He can leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Ever see the Michelob Ultra ads? The ones with the young, attractive, fit professionals? A guy and girl finish at the office, go right into a run, and then from the run right into a bar, with other fit, young, attractive professionals. Well, the ideal coach lives this life. Ideal coach doesn’t go to the gym and workout alone, how awful that is, what a sign of anti-social patheticness. He works out with the masters team, the triathlete group, does the spin class, and plays in the local adult basketball league. He has been known to show up to practice and take the kids on a long bike ride instead of swimming. Wait, how did the kids know to bring their bikes that day? If you are asking those questions, you still don’t understand Ideal Coach. When you are as advanced a person as he, these things just work out.
Here is how a typical practice will run for this Ideal Coach. Remember this is what happens every day, not only on special occasions: Ideal Coach arrives on his bike after having done a 2 hour ride, with his attractive, fit wife/girlfriend who happens to have nothing else to do. Upon arriving on deck, with a guitar around his back, a cheer rings out among the swimmers, they scream wildly at the sight of him. He plays a song for the kids he just wrote while riding about swimming, which blends technique instruction with things they know from television. He smiles non-stop, never once not smiling. He has perfect posture and is handsome by everyone’s definition. The women love him, the men want to be him.
After the song, he cracks jokes with the parents and kids, as they surround him like a rock-star. His wife/girlfriend continues to charm the parents as he starts practice. The kids get in and swim warm-up, flawlessly executing a complex series of dives, sculling, kicking, backward swimming, underwater upside-down swimming, over and under lane lines, all while they smile. And out of the water they do flexibility, dynamic, strength building, crawling, hopping, skipping. All of this they have never done before, because if they had it would be “boring” and Ideal Coach is always new and creative. While they are doing that warm-up, he sneaks into the locker room and changes into a clown costume, or better yet, a dolphin costume. Upon arrival on deck the crowd goes wild.
He then takes on a full dolphin persona, while instructing the children in proper butterfly technique. The kids alternate between fits of laughter and careful attention, that most rare combination. They perform drills, yet not well enough, so this coach takes off the clown/dolphin gear, gets in the water with an iphone that works underwater, so he can video them doing drills, which he beams onto a television, from underwater, on a delay, so as the kids arrive at the wall they can see themselves. How was he able to set up this video system ahead of time? Wasn’t he out riding? That’s the magic of the ideal coach.
The children then begin a rigorous kick set, which he does with them, all the while encouraging and instructing. The last 15 minutes of practice involve a water game that is fun, instructive, challenging and reflecting the goals and values of the team, while also improving a swimming skill, in which all kids participate fully, as does the coach. The entire practice is all done in 1 lane if necessary, or 5, the coach is entirely flexible. After that, they get together for a 45 minute group meeting (how long is this practice? who cares when you are having this much fun!) in which the children listen to more empowering music and he reads inspirational quotes. Prizes are awarded daily.
Once practice ends, this hero-coach stays to help out with all other groups in a million ways, until 9pm at night. Never upstaging the other coaches, yet always fully engaged, oh what a balance he strikes! He does this every night, and on the weekends is at every session of a meet videotaping and coaching, but it causes no disruption to his marriage and family because he is Ideal Coach. Did I mention he isn’t paid? Because he is doing what he loves, he needn’t be, the money will work itself out.
What about all the admin work? Emails? Phone calls? Meet entries? Meetings? Oh, what about the meetings?!! How does he have time for all that? Ideal Coach does it all in less than half the time it takes the other under-developed people whom he works with. He can eat while driving and on his blackberry. It’s all for the love the kids and the love of sport!
So to all the young coaches out there, put down the books about swimming and ignore the fact that the head coach doesn’t act like this himself, nor do any of the top coaches in the country. Learn to be ldeal Coach, it’s the only way to get ahead.
He is a technological wiz, who uses his own expensive cameras to take photos and video of practice and meets. And he puts the photos online (but only the photos which demonstrate great technique or smiling faces, preferably both) and uploads hours of video which he narrates describing what the kids are doing well and what they could be doing better. He drives a fast car which gives him a “cool” factor. No regular club coach could afford all that, of course, but Ideal Coach is independently wealthy, which makes him a better coach than you or I.
He was a former top collegiate and national swimmer, who came out of a high-yardage club but who now forsakes that training in favor of technique, yet is also willing to do that training when necessary, yet when he does it’s with great technique. He is also up on the latest ideas in swimming, yet not minding being old-school, and having a complete detailed, progressive season plan keeping it all together. He also knows how to fix anything and everything very quickly, from a lane line to a pool filter, and buys all necessary parts/materials himself without billing the club. He can be extraordinarily loud but without ever being angry. He has an amazing no-finger whistle that has at least 10 distinct pitches that the kids can recognize while swimming, each pitch communicating a different message. His work with the parents is nothing short of amazing. Those 11pm emails from parents don’t bother him one bit, he responds immediately to all communication – he only needs 4 hours of sleep a night. He has numerous ties with rich people in the community. He can leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Ever see the Michelob Ultra ads? The ones with the young, attractive, fit professionals? A guy and girl finish at the office, go right into a run, and then from the run right into a bar, with other fit, young, attractive professionals. Well, the ideal coach lives this life. Ideal coach doesn’t go to the gym and workout alone, how awful that is, what a sign of anti-social patheticness. He works out with the masters team, the triathlete group, does the spin class, and plays in the local adult basketball league. He has been known to show up to practice and take the kids on a long bike ride instead of swimming. Wait, how did the kids know to bring their bikes that day? If you are asking those questions, you still don’t understand Ideal Coach. When you are as advanced a person as he, these things just work out.
Here is how a typical practice will run for this Ideal Coach. Remember this is what happens every day, not only on special occasions: Ideal Coach arrives on his bike after having done a 2 hour ride, with his attractive, fit wife/girlfriend who happens to have nothing else to do. Upon arriving on deck, with a guitar around his back, a cheer rings out among the swimmers, they scream wildly at the sight of him. He plays a song for the kids he just wrote while riding about swimming, which blends technique instruction with things they know from television. He smiles non-stop, never once not smiling. He has perfect posture and is handsome by everyone’s definition. The women love him, the men want to be him.
After the song, he cracks jokes with the parents and kids, as they surround him like a rock-star. His wife/girlfriend continues to charm the parents as he starts practice. The kids get in and swim warm-up, flawlessly executing a complex series of dives, sculling, kicking, backward swimming, underwater upside-down swimming, over and under lane lines, all while they smile. And out of the water they do flexibility, dynamic, strength building, crawling, hopping, skipping. All of this they have never done before, because if they had it would be “boring” and Ideal Coach is always new and creative. While they are doing that warm-up, he sneaks into the locker room and changes into a clown costume, or better yet, a dolphin costume. Upon arrival on deck the crowd goes wild.
He then takes on a full dolphin persona, while instructing the children in proper butterfly technique. The kids alternate between fits of laughter and careful attention, that most rare combination. They perform drills, yet not well enough, so this coach takes off the clown/dolphin gear, gets in the water with an iphone that works underwater, so he can video them doing drills, which he beams onto a television, from underwater, on a delay, so as the kids arrive at the wall they can see themselves. How was he able to set up this video system ahead of time? Wasn’t he out riding? That’s the magic of the ideal coach.
The children then begin a rigorous kick set, which he does with them, all the while encouraging and instructing. The last 15 minutes of practice involve a water game that is fun, instructive, challenging and reflecting the goals and values of the team, while also improving a swimming skill, in which all kids participate fully, as does the coach. The entire practice is all done in 1 lane if necessary, or 5, the coach is entirely flexible. After that, they get together for a 45 minute group meeting (how long is this practice? who cares when you are having this much fun!) in which the children listen to more empowering music and he reads inspirational quotes. Prizes are awarded daily.
Once practice ends, this hero-coach stays to help out with all other groups in a million ways, until 9pm at night. Never upstaging the other coaches, yet always fully engaged, oh what a balance he strikes! He does this every night, and on the weekends is at every session of a meet videotaping and coaching, but it causes no disruption to his marriage and family because he is Ideal Coach. Did I mention he isn’t paid? Because he is doing what he loves, he needn’t be, the money will work itself out.
What about all the admin work? Emails? Phone calls? Meet entries? Meetings? Oh, what about the meetings?!! How does he have time for all that? Ideal Coach does it all in less than half the time it takes the other under-developed people whom he works with. He can eat while driving and on his blackberry. It’s all for the love the kids and the love of sport!
So to all the young coaches out there, put down the books about swimming and ignore the fact that the head coach doesn’t act like this himself, nor do any of the top coaches in the country. Learn to be ldeal Coach, it’s the only way to get ahead.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Stay in the Fight
I recently reread two essays by William James, "The Will to Believe" and "Is Life Worth Living?" and they only get better with age. I recommend both, they can be read online for free through Google Books. I think so highly of William James that there is little I can add to his words, so I will just do some choice quoting.
From "The Will to Believe":
"I began by a reference to Fitz James Stephen; let me end by a quotation from him. 'What do you think of yourself? What do you think of the world? . . . These are questions with which all must deal as it seems good to them. They are riddles of the Sphinx, and in some way or other we must deal with them . . . In all important transactions of life we have to take a leap in the dark . . . If we decide to leave the riddles unanswered, that is a choice; if we waver in our answer, that, too, is a choice: but whatever choice we make, we make it at our peril. If a man chooses to turn his back altogether on God and the future, no one can prevent him; no one can show beyond reasonable doubt that he is mistaken. If a man thinks otherwise and acts as he thinks, I do not see that any one can prove that he is mistaken. Each must act as he thinks best; and if he is wrong, so much the worse for him. We stand on a mountain pass in the midst of whirling snow and blinding mist, through which we get glimpses now and then of paths which may be deceptive. If we stand still we shall be frozen to death. If we take the wrong road we shall be dashed to pieces. We do not certainly know whether there is any right one. What must we do? 'Be strong and of a good courage.' Act for the best, hope for the best, and take what comes . . . If death ends all, we cannot meet death better."
"Is Life Worth Living?" is addressed to those in despair, which at some times is all of us. As James says, "In the deepest heart of all of us there is a corner in which the ultimate mystery of things works sadly." He quotes James Thomson from "The City of Dreadful Night" to illustrate the point: "My Brother, my poor Brothers, it is thus:/This life holds nothing good for us,/But it ends soon and nevermore can be;/And we knew nothing of it ere our birth,/And shall know nothing when consigned to earth:/I ponder these thoughts, and they comfort me."
James makes two main arguments that life is worth living. The first is to fight, to continue on bravely in the battle of living. He quotes here from Carlyle: "Wherefore, like a coward, dost thou forever pip and whimper, and go cowering and trembling? Despicable biped! Hast thou not a heart; canst thou not suffer whatsoever it be; and, as a Child of Freedom, though outcast, trample Tophet {Hell} itself under thy feet, while it consumes thee? Let it come, then; I will meet it and defy it!" Now that's rousing!
The second argument is the stronger. It's two pronged. First is the counter to scientific or skeptical doubt, that since there is no proof life is meaningful, that there is any significance to us beyond our complexity, that there is divinity or an afterlife, we cannot believe. The second prong is that belief itself, despite a lack of proof, helps to create the fact. I'll leave you with this long quote. And does not the final sentence sound like quantum physics?:
"But 'may be! may be!' one now hears the positivist contemptuously exclaim; 'what use can a scientific life have for maybes?' Well, I reply, the scientific life itself has much to do with maybes, and human life at large has everything to do with them. So far as man stands for anything, and is productive or originative at all, his entire vital function may be said to have to deal with maybes. Not a victory is gained, not a deed of faithfulness or courage is done, except upon a maybe; not a service, not a sally of generosity, not a scientific exploration or experiment or textbook, that may not be a mistake. It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true.
Suppose, for instance, that you are climbing a mountain, and have worked yourself into a position from which the only escape is by a terrible leap. Have faith that you can successfully make it, and your feet are nerved to its accomplishment. But mistrust yourself, and think of all the sweet things you have heard the scientists say of maybes, and you will hesitate so long that, at last, all unstrung and trembling, and launching yourself in a moment of despair, you roll into the abyss. In such a case (and it belongs to an enormous class), the part of wisdom as well as of courage is to believe what is in the line of your needs, for only by such belief is the need fulfilled. Refuse to believe, and you shall indeed be right, for you shall irretrievably perish. But believe, and again you shall be right, for you shall save yourself. You make one or the other of two possible universes true by your trust or mistrust, -- both universes having only been maybes, in particular, before you contributed your act."
From "The Will to Believe":
"I began by a reference to Fitz James Stephen; let me end by a quotation from him. 'What do you think of yourself? What do you think of the world? . . . These are questions with which all must deal as it seems good to them. They are riddles of the Sphinx, and in some way or other we must deal with them . . . In all important transactions of life we have to take a leap in the dark . . . If we decide to leave the riddles unanswered, that is a choice; if we waver in our answer, that, too, is a choice: but whatever choice we make, we make it at our peril. If a man chooses to turn his back altogether on God and the future, no one can prevent him; no one can show beyond reasonable doubt that he is mistaken. If a man thinks otherwise and acts as he thinks, I do not see that any one can prove that he is mistaken. Each must act as he thinks best; and if he is wrong, so much the worse for him. We stand on a mountain pass in the midst of whirling snow and blinding mist, through which we get glimpses now and then of paths which may be deceptive. If we stand still we shall be frozen to death. If we take the wrong road we shall be dashed to pieces. We do not certainly know whether there is any right one. What must we do? 'Be strong and of a good courage.' Act for the best, hope for the best, and take what comes . . . If death ends all, we cannot meet death better."
"Is Life Worth Living?" is addressed to those in despair, which at some times is all of us. As James says, "In the deepest heart of all of us there is a corner in which the ultimate mystery of things works sadly." He quotes James Thomson from "The City of Dreadful Night" to illustrate the point: "My Brother, my poor Brothers, it is thus:/This life holds nothing good for us,/But it ends soon and nevermore can be;/And we knew nothing of it ere our birth,/And shall know nothing when consigned to earth:/I ponder these thoughts, and they comfort me."
James makes two main arguments that life is worth living. The first is to fight, to continue on bravely in the battle of living. He quotes here from Carlyle: "Wherefore, like a coward, dost thou forever pip and whimper, and go cowering and trembling? Despicable biped! Hast thou not a heart; canst thou not suffer whatsoever it be; and, as a Child of Freedom, though outcast, trample Tophet {Hell} itself under thy feet, while it consumes thee? Let it come, then; I will meet it and defy it!" Now that's rousing!
The second argument is the stronger. It's two pronged. First is the counter to scientific or skeptical doubt, that since there is no proof life is meaningful, that there is any significance to us beyond our complexity, that there is divinity or an afterlife, we cannot believe. The second prong is that belief itself, despite a lack of proof, helps to create the fact. I'll leave you with this long quote. And does not the final sentence sound like quantum physics?:
"But 'may be! may be!' one now hears the positivist contemptuously exclaim; 'what use can a scientific life have for maybes?' Well, I reply, the scientific life itself has much to do with maybes, and human life at large has everything to do with them. So far as man stands for anything, and is productive or originative at all, his entire vital function may be said to have to deal with maybes. Not a victory is gained, not a deed of faithfulness or courage is done, except upon a maybe; not a service, not a sally of generosity, not a scientific exploration or experiment or textbook, that may not be a mistake. It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true.
Suppose, for instance, that you are climbing a mountain, and have worked yourself into a position from which the only escape is by a terrible leap. Have faith that you can successfully make it, and your feet are nerved to its accomplishment. But mistrust yourself, and think of all the sweet things you have heard the scientists say of maybes, and you will hesitate so long that, at last, all unstrung and trembling, and launching yourself in a moment of despair, you roll into the abyss. In such a case (and it belongs to an enormous class), the part of wisdom as well as of courage is to believe what is in the line of your needs, for only by such belief is the need fulfilled. Refuse to believe, and you shall indeed be right, for you shall irretrievably perish. But believe, and again you shall be right, for you shall save yourself. You make one or the other of two possible universes true by your trust or mistrust, -- both universes having only been maybes, in particular, before you contributed your act."
Thursday, June 2, 2011
The Hard Volume High
I've started running. It has been a long time since I did any serious endurance training and I had forgotten the feeling of being crushed at the end of an hour of continuous exercise. In a full sweat, exhausted, stunned, heart beat pounding and psychologically in an altered state. You are impressed with what you've accomplished, you climbed the mountain you weren't sure you could get up. It's a powerfully positive state. I had forgotten how good it feels to just grind one out.
But I know that if I want to get better at running, I need to do other types of training. I need to do some repeat work, short distances run as fast as I can. I need to do some hills. But I'd rather not, and that's interesting. I'd rather not for two reasons. First is I know how slow I am and would feel disappointed at the end of the training session. Second, that type of work doesn't give me the "hard volume high." I'll be tired, whipped, but it won't feel as good.
It's also far more results driven, hitting a pace, the rest is timed, I either fail or succeed. Who wants that when I could rather just gut out some long distance and feel charged up after? If I really want to get better, I need to do a variety of work.
Coaches, don't forget what that hard volume high feels like and how your athletes (and you even) can get hooked on it.
But I know that if I want to get better at running, I need to do other types of training. I need to do some repeat work, short distances run as fast as I can. I need to do some hills. But I'd rather not, and that's interesting. I'd rather not for two reasons. First is I know how slow I am and would feel disappointed at the end of the training session. Second, that type of work doesn't give me the "hard volume high." I'll be tired, whipped, but it won't feel as good.
It's also far more results driven, hitting a pace, the rest is timed, I either fail or succeed. Who wants that when I could rather just gut out some long distance and feel charged up after? If I really want to get better, I need to do a variety of work.
Coaches, don't forget what that hard volume high feels like and how your athletes (and you even) can get hooked on it.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
An Irishman's Philosophy
In life, there are only two things to worry about—
Either you are well or you are sick.
If you are well, there is nothing to worry about,
But if you are sick, there are only two things to worry about—
Either you will get well or you will die.
If you get well, there is nothing to worry about,
But if you die, there are only two things to worry about—
Either you will go to heaven or hell.
If you go to heaven, there is nothing to worry about.
And if you go to hell, you’ll be so busy shaking hands with all your friends
You won’t have time to worry!
Either you are well or you are sick.
If you are well, there is nothing to worry about,
But if you are sick, there are only two things to worry about—
Either you will get well or you will die.
If you get well, there is nothing to worry about,
But if you die, there are only two things to worry about—
Either you will go to heaven or hell.
If you go to heaven, there is nothing to worry about.
And if you go to hell, you’ll be so busy shaking hands with all your friends
You won’t have time to worry!
Friday, May 20, 2011
The Emotions of Coaching: Part 1
This piece will appear in a future ASCA Publication. Enjoy
“Emotion runs the show in sports” – James Loehr “The New Toughness Training for Sports”
The more years I coach, the more I take this to heart. As a coach I am no less “run” by my emotions than the athletes. And my coaching effectiveness is determined as much by my emotions as it is by my knowledge. Many coaches are overdeveloped in one area and underdeveloped in the other. Some are amazing people who get kids to respond to them in almost magical ways. Others are the big brains in the sport, meticulous planners, technicians, relentless task masters who nail down the physical progression. But I think the greatest coaches have both, perhaps not in equal parts, but neither part is greatly deficient.
My goal is in this article is get each of you to reflect on your emotional state at practice, at meets, or any time you are working with the athletes. If you are like I am, you already spend a considerable amount of time reviewing your workouts, learning about training, technique and everything swimming related. I challenge you to put some of that energy and time into emotional evaluation. How do I act around the athletes? What puts me in a good mood? What puts me in a bad mood? What makes me tense? What makes me angry? If I were looking at me each day, as the swimmers do, what would I see? And is that what I want them to see? I think for most of us changing a workout, or teaching a stroke technique differently, is far easier than facing up to your emotional states and then working to overcome them. It’s time to do the hard-work of coaching . . . improving ourselves.
I have used the Eight-Fold Path from Buddhism to illustrate the process of making changes for athletes, but I think it applies equally well to evaluating ourselves emotionally as coaches. Each step on the path can apply to many different things (which is its beauty), so my interpretation is not meant to be complete, but rather illustrative of the emotional side of coaching:
1. Right views (understanding): Become aware of how you feel on deck, dig deep into the real feelings
2. Right purpose (aspiration): Decide what you aspire toward – what needs changing?
3. Right speech: Mind your speech, make sure it is in line with what message you want to send
4. Right conduct: Act in a way that helps you reach your goals
5. Right vocation: Live and work in such a way as to grow emotionally
6. Right effort: Your effort must be sustainable and effective
7. Right awareness (mind control): Learn to be less reactive and more thoughtful during the hard times
8. Right concentration (meditation): Learn how to think and feel deeply.
Ever read parenting books? Or even watch some of the parenting shows like “Supernanny?” I find watching Supernanny fascinating because it always appears that the most out of control kids can be subdued by simple, straightforward rule setting and enforcement. Nothing draconian, nothing severe, but clear and consistent expectations and consequences. But enforcing the rules is very hard for these parents, that’s why they are on the show in the first place – don’t mistake “simple” for “easy.” These parents are unable to do the right thing because of their own emotional shortcomings. The rule enforcement, the consequences, the patience, the self-examination, that is more difficult emotionally than letting them be bad, or just yelling at them when you get fed up. Good parenting is a lot about becoming a better person. I submit that good coaching is the same.
I quote here from a well-known article by Anson Dorrance, soccer coach at the University of North Carolina, titled “Coaching Women: Going Against the Instincts of My Gender”: “And while we, as coaches, never want to cease learning about our sport, ultimately, coaching development ceases to be about finding newer ways to organize practice. In other words, you soon stop collecting drills. Your coaching development shifts to observing how to support and motivate your players, and how to lead them to perform at higher and higher levels.” Technical learning needs to be ongoing, but it’s only a piece of the coaching puzzle. I’m at a place where I need to dig into myself to become a better coach.
So how did your season go? Great? Poor? Or, as usual, a mixed bag? How will you do better next season? Instead of chasing the next thing, or the magic set, or the newest piece of equipment, look at how you connected (or failed to connect) emotionally with your athletes. Are the ones doing well the ones you get along with best? Are they the ones you like being around the most? Or the ones that react most positively to your personality? The answer is likely yes to those questions and that’s natural. But which is the cart and which is the horse here? Are they getting the extra positive attention because they are doing the right things, or are they doing the right things because they are getting extra positive attention?
The challenge of coaching is investing the time and energy into the kids who you don’t connect with as well. Sometimes they are just the more quiet ones, or those who don’t seem to want to be there, or are difficult, or annoying. This next quote is from a recent article on espn.com by Bill Simmons about the Lakers coach Phil Jackson after his retirement. Phil is known for his 11 championship rings, and having coached Jordan and Kobe, but I think this is a majorly overlooked part of why he is one of the great coaches of all time: "Steve Kerr told me once that what made Jackson special -- and Popovich too -- was that he cared about his twelfth guy as much as his best guy. He spent time with his players, bought them gifts, thought about what made them tick. He connected with them, sold them on the concept of a team, stuck up for them when they needed him. His actual coaching -- calling plays, working refs, figuring out lineups and everything else that we see -- was a smaller piece of a much bigger picture. His players competed for him for many reasons, but mainly because they truly believed Jackson cared about them. Which he definitely did." Are you prepared to care about all of your athletes like that? What stops you from doing so now? What can you do to change that?
At the club level we have the unique problem of coaching boys and girls together in the same group. Not many sports coach boys and girls together. Some run practices congruently, or practice together up a point, but not many do the same workout day in and day out for both boys and girls outside of a recreation level. I think of diving, gymnastics, track, not a long list for sure. Why do we train together in swimming? Out of necessity in one respect (what other sport dares to put 90+ kids in 25y by 50m area?), but also because in swimming girls can keep up with boys, or at least close enough to do the same workouts. But having them together has created some unusual social dynamics that do not occur in sports where the genders train separately.
We sometimes talk about the girls being more comfortable competing against the boys than each other in practice. Would women basketball players do better competing against men? Or in soccer? Doubtful, but maybe if they had grown up practicing with the boys they would. Do the women swimmers have better or worse leadership skills, competitiveness, practice habits, or confidence than women in other sports who practice same gendered? Sounds like a good sports-psych study to me. Or how about the men. Do male swimmers have better or worse abilities in all those areas for having trained with women? We often view the boys as immune to some degree, that they would “do fine” in any environment, but that is hard to believe. Compare the male culture at a military academy sports team to that of your mixed gendered club team, it’s hard to say those differences amount to nothing. And getting your butt kicked by another guy is one thing, but by younger girls is quite another.
I don’t know the answer to these questions, but from a coaching perspective I don’t think we would coach a same gendered group in exactly the way we currently coach a mixed gendered group. And because of that fact, a higher demand is placed on us as coaches because we have to be aware of whether our style works better for one gender or another. And if you intend on switching styles i.e. working with female athletes fundamentally different then male athletes (which most of us do either by design or instinct) that is yet another challenge. Yes, my claim is we have it harder than if we were coaching a single gendered group (sorry college coaches).
Ok, so, what emotional challenges does that reality present? I don’t want to get into the literature about the differences between men and women too deeply, as others have done a fine job of this before me. Here is a straight-forward illustration of how men and women often have different goals in conversation. Deborah Tannen in “You Just Don’t Understand” asserts that women have “rapport-talk” and men have “report-talk.” The idea is that women tend to use language to establish an emotional relation with the other person, a connection, being in-sync, demonstrating a sameness, an understanding. She also calls this “affiliative talk.” While men tend to convey information about impersonal topics, report about a situation. For women the act of talking itself, even if it is sharing information that seems inconsequential or irrelevant, matters a great deal, while with men not-so. Some arm-chair evolutionary sociology will claim that historically women needed rapport talk to establish connections and safety back at home, while men needed report talk to do the hunting and fighting. Ever try to have a “report” conversation with a female athlete that from your end is about changes she needs to make to her swimming, and she walks away thinking “Why does he always yell at me and hate me?”
Figure out where you sit on the spectrum of report v. rapport talk yourself. And that’s not as simple as being male makes you a report talker, as I venture to guess many of the great male women’s coaches have a sense of rapport talk. Go further though and notice how you respond when women have a successful performance in practice or a meet and how you respond when men do. Then do the reverse, how you respond to poor meet or practice performance in a male swimmer and female swimmer. Do you get more excited for one over the other? More disappointed or angry? Not sure? Ask a coach you work with, someone you trust, to assess you in this way.
It’s such a delicate balance, coaching both genders well at the same time, and that’s why so few teams are consistently equal in boy and girl performance. One of my pet peeves is how coaches unintentionally emasculate the boys. As if wearing a Speedo in front of girls (especially if you are skinny and small for your age) isn’t enough, you sometimes get beat by girls (and sometimes younger girls!). So given that, why do coaches often put down the boys for getting beat by the girls? You don’t have to say so directly to create that effect, just get more excited about the girls’ performance and act disappointed in your guys and you’ve done it. Another way to emasculate is taking the girls attention. If all the girls spend their time talking to the male coach and each other (and not the boys) that will make them feel less than. If you are a boy in that situation you’ve got to be thinking, “Screw swimming. How about I go play baseball or lacrosse with all guys and feel like a man instead of getting my butt kicked here and feeling like a wimp.”
Sometimes you hear coaches complaining about how their boys aren’t tough, or they aren’t staying on the team, or they are small and weak, as if they just happened to be in a town that has a genetically poor crop of boys. Try letting your guys be guys a little, let them stand around a bit and talk about how fast they are, trying to look tough, crack some jokes with them and help make them into men. If you don’t do that, and you are in a girl-dominated culture, with all their attention going to you and all your attention going to them, the only boys who last on the team are ones that are frankly like the girls. You want big, tough, aggressive, fast boys? Then make them! Let them race, talk a little trash, act tough, lift a few dumbbells, now and then even goof-off a bit (heaven forbid!) and you’ll find they start doing better.
In the 2nd part of this series, I intend on exploring the challenges new coaches face building trust with the athletes, and what it takes emotionally to work effectively with teenagers.
“Emotion runs the show in sports” – James Loehr “The New Toughness Training for Sports”
The more years I coach, the more I take this to heart. As a coach I am no less “run” by my emotions than the athletes. And my coaching effectiveness is determined as much by my emotions as it is by my knowledge. Many coaches are overdeveloped in one area and underdeveloped in the other. Some are amazing people who get kids to respond to them in almost magical ways. Others are the big brains in the sport, meticulous planners, technicians, relentless task masters who nail down the physical progression. But I think the greatest coaches have both, perhaps not in equal parts, but neither part is greatly deficient.
My goal is in this article is get each of you to reflect on your emotional state at practice, at meets, or any time you are working with the athletes. If you are like I am, you already spend a considerable amount of time reviewing your workouts, learning about training, technique and everything swimming related. I challenge you to put some of that energy and time into emotional evaluation. How do I act around the athletes? What puts me in a good mood? What puts me in a bad mood? What makes me tense? What makes me angry? If I were looking at me each day, as the swimmers do, what would I see? And is that what I want them to see? I think for most of us changing a workout, or teaching a stroke technique differently, is far easier than facing up to your emotional states and then working to overcome them. It’s time to do the hard-work of coaching . . . improving ourselves.
I have used the Eight-Fold Path from Buddhism to illustrate the process of making changes for athletes, but I think it applies equally well to evaluating ourselves emotionally as coaches. Each step on the path can apply to many different things (which is its beauty), so my interpretation is not meant to be complete, but rather illustrative of the emotional side of coaching:
1. Right views (understanding): Become aware of how you feel on deck, dig deep into the real feelings
2. Right purpose (aspiration): Decide what you aspire toward – what needs changing?
3. Right speech: Mind your speech, make sure it is in line with what message you want to send
4. Right conduct: Act in a way that helps you reach your goals
5. Right vocation: Live and work in such a way as to grow emotionally
6. Right effort: Your effort must be sustainable and effective
7. Right awareness (mind control): Learn to be less reactive and more thoughtful during the hard times
8. Right concentration (meditation): Learn how to think and feel deeply.
Ever read parenting books? Or even watch some of the parenting shows like “Supernanny?” I find watching Supernanny fascinating because it always appears that the most out of control kids can be subdued by simple, straightforward rule setting and enforcement. Nothing draconian, nothing severe, but clear and consistent expectations and consequences. But enforcing the rules is very hard for these parents, that’s why they are on the show in the first place – don’t mistake “simple” for “easy.” These parents are unable to do the right thing because of their own emotional shortcomings. The rule enforcement, the consequences, the patience, the self-examination, that is more difficult emotionally than letting them be bad, or just yelling at them when you get fed up. Good parenting is a lot about becoming a better person. I submit that good coaching is the same.
I quote here from a well-known article by Anson Dorrance, soccer coach at the University of North Carolina, titled “Coaching Women: Going Against the Instincts of My Gender”: “And while we, as coaches, never want to cease learning about our sport, ultimately, coaching development ceases to be about finding newer ways to organize practice. In other words, you soon stop collecting drills. Your coaching development shifts to observing how to support and motivate your players, and how to lead them to perform at higher and higher levels.” Technical learning needs to be ongoing, but it’s only a piece of the coaching puzzle. I’m at a place where I need to dig into myself to become a better coach.
So how did your season go? Great? Poor? Or, as usual, a mixed bag? How will you do better next season? Instead of chasing the next thing, or the magic set, or the newest piece of equipment, look at how you connected (or failed to connect) emotionally with your athletes. Are the ones doing well the ones you get along with best? Are they the ones you like being around the most? Or the ones that react most positively to your personality? The answer is likely yes to those questions and that’s natural. But which is the cart and which is the horse here? Are they getting the extra positive attention because they are doing the right things, or are they doing the right things because they are getting extra positive attention?
The challenge of coaching is investing the time and energy into the kids who you don’t connect with as well. Sometimes they are just the more quiet ones, or those who don’t seem to want to be there, or are difficult, or annoying. This next quote is from a recent article on espn.com by Bill Simmons about the Lakers coach Phil Jackson after his retirement. Phil is known for his 11 championship rings, and having coached Jordan and Kobe, but I think this is a majorly overlooked part of why he is one of the great coaches of all time: "Steve Kerr told me once that what made Jackson special -- and Popovich too -- was that he cared about his twelfth guy as much as his best guy. He spent time with his players, bought them gifts, thought about what made them tick. He connected with them, sold them on the concept of a team, stuck up for them when they needed him. His actual coaching -- calling plays, working refs, figuring out lineups and everything else that we see -- was a smaller piece of a much bigger picture. His players competed for him for many reasons, but mainly because they truly believed Jackson cared about them. Which he definitely did." Are you prepared to care about all of your athletes like that? What stops you from doing so now? What can you do to change that?
At the club level we have the unique problem of coaching boys and girls together in the same group. Not many sports coach boys and girls together. Some run practices congruently, or practice together up a point, but not many do the same workout day in and day out for both boys and girls outside of a recreation level. I think of diving, gymnastics, track, not a long list for sure. Why do we train together in swimming? Out of necessity in one respect (what other sport dares to put 90+ kids in 25y by 50m area?), but also because in swimming girls can keep up with boys, or at least close enough to do the same workouts. But having them together has created some unusual social dynamics that do not occur in sports where the genders train separately.
We sometimes talk about the girls being more comfortable competing against the boys than each other in practice. Would women basketball players do better competing against men? Or in soccer? Doubtful, but maybe if they had grown up practicing with the boys they would. Do the women swimmers have better or worse leadership skills, competitiveness, practice habits, or confidence than women in other sports who practice same gendered? Sounds like a good sports-psych study to me. Or how about the men. Do male swimmers have better or worse abilities in all those areas for having trained with women? We often view the boys as immune to some degree, that they would “do fine” in any environment, but that is hard to believe. Compare the male culture at a military academy sports team to that of your mixed gendered club team, it’s hard to say those differences amount to nothing. And getting your butt kicked by another guy is one thing, but by younger girls is quite another.
I don’t know the answer to these questions, but from a coaching perspective I don’t think we would coach a same gendered group in exactly the way we currently coach a mixed gendered group. And because of that fact, a higher demand is placed on us as coaches because we have to be aware of whether our style works better for one gender or another. And if you intend on switching styles i.e. working with female athletes fundamentally different then male athletes (which most of us do either by design or instinct) that is yet another challenge. Yes, my claim is we have it harder than if we were coaching a single gendered group (sorry college coaches).
Ok, so, what emotional challenges does that reality present? I don’t want to get into the literature about the differences between men and women too deeply, as others have done a fine job of this before me. Here is a straight-forward illustration of how men and women often have different goals in conversation. Deborah Tannen in “You Just Don’t Understand” asserts that women have “rapport-talk” and men have “report-talk.” The idea is that women tend to use language to establish an emotional relation with the other person, a connection, being in-sync, demonstrating a sameness, an understanding. She also calls this “affiliative talk.” While men tend to convey information about impersonal topics, report about a situation. For women the act of talking itself, even if it is sharing information that seems inconsequential or irrelevant, matters a great deal, while with men not-so. Some arm-chair evolutionary sociology will claim that historically women needed rapport talk to establish connections and safety back at home, while men needed report talk to do the hunting and fighting. Ever try to have a “report” conversation with a female athlete that from your end is about changes she needs to make to her swimming, and she walks away thinking “Why does he always yell at me and hate me?”
Figure out where you sit on the spectrum of report v. rapport talk yourself. And that’s not as simple as being male makes you a report talker, as I venture to guess many of the great male women’s coaches have a sense of rapport talk. Go further though and notice how you respond when women have a successful performance in practice or a meet and how you respond when men do. Then do the reverse, how you respond to poor meet or practice performance in a male swimmer and female swimmer. Do you get more excited for one over the other? More disappointed or angry? Not sure? Ask a coach you work with, someone you trust, to assess you in this way.
It’s such a delicate balance, coaching both genders well at the same time, and that’s why so few teams are consistently equal in boy and girl performance. One of my pet peeves is how coaches unintentionally emasculate the boys. As if wearing a Speedo in front of girls (especially if you are skinny and small for your age) isn’t enough, you sometimes get beat by girls (and sometimes younger girls!). So given that, why do coaches often put down the boys for getting beat by the girls? You don’t have to say so directly to create that effect, just get more excited about the girls’ performance and act disappointed in your guys and you’ve done it. Another way to emasculate is taking the girls attention. If all the girls spend their time talking to the male coach and each other (and not the boys) that will make them feel less than. If you are a boy in that situation you’ve got to be thinking, “Screw swimming. How about I go play baseball or lacrosse with all guys and feel like a man instead of getting my butt kicked here and feeling like a wimp.”
Sometimes you hear coaches complaining about how their boys aren’t tough, or they aren’t staying on the team, or they are small and weak, as if they just happened to be in a town that has a genetically poor crop of boys. Try letting your guys be guys a little, let them stand around a bit and talk about how fast they are, trying to look tough, crack some jokes with them and help make them into men. If you don’t do that, and you are in a girl-dominated culture, with all their attention going to you and all your attention going to them, the only boys who last on the team are ones that are frankly like the girls. You want big, tough, aggressive, fast boys? Then make them! Let them race, talk a little trash, act tough, lift a few dumbbells, now and then even goof-off a bit (heaven forbid!) and you’ll find they start doing better.
In the 2nd part of this series, I intend on exploring the challenges new coaches face building trust with the athletes, and what it takes emotionally to work effectively with teenagers.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Be Like Phil
Phil Jackson retired after the Lakers lost to the Mavericks. He is one of the coaches I look up to. Not just because of his success (11 titles) but how he went about getting them. People talk about why Phil was so successful in terms of his triangle offense, his calm demeanor, his intense preparation, his Buddhism, but this quote may be the most correct, and it's one of the many reasons why I try to be like Phil:
"Steve Kerr told me once that what made Jackson special -- and Popovich too -- was that he cared about his twelfth guy as much as his best guy. He spent time with his players, bought them gifts, thought about what made them tick. He connected with them, sold them on the concept of a team, stuck up for them when they needed him. His actual coaching -- calling plays, working refs, figuring out lineups and everything else that we see -- was a smaller piece of a much bigger picture. His players competed for him for many reasons, but mainly because they truly believed Jackson cared about them. Which he definitely did."
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons%2F110513&sportCat=nba
"Steve Kerr told me once that what made Jackson special -- and Popovich too -- was that he cared about his twelfth guy as much as his best guy. He spent time with his players, bought them gifts, thought about what made them tick. He connected with them, sold them on the concept of a team, stuck up for them when they needed him. His actual coaching -- calling plays, working refs, figuring out lineups and everything else that we see -- was a smaller piece of a much bigger picture. His players competed for him for many reasons, but mainly because they truly believed Jackson cared about them. Which he definitely did."
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons%2F110513&sportCat=nba
Sunday, May 8, 2011
"Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain"
I've just finished a great book titled "Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain" by Sharon Begley about neuroplasticity (the brain's ability to change physically) and its intersection with Buddhist meditation. The major message fits with recent research into talent, that practice and training can improve things previously thought to be unchangeable. There is less and less that is determined at birth. In particular, these passages deal with changing one's ability to focus, feel compassion, calmness and base-line happiness:
"Virtually all of biomedical science focuses on getting people up to the zeroth level and nothing more. As long as someone can attain nonsickness, that is deemed sufficient. As Buddhist scholar Alan Wallace put it, 'Western scientists have an underlying assumption that normal is absolutely as good as it gets and that the exceptional is only for saints, that it is something that cannot be cultivated. We in the modern West have grown accustomed to the assumption that the 'normal' mind, in the sense of one free from clinical mental illness, is a healthy one. But a 'normal mind' is still subject to many types of mental distress, including anxiety, frustration, restlessness, boredom, and resentment.'"
"There is a tremendous lacuna in our worldview, where training is seen as important for strength, for physical agility, for athletic ability, for musical ability -- for everything except emotions. The Buddhists say these are skills, too, and are trainable like any others."
Psychology in just the past 20 years is now developing what's generally referred to as "Positive Psychology" or the study of people who are above average in mental health. The best analogy to what we are talking about here is the difference between a person who is of average body weight, blood pressure, and overall physical fitness to a top Olympic level athlete. Psychology was previously occupied only with getting the unhealthy person to the normal level, and now there is a reality that through mental training we can get go up from normal, perhaps even to the Olympic level of emotions!
"As researchers probe the power of meditation and other techniques to alter the brain and allow it to function at the highest levels, we are therefore poised at the brink of "above-the-line" science -- of studying people whose powers of attention are far above the norm, whose wellsprings of compassion dwarf those of most people, who have successfully set their happiness baseline at a point that most mortals achieve only transiently before tumbling down to something comfortably above depression but far from what may be possible. What we learn from them may provide the key to raising everyone -- or at least everyone who chooses to engage in necessary mental training -- to that level. Neuroplasticity will provide the key to realizing positive mental and emotional functioning. The effects of mental training, as shown in the brains of accomplished Buddhist meditators, suggest what humans can achieve."
I started writing those little handouts on Mental Training (see below for an example) and giving them to my swimmers years ago. My focus then was on thought habits that directly connect to physical performance. Now I feel I need to broaden my approach to include training which improves overall emotional strength. Neuroscience has shown that even cognition is closely intertwined with neurons that deal with emotion, so nothing is truly "unemotional," and nothing is untrainable!
"Virtually all of biomedical science focuses on getting people up to the zeroth level and nothing more. As long as someone can attain nonsickness, that is deemed sufficient. As Buddhist scholar Alan Wallace put it, 'Western scientists have an underlying assumption that normal is absolutely as good as it gets and that the exceptional is only for saints, that it is something that cannot be cultivated. We in the modern West have grown accustomed to the assumption that the 'normal' mind, in the sense of one free from clinical mental illness, is a healthy one. But a 'normal mind' is still subject to many types of mental distress, including anxiety, frustration, restlessness, boredom, and resentment.'"
"There is a tremendous lacuna in our worldview, where training is seen as important for strength, for physical agility, for athletic ability, for musical ability -- for everything except emotions. The Buddhists say these are skills, too, and are trainable like any others."
Psychology in just the past 20 years is now developing what's generally referred to as "Positive Psychology" or the study of people who are above average in mental health. The best analogy to what we are talking about here is the difference between a person who is of average body weight, blood pressure, and overall physical fitness to a top Olympic level athlete. Psychology was previously occupied only with getting the unhealthy person to the normal level, and now there is a reality that through mental training we can get go up from normal, perhaps even to the Olympic level of emotions!
"As researchers probe the power of meditation and other techniques to alter the brain and allow it to function at the highest levels, we are therefore poised at the brink of "above-the-line" science -- of studying people whose powers of attention are far above the norm, whose wellsprings of compassion dwarf those of most people, who have successfully set their happiness baseline at a point that most mortals achieve only transiently before tumbling down to something comfortably above depression but far from what may be possible. What we learn from them may provide the key to raising everyone -- or at least everyone who chooses to engage in necessary mental training -- to that level. Neuroplasticity will provide the key to realizing positive mental and emotional functioning. The effects of mental training, as shown in the brains of accomplished Buddhist meditators, suggest what humans can achieve."
I started writing those little handouts on Mental Training (see below for an example) and giving them to my swimmers years ago. My focus then was on thought habits that directly connect to physical performance. Now I feel I need to broaden my approach to include training which improves overall emotional strength. Neuroscience has shown that even cognition is closely intertwined with neurons that deal with emotion, so nothing is truly "unemotional," and nothing is untrainable!
Satisfied Mind
The lyrics to a great song by Johnny Cash. Reassuring in tough times:
How many times have
You heard someone say
If I had his money
I could do things my way
But little they know
That it's so hard to find
One rich man in ten
With a satisfied mind
Once I was waitin'
In fortune and fame
Everything that I dreamed for
To get a start in life's game
Then suddenly it happened
I lost every dime
But I'm richer by far
With a satisfied mind
Money can't buy back
Your youth when you're old
Or a friend when you're lonely
Or a love that's grown cold
The wealthiest person
Is a pauper at times
Compared to the man
With a satisfied mind
When my life has ended
And my time has run out
My friends and my loved ones
I'll leave there's no doubt
But one thing's for certain
When it comes my time
I'll leave this old world
With a satisfied mind
How many times have
You heard someone say
If I had his money
I could do things my way
But little they know
That it's so hard to find
One rich man in ten
With a satisfied mind
How many times have
You heard someone say
If I had his money
I could do things my way
But little they know
That it's so hard to find
One rich man in ten
With a satisfied mind
Once I was waitin'
In fortune and fame
Everything that I dreamed for
To get a start in life's game
Then suddenly it happened
I lost every dime
But I'm richer by far
With a satisfied mind
Money can't buy back
Your youth when you're old
Or a friend when you're lonely
Or a love that's grown cold
The wealthiest person
Is a pauper at times
Compared to the man
With a satisfied mind
When my life has ended
And my time has run out
My friends and my loved ones
I'll leave there's no doubt
But one thing's for certain
When it comes my time
I'll leave this old world
With a satisfied mind
How many times have
You heard someone say
If I had his money
I could do things my way
But little they know
That it's so hard to find
One rich man in ten
With a satisfied mind
Friday, May 6, 2011
"Ownership of Teaching" by Ikkostraining
New post on Ikkostraining on "Ownership of Teaching." Check it out, it's the good stuff.
http://ikkostraining.wordpress.com/
http://ikkostraining.wordpress.com/
Monday, May 2, 2011
Self-Deception, Bullshit and Spin
Self-Deception
I've been thinking and reading about self-deception. It's fascinating to realize that a person can think they are doing one thing but in fact are doing another. A person, let's call him Bob, could genuinely hold the belief "I work hard at my job everyday and I'm doing well" but the truth is Bob is not working hard and not doing well. And let's assume this isn't a simple case of error, that somehow Bob thought his job entailed doing X when it really entailed doing Y -- he just didn't know any better. In this example Bob goes around everyday, with his head held high, believing he is doing great. People keep trying to give him hints to the contrary, and evidence pops up almost daily, but it doesn't seem to impact Bob at all. He sincerely believes he is working hard and doing well. I imagine he could even pass a lie detector test. Ok, but why does Bob believe he is doing a good job if there is evidence to the contrary? Is he just dumb? Is he lying to everyone and knows he isn't any good? If either of those are true then this isn't really self-deception, its ignorance or lying. How did Bob end up in this mess? Where did his thinking go wrong? Let's explore some options.
Bob could have what's called a "motivational belief," that's a belief which is formed because of an underlying motivation. Bob's underlying motivation could be that he wants to be successful, or looked upon as successful. That motivation forms a belief (despite the evidence)in himself as a good, hard-worker. Bob wants to believe that about himself (who doesn't?) and thus he screens his feedback to confirm his belief. The evidence which says he is doing well, he remembers: "Look, another example of my good work!" And the evidence which contradicts his belief he dismisses, creating lots of phony reasons why the contradictory evidence is incorrect. Bob's belief in himself as a good, hard-worker is not just a matter of ego, it's functional. Bob wants to keep his job, and if he ranks himself highly, he can influence others to believe the same. Hard to promote yourself when you don't think you are doing a good job.
Unfortunately, it's not just Bob who deceives himself, it's all of us. Bob's main instance of self-deception is in his workplace, for us it may be somewhere else. Explaining our own misfortunes inaccurately, personally or professionally, may be instances of self-deception. We have little stories to explain away why something went wrong, and if those stories are truly believed (sometimes they are only half-believed) but incorrect, we may be no better than Bob. Why do we end up deceiving ourselves? Staying blind to evidence right in front of our faces? Deaf to the voices of those around us? That leads us to our next potential explanation for Bob's self-deception -- fear of the consequences of the truth.
We deceive ourselves because it's easier than facing the truth. The truth about ourselves is often not complimentary. It's hard to hear, it can be painful, so much so it's not possible to face. So we deny and lie to ourselves. But what's worse than the truth is the consequence of knowing the truth, you'd have to change. You'd have to admit you are wrong and that you need to do something (usually something you don't want to do) different. Well, forget all that, let's just convince ourselves that everything is ok instead.
That is, if we are not strong. The stronger you are as a person, the more centered and balanced you are, the more you can face those truths. Self-deceivers are weak deep-down. They have to lie to themselves for protection from reality.
Bullshit
Fun little read on this topic, written by a philosophy professor. What characterizes bullshit is the misrepresentation of intentions. You don't actually have to lie to do that, you can use the truth to misrepresent yourself or your intentions: "For the essence of bullshit is not that it is false but that it is phony." Yes, the bullshitter is a phony. It's fakery clothed as reason.
For instance, the bullshitter is saying he will help you, but the real end is to make himself look like he is helping you. The end is not your aid, it's his gain through the appearance of aiding you. He may actually need to help you in order to achieve that gain, which is why the bullshitter is so hard to pin down. "I did help him, like I said I would."
But people are very good at smelling a rat, they know when they are being bullshitted. Even children can sense this. The manifestation of smelling a rat is distrust of the bullshitter, and rightfully so. They think "Yeah, you are saying that, and you may do that, but I know you are full of shit."
Spin
Spin is pretty easy to define, hard to pick out. Spin is the act of manipulating results or facts or events to suit an agenda. Anything can be spun, and most everything is. Spin is easy because of the problems of knowledge, the field of philosophy known as epistemology. It's hard to truly know anything (and by "know" here I mean having true, justified belief, although that definition is just one of many for "know"). So we can spin the results of sports performance very easily to suit our predetermined view:
1. They swam fast (objectively measured by time). The spin is in the "why." Because of good coaching, because of the previous coach, because they were trained right, because they were rested right, or because they weren't trained hard enough and were too rested (mid-season meet for instance). What's the truth?
2. They swam slowly. Why? Because of bad coaching, because of the previous coach, because they are just a bad group of athletes, because they weren't trained hard enough, they were trained too hard, they were too rested, they were under-rested. What's the truth? Pick your spin.
Spin is part deception, part lie, part bullshit. And some people spin to self-deceive, convince themselves they are safe, things are going ok, that reality isn't harsh truth, it actually fits into a worldview where they come out on top.
Ethics
This is all well and good if the self-deceiver, the bullshitter or the spinner doesn't affect you. But what if they do? Do you blame them? Can you change them?
The blame issue depends on how strongly you fault people for their own failings. They are failings of character, of moral strength, ethics overridden by self-interest. Changing people like this is very difficult because they fundamentally don't accept input that contradicts their intentions. Why would they believe you when you call them out?
What fascinates me about the self-deceiver, or the person who believes his/her own bullshit and spin, is how far astray they have gone. It's not just that they are wrong, that's common enough, it's that they have bought their own bullshit! That's stunning.
So how do you, or I, avoid falling into this problem ourselves? First, continually work on strengthening yourself emotionally so you can face the truth of reality. Second, be open to change. Third, surround yourself with good people who themselves are emotionally strong and open to change, and then listen to them!
I've been thinking and reading about self-deception. It's fascinating to realize that a person can think they are doing one thing but in fact are doing another. A person, let's call him Bob, could genuinely hold the belief "I work hard at my job everyday and I'm doing well" but the truth is Bob is not working hard and not doing well. And let's assume this isn't a simple case of error, that somehow Bob thought his job entailed doing X when it really entailed doing Y -- he just didn't know any better. In this example Bob goes around everyday, with his head held high, believing he is doing great. People keep trying to give him hints to the contrary, and evidence pops up almost daily, but it doesn't seem to impact Bob at all. He sincerely believes he is working hard and doing well. I imagine he could even pass a lie detector test. Ok, but why does Bob believe he is doing a good job if there is evidence to the contrary? Is he just dumb? Is he lying to everyone and knows he isn't any good? If either of those are true then this isn't really self-deception, its ignorance or lying. How did Bob end up in this mess? Where did his thinking go wrong? Let's explore some options.
Bob could have what's called a "motivational belief," that's a belief which is formed because of an underlying motivation. Bob's underlying motivation could be that he wants to be successful, or looked upon as successful. That motivation forms a belief (despite the evidence)in himself as a good, hard-worker. Bob wants to believe that about himself (who doesn't?) and thus he screens his feedback to confirm his belief. The evidence which says he is doing well, he remembers: "Look, another example of my good work!" And the evidence which contradicts his belief he dismisses, creating lots of phony reasons why the contradictory evidence is incorrect. Bob's belief in himself as a good, hard-worker is not just a matter of ego, it's functional. Bob wants to keep his job, and if he ranks himself highly, he can influence others to believe the same. Hard to promote yourself when you don't think you are doing a good job.
Unfortunately, it's not just Bob who deceives himself, it's all of us. Bob's main instance of self-deception is in his workplace, for us it may be somewhere else. Explaining our own misfortunes inaccurately, personally or professionally, may be instances of self-deception. We have little stories to explain away why something went wrong, and if those stories are truly believed (sometimes they are only half-believed) but incorrect, we may be no better than Bob. Why do we end up deceiving ourselves? Staying blind to evidence right in front of our faces? Deaf to the voices of those around us? That leads us to our next potential explanation for Bob's self-deception -- fear of the consequences of the truth.
We deceive ourselves because it's easier than facing the truth. The truth about ourselves is often not complimentary. It's hard to hear, it can be painful, so much so it's not possible to face. So we deny and lie to ourselves. But what's worse than the truth is the consequence of knowing the truth, you'd have to change. You'd have to admit you are wrong and that you need to do something (usually something you don't want to do) different. Well, forget all that, let's just convince ourselves that everything is ok instead.
That is, if we are not strong. The stronger you are as a person, the more centered and balanced you are, the more you can face those truths. Self-deceivers are weak deep-down. They have to lie to themselves for protection from reality.
Bullshit
Fun little read on this topic, written by a philosophy professor. What characterizes bullshit is the misrepresentation of intentions. You don't actually have to lie to do that, you can use the truth to misrepresent yourself or your intentions: "For the essence of bullshit is not that it is false but that it is phony." Yes, the bullshitter is a phony. It's fakery clothed as reason.
For instance, the bullshitter is saying he will help you, but the real end is to make himself look like he is helping you. The end is not your aid, it's his gain through the appearance of aiding you. He may actually need to help you in order to achieve that gain, which is why the bullshitter is so hard to pin down. "I did help him, like I said I would."
But people are very good at smelling a rat, they know when they are being bullshitted. Even children can sense this. The manifestation of smelling a rat is distrust of the bullshitter, and rightfully so. They think "Yeah, you are saying that, and you may do that, but I know you are full of shit."
Spin
Spin is pretty easy to define, hard to pick out. Spin is the act of manipulating results or facts or events to suit an agenda. Anything can be spun, and most everything is. Spin is easy because of the problems of knowledge, the field of philosophy known as epistemology. It's hard to truly know anything (and by "know" here I mean having true, justified belief, although that definition is just one of many for "know"). So we can spin the results of sports performance very easily to suit our predetermined view:
1. They swam fast (objectively measured by time). The spin is in the "why." Because of good coaching, because of the previous coach, because they were trained right, because they were rested right, or because they weren't trained hard enough and were too rested (mid-season meet for instance). What's the truth?
2. They swam slowly. Why? Because of bad coaching, because of the previous coach, because they are just a bad group of athletes, because they weren't trained hard enough, they were trained too hard, they were too rested, they were under-rested. What's the truth? Pick your spin.
Spin is part deception, part lie, part bullshit. And some people spin to self-deceive, convince themselves they are safe, things are going ok, that reality isn't harsh truth, it actually fits into a worldview where they come out on top.
Ethics
This is all well and good if the self-deceiver, the bullshitter or the spinner doesn't affect you. But what if they do? Do you blame them? Can you change them?
The blame issue depends on how strongly you fault people for their own failings. They are failings of character, of moral strength, ethics overridden by self-interest. Changing people like this is very difficult because they fundamentally don't accept input that contradicts their intentions. Why would they believe you when you call them out?
What fascinates me about the self-deceiver, or the person who believes his/her own bullshit and spin, is how far astray they have gone. It's not just that they are wrong, that's common enough, it's that they have bought their own bullshit! That's stunning.
So how do you, or I, avoid falling into this problem ourselves? First, continually work on strengthening yourself emotionally so you can face the truth of reality. Second, be open to change. Third, surround yourself with good people who themselves are emotionally strong and open to change, and then listen to them!
Saturday, April 30, 2011
HBR Article on Productivity
http://hbr.org/2011/05/being-more-productive/ar/1
Nice article on productivity. I like this passage on why you shouldn't treat your employees like they are expendable:
"Tony, you’ve also written about how the cultures of some organizations encourage people to work in ways that are unhealthful and ultimately limit productivity. Why do companies do that?
Schwartz: I remember giving a talk at a prestigious investment bank several years ago. At the end a partner stood up and said, “Mr. Schwartz, this is all very interesting, but we have a thousand people knocking on the door who can’t wait to come in and replace the people we’ve burned out. Why should we worry about giving people time to renew? When they burn out, we just bring in a fresh new group of people, who are thrilled to get the jobs.” I’d argue that in knowledge work, you get more out of a person in the third or fifth or seventh year than out of the replacement you brought in because the first worker collapsed in year two. This is a broader issue that deserves attention. We can’t keep pushing people to their limits and expect them to produce at a sustainably high level of excellence. The companies that build true competitive advantage in the years ahead will be those that shift from seeking to get more out of people to investing in better meeting their needs."
Nice article on productivity. I like this passage on why you shouldn't treat your employees like they are expendable:
"Tony, you’ve also written about how the cultures of some organizations encourage people to work in ways that are unhealthful and ultimately limit productivity. Why do companies do that?
Schwartz: I remember giving a talk at a prestigious investment bank several years ago. At the end a partner stood up and said, “Mr. Schwartz, this is all very interesting, but we have a thousand people knocking on the door who can’t wait to come in and replace the people we’ve burned out. Why should we worry about giving people time to renew? When they burn out, we just bring in a fresh new group of people, who are thrilled to get the jobs.” I’d argue that in knowledge work, you get more out of a person in the third or fifth or seventh year than out of the replacement you brought in because the first worker collapsed in year two. This is a broader issue that deserves attention. We can’t keep pushing people to their limits and expect them to produce at a sustainably high level of excellence. The companies that build true competitive advantage in the years ahead will be those that shift from seeking to get more out of people to investing in better meeting their needs."
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Mind in the Muscle
I wrote this 4 years ago now. Seems somewhat quaint but I still believe in the importance of the mind-muscle connection, perhaps now more than ever. Enjoy:
Dragon’s Principles of Mental Training #3
by Charlie Dragon
“The body will never fully respond to your workouts until you understand how to train the mind as well. The mind is a dynamo, a source of vital energy. That energy can be negative and work against you, or you can harness it to give yourself unbelievable workouts . . .Whenever you hear about anyone performing unbelievable physical feats – Tiger Woods in golf, Michael Jordan in basketball, Michael Johnson in track, Hermann Maier in skiing, and so many more athletes – it is because of the power of their minds, not just technical, mechanical skill.”
-- Arnold Schwarzenegger, The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding
#3 – “Mind in the Muscle”
It’s surprising to find out that bodybuilding, of all activities, is incredibly mental. Think of how important that makes the mind in swimming! In swim-ming, this principle is often referred to as “feel for the water.” Feel is an elusive thing, hard to define, hard to understand. Feel is tied closely to technique and efficiency, but it’s more than that. Feel is also partly the tactile sensations of water on your skin – literally the feeling of swimming. But I think feel is also about your ability to feel, as deeply as possible, the movements of your muscles. Feel is an awareness in your mind of what your muscles are doing.
Your ability to feel the water against your body, feel how your muscles move in the water, and make small but essential technical adjustments all come from this awareness. Some people have a much greater degree of natural feel than others, which is why many coaches believe feel cannot be taught -- you are either born with it or not. I agree that people do have very different de-grees of mind-muscle connection naturally, but I believe that awareness can be greatly improved in everyone. To get a mental picture of feel for the water, think about a swimmer who you have seen swim fast with seemingly little effort. A smooth, flowing stroke is how we can tell visually if someone has good feel.
“The key to success in your workouts is to get the mind into the muscle, rather than thinking about the weight itself [applied to swimming, thinking about the muscles in use rather than the number of laps or time]. When you think about the weight instead of the muscle, you can’t really feel what the muscle is doing. You lose control. Instead of stretching and contracting the muscle with deep concentration, you are simply exerting brute strength.”
That quote captures the difference between just going up and down the pool and truly experiencing, feeling, what you are doing. When your mind is in your muscle the experience of training becomes completely different. You will see results much more rapidly and the training itself will become more enjoya-ble. The best time to practice feel is during slow swimming (warm-up, recovery, drills, warm-down) and when stretching. It’s been said that the great Russian swim teams of the early 1990s would be in the pool many hours each day, but much of that time was spent swimming slowly and doing drills to improve feel for the water.
Try to feel as many of the muscle fibers engaging, stretching and con-tracting as you can. As you pull against the water in a freestyle stroke, for in-stance, try to feel your forearm, shoulder, and core muscles engage, then your upper back, your triceps as you finish the stroke, and then your deltoid as you recover over the water. Feel the muscles in your legs as you kick, and feel your lungs as you breathe.
Arnold tells us that “one repetition [or one lap for us] with full con-sciousness is worth more than ten with no awareness at all.” Think about that for a moment. The better your focus, the fewer laps you need to swim to get the same results. Ask yourself, do you swim robotically, with no thought? Or are you constantly thinking about the wrong things, like how long the set is, or what the next set will be? The consequences of swimming with no awareness are hundreds of wasted laps and hours of exhaustion that don’t make you fast-er!
“It became part of my routine that year to start out every day with total concentration. The way I did it was to play out exactly what I was going to use, how I was going to pull my muscles, and how I would feel it. I programmed myself. I saw myself doing it; I imagined how I would feel it. I was thoroughly, totally into it mentally. I did not waver at all.
When I went to the gym I got rid of every alien thought in my mind. I tuned in to my body as though it were a musical instrument I was about to play. In the dressing room I would start thinking about training, about every body part, what I was going to do, how I was going to pump up. I would concentrate on procedure and results until my everyday problems went floating away. I knew that if I went in there concerned about bills or girls and let myself think about those things while doing bench presses, I’d only make marginal progress. I’d seen guys reading the newspaper between sets day after day, and they always looked bad. Some of them had been going through the motions of training for years, and you couldn’t tell that they had ever picked up a weight. It had been nothing more than heartless pantomime” – Arnold, The Education of a Bodybuilder
My high school weight room was a perfect example of athletes with no mind-muscle connection. Kids just throwing heavy weight around with bad form, not feeling their muscles at all. Unfortunately, the majority of swimmers are no better, just getting up and down the pool each day, unaware of what they should be feeling.
Achieving mind-in-the-muscle takes a great deal of focus and will initially make swimming more difficult. You will be engaging your muscles more fully, and you will not be used to that. It’s easier to swim mindlessly and just use brute force, but it’s also slower. When I first understood the mind-muscle con-nection I had to lower all my weights, but once I did I saw far better results.
I am also convinced that by focusing on your muscles you help to take pressure and stress off your joints, reducing the risk of injury. If you aren’t fo-cusing on your muscles, they will not be as engaged, and the work may move onto your tendons, ligaments, cartilage, or smaller rotator cuff muscles causing overuse and injury. By thinking about what muscles you are using, and focus-ing on how they feel, you can reduce the risk of injury.
The mind-muscle connection, and feel for the water, is probably the most difficult thing to express in writing because it is entirely sensory, and it is diffi-cult to teach because no drill or correction can give you this ability directly. Two people can be doing the exact same thing in the pool and have radically different experiences. Strive to be the aware swimmer.
Dragon’s Principles of Mental Training #3
by Charlie Dragon
“The body will never fully respond to your workouts until you understand how to train the mind as well. The mind is a dynamo, a source of vital energy. That energy can be negative and work against you, or you can harness it to give yourself unbelievable workouts . . .Whenever you hear about anyone performing unbelievable physical feats – Tiger Woods in golf, Michael Jordan in basketball, Michael Johnson in track, Hermann Maier in skiing, and so many more athletes – it is because of the power of their minds, not just technical, mechanical skill.”
-- Arnold Schwarzenegger, The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding
#3 – “Mind in the Muscle”
It’s surprising to find out that bodybuilding, of all activities, is incredibly mental. Think of how important that makes the mind in swimming! In swim-ming, this principle is often referred to as “feel for the water.” Feel is an elusive thing, hard to define, hard to understand. Feel is tied closely to technique and efficiency, but it’s more than that. Feel is also partly the tactile sensations of water on your skin – literally the feeling of swimming. But I think feel is also about your ability to feel, as deeply as possible, the movements of your muscles. Feel is an awareness in your mind of what your muscles are doing.
Your ability to feel the water against your body, feel how your muscles move in the water, and make small but essential technical adjustments all come from this awareness. Some people have a much greater degree of natural feel than others, which is why many coaches believe feel cannot be taught -- you are either born with it or not. I agree that people do have very different de-grees of mind-muscle connection naturally, but I believe that awareness can be greatly improved in everyone. To get a mental picture of feel for the water, think about a swimmer who you have seen swim fast with seemingly little effort. A smooth, flowing stroke is how we can tell visually if someone has good feel.
“The key to success in your workouts is to get the mind into the muscle, rather than thinking about the weight itself [applied to swimming, thinking about the muscles in use rather than the number of laps or time]. When you think about the weight instead of the muscle, you can’t really feel what the muscle is doing. You lose control. Instead of stretching and contracting the muscle with deep concentration, you are simply exerting brute strength.”
That quote captures the difference between just going up and down the pool and truly experiencing, feeling, what you are doing. When your mind is in your muscle the experience of training becomes completely different. You will see results much more rapidly and the training itself will become more enjoya-ble. The best time to practice feel is during slow swimming (warm-up, recovery, drills, warm-down) and when stretching. It’s been said that the great Russian swim teams of the early 1990s would be in the pool many hours each day, but much of that time was spent swimming slowly and doing drills to improve feel for the water.
Try to feel as many of the muscle fibers engaging, stretching and con-tracting as you can. As you pull against the water in a freestyle stroke, for in-stance, try to feel your forearm, shoulder, and core muscles engage, then your upper back, your triceps as you finish the stroke, and then your deltoid as you recover over the water. Feel the muscles in your legs as you kick, and feel your lungs as you breathe.
Arnold tells us that “one repetition [or one lap for us] with full con-sciousness is worth more than ten with no awareness at all.” Think about that for a moment. The better your focus, the fewer laps you need to swim to get the same results. Ask yourself, do you swim robotically, with no thought? Or are you constantly thinking about the wrong things, like how long the set is, or what the next set will be? The consequences of swimming with no awareness are hundreds of wasted laps and hours of exhaustion that don’t make you fast-er!
“It became part of my routine that year to start out every day with total concentration. The way I did it was to play out exactly what I was going to use, how I was going to pull my muscles, and how I would feel it. I programmed myself. I saw myself doing it; I imagined how I would feel it. I was thoroughly, totally into it mentally. I did not waver at all.
When I went to the gym I got rid of every alien thought in my mind. I tuned in to my body as though it were a musical instrument I was about to play. In the dressing room I would start thinking about training, about every body part, what I was going to do, how I was going to pump up. I would concentrate on procedure and results until my everyday problems went floating away. I knew that if I went in there concerned about bills or girls and let myself think about those things while doing bench presses, I’d only make marginal progress. I’d seen guys reading the newspaper between sets day after day, and they always looked bad. Some of them had been going through the motions of training for years, and you couldn’t tell that they had ever picked up a weight. It had been nothing more than heartless pantomime” – Arnold, The Education of a Bodybuilder
My high school weight room was a perfect example of athletes with no mind-muscle connection. Kids just throwing heavy weight around with bad form, not feeling their muscles at all. Unfortunately, the majority of swimmers are no better, just getting up and down the pool each day, unaware of what they should be feeling.
Achieving mind-in-the-muscle takes a great deal of focus and will initially make swimming more difficult. You will be engaging your muscles more fully, and you will not be used to that. It’s easier to swim mindlessly and just use brute force, but it’s also slower. When I first understood the mind-muscle con-nection I had to lower all my weights, but once I did I saw far better results.
I am also convinced that by focusing on your muscles you help to take pressure and stress off your joints, reducing the risk of injury. If you aren’t fo-cusing on your muscles, they will not be as engaged, and the work may move onto your tendons, ligaments, cartilage, or smaller rotator cuff muscles causing overuse and injury. By thinking about what muscles you are using, and focus-ing on how they feel, you can reduce the risk of injury.
The mind-muscle connection, and feel for the water, is probably the most difficult thing to express in writing because it is entirely sensory, and it is diffi-cult to teach because no drill or correction can give you this ability directly. Two people can be doing the exact same thing in the pool and have radically different experiences. Strive to be the aware swimmer.
Monday, April 25, 2011
The Brain and Time
Saturday, April 23, 2011
The Eight-Fold Path to Better Swimming
Below I list the Buddhist Eight-fold path as described by Bruce Lee in “Tao of Jeet Kune Do.” When I came across this I felt like it spoke directly to the process we as coaches go through with our athletes when we are trying to make a change. Without knowing it, we attempt to carry them through these eight steps, and with those athletes unable to make a change, I can usually tell which step they get hung up on.
1. Right views (understanding): You must clearly see what is wrong.
2. Right purpose (aspiration): Decide to be cured.
3. Right speech: Speak so as to aim at being cured.
4. Right conduct: You must act.
5. Right vocation: Your livelihood must not conflict with therapy.
6. Right effort: The therapy must go forward at the ‘staying speed,’ the critical velocity that can be sustained.
7. Right awareness (mind control): You must feel it and think about it incessantly.
8. Right concentration (meditation): Learn how to contemplate with the deep mind.
Let’s look at these first four steps and shift to the perspective of the swimmer rather than the coach. When we set a goal to achieve something new, we first have to see what we need to do differently. That may sound easy but it’s quite uncommon. We tend to be blind to our weaknesses. Are you willing to look at your shortcomings? To admit them to yourself or to others?
Perhaps you can see what you need to do differently. Getting stuck on Step 2 is when you want to make the change but you don’t. This is sometimes hard to detect because you can be going through the motions of what it takes without truly deciding to accept “the cure” because that cure has some consequences you may not like. Having that willingness to accept what needs to be done is a huge step.
Steps 3 and 4 are about starting to carryout the change. You must speak in a way that will help you to make the change and you must act on your speech.
One of the biggest impediments to following the Eight-Fold Path that I see in athletes is when they make a change and do not see an immediate effect. Or they see an immediate effect which is negative. I had been searching for a long time for an analogy to explain to my athletes the process which I want them to undertake when a change is necessary. And one night driving home from practice, I found it.
It was about 9:30pm and I hit the dreaded night roadwork on the highway. Doesn’t seeing that neon sign feel like a punch in the mouth? This particular road that I was on had terrible traffic on it all day, so the solution is to widen the road, take out a few lights, build a new bridge even. Ok, sounds good, right? But wait, to make those improvements traffic will actually get worse in the short-term (I use ‘short’ loosely here as we all know how long those projects can last). But we put up with that worsening of the problem because in the long-term it will result in an improvement. That’s often the same process we go through when trying to make a change in our technique, or our training habits. Short term you have to make it worse so long term you can make it better. A short-term regression to make a long-term progression. How many of us are prepared to do that?
That 1st step needs more attention, for what is really required is awareness. To fix any problems that are hindering your performance, to make the gains you want to, you must first have some understanding of yourself, of how you think and how you feel. Without that understanding you won’t know whether you are doing the right things or the wrong things.
Physical awareness is your ability to know where you body is in space. Sounds obvious enough, but there is a big difference between knowing you are swimming in a pool, and knowing exactly where your hand is entering in backstroke, or whether your hips have dropped an inch during the middle of a tough set, or whether your head is coming up too high for a breath in butterfly, or whether your elbows are too far back in your breaststroke pull. Or how about bad posture? Do you feel like your shoulders are forward and your back bent? Probably not, and that’s the problem. Physical awareness is essential for technique improvement, reducing drag and improving efficiency. I believe awareness seperates, more than conditioning differences, 1st place from 8th place. Physical awareness is tied to that mysterious feel for the water you hear so much about.
Improving physical awareness is a long process, one that takes concentration and constant vigilence. You have to keep thinking about your technique, you can’t simply think of it only during times when you aren’t tired and able to go slowly. Try to feel technique as much as possible, rather than only thinking about technique.
Another type of awareness is mental awareness, which is recognizing or understanding the type of thoughts you have, what causes them and the emotions that follow. For me, this is much, much harder than physical awareness. The mind can be like a black box that you can’t see into. Our thoughts often come quickly and our reactions to them play out on a near subconscious level. Often we don’t see character traits in ourselves that everyone else does. For instance, you may not think you are pessimistic even though its clear to everyone else you are. So it’s impossible to change from being a pessimist to being an optimist if you don’t recognize that you are a pessimist first!
Getting to the point of having awareness about your emotions and thought patterns is an accomplishment. Most people simply act, think, and feel on automatic. Not being on automatic during practice is the goal, doing everything with attention and awareness will bring you better results faster. This is the difference between mindlessness and mindfulness.
Mindfulness is giving complete attention to what is happening right now. The more often you can be in a mindful state physically, the better your technique will get, and the more often you can be mindful about your thoughts and emotions, the easier it will be to reach your goals, whether they be in the pool or in other parts of your life.
In ancient Greece
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