Inconclusive

By Victor Hall

If you get enough Sports Performance Coaches in one room for long enough, it's only a matter of time before some type of lively training debate is sparked. Some of my personal favorites revolve around Olympic lifting, squat depth, dorsi-flexion, high speed treadmills, and kipping pull-ups. A coach's mind is seldom changed in these kinds of heated debates, mostly due to the egos and defensive reflexes on BOTH sides of the issue. I am definitely guilty of this since I can't remember the last time I admitted even the possibility of having it wrong (especially right in the middle of the point/counterpoint action). Dale Carnegie had it right when he said that the best way to win an argument is to avoid it. That said, a healthy debate can have some value because it almost always forces you to strengthen your opinion with both supportive evidence and well articulated points.

With the NFL Combine training season around the corner, I recently found myself knee deep in a classic training debate. When it comes to the 5-10-5 drill (Pro Agility), there is a difference of opinion regarding how to start. Should athletes use an "open and run" or "crossover" technique for the first step? As expected, I wasn't willing to compromise on my position and neither was the opposing view. So I decided to put my video camera where my mouth was.

The result....

INCONCLUSIVE. See for yourself.

First Things First

Coaching Feedback, Part III
By Victor Hall

The phrase “Paralysis by Analysis” is a perfect description of the way Charles Barkley’s golf swing has evolved. According to Tiger Woods, Barkley had a “normal” golf swing until he took lessons and started thinking too much. As a result, the movement is plagued by his overthinking, and this is what he is left with today (this is his actual golf swing):



Now put yourself in the shoes of the next golf instructor that is lucky enough to face this challenge. Where would you start?

OK, so chances are you won’t ever need to solve the Barkley golf swing conundrum. But as coaches, we see our fair share of rough technical models when it comes to complex movements. In fact, when an athlete is first learning a new exercise or movement skill, multiple faults are expected. Attempting to fix the athlete, young coaches are often tempted to give feedback and foci for most, if not all, of the faults. Unfortunately, this can lead to the CBE (commonly known as the Charles Barkley Effect). More experienced coaches will recognize the faults, identify the major causes of each, and prescribe one solution at a time to correct the faults. However, GREAT coaches will go one step further and deliver one solution at a time in PRIORITIZED order. Prioritized feedback not only prevents your athletes from being paralyzed by overthinking, but in many cases, fixing the most pressing issue will cascade down to the other faults and clean up multiple errors.

Take Pedro's Power Clean for example:



I think we can agree that Pedro has more than one thing going on here. After observing his technique, if your only feedback was “Roll your knuckles”, then you would have missed the bigger picture. Even if his grip position at the start does actually need to be fixed, there are more critical issues to be addressed first (start position, early arm bend, finish position, catch position, bar path, joint angles, rhythm & timing…) That said, what would you address first? Then second? Then third, etc.?

So take some time and compartmentalize what areas are most critical to the learning and mastering of the skills you teach and train. From there you can create a more systematic method for the order in which you provide movement solutions to your athletes.

Lets’ recap the Coaching Feedback principles.

1. SPECIFIC. What exactly are your athletes doing well? Are you avoiding feedback that communicates a general or negative action?
2. INDIVIDUAL. At multiple points throughout the training session, did you recognize or correct individual athletes by name?
3. PRIORITIZED. Are you attacking one issue at a time? Are you starting with the most critical fault, or the quickest fix?

Stoplight Coaching

By Rett Larson

I don’t have children, so Victor not only has an advantage in his daily observation of primitive movement patterns and behavior modification…but he’s also going to annihilate me in the cute picture department.


But I’m determined to post nonetheless – especially after my conversation with my friend Paul Hannigan yesterday. Paul has become a great “art of” coaching resource for me because he has a heavy background in sport psychology. Paul was telling me about a system that he uses to maintain coaching consistency – it’s called the “Stoplight” concept.

A long time ago, Paul developed three lists for himself:

The first list was his Green Light list and it was of all the things that he “is” when he’s coaching at his best. I am LOUD, I am LAUGHING, I am telling JOKES, I am MODELING at 100%, I am using NAMES, I am giving INDIVIDUAL SPECIFIC FEEDBACK, I am telling STORIES, I am moving around to create COACHING ANGLES, I am aware of SAFETY, I am VISUALIZING OUTCOMES, I am using tools to AFFECT CHANGE or TEACH, I am using a WHITE BOARD, I am giving HIGH FIVES, I am telling athletes which efforts are their BEST EFFORTS.

The second list was his Yellow Light List and it was all of the warning signs that he was starting to lose coaching quality. I am modeling at less than 100%, I am noticing longer silences, I am wondering what others are thinking about me, I am trying to prove that I am a good coach, I am using tools to entertain myself, I am putting tools away instead of my athletes, I am letting successful behavior go unacknowledged, I am thinking about something other than “this moment.”

The third list was his Red Light list. These weren’t, as you might expect, signs that a coaching apocalypse was forthcoming. Instead, Paul called these his alerts that it’s time for a bounce-back. I am YELLING, I am silent for long stretches, I am not modeling, I am being ruled by my emotions, I am seeing things that are wrong and NOT addressing them, I am just trying to make someone tired.

Making this list is probably a good exercise in and of itself, but Paul uses it. When he notices that he’s being unusually quiet while he’s coaching a group, he recognizes it as a yellow light and immediately tells a joke. Knowing Paul, this could be a truly terrible joke, but that doesn’t matter. He tells a joke and starts laughing loudly at himself even if nobody else is (also likely). The point is that after those two little self-corrective cues he’s coaching in the green again.

Paul now has a staff of young coaches under him and he’s asked them to create their own Stoplight lists. When he evaluates them coaching, he’ll use those lists to hold them accountable and make them more consistent.

That’s just good coaching.

PS: someone please appreciate how tough it was to find a picture with both a stoplight AND a cute baby

Doing My Part

Much of America appears to have taken dietary advice from Marlon Brando. The nice thing is that as coaches we can actually make a difference in the lives of our more gooey clients. The question is, what are you doing on a daily basis to help those people who may not realize they need it? Here’s what I do:

When I’m walking into any public building, before I open the door I look over my shoulder and scan the parking lot to find someone who is also heading toward the building. Hopefully they’re about 50 feet behind me. When I open the door, I turn around and make direct eye contact with that person so they know that I’m holding the door for them. You’ll see a brief look of “is this guy seriously going to hold that door open for 20 seconds until I get there?,” but that look will be followed by a reluctant half-jog up to the door. They typically even thank me for the six seconds of exercise I just tricked them into.

You’re welcome America.

Don't Throw Your Juice!

by Victor Hall

As a father of a young and slightly rebellious 2 ½ year old son, I have quickly learned that being direct helps to reduce frustration and maintain a level of sanity. Lil’ V (yes, I am that guy who names his son after himself) has an adorable habit of throwing his Go Diego Go sippy cup after taking a few drinks of his juice. Early on, my response was “Lil' V, don’t throw your juice!”. Apparently this meant he could still shake his cup letting a few drops fly out, or take the top off and dump the rest on the carpet, or even (this is my personal favorite) take another drink and spit/spray a mouthful into the air. As you might imagine, I thought of banning all beverages in my house until I realized that it wasn’t really his fault. To be fair, he was listening to me; he wasn’t actually throwing his juice.

What I was really after was for him to put his cup on the kitchen counter when he wasn’t thirsty anymore. Realizing that my instruction was not effective, I made a change. Now instead of saying what I DON’T want him to do, I say precisely what I DO want him to do. So when he starts to rear the cup back over his head, you won’t hear me say ““Lil' V, don’t throw your juice!”. Rather, I'll say “Lil' V, put your juice on the counter please”. Again, he is 2 ½; so it's not 100% effective, but I am definitely cleaning upholstery and carpet less often.

So what does my son’s juice crisis have to do with coaching? Simply put…

Avoid telling and showing athletes what NOT to do. Especially when developing young athletes.

As coaches, this takes form in our Instruction and Corrective Feedback:

Instruction: New exercises and drills are accompanied by demonstrations and descriptions; a visual and verbal set of instructions. With visual learners, a demonstration of what not to do still has a strong influence on subsequent modeling. Even when coupled with the correct demonstration, the result is often a confused athlete. On the verbal side, consider that the brain can’t easily create an image of a negative action. So when we use instruction like, “Make sure you don’t squat on your toes”, the athlete’s brain typically creates an instant image of squatting on the toes. And since the brain drives movement and action, I prefer not to even enter the thought into their mind. Instead, make a habit of only demonstrating the technique you want them to model and describing the precise action you want to see.

Corrective Feedback: Coaching cues and feedback are meant to direct and/or correct actions. Feedback along the lines of “Jake, try not to lead with the foot in a crossover step” is typically not highly effective. For developing athletes, NOT doing something could represent a handful of movement solutions; much like Lil’ V and his juice. And if they knew exactly which one of the solutions was appropriate, then they would probably be doing it in the first place. So take out the guess work and give them only one option. Directing a specific corrective action will avoid any gray area that can lead to athletes struggling to find the right solution.


*BTW, Coaching Feedback – Part III is coming next week.

The Sweetest Sound

Coaching Feedback, Part II
By Victor Hall

According to Dale Carnegie, author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, the “sweetest and most important sound in any language” to someone is their own name. The scope of Carnegie’s point goes beyond simply remembering names (a valuable coaching attribute). He goes on to note that a person’s name is what makes them unique; it sets them apart from others. When a coach addresses an individual within a group setting, that athlete has an instant upgrade in status. Another adage from Carnegie is that we all have an innate drive to be important. What better way to let athletes know you recognize their uniqueness, than by taking a few moments to deliver individual feedback as if they were the only athlete you were training that day?

Most of my coaching has been in team or small group settings, so I know the tendency to deliver group instruction and feedback when the training session is moving along. While there is some value in group feedback, there must be an element of individual attention if you are to gain trust, rapport, and accelerate the learning rate of your athletes. If you watch a group of athletes perform a set of 10 yard acceleration runs, jog back to the start line to get ready for the next set; and all you say is “Nice job guys. Remember to lean forward and drive back.”, then you missed a prime opportunity to deliver individual feedback. My coaching goal is to give individual feedback to a different athlete every rep/set. I don’t always hit that goal, but there’s an intentional effort to outweigh my group feedback with individual feedback.

Individual feedback does have some stipulations. In many cases, definitely with children and adolescents, individual feedback in front of the group should be praise rather than correction. I wouldn’t want to scrutinize technique of a 12 year old for the rest of the group to hear. Even when accompanied with praise, it will most always be perceived as a direct shot to their competency. In turn, negatively affecting self-confidence amongst their peers. Instead look to highlight what they’re doing well; “Jessica, I love the how aggressive you’re driving your foot back. That is the best acceleration run I have seen all day!” Specific, individual, and will probably make Jessica’s day. That said, always be aware of individual personalities. Even when praise based, some athletes (any age) aren’t comfortable with being singled out. Those cases call for individual praise to be delivered quietly and off to the side.

Quiet and off to the side is also a smart approach when delivering corrective feedback to individuals. Although mature athletes are sometimes comfortable with receiving constructive information in front of others, most will not be. So whether it is praise, correction, in front of the group, or done more discreetly; aim to deliver SPECIFIC and INDIVIDUAL feedback.

See Spot Run!

By Rett Larson

Next month, Volleyball Magazine is publishing an article I wrote on vision training for athletes. This is something that I researched and dabbled with years ago, but never implemented on a consistent basis. I decided to take another look at it (pun intended) after a trip up to Nike’s campus in Oregon last month, where they’re working on a really hi-tech program for vision called Nike SST. Unfortunately the SST system won’t be available until next year and it costs more than my car. My article deals with some decidedly lower-tech alternatives. Here are some excerpts from it.

An old proverb says that “the eyes are the windows to the soul.” Unfortunately, not everyone’s windows can keep an unblocked line hit from getting wrapped around their face. Eighty percent of the input your body receives is visual, which makes your eyes one of the most powerful and overlooked muscles in volleyball conditioning. Your visual system leads your motor system, so if you’re seeing better, you’re reacting and moving more quickly. The good news is that like any muscle, your eye can be trained to be stronger and faster.

Most athletes don’t even know that they have a dominant eye, one that processes and transmits information to the brain a little faster than the other and controls the movements of the other weaker eye. Here’s a test to find yours: extend your arms at shoulder height and form a small triangular hole between the thumbs and index fingers. Now pick and distant object and center it in the hole. Without moving your hands or head, slowly close one eye at a time. The eye that has the object lined up in the hole is your dominant eye.

So, how do you go about making it easier to track the ball, see things out of your peripheral vision, or focus on a nasty float serve? The first thing you need to do is check your hardware – go make sure you don’t need to get contacts. Next is software - your eye muscles and motor system. You can strengthen them by doing a few simple drills. At the very least, you’ll have more constructive criticism when the referee misses an easy call.

At which point I explain the 4 drills that players can do to overhaul their software. I’ve posted some of the photos from the article, but you’ll have to get the magazine for details. The take home message is that you might want to consider making vision training another tool in your coaching tool belt. You never know, the reason your ballplayer isn’t hitting .500 might not be his swing. This off-season I’ll be training one of my favorite client-athletes, Darryl Ward of the Chicago Cubs. I’m going to push that he let me incorporate some vision training into his workouts.

I’ll keep you posted on the results.