Unfortunately I was away for the lecture and tutorial so its a bit hard to interpret the information through the slide cast and associated reading as the subject of augmented is wide and far reaching. I also missed stinking up the basketball court with my grade school dribbling and ambisinister shooting.
What is it to observe in a sporting environment, how much should one merely observe before providing feedback, or as Keith refers to it 'feed-forward' (I happen to find this term rather clever in its positive rather than negative take on 'feed-back'). I dare say there is no definitive answer, but a case of having a feel for a situation that one either possesses naturally or acquires over time.
To look at the top you find revolutionary thinkers and visionaries ahead of their time, Ivan Abadjiev in weightlifting, Bela Karolyi in gymnastics, John Wooden in basketball, and more controversially Charlie Francis in athletics. In each case a brilliant mind years ahead of the pack with techniques and systems that would be mimicked and built upon for years to come. Abadjiev threw out the book on weightlifting training and adopted an intense training regime (one that the Chinese have since adopted and adapted to great success), Karolyi used a strict authoritarian style to elicit the best out of his gymnasts (Nadia Comaneci being the prime example), Wooden (possibly the greatest coach of all time), used a number of principles of training and living that he instilled in his players, he was a thinker and a listener and always ahead of the pack, Francis was in the same mould as Abadjiev, he threw away the traditional book of sprint training and focused his charges in velocity rather than endurance (he subsequently put them on courses of PEDs but his system is copied to this day worldwide).
In recent years I've followed a lot of softball tournaments and had the privilege of meeting some of the top coaches in Australia (and the US), and been able to pick there brains on their approaches in training and in game situations. At a recent national championships I spent time with a leading US college coach who was out scouting a few players to put on scholarship. He discussed approaches to offence and defence that had never crossed my mind, (and by the looks of things neither had some of the coaches there). Here was a case and point of one form of observation, this one would have little to no feed-forward to the majority of players, (only the two that caught his eye were ever approached due to NCAA recruiting rules), but I on the other hand was able to get the 'feed-forward' on his observations and at the level he was at it was more information than my untrained mind could fathom. To put it bluntly and in the basic form I understood, he was first and foremost looking for an attitude, one that would fit with his program, then he wanted a skill that would be useful, and thirdly he wanted something he could enhance, this was the basic formula he used when scouting, if a girl displayed these qualities he would proceed further, if not he wouldn't pursue it.
Moving back to what Keith put forward in his presentation, the key point that I found most interesting was the theme of 'what is the noise and what is the silence?' Meaning a coach has to know when to talk (provide information; the noise) and when to listen and observe (the silence). Finding a balance of the two that suits the athlete will go a long way in allowing their particular program to succeed. Too much noise and the athlete may get discouraged or annoyed at the coach, too little noise and the athlete may become lost, (each athlete is intricately different and may require different levels at different stages, making the coaches job all the more difficult...)
Lastly I find the theme of guided discovery to go hand in hand with what Coach Wooden utilised for his whole career; the 'Pyramid of Success' and his 12 lessons on leadership. Many past players will attribute their success to these principles that Wooden used to guide their development as players and as men. Here is a picture of the pyramid and lessons. A detailed copy is available at www.coachwooden.com
That's about all I can manage on this for now, I'll be back to tackle Keiths take on Sharing & Presenting.
I am delighted you have found Coach Wooden.
ReplyDeleteA remarkable figure in 20th Century coaching and the 21st C adaptation of the principles.