It's complicated
Take home message
PUT THE SPACE BETWEEN STIMULUS AND RESPONSE.
For Coaches
Patience. This is new for everyone. What can you experiment with and grow? Maybe now is the time for that self-reflection journal? Keep the long-term goal in mind.
For Athletes
This is a hard time for everyone. Take a breath and make a plan to return and improve.
I am a bit late posting this week. It has been a complicated time.
We might be back at training but it is neither new or normal. The turf is the same and so are the goals. It is darker and raining at 6:30am so I suppose that is new. The gym is the same, maybe just a little quieter thanks to social distancing, but there are still bars and plates.
However, nothing is normal. There are temperature checks and questionnaires before every training session. Border restrictions have halved our squad. The Olympics were supposed to be 6 weeks away, years of hard work are going to be unrealised. We don’t know when our next international competition will be. Under normal circumstances, a national squad would be training for an international competition.
Interestingly, what I have found new is my approach and that of fellow coaches I speak too. Right or wrong, my identity is as an S&C coach - I coach athletes (yes, I also identify as a husband, father, friend, etc, but professionally I am an S&C coach). So when I go to work, I get to do that - on the pitch, in the gym. However, the athletes I work with are international hockey players. For them, their identity has been affected. Their planning around a 4-year cycle has been greatly affected. Many have been able to redirect their identity to family, or work, or study. However, their identity as hockey players has been altered, and in turn, so has my relationship with them.
Upon self-reflection I have tempered my coaching quite a lot. An important requirement for an S&C coach is physical improvement in the players we work with. Yet what is important to me as an S&C coach is not necessarily a high priority for some of my athletes. I am learning that this change has different time frames for each person.
Be patient and ride it out. (@SaltDiaries)
I was pretty happy with where were in March and the progress we were making (probably a good thing being only a few months from Tokyo). Now, well, we are in a different place and it’s complicated. Now more than I have in the past, I have softened my approach. I don’t mean, accepting mediocrity, or lowering my standards. Simply I am trying to react a lot less. Trying to demonstrate a lot more patience and understanding than I would have previously. Placing more of a gap between stimulus and response than I ever have. Really considering the person well before the athlete. Being more patient is a characteristic I’ve admired in other coaches and I hope is a style I can retain and balance with intensity.
Funnily enough (and this makes me sound, probably as old as I am, but older than I feel), it makes me think of this as parenting. Hoping that we’ve ‘raised our kids’ well enough to get them through this troubled time and be there to support them whilst we all find our way. I can’t tell them what to do. I can advise if they ask and I can let them know I am here if they need something. But I sense that telling them, or forcing high standards and demanding that we use this time to get into ‘career best shape’ would actually be counter-productive. That ‘whilst you in my house you will live by my rules’ will end up in some rebellious activities. Some are ready. Some are not. I need to be ready for when they are.
I am contemplating all the other aspects I might be able to achieve now. I’m encouraging them to experiment with training techniques and learn about themselves. Getting them and me, to experiment around safe edges with systems and routines where mistakes won’t have serious consequences but valuable lessons. The more they can learn, the more they can bring back to the program and share with me and other players. For me to try things too, new approaches to pitch training, reporting, communication, systems in the gym. I’m still trying to help athletes prepare for an Olympic Games, but there is a wide variety of attributes that are involved in athletic preparation. It’s been really interesting to see the spectrum of response to the return to training, and the approach by coaches too.
I think the important thing is to have a lot of patience and understanding right now, hopefully characteristics I can continue. Riding out this unique experience for all of us - coaches and athletes, absorbing as many lessons as we can. Ready for the time to return to the old normal - energised and connected, with new experiences, skills and knowledge.
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Thanks again. BA.
Cover image Photo by Elijah Ekdahl on Unsplash