Look and listen and you will be surprised at what you see and hear.
Take the familiar and known and turn it around and make unfamiliar and unknown. See your day to day world with new eyes.
Look at it with childlike wonder. Gymnasts flip, Vaulters vault, runners run, jumpers jump, throwers throw but how do they do what they do? Keep questioning. Watch a vault from the end of the runway; watch a bar routine from the end of the dismount mat. Close your eyes and listen to the run the run, jump or tumbling pass.
Beware of confirmation bias – seeing what you are looking for. Clear your mind and pretend you are seeing the movement for the first time. As coaches our richest source of learning and information is the athletes we coach. They are doing it – get their feedback – both verbal and non-verbal. In coaching we should be growing with the athlete, if we get better then they get better and visa versa.
As coaches we must challenge ourselves daily in order to be able to continue to challenge our athletes. What are you going to do today to challenge yourself to be better? What can you see, hear or feel at today’s workout that will make a better coach? What will you learn from your athletes today?
