Whilst I was tutoring an athletics coaching course recently at the Army School Of Physical Training in Aldershot, we talked about developing our athletes’ techniques.  We decided that as coaches we could help our athletes develop their techniques by offering various interventions.  These could be: giving a new instruction; showing our athletes a demonstration of what we would like to see; or perhaps we could give feedback to our athletes telling them what went well; what could be improved and what they need to work on.

Have you ever asked someone the question, “Why are you doing it that way?”  A common answer to this question is, “I have always done it like this.”  This is then often followed by, “It gets the job done, this is how I learned and it worked for me!”  Does this mean it is the best way?  Considering this further, do we really just want to just get the job done?  Do we want competence or do we want performance?  Athletes want performance and as coaches we are trying to support them to this end.  Maybe we should be additionally looking at other ways if performance is our goal.

So, returning back to our discussions at the Army, what other interventions can  coaches make which may take our athletes beyond competence and into performance?  Our discussions continued until this question was posed, “If performance is our goal, who needs to know when their technique is faltering?”  Initially it was decided that the coach needs to know, however, as the discussion progressed, it became clear to everyone that actually the people that ultimately need to know are the athletes themselves.

In the context of the Army, “If you know where your enemy is, then you can control and manage that situation and the threat is decreased.  If you don’t know where your enemy is then the situation is much more difficult to control and manage and the threat from that enemy is increased.”

This same analogy can be applied to athletic technique: what you know about your technique you can control, what you don’t know controls you.  Therefore, as coaches one of our jobs is to understand technique, but more importantly help our athletes understand their own technique.

How do coaches understand technique?  They read, observe their athletes, talk to other coaches and amongst many other ways they could also observe videos of good technique.  How do coaches help their athletes understanding of their technique?  They can ask questions.  Answers to these questions will highlight to both coach and athlete the athlete’s level of understanding.

Traditionally, coaches are supposed to tell their athletes where they are going wrong, or perhaps show their athletes where they are going wrong.  Asking questions aimed at raising their awareness of what is happening is a tool which perhaps is a little under used.  Asking questions may seem long winded, wouldn’t telling or showing be much quicker?  Well, yes, it may well be, but often lessons learned through experience are the lessons where greatest understanding is achieved.  Questions can help to magnify those experiences so greater learning takes place.  Just ask yourself the question, “what is the biggest lesson you have learned up to this point in your life?”  Then ask yourself, “how did I learn that lesson?”  “Did someone tell me?”  “Did someone show me?”  “Was this lesson something I learned through experience?”

So, coaches, I challenge you to continue to tell your athletes, I challenge you to continue to show your athletes and I also challenge you to ask a few more questions aimed at helping to shine light on their experiences so more learning can take place.