For a coach, quality communication is essential. Without it, the ability of others to understand and learn from us is vastly reduced. Communication is the method by which people transfer knowledge, which, when done well, results in learning and understanding. There are many ways of dissecting communication, and in this article, we’ll look at the PAQ code with its three or four (depending how you look at it) essentials for a coach to adapt and adjust our language in a manner that will help us to become more effective coaches. The purpose of this article is to offer you some indicators toward greater effectiveness.
Before we even get to PAQ, it’s important to understand the ‘psychological safety’, or simply put, trust. The people you are coaching must be receptive to you, and the concept of psychological safety is important because people must feel as though they can answer your questions or ask new questions without fearing a threat to their dignity. If a player doesn’t understand something, s/he must feel comfortable enough to question what is being said. An essential way to cultivate this feeling of trust is for the coach to be humble, positive and receptive to the people they are coaching.
Part 1 of the Code Positive
Positive communication has a tendency to come under fire, so it is incredibly important to understand that this does not mean to simply be a cheerleader coach, as many studies show that being an instructional coach is linked to higher levels of athlete satisfaction.
Positive communication simply means to phrase all comments as solutions, and to do this effectively, you must understand the problem that is to be solved, but not to focus on it. A good coach will identify the problem, point it out only if necessary, and then focus on the solution. Focusing on solutions is essential. We are always telling our players to have a positive mental at- titude, but often we are not coaching this way. If we can help them to think in terms of solutions, our players will develop good mental habits and even- tually will become their own positive influences.
How often do you hear players say to themselves, “Don’t hit it into the net”or “Stop hitting it out”? How often have you seen a coach tell 6-year-old kids to stop a bad movement for it only to get worse? The problem here is telling someone (or yourself) to stop a negative motion only brings it to the forefront of their mind, so we visualize and think about the negative, and not the so- lution. Everything that is said, whether by the coach or by our own internal dialog, can be the solution rather than the problem. Training ourselves - and our players - to think in solutions can be life changing.
A recent Stanford University study demonstrated that even after IQ and other factors were considered, a positive attitude toward math actually predicts performance! Attitude can be as important as IQ. Not only that, the positive attitude actually stimulated the part of the brain that is associated with mem- ory and learning. Of all the studies that can be found on positive attitude as a coaching philosophy, surely this is one of the most powerful.
Having a positive attitude
acts directly on your memory and learning system.- Lang Chen, PhD
In the first paragraph, we explored how a good coach will identify a problem, point it out if necessary, and then focus on the solution. However, an even more effective route is to use your power of observation for a little longer. Sit back and watch the player for a while, identify a problem, and then hope- fully identify a time when the player has done it well, so you can point out that the player already has the ability to do it correctly, and must simply dothat more consistently. How empowering it is to be able to tell your player that you have seen them do it already, rather than simply telling them what to do.
Self Determination Theory
This theory is complex, but simply put, it delves into the motivation behind the choices people make without external influence, intrinsic motivation. Koka, Haggar, et al. found that the effects of perceived autocratic behavior and negative non-verbal feedback were direct and negative, whereas teach- ing, instruction and situational consideration were direct and positive, which means that good positive teaching will help your students become more self- motivated. The power we have as coaches often goes unappreciated, how- ever it is things like this in our daily behaviors that we can always be working on to become more effective in assisting our players. Social context can ei- ther support or thwart natural tendencies toward active engagement and psychological growth. It’s easy to blame the player for not trying hard enough, but we are responsible for our role to help them become motivated, by being a positive, confident, visionary leader.
Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results.
- Willie Nelson
Part 2 of the Code Adaptable
As coaches and communicators, it is important to understand that the people we are training will perceive our explanations in different ways. We must pay attention not only to what we are saying, but how the information is being received. If we get stuck using the same phrases to explain tactical or technical aspects of our sport, we eventually become white noise to our players. If we rephrase the same thing five times, everyone will find a different de- scription to focus on, and it is this adaptability that allows us to connect with many different people. Again we fall back on the power of observation. If we are trying to coach someone on a specific move, and find that our phrase is not working, rather than repeating ourselves, observe what is happening with the player, and rephrase your advice accordingly. It is our job as coaches and the communicators to deliver the message in a way that the player is able to understand the changes that need to be made. Again there are times when it can be easy to blame the player, but it is up to us to adapt and rephrase our language.
There are many ways to be adaptable in our language, and one of my personal favorites is the use of analogies. Analogies help people to build conceptual bridges between what is familiar and what is new. I have so many that I use, but I will share one. I was working with a woman who was waiting for the ball to bounce before even setting her racquet. No amount of asking her to prepare earlier was working, resulting in late contact points every single time. So I stopped for a water break, and asked her about Thanksgiving dinner. I asked her when her guests were arriving, when she had bought the turkey, when it went in the oven, and when she set the table, among many other questions. I expressed surprise at the turkey going in the oven that morning when dinner was that evening, why so soon? Why not wait until the guests arrive? Of course, the turkey wouldn’t be ready and it would have made dinner late. It was at this moment, when she was looking at me like I was a lunatic, that I gave her a little wink and started to explain the similarity between her turkey going in the oven that morning and my request for her to set the racquet as soon as she knew whether it was going to be a forehand or a backhand. From that day on, although we still had to work on timing and early preparation, the message had been received and we had laid the groundwork for much simpler communication going forward.
In a study by Glynn, et al. in 1989, it was found that 75% of college students were only able to solve a problem using previously learned information, afterit was suggested to them how they should apply this information. That is to say that analogies require the guidance of a good coach to help players bridge the gap.
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PAQ - The Communication Code
Part 3 of the Code Questions
Asking your players questions is so much more powerful than preaching to them. Leading people to the answer by guided questioning will not only assist in their retention of the information, it will also empower them to realize that they can actually solve their own problems. This will also help build the ‘psychological safety’ or trust between coach and player that we explored at the very beginning. There are times when simply asking why something went wrong that will lead the player to the root cause of the problem, helping them to understand their goals and how to achieve them.
For example, a simple why conversation.
Coach - Why did you miss that?
Player - I opened my racquet face and lifted up.
Coach - Yes, but why did that happen?
Player - I was late.
Coach - Yes why?
Player - I didn’t move my feet.
(A cookie cutter answer that s/he was hoped would be correct.)
Coach - Actually your feet were moving well, so what else could it be?
Player - I was too close to the ball.
Coach - Yes, why?
Player - My preparation was late!
Coach - Bingo! We had good feet, but late prep, so let us work on that.
All the initial problems in this story, except for the footwork, were genuine things that had gone wrong with the stroke, but focusing on those things would not have actually fixed the problem. By talking the player down to the very root of the problem, she actually solved her own problem, and with some guidance was able to clearly understand why the next phase of the lesson was to focus on early prepa- ration. Of course, from the coach’s perspective, it’s important to have spent a little time observing the player to be able to guide the conversation through questions that create the correct responses.
You are probably familiar with the Socratic Method, cooperative ar- gumentative dialogue between individuals based on asking and an- swering questions which actually stimulates critical thinking and helps to draw out ideas. Socrates and his method not only encourage these types of conversations to foster learning and understanding, but he was the master of humility; for a humble person will always seek more knowledge, but someone who assumes they know it all, will not learn new things! The Swiss, who have been known to turn out many top quality players, have this as their Tennis Motto, “If you only do what you already can, then you will always be what you are today.”
For those of you who have not read The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, read it. There is a small exercise in the book that has two lists of words, one list the words are all spelled correctly and in the second the letters are jumbled. It asks you to read the lists and on the next page to try to remember as many of the words as you can. Invariably the brain remembers the words with the letters jumbled, as it has to work a little harder to figure out what the words are. The act of forcing ourselves to think little longer about a problem and actually work it out, has an immediate result on our retention; and by having these types of critical thinking dialogues with our players, they are learning more effectively.
We all deal with very varied players who learn and understand in different ways. One of the beauties for me is when people understand, learn and improve as a direct result of my coaching. If they don’t, an easy option would be to somehow blame the player’s inability to learn, but I believe that no matter the player, it is up to us to adjust our communication to help them succeed. It is this problem-solving process that I find so fun about coaching. PAQ works for me, might it work for you too? I hope so.
No matter the player, it is up to us, as coaches, to adjust our communication to help them succeed.
- Margot Carter
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