The Growth Mindset
3 Stages in the Evolution of a Coach
Welcome to the Growth Mindset. Our weekly blog which will explore how coaches can get better at their craft by incorporating Mental Performance Skills into their practice. Our mission at Evolution Mental Performance Coaching is to provide education, support and solutions to help on their journey to become better coaches.
When I started coaching (I am a basketball coach), my practices and tactics closely resembled what my coaches used when I was a player, this is the first stage for many coaches. We used the drills I loved as a player. I loved shooting drills and transition offense as a player so those became our priorities. If the Monstars returned to earth and the safety of the planet came down to a contest of execution of the 3 on 2 continuous drill, my 2006 team was ready to protect mankind. Perhaps not surprisingly, we were not as successful on the court as we all hoped to be but being a passionate young coach with a growth mindset, I set out to get better.
This led me to the second stage in the evolution of coaches which is acquiring a knowledge base of the tactics and techniques of their sport. I was excited by finding new drills and plays on the internet. I had binders and binders filled with copies of drills and plays that I had printed off the internet, most of these are gathering a dust in my office. I watched hundreds of hours of video looking for tactics that would give us an edge, I attended clinics all over North America in search of advice and a new drill or play that would put us over the top. I was like a dog chasing cars. Put out a coaching video with a new offense, defense or skills and I was there for it. It definitely made me a better coach and a poorer one, people have added wings to their homes on the money I have invested over the years. Not that I am complaining, it has given me a very wide base of knowledge of the skills and tactics of my sport. I gradually built a philosophy of how I wanted my teams to play and had the knowledge to adjust to meet my teams needs. This was probably my most important take away from this stage.
Not all coaches reach the third stage in the evolution of coaching. It takes two things that not all are willing to do, honest self-reflection and widening the focus of their learning. The reality is that coaches in the second stage of their evolution can be really successful. They win lots of games, tournaments and titles and in some cases receive million-dollar salaries. Ultimately, this is how our society measures the success of coaches. Consequently, many coaches never look for anything past this stage. Personally, I feel I was stuck in this stage far too long.
The third stage involves focusing on the factors that influence performance outside of skill and tactical expertise. Like many coaches I arrived at this stage out of frustration. My team was successful on the court, we always won more games than we lost, but frankly, it was not always very rewarding. I was constantly dealing with conflict on my teams. It came to a head for me a few years ago. I had the most talented team I had ever coached. All season opposing coaches complimented me on how tough our team was, and how hard they played. They were right, we were tough and hard to play against. They were also really hard to coach. We were winning games but as the season wore on the conflict on our team was threatening to tear us apart. It got to the point where we could barely practice without controversy and conflict. It all culminated with us imploding in the last game of the season as we played for a bronze medal at the provincial championship. As a smaller rural school, a bronze would have been a significant achievement in the highest level of play in our province. We lost to a team that we could have beaten. We were all exhausted. I spent the next two weeks curled up in the fetal position (it was hard to teach at the same time) trying to recover from a really hard season, I was completely burnt out. This is where coaches are faced with a tough choice. For many this is the point where they choose to quit, blaming this generation of kids, parents or the politics of sport as the reason for their burnout. While all of those factors can be difficult to navigate, I think there is a large barrier which is preventing coaches from thriving. After some self-reflection I realized that for me, I needed to do a better job of teaching the other factors that impact sport, becoming a more effective teacher, managing team culture, creating leaders, and helping my athletes understand and utilize mental performance skills.
For me this discovery has made coaching so much more enjoyable. I had always spent time on these areas but in this stage of my growth as a coach, they have become the focal point. Instead of inconsistently spending time on these areas with my team, I am now dedicating time, sometimes at the expense of practice. They have become the pillars of my coaching philosophy. We are intentionally learning, and more importantly practicing these skills in the same way we work on our jump shot. I used to spend 30 minutes, once a season, talking about Imagery and could not figure out why players never found it helpful. As coaches our athletes will realize what is important by what we pay attention to. If I leave them to warmup on their own should I be surprised that they do a poor job of it? My approach to these important aspects of sport was similar. I never followed up with the athletes and provided them feedback or opportunities to practice these skills. This has changed everything for my team and my coaching. My players have bought into our program in a way that they never have before. Perhaps more importantly I am finding more meaning and joy in the deepening of relationships with my players as we go through this journey together. This has been by far the most rewarding stage of coaching for me.
At Evolution Mental Performance Coaching we want to make sport more rewarding for both coaches and their athletes. Our goal is to provide quality comprehensive exercises, lessons and curricula to help coaches understand, teach, and embed Mental Performance Skills into their coaching in hopes of helping them reach the third stage in the evolution of coach without having to invest in a library of books or in a master’s degree. Over the next few months we will be updating The Growth Mindset weekly and will be rolling out our curriculums to help support coaches utilize Mental Performance Skills in their coaching. In the meantime, please stop by www.evolutionmpc.com to download our lesson using the VIA Strengths Survey to use with your team.
