Could you recognise one
Would you change your coaching style and methods?
Gather some thoughts now just in case
Change your coaching style for them?
or
Coach all your players the same way?
What would you do to maximise their talents - their future potential
The dilemma faced by coaches : How to coach this ‘talent’
An experienced coach once told me to deliberately adjust
my methodologies & content to suit whoever was in front of me
Recently, another coach explained to me that their latest new pupil (aged 11) was highly skilled when compared to others the coach had seen of a similar age.
They could move faster and with better coordination/anticipation than most, had a great overhead hitting action and seemed fearless in terms of how they played.
The coach was highly motivated by the idea of having individual court time with this player, especially as it was a completely different coaching experience compared to the ‘normal’ group
Be aware that ‘mini-experts’ implement
new information very quickly and effectively
We had a quick converstion
“This player is very different to the ones I normally coach”
“You seem to have a mini-expert in front of you”
“Have you thought about changing your style and content so they get the best chance to improve ?”
Some of the ideas we discussed – there were many more
- The environment – try placing the player in as many challenging (but safe-ish) environments. Especially those where making mistakes wasn’t seen as a negative but seen as a way to improve. We want fearless motivated players.
- How to communicate – try giving less explanation and more time doing. Explanations should focus on external aspects such as tactics, what happens to the shuttle, and the effect on the opponent.
- Practice situations – try creating situations (real ones that happen in a game) that stressed yet provided winning opportunities. We defined ‘winning’ in many different forms.
- Player involvement – try to engage with the player, jointly setting tasks and challenges, especially the difficulty, context, targets or themes.
- Glimpses – give them glimpses of what can be achieved. This may mean not sticking to a coaching script of stroke order or technique must do’s and don’ts.
- Be prepared to change– 'normal' coaching instructions, pace of learning, player motivations, and more: all these will give different with these 'mini-experts'. Coaches nned to be aware and adapt.
Have you ever thought you had a few mini experts in front of you
did you change your style, methodologies and content?
Do you want a conversation?
I’d like to hear from you if you have a viewpoint on anything that you’ve read
We don’t need to agree, but explore viewpoints.
It would be great to hear from you, send me an email : contact@badmintonandy.com
This is part of a series of conversation starters.
Although not in detail, the posts are written to get you thinking and talking with others.
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