Without specific techniques to provide direction, we fall back on vague platitudes. (“Teach from your heart!” “Mean business!” “Have high expectations!”–all equivalent to, “Stop swinging at those pitches.”) with the best intentions but with a lack of actionable specifics. With slogans guiding the way, we can make the assumption that the greatest lever to developing talent is motivation or mindset rather than specific actionable steps for incremental improvement.
Doug Lemov in Practice Perfect (p. 96)
Does the above quote sound like a coach you know? May that coach have been you on occasion? I certainly know when I was a young coach I said many things that filled the silence that I felt would expose me as an imposter. If I wasn’t providing nonstop feedback what kind of a coach was I anyway?
Over time I realized the truth in the saying, “Kids and dogs can smell a fake.” I was trying to provide fake or superfluous feedback and the result was that doing so eroded the confidence my athletes had in my advice and coaching. As time passed, I started to realize that kids were smart and that if I wanted to contribute, I needed to do better. As one would hope, I got better at providing specific feedback to my athletes based on what we had established in practice and in past competitions.
This isn’t to say that providing support, praise, or encouragement are meaningless. Providing positive feedback or praise is one of the most powerful tools at a coach’s disposal. Research has shown the effectiveness of providing learners with three times as many affirmations versus criticisms and correction. However, powerful tools can be misused such as when coaches use them to manipulate, disproportionately optimistic, or the perverbial backhanded compliment.
Lemov and company share that we sincere and honest feedback is best delivered as a description rather than an evaluation. They share the advise to “Describe what you see, what you feel and use a word that sums up the entire experience.” The video below is a summary of their version of “precise praise.”
Another way to help provide feedback to an athlete is asking questions is a way that you can help your athlete provide you some insight on what is going on with his/her performance. Doing so is a good way to understand what the athlete is trying to accomplish and may provide you some ideas or further questions to pose.