A couple of days ago, my good friend Dave Whalley posted this image on his Instagram. I loved the image of of Dave debriefing the session with his young charges and a bunch of goalie stuff in the frame. More importantly, I loved the sentiment of finding out what his athletes thought and what they have learnt. Why is this important?
There is a veritable ocean of research confirming the importance of processing in learning and the importance reflection plays in this process. A (very) simplified summary of it by American philosopher and educator John Dewey reads: ‘we don’t learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience’.
We may and often do things impulsively, instinctively and with all the benefits and the baggage of our previous experiences and future expectations. Reflecting on ‘what just happened’, ‘what went well or not’, ‘why so’, ‘what has changed’, ‘what could we do’ and similar is an act of intelligence, applied to our impulses, desires and experiences.
One of the most important jobs of a coach and/or a teacher (disclaimer – yes, I am both of these labels) is to facilitate this application of the intelligence not TO but BY our athlete or student. It happens at three levels.
Just about any mug off the street can point out and amplify the obvious, whether the athlete was successful, done xyz actions well and so on. In edu-circles, this is called behavioural engagement. The next layer, emotional engagement, is a little trickier to see. This is to figure out whether they enjoyed or challenged themselves, felt safe, scared, worried. Some of this can be visible but we may need to do some prodding. The third type, cognitive engagement, is the hardest to see and can only be teased out through the process of reflection. Here we are trying to figure out what they thought about, learned, mastered, avoided and so on. This is about making the invisible visible, memorable and useful to us in the future. THIS is where the best development coaches and teachers earn their stars.
We can have goalkeepers look OK and seemingly do all the right things but with little emotional and cognitive investment in it. But when the latter (two) are present, development shoots off like a rocket. Questions, listening and reflection are powerful tools in that process.
Now, good reflection requires a lot of listening. I borrow a passage from chapter 9 ‘Teaching and learning the craft’ in ‘The Love of Goalkeeping’ to explain:
Just as important as asking is listening well to the goalkeeper’s answers. Listening is a cognitive and emotional act, very different from the mere physical process of hearing. Good listening means opening your mind and heart to the person in front of you, regardless of the difference in your age, experience and knowledge. Sounds nice but don’t be fooled – this sort of listening is hard, almost unnatural for some of us coaches. Firstly because in our daily lives we tend to mostly use conversational listening that is quick, informal and less cognitively taxing. Secondly because of a possible attitude that “a coach is there to tell not to listen.” With such an underlying attitude, we are less likely to open our mind and instead listen only for the confirmation of our own thoughts, ideas and solutions.
As difficult as it may be, listening (more) deeply is well worth the effort. Listening to beginners, still largely incompetent, builds relationships and gives us a better chance of giving advice that is not only correct but appropriate for their level of development and understanding. Listening deeply to an emerging or already competent goalkeeper is a stepping stone to the next level – empowerment.
The Love of Goalkeeping: Many Sports, One Love, page 127
Well done Dave. Keep listening mate.
