|
Improve Your Coachability
How Coachable Are You?
(This material is
copied from Tom Nordland's Basketball Shooting Newsletter Issue
27 - July/01, which you can subscribe to safely (based on this web
site's personal experience) by clicking this blue link and completing
the form http://www.swish22.com/newsletter.html
)
One of the challenges to a coach is how "coachable" as a
player you are. One hears a lot how kids, as they get to high
school,
especially the boys, think they know everything and become
difficult to coach. The same applies to college players, and in
the NBA, they're notorious for being uncoachable. (Girls and
women, meanwhile, are much more open to coaching at all
levels, from my experience.)
If this exists, it's a big problem because the players are not open
to learning.
What does it take to "coachable?"
j Knowing you don't know
everything
k Willingness to
do what your coach says
l Being more
interested in learning than looking good
m Willing to
listen
n Accepting
criticism (or just comments on progress) as part
of the "package"
o Not getting
"defensive" every time someone suggests
something different
p Being patient
with yourself as to results
q Being in it
"for the long haul," and not expecting or
demanding quick results
It takes a kind of "surrender" to a teacher or coach. By
surrender, I don't mean giving up. I mean it in a positive
way: Letting go of your need to be in control of every
situation, surrendering your will a little so someone else
can instruct or coach you.
A person on a path of Mastery (the highest level of learning)
has to be coachable. In his wonderful book, "Mastery,"
George
Leonard talks about a person being on the path of mastery
when she or he "loves the path" and "loves
practice." Practice
is how mastery is attained, and if you can come to love the
practice, it makes the whole thing enjoyable, not just the high
results. Practice has to come from excellent instruction, of
course, to make a difference.
Mastery doesn't happen in a linear, always upward, fashion.
There are highs and lows, breakthroughs and breakdowns.
There may be long periods of what are called "plateaus,"
where nothing seems to be changing. You have to endure
them, because they are the prelude to more breakthroughs.
If every breakdown upsets you, then you won't stay on the
path long. If you love the path, you know that they are
part of the process.
To learn to shoot requires some real learning and lots of
repetitions, with awareness. It's going to involve retraining
yourself to shift from shooting one way to learning a new,
more effective way. If you're not open to change, the old shot
will continue to be the default and will hang around forever.
It takes a bit of humility to admit that you don't have all the
answers and maybe someone else does and can teach it to you.
If you find a great teacher (coach), it's relatively easy to
surrender to her or him because you just "know" the the
person has something you want. It might be the way she or
he walks, or talks, or demonstrates the skill or art being offered.
An important part of this is to ASK for coaching. I wish I had
known this much earlier in my life. There were so many things
I just faked (or stayed obviously ignorant). But no one had ever
taught me how to ask for help with things. We all, at any age,
can use the help of others. You just can't have enough
experience to know everything. But somehow we get this
notion that we should know things, and that it's a sign of
weakness to ask for help. I know now how bankrupt that idea
is. Those who ask questions and ask for help get answers and
learn how to do things and grow and develop much quicker.
Those who say nothing and avoid asking for coaching get
only what they have and learn slowly, if at all. It's like going
to a potluck picnic but refusing to share your lunch with others.
All you get is what you brought. But if you give your
contribution away and open to the sharing process, you will
be rewarded with countless riches in the form of foods, far
beyond what you could have cooked and brought yourself.
Life can be lived like this.
If shooting interests you.
Ask
to be coached.
People
love to be asked for help.
Coaches
love to coach.
(Animated "buzzer" graphic from www.coachwells.com
)
Read my articles and newsletters, through this link, http://www.swish22.com/newsletter.html
I'm intending
to impart some of what I know to you in written form. The
major part of what I offer has to be physically experienced, but
words can give us "understandings," which can open doors,
and then you can start to coach yourself. There's stuff I/others
know
that you don't know, and if/when you know what I or others do, your
shooting will be forever changed. And all it takes is some
humility and curiosity, realizing that you need some help (or
at least that you are open to new ways of looking at things).
|
