Are You Coaching What You See, or What You Expected to See?
Have you ever watched an athlete move and already decided what the problem was before they had finished the first set?
I think we have all probably done this at some point. You know the athlete, you know their history, and you have an idea of what usually goes wrong from working with others in the past. So before long, you are watching the session with that mindset.
The athlete who is “not very powerful” gets judged every time they jump or sprint. The player who “doesn’t work hard enough” starts to have every poor performance explained by effort.
Now, don’t get me wrong, sometimes these observations are right. But sometimes we become so familiar with them that we create a story around an athlete without stopping to properly look at what is happening in front of us.
That can happen with our data too. If a readiness or wellness score tells us an athlete is fatigued, we may start noticing every little sign of tiredness. If their testing numbers have improved, we might expect them to look better in training. The information we have before the session can influence what we think we see.
Now, one of the benefits of coaching athletes over time is that you begin to recognise patterns. You know what good looks like for that individual, you understand how they usually respond, and you can often spot problems earlier than someone seeing them for the first time.
But experience can also create assumptions.
Sometimes it is worth mentally wiping the slate clean and asking: what am I actually seeing today?
Maybe the movement issue you have been correcting for weeks has already improved, but you are still coaching the old issue. Or perhaps the problem you were convinced existed was never really a problem at all.
So, in your next session, before giving the cue or adjusting the programme, perhaps watch a few more reps. Ask more questions and look from another angle. Give the athlete a chance to tell you what they felt.
Food for thought
Michael
