Mike Robinson, ChPC

Musings of a Long-distance coach

Last night I put my head down in Oklahoma.  I have my club team here for a late season event.  I am away from most of my home team athletes, however  there is one athlete that my Oklahoma adventure does not impact since we are apart most of the year.  She is a member of the Canadian National Team and therefore training at the National Team Centre.  She is, the one away, making her life and chasing her dreams far from family and her personal coach.  With this athlete, my role has changed, with the distance I take on the role of consultant and someone she can rely on to call when needed.  A coach plays the role that is needed, when needed.

I am sleeping in the home of one of the Oklahoma club members.  They are fantastic! I rarely remember my dreams… Most mornings I awake with no recollection of my dreams, I am sure my mind is active and I hope my thoughts are happy and perhaps even productive.   However, for the most part, any memory of these is lost to the night.  This morning was different, this morning was one of those days I awoke still in the middle of my thoughts, I was problem-solving.  The previous day I received a call from my athlete training as part of the national team.  Although I communicate by text regularly and normally once a week by phone,  I knew as soon as I saw her name on my phone something was up to warrant voice call in the middle of the day.  She was frustrated and struggling with the demands on her time.  She needed to talk it through and gain back as the sense of control.

It is Autumn and early in the general preparation phase that’s typically comprised of increasing longer aerobic sessions and the foundations of strength.  It’s also early in the school year which brings much of the same, higher and higher volume of study time.  Living away from home, grocery shopping and the extensive meal preparation routine to support all the training all add to the demand.  After all, everything takes time and to do anything at a high level takes that much more. Putting a National team training plan and a university education together make for a sizable time-management and stress-management challenge.

Not long ago I sat with her national team coach, who had recently been assigned to this particular group. With us, was his strength and condition specialist and joining us by phone the athlete’s long-time mental skills consultant and her nutritionist.  The goal was to start the new season by introducing the coach to the athletes existing support team and share individual assessments from the experience we had built up with the athlete.  Perhaps we could think of it as an unstructured SWoT analysis to help the new coach get to know her a bit more.

A year earlier, I had a similar meeting but then without the coach, the National team did not have a coach assigned to this group over the past year.  At both meetings, I wrote on the conference room whiteboard three Key requirements for the athlete’s success.  They were in the order of importance: Smiles, Strength, Technique.

A little over a year and a half ago the athlete had nearly left the sport due to stress and an unhappy training environment.  I made sure the coach knew this and stressed the importance of the athlete’s ability to smile and enjoy the sport.  She loves to work hard and generally does well to rationalize the demands of training.  However, when things are uncertain and the path forward is not clear or successful, the joy fades quickly. When the smiles fade the long-term prospects of this athlete reaching her potential fade as well.  Strength and technical skills (allowing quickness) were next on the list, however, without taking care of the smiles, other elements would never be fully developed if the joy was lost.

I suggested two things.  The 1st was to enhance her time management strategies and skills to make more of the time she now has.  “The training centre has recourses you can access, that is why we think the national centre is the best place for you and why you are there, right? Maybe you should reach out and have a conversation to see if someone there can help you”.  After years in the sport I have developed relationships with truly remarkable people working in all areas of athletic support.  If it meant calling in some favours to get one to join her team I am ready.  However, first step is to access someone in the centre where she trains.

I believe strongly, the chances of an athlete reaching his or her full potential relies on a full support team of experts working ‘as a team’.  This is the reason the athlete is where she is now, at a National Training Centre, where she can have a professional, well managed and high performing support network.  Over the career of this athlete we took care to build ‘her’ support team of people who know her well, her history, her personality and performance ability.  This is key, my elevator version of this goes something like:

“If Canada has THE BEST functioning support team of coaches and IST’s, creating a high-level training environment, our athletes will reach their potential more often than countries who don’t do this as well”.

The 2nd was to take some items off her plate.  “If you simply cannot manage the demands you have, maybe you will need to lower them”.  If you are not in a position to lower your academic load, can you change your training load while still meeting your goals”?  If so, it would certainly not be by cutting training in the areas needing the most improvement.  We know one area where she naturally excels and perhaps does not need to devote as much time as others may.  This is the aerobic endurance, we know from years of training and monitoring she maintains a very high aerobic level with very little training.  In the past, we have lowered the aerobic volume to gain extra time for, strength, power, recovery time or even increase social time.  All these have been identified as areas this athlete needs to prioritize.

What to do for the 2nd option?  She will need to bring this up with the national coach.  Any adjustment in training will need to be planned and integrated with to the group training.  She is only one person but depends on others so must behave in a manner so that she and those around her improve.  ‘The strength of all improves the strength of the one.’  If all is working well her training partners support her and she supports them.  She simply cannot just think about herself.  The culture required for excellence must touch everyone.

One of the basic training principles is that of INDIVIDUALIZATION.  This states that every athlete is unique and one cookie cutter approach or plan will not yield the same results for all.  To reach the best results for any individual they will require a training plan designed with this uniqueness in mind.  This does not mean everyone will do things completely different but certainly, some differences will exist.  The athlete is a smart and well-educated person who is studying sports science herself so is very aware of the individualization principle.

Currently, all the women in the training group are on the same training plan.  I have suggested to her this may be the opportunity to sit with the coach and share her concerns.  I expect the coach will welcome the conversation and be happy to make some ‘tweaks’ to the general group plan so that she will be better served.  This is, in fact, the process we know is often employed:  A cookie-cutter plan is given to the group but over time the coach learns how the individual responds and adapts for each.  With repeated adjustments, some plans may become more tailored to each athlete(s) with similar responses are grouped together with the plan ensuring every member of the team improves.

So, this is where we are this morning.  Problem-solving strategies for conversations with the coach, reaching out to the Centre support team for training or advice in time management skills and lacking all the smiles we need.  Next week, I will make a point to follow up with the athlete and if no progress has been made I will offer to step in myself on her behalf.  This is my role while she is away with the team, provide advice, and support where possible. The athlete likes to be responsible for herself with the national coach and her relationships so I respect that.  In one week, we will see what has happened and if there is a need for me to reach out to the coach myself.

This stuff is important!  Important enough, to occupy my dreams.  Important enough, to climb with me out of slumber into the new day.

Personal Text from athlete…. Making smiles

Recently I have been reading some work by Susanna Rahkamo. Susanna is a former competitive ice dancer who, with her partner Petri Kokko, achieved the 1995 European Championship Gold and the 1995 World Silver Medal honours, along with strong olympic competition results. Susanna has a very interesting perspective on sport. I came across her work by chance and am happy that I have. She has served as the Finnish Figure Skating Association President and is now the Vice President of the Finnish Olympic Committee as well as working as a Leadership Consultant.

I was very happy when she agreed to share her 2016 doctoral dissertation titled, ‘The Road to Exceptional Expertise and Success’. Susanna’s interest is in the role of creativity as an element of expertise. To be good or even match the best previous performances, one need only to replicate what others have done before. However, to surpass previous achievements, a novel achievement is needed. When striving to surpass best ever performances, an element of creativity is required which extends the current state of knowledge, performance and expertise.

I am still in the middle of reading her interesting work but the creative approach taken by Susanna and Petri is inspiring and it puts creativity on my list of key performance elements.

In her own sports career, she and her partner were faced with the reality of competing against the established Russian Ice dance system that dominated the sport. By Susanna’s account, Finland lacked such a strong organizational system and culture of excellence. They soon realized that trying to beat the best in the world at their own game would be futile. With the realization that the pair would need to find their own way to capture the judges attention, they embarked on a spectacular and innovative career, unlocking the ridged culture of the ice dancing world. Working to show expertise rather then replicate it, the pair reached the top of the world stage and to iconic status in their home country. In reviewing Susanna’s story, I am struck by the courage required to discard the status quo and forge a new path while all the ‘experts’ promoted the proven pathway.

Reflecting on Susanna’s journey and my own experiance in coaching, I realize key turning points in my teams and even my personal development occurred when I had the willingness to fight the status quo and go against the grain. Although I don’t pretend to have changed the sport, my role as a coach is to transform an existing team culture in order to surpass the previous best. The role of coach is the same as performer as they both require the same level of creativity in order to excel and go beyond the normal coaching development pathways. I have chosen to be a life long learner in the field of sports science and have sought out partnerships and mentors with unique approaches and philosophies. At each step away from the tried and true path, personal coaching advances have been achieved.

In my sport of Sprint Canoe & Kayak, the majority of athletes are found in eastern Canada. Lake Banook, in Dartmouth Nova Scotia, is the home to three of the largest Canoe/Kayak clubs and is the site of a National High Performance training centre. Within this small region there are nine teams. Together this represents one of the more densely populated regions for sprint canoe in the world. In this region I was developed, first as an athlete then as a coach. In contrast, western Canada clubs are isolated with sometimes more then a full days drive to the next team. These clubs have considerably smaller membership numbers. The disparity between depth of performance and expertise across these regions is extreme.

Although there may be very different environments between Canoe Kayak Teams in each Canadian region, as there was between Susanna’s Finland and the dominant Russian Team of the time, there is no creativity in how Sprint Canoe Kayak events are scored. It is simply a first-past-the-post event and the fastest athletes over the set distance are the champions. Therefore, creativity in my sport is largely limited to the process teams develop to out-perform the rest.

I’ve coached in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan, so I am familiar with the big and the small, the rich and the poor, the clubs with long history and culture and the new start-ups. Regardless the current state, when taking on a new club or team I often hear the same message, we are not like ‘they’ are and what works there won’t work here. Yet the reality remains, what is the normal way of doing things if this new team is not producing the desired performances. Change is needed.

It is natural to look at successful neighbours and to world leaders for a model. So often the question is asked: what do they do? Perhaps some of these practices can be adopted yet others are specific to the individual context. Regardless, new actions must be taken since simply doing the same thing leads to a variation on the unacceptable status quo. For things to change, things must change. Change is welcome by some and always resisted by others. Creativity is change and creativity takes courage. It is a step into the unknown and onto a new path.

When I took on a new team in Ontario, one early change was to strengthen the sense of ‘team’ among the athletes and staff. To do so, we broke away from participation in a major provincial team spring camp initiative. Politically, it took courage, however, my athletes were so often integrated with our partner clubs, it was hurting our own ability to function as a team. Pulling our group together for our own 4-week spring camp was an opportunity that started us down the road that lead to a National Championship 5 years later.

In contrast, the opposite approach was needed with a western team. The Western team was geographically isolated from the bulk of the paddlers in the country and only interacted perhaps once a year at the Canadian Championships. In this case, the action taken was to move our teams’ spring camp to a location near the national team and most of the stronger eastern clubs. The move made it possible to gain exposure to and interact with larger groups. This was a big change from what was the ‘norm’ at the time. To further this agenda, we took a 4-week van tour across Canada taking part in major events. We visited as many clubs as possible and joined in on their training sessions. This was a big eye opener for the team who had only known their local sport environment. Six years later, these same athletes were regulars on top of the Canadian Podium and representing Canada in international events. These two decisions to deviate from the normal way of doing things were the foundation of future successes.

Unfortunately, to take on these projects meant also breaking away from the existing sport way of doing things and upsetting our partners. In the later case, the 4-week tour meant we would not be attending local events and therefore wearing our region’s events in the short term. It also meant the bulk of our club members would not have the head coach or their training partners at the club since we could not take everyone. Although at the time I did not see these decisions as being creative, I did understand that we were doing things differently. The willingness to break from the norm was needed for a shift in performance. Going against the grain always builds resistance.

As an athlete and then a coach in a strong region, I never questioned how ‘we’ did things. I assumed what others were doing was the ‘best approach’.
I assumed it was the right way as I had lots of top performing athletes, coaches and teams to study and learn from. I used the language they used and adopted their methods and teaching tricks without hesitation. It was not until I took over an isolated western team that these influences were removed.
Separating myself from the well established culture allowed me to develop my own methods and those specifically matched to the context. I was forced to get creative. The willingness to challenge the status quo is the key to creativity, for if not, how can a new course of action be found? Rather than copying those around me, I had to search for better ways to coach and advance my athletes. It allowed me to question previous assumptions and break away from the same methods that others were using. Reflecting back now, I see this as a key spark in my creative coaching. Where I would look for answers before, now I searched for relevant questions.

More then ever my coaching began to model the scientific method. The scientific method is basically a process of developing a theory, taking action, assessment and based on results, modifying the action. The scientific method is a tool for exploration into the unknown. It is also a tool to assess novel and creative endeavours. It can be used by coaches and athletes to lead to a collaborative style of teaching technical skills. After a discussion with athletes on what outcomes are needed, I enjoy a Socratic form of questioning to challenge their assumptions and lead them to ask questions of their own. This ultimately leads to a deeper understanding of the required skill. Often, and it is my hope, the athletes then turn the process around and teach me a new and very personalized approach to mastering the task. As a result, my athletes and I will seem to talk in a kind of secret code that no other coach can identify. Each personalized method and drill is named by the athlete and contains a deep meaning. It is fantastic fun!

Prior to reading Susanna’s work, I did not consider creativity as one of my key performance elements in achieving excellence. However, in reflection of my personal coaching experiences, I now see that each of the small and large steps away from the well traveled path have made my coaching style unique and has empowered me with the willingness to be creative and go against the grain.

BE CREATIVE!