We all know the value of having a good foundation of training. The athlete development aims to build skills and abilities in sequence so that one is well developed and able to support the next. If each step is done well, the athlete progresses to each next stage with a strong platform for future skills and training. Training abilities and habits are established and strengthened. In this way, step-by-step, the athlete moves up the performance ladder.
The athlete is not alone on the journey, the athlete may have the same coach and team may be the entire way or move from one stage to the next changing environments and experiencing new coaches and team members at each step.
In either case, experience and expertise are built and a foundation of experience is developed. This is the plan. But when does experience become a hindrance rather than an aid? If all goes well it never should, but this is not always the reality.
Every athlete and coach have the experience of working to undo or change, correct or strengthen elements that should have been perfected in previous stages. It could be that the athlete was advanced too quickly to the next stage without perfecting and cementing previously developed abilities. It could be that steps were skipped altogether. It could also be the case that previously developed skills were simply not maintained and have faded.
When starting from scratch with a new, inexperienced, athlete every skill and sport specific lesson is welcomed. The athlete is likely wide open to try new things and has few preconceptions of what is right or wrong; what is the way to do things and what is not; what feels right and what feels wrong. However, this is not the case with the experienced athlete. With the experienced athlete, they will have an existing level of expertise that cannot simply be ignored.
Unlike the new athlete that can be thought of as a blank slate, wide open to take suggestions and accept the superior expertise of the coach, the experienced athlete will have a set of fixed concepts and habits in place. This may be in the form of training interactions with team members, understanding of the mechanics of a skill or belief in the best competition strategy.
Where the new athlete may be considered ‘open’, the experienced athlete may be somewhat ‘closed’ or set in their ways. In this case, it may be considered that experience is a hindrance rather than an aid to develop or make changes to the athlete’s performance. ‘Opening’ the athlete again must be done with respect for the expertise and experience that has been developed with much investment along their journey.
Socrates is credited with a method of debate designed to develop critical thinking that uncovers and challenges existing assumptions. This is referred to as the ‘Socratic Method’ and is comprised of probing questions leading to the analysis of previously accepted hypothesis. In a practical sense, this is a process of asking the athlete to explain what they believe and challenging them to justify the underlying premise.
To ‘open’ the athlete we must engage in a discussion around the existing assumptions. The key to the Socratic method is to have the athlete realize gaps in what they think they know for certain, allowing for consideration of alternate approaches. In practice, it does not take long to realize how much we blindly accept as fact without proper scrutiny.
When working with the experienced athlete, Socratic discussions play an important first step for the athlete to ‘buy-in’ to the need for change in how they currently perform. Improvement by definition requires change; the athlete must be willing and invested in making the change. The coach cannot use brute force to dictate the athlete’s actions and beliefs.
Once the athlete and coach realize the gap in training behaviour, ability, skill or another performance element they enter a system of problem-solving. Where former premises existed, now they are questioned, new possibilities are explored and tested. This stage is one of searching for a better way to replace the old. In this stage, a heuristic method of teaching and learning may be adopted. The word heuristic has at its base the meaning to find and to seek. New or old, athletes benefit from a shift to a more heuristic mindset where improvements are constantly sought.
Once ‘open’ the experienced athlete is much like the ‘new’. They are both motivated and ready to learn and discover.
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