Monthly Archives: March 2017

In my last blog about the subject i put up the picture above, showing where i stood in this NCCP competency compared to my peers at the beginning of our program and the area  where i was the most behind the class average was : “takes responsibility for improvements or problem solving.”

I took it upon myself to improve in this area to become a better coach, during my studies at UBC i came to realize that in my coaching career i was always behind someone who took all the big responsabilities and a person who had all the pressure. I was always the”assistant” , always in a supporting role! I was hesitant to put up my own ideas upfront for improving the athletes.

Early in my career my assumption was: the head coach makes all the final decisions, that is his role, he should know all the answers, he should delegate  tasks and break things down, not delegate responsibilities or keep us (assistants) accountable.

“Leaders venture out none of the individuals in our study sat idly by waiting for faith to smile upon them”

“Those who led others to greatness seek and accept challenges”

When i graduated from the Canadian Sport Institute in Montreal, i started to have a different mindset, and started to evolve as a coach and a leader. The UBC program inspired me to take on more responsibilities to improve athletes, i decided 6 months ago to step outside my comfort zone and open my own dojo to create a competition team. I could not hide behind anybody, this was my project.

Since we became an Olympic sport more and more traditional karate athletes are making the transition to “sport karate”, once i declared that i wanted to start my own competition team, the word got around and i started to have athletes wanting to make the transition come to me. I did not solicitate anyone because that causes problems with other teachers and coaches. Most of them keep a traditional base with their original “dojos”  and come to me for sport karate.

I immediately started a problem solving culture and a continuous improvement culture, getting athletes, to think for themselves.  In my problem solving quest in training, i started to explore more deliberate practice and I also made them understand that fighting is a constant problem solving game and that led me to add cognitive dimension to my coaching.  Instead of telling them what to do all the time, i put them in situations that make them understand  The “why” and let them figure out the “how” and i wanted to have them concentrate more in practice. I started to design challenging practices to improve performance.

Despite repetition, most people fail to become experts at what they do. It doesn’t matter how many years they spend they stop getting better. Experience does not equate to expertise.( Atul Gawande 2002)

i had an athlete who had trouble creating openings to score, so i filmed him and reviewed the film with him and asked him why he had trouble scoring. He figured out by himself that he wasn’t creating any deterrences or faints, he was coming in too directly and his intentions were too obvious to his opponent. He had a big smile on his face, and the next practice i told him to choose 3  different attack technics and he had to find tree different ways to score for each attacks. It took a while but he found by himself 9 effective strategies. The next steps was, the testing, so i had him spare in practice without telling his teammate what i was looking for, and he passed the test.

A few weeks later we had a minor competition, a perfect setting to put him to the test, and he finished 2 nd  and  scored a lot of points in his matches. I learned a lot as a coach in this experience and improved his offensive repertoire dramatically!

References

CRITICAL THINKING: is the ability to reflect on your own actions and decisions within a given coaching/leadership context .

HOW AM I DOING? ARE MY METHODS STILL EFFECTIVE OR OBSOLETE ? HOW CAN I BE A BETTER COACH? DOES MY EGO GET IN THE WAY OF COACHING EFFECTIVENESS?

These are questions that help me step outside my comfort zone and help me grow. In my book, every coach should regularly look in the mirror, and ask themselves if their methods are working or are up-to-date , they should ask themselves if they are doing the best they can to optimize not only the performances of their athletes but also their potentiel as great human beings. In this profession, if you are not carful, your EGO could get in the way of your progress and critical thinking. In the last 20 years, i have seen too many coaches, karate “Masters”, technical leaders sailing off on their EGO TRIPS, and some of would take it a step further and blast off on their space ships, million miles from reality.

Coaching is a constantly evolving profession, and we can’t let our egos get in the way of our progression,. We have to do things for the right reasons which to help THE ATHLETES reach their full potential and acknowledge that we don’t know everything!

THE leadership practices inventory (James M Kouze and Barry Z Posner)

It is a process that is usually utilized by organizations to get information from diverse workplace sources on an employee’s work performance. Most often, information solicited in a 360-degree feedback process will include feedback from an athletes in our case, peers (colleagues), and Head coaches or Team managers etc…as well as a self-evaluation by the coach him or herself. I think all coaches should go through the 360 feedback process we have to go through as students in this program and the advanced coaching diploma because this exercise literally opened my eyes. I must admit i was always avoiding getting feedback from athletes, colleagues and technical leaders because i’m a very sensitive person. This is the exercise that got me to see how i was perceived as a coach, and leader by my athletes and peers. The process overall was nerve recking for me and later on led me to analyse the gap between how i perceived myself and how others in my work place percieved me.I went on to do some major adjustments. For instance, i didn’t know how to ask or when to ask feedback from athletes, all i did was just assume that they understood the tasks i gave them when they executed them well. But did they understand why they did that certain tasks? how did they feel doing them? I just told them what to do and i didn’t spend much time on the « why » and the « how » and i never asked them how they felt about the training sessions and what could be improved in their opinion .

I changed all that and started to empower them get them more involved in the training process and saw them having fun while work harder. As a coach i started to focus more on the “Why” and “How” and started to enjoy my work more. I kept the discipline, respect and work ethics of traditional karate but challenging myself to question the traditional way of teaching was the best decision i made for my coaching career.

I never perceived myself as a dictator but that is the style used. After more that 35 years of traditional karate that’s what i learned, the “master” is the supreme leader and his method should never get questioned by his disciples or pupils. It is a highly hierarchical system. But even though our sport is deeply rooted in traditional martial arts, it should be treated as a sport, and coaching athletes for performance is not the same as teaching karate in a “DOJO” ( the place we practice traditional karate). When you are used to being called “Sensei” or Master it can very easily go to your head if you are not careful. I think i started being a coach when i looked myself in the mirror and made the clear distinction between the sport, and the martial art, between the coach and the “sensei”. I became a coach when i found the guts to challenge my colleagues and head coach sometimes to think outside the box.

I refuse to be called Sensei in a sport setting anymore, the athletes i work with just call me coach! After the 360 experience, I sat down asked myself, why i was coaching? I realized that i wasn’t coaching for the right reasons. My father (RIP) always told me to do things for the right reason because sooner or later you are going to be exposed..At the heart of what we do is the athlete, once we forget that, we are not coaches any more in my opinion. I talk more with my athletes now, i pick there brain and try to find out more about their lives, because i understand now that for good and consistant performances the athlete has to have balance in his life. i design visual chart below

This chart is a constent reminder that is posted in my office: Seek balance for performance

The scale is at the center because it represents the right equilibrium, a good formula for success . All around this scale are all the major factors that influence performance, if one of them is affected it changes the balance of things, and there is a good chance your athlete’s performance is going to be affected. As coaches we have to know our athlete well in order to help him or her perform better, that is the list we could do. We have to acknowledge that there are things that are out of your control too, like their family, and private lives. I also realise that i have a lot of influence in a young person’s life and i make sure they understand my “Balance to perform concept” so they can make the right decisions for themselves. They also know that my door is always open if they need advice or just someone to listen to them. A coach also needs to have balance in his life to help others. I used to let athletes call or text me anytime, one time i received a text at midnight. It started to bring tensions into my marriage and i had to draw the line somewhere. I told all my athletes that 8 pm was the limit for texts and calls. My family is my number one priority!

CONCLUSION

The Ego can be a prison, that will keep the “coach” from improving . In a field that is constantly evolving, you will be left behind if you get stuck in that “prison”. i think that the cancer of coaching is rigidity or status quo. I’m coach because i have passion for karate(specially in it’s sport version), i’m a coach because i love teaching, inspiring and transmitting great values like discipline, good work ethics, dedication, and determination to young men and women. Hopefully these values will a help them in their lives after competition, and gear towards being model citizens and help them inspire others someday. As long as i am coaching, i vowed to regularly nourish my ability to reflect on my own actions and decisions in my working context, to never let my ego get in the way of seeking new effective ways to help the athletes feel good about themselves and perform better, to practice accoutability for everyone around me, including myself. The whole process started when i did my advanced coaching diploma and now with the HPCTL program i have to opportunity to take it a step further and develop towards my true potential as a coach.