Are You Helping?

Helpful.

If you only gave me one word to describe what a coach should be, that’s the word I’d pick.

Are you being helpful?

In designing training sessions, setting up impactful learning environments, and facilitating self-discovery and culture development, coaches show on a daily basis that they’re being helpful.

However, one area where helpfulness seems to go out the window is during the game. As soon as competition commences, all that calm, methodical, thoughtful preparation goes out the window, and the coach becomes an anxious, raving lunatic.

(Seriously…when you ask AI to generate an image of a coach, it draws a coach yelling on the sidelines).

Many coaches pass it off as authenticity. Some as entertainment. Others as ‘passion’.

Maybe it is some combination of all of the above, but the question remains the same: are you being helpful?

Being Present On The Sideline

Jim Gavin ushered in a new era of dominance for Dublin’s Gaelic football team, winning six All-Ireland championships, including five-in-a-row between 2015 and 2019.

When you Google him, there are no pictures of Gavin in a furious fit of rage on the sideline. There aren’t even any of him pointing or trying to communicate with his players. Mostly, there are photos of him smiling and embracing his players, or standing arms-folded on the sideline.

This is not by chance. Gavin gave great thought to his role on game day, and was purposeful about his demeanour on the sideline.

Recently, I sat next to Gavin at a luncheon and asked him how he came to his perspective. He told me that he draws a lot of inspiration from his background in military and civil aviation, and prefers preparation over puppeteering.

“If there’s an emergency during a flight, all air traffic control can do is to pass on information, and rely on the pilot’s training,” he told me. “All they can try to be is helpful.”

There’s that word again.

To master game craft, you need to be able to change the course of a game. The best way to achieve that is by observing, deciding, and communicating pertinent information that can help your players solve the puzzle.

It is not skillful to ride the wave of the game, getting swept up in every fleeting emotion or bad decision.

Your experience, research, pattern recognition, and foresight are of extraordinary value to your team. It is your responsibility to transfer that knowledge to them in a useful way.

That’s helpful.

Cody’s Notes

• It’s useful to think of sideline behaviour in other contexts. Would a pilot want the traffic controller to be angrily yelling instructions at them the whole flight? Would a student pass a test if their teacher was stealing their attention and gesticulating wildly?

• Skillful coaching is where you’ve prepared your team for what they are about to encounter. If you need to intervene constantly during the game, have you actually prepared them?

• The best way to heighten your awareness around your sideline behaviour is to film yourself.

• The best way to understand what type of information is helpful is to ask your players.

• The best way to stay on task during the game is to be searching for something in particular. For me, it was to engage in tactical warfare, and constantly be scanning for how the opposition were trying to manipulate us.

• Your primary coaching skills are your awareness, decision-making, and communication. Research has shown that none of these are at their most effective when you’re in an over-stimulated or heightened state.

• It’s possible for you to show passion without being a raving lunatic.