All of us at one time or another have been asked to state our philosophy, whether it be on coaching, teaching, politics, or something else. I am very confident that all of you could write a coaching philosophy in a relatively short amount of time. However, what we are going to try to get at this semester is where your philosophy comes from.
Mental Models
Our philosophies are born out of not only our experiences, but also how we have organized those experiences. We call this “organization” our Mental Model. Another way to think about Mental Models is that they act like job descriptions. “What is a coach,” or “what is a parent.” When you try to answer those questions, your mind fills with images, assumptions, and stories that, for you, represent what it is to be a coach (or parent). Mental Models are vitally important because as Chris Argyris of Harvard puts it:
“Our mental models determine not only how we make sense of the world, but also how we take action1”
1 – Most of the information in this section comes from Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning community. New York: Currency-Doubleday. Particularly chapter ten.
Mental Models
Argyris also stated that his research has shown that “Although people do not [always] behave congruently with their espoused theories [what they say], they do behave congruently with their theories in use [their mental models].The process of learning itself is the process of examining our mental models. For example when a basketball player first learns to dribble they bounce the ball a certain way that is consistent with how they perceive the act of dribbling is done. Many times this will involve bouncing the ball too hard and too high. The process of learning itself is the process of examining our mental models.(example, continued) This mental model of dribbling serves them well as long as they are just dribbling the ball back and forth by themselves. However once a defender is introduced, the player will soon realize that there is a problem as the defender repeatedly takes the ball away from them. If they cling tightly to their mental model of dribbling, they may see the problem as “the defense is cheating,” or “the ball doesn’t bounce right.” They do this in order to make the facts (the ball keeps getting stolen) be consistent with the mental model (this is how you dribble). However, if they were to re-examine their mental model of dribbling, they realize that maybe there is a different way to dribble (ball lower, protected by the front arm, etc). As they evolve their mental model, and adapt their behavior to match the new model, the results change.
A coaching example of examining the mental model comes from John Gagliardi. For those of you not familiar with Coach Gagliardi, he is the football coach at St. John’s (Minnesota). He is one of two college coaches to win over 400 games and is consistently in the top four in the country in NCAA III.
Coach Gagliardi became the winningest college football coach of all time during the 2003 season as his team went undefeated to the NCAA III title.
Coach Gagliardi is famous for his “Winning with NOs” Philosophy.
- On his team they have:
- No mandatory weights
- No hitting in practice
- No whistles
- No play book
- The last count he was up to about 90 “NOs”
No matter the sport you coach, it should be apparent that he has a very different mental model of what it means to be a coach then most. Whether he is right or wrong isn’t the point (right now), but what is important is that during his coaching career (which interestingly enough, began when he was 16), he has tested his mental model and not just followed what he saw others doing.
Read a little more about Coach Gagliardi at http://espn.go.com/page2/s/caple/030909.html
Or a Lot more about him in the book
The Sweet Season
Examining our mental models requires both Skills of Reflection and Skills of Inquiry.
Skills of Reflection concern stepping back from your own thought processes and examining how our mental models are formed and how they affect our behavior. Examining our mental models requires both Skills of Reflection and Skills of Inquiry.Skills of Inquiry concern how we operate in dealings with others, especially when dealing with other mental models on complex issues.
Recognizing “Leaps of Abstraction”
Leaps of abstraction occur when we move from direct observation (concrete “data”) to generalization without testing.
Skills of Reflection
Recognizing “Leaps of Abstraction”
There are many examples in the sporting world of leaps of abstraction. The great number of “fads” are one type of leaps of abstraction. I’ll give a couple examples:
Recognizing “Leaps of Abstraction”
Mega-Mileage in endurance sports.
Back in the 1970s and early 1980s there was a move in swimming and running toward higher and higher mileage. It seemed like all of the really successful athletes at the time were covering enormous distances
Mega-Mileage in endurance sports.
Rob De Castella and Alberto Salazar in distance running, Brian Goodell and Mary T. Meagher in swimming were legendary for the distance and frequency of their training.
Mega-Mileage in endurance sports.
Strangely enough while this emphasis on training mileage might have been justifiable for distance competitors, this philosophy was adopted by coaches for virtually all events and even into other sports.
Skills of Reflection
Recognizing “Leaps of Abstraction”
Mega-Mileage in endurance sports.
This approach has since been shown through research and practice to be unnecessary at best and harmful at worst.
Skills of Reflection
Recognizing “Leaps of Abstraction”
Head Start or No Start
This is the ever increasing trend that if a child does not start a sport when they are very young they will never be able to compete in that sport when they are older.
Skills of Reflection
Recognizing “Leaps of Abstraction”
Head Start or No Start
As with all leaps of abstraction there is some “data” that makes this look like “the truth.” Tiger Woods in golf and Freddy Adu in soccer come to mind.
Skills of Reflection
Recognizing “Leaps of Abstraction”
Head Start or No Start
However, this is an example where leaps of abstraction can be particularly harmful. This leap of abstraction actually leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Skills of Reflection
Recognizing “Leaps of Abstraction”
Head Start or No Start
This occurs in two ways:
First there is a declining expectation the coaches need to “teach” anything. Their main job becomes to “select.” So it becomes difficult to choose novice players even though they may have higher potentials.
Skills of Reflection
Recognizing “Leaps of Abstraction”
Head Start or No Start
This occurs in two ways:
Secondly, parents and children will self-select out of sports (choose not to try them) because they didn’t start when they were 6 or younger. Therefore it seems like everyone who made the high school varsity squad started when they where 5 because there are no players that “attempted” to start when they were 12.
Skills of Reflection
Recognizing “Leaps of Abstraction”
Head Start or No Start
This occurs in two ways:
A corollary of the second issue is early specialization. Even if a child wanted to play another sport in addition to their first sport, they stick with the original because they didn’t start the other one early enough.
Skills of Reflection
Recognizing “Leaps of Abstraction”
Those are only a couple of examples. There are hundreds more. The point is that as they become part of our mental models we tend to “see the world” in a way that confirms the model. For example there were always very successful swimmers that were training much less than the standard, yet many people wrote off that “data” by saying those athletes were physically gifted, when in actuality the gifted were the ones that could still go fast despite the amount of over training they were doing.
Skills of Reflection
Recognizing “Leaps of Abstraction”
To spot a leap of abstraction:
First ask yourself “What is the ‘data’ that this generalization is based on?”
Second ask “Am I willing to consider that this generalization may be inaccurate or misleading?”
Thirdly test the generalization separately from the data the generalization is based on.
Skills of Reflection
The Left-Hand Column
This technique for reflection comes from a particular exercise in communication. In this exercise you would write out in the right hand column of a piece of paper a typical exchange you may be involved in (for example with a player or parent) where there doesn’t seem to be any progress being made.
Skills of Reflection
The Left-Hand Column
Now in the left hand column write out all the things you are thinking but not saying. The left hand column always helps to bring to the surface hidden assumptions and helps show how they influence behavior.
Skills of Reflection (left-hand column)
Thinking (coach)
He is just trying to get out of these drills.
He’s limping a little, but he is probably faking, he’s so lazy
Saying
Player: “Coach my ankle is hurting.”
C: “Try to walk it off.”
P: “That doesn’t help.”
C: “How long did you try?”
Skills of Reflection
The Left-Hand Column
Many of you may recognize the exchange. By exposing the left hand column we can take a look at why we are responding the way we do. Maybe this player has tried to get out of things a time or two in the past, but does that mean it is true in this case? By surfacing the left-hand column we are in a better position to ask questions and move beyond our assumptions.
Skills of Reflection
The Left-Hand Column
Another example occurs in coaching staffs. The assistant coaches start to make assumptions based on observed behaviors of the head coach. An example entry in the left-hand column would be something like “I know this won’t work, but last time I said something he bit my head off.”
As you can see nobody can learn anything in an environment where assumptions outnumber questions.
Skills of Inquiry
Balancing Inquiry and Advocacy
Espoused Theory vs. Theory in Use
Skills of Inquiry
Balancing Inquiry and Advocacy
Coaches tend to be great advocates. They can forcefully defend their own positions and influence others (particularly subordinates as we saw in the previous staff example)
Skills of Inquiry
Balancing Inquiry and Advocacy
However, as we also saw in the staff example, sometimes the head coach really needs the honest input from the staff. A way to get this input is to ask questions (inquiry).
However, decisions can’t get made if all the staff and head coach do is ask questions.
Skills of Inquiry
Balancing Inquiry and Advocacy
The most effective staffs have a balance of advocacy (“here is what I think and why I think it”) and inquiry (“what am I missing?” “have you considered?” “How would it change if this was the case?”)
We will look at how to be an advocate that attracts more inquiry in the next unit.
Espoused Theories vs. Theories-in-use
Learning eventually requires changes in action and not just “taking in information and forming new ideas.” That is why it is important to recognize when there are gaps between what we say (espoused theory) and the theories (mental models) that lie behind what we do (theory-in-use).
Espoused Theories vs. Theories-in-use
The major problem is not that there is a gap, but in failing to recognize that there is a gap. For example a coach espouses that they run a “player-centered” program, but in reality all of the decisions are based on what is best for the “program” (what to do with players with minor injuries is an example of this type of conflict).
Espoused Theories vs. Theories-in-use
Until it is recognized that there is a gap between what we say and what we do, there is no reason to change anything.
Espoused Theories vs. Theories-in-use
When the gap is recognized the first question that needs to be asked is if you really value the espoused theory.
Or is it “what you say” because it is what you think others want you to say?
If the answer is no, then it is time to be honest with what you say.
If the answer is yes, then it is time to work on changing the theory-in-use and the behavior that flows from it.
Posts
