The Skilled Helper: Boxing Coaching
Coaching is about skilfully helping someone solve a problem. This requires adopting different roles, such as teacher, motivator, leader, etc. And a potential mistake is to adopt one role at the expense of others:
Praising everything.
Giving constant criticism.
Overloading with too much information.
Each of these mistakes is an example of taking one aspect of coaching to an extreme.
Imagine a participant who wanted to learn how to bob-and-weave but consistently experienced problems and heard the coach say one of the following ten times:
‘Just bob and then weave.’
‘Good.’
These would be examples of vague instruction and empty praise. The intention may be positive but repeating an instruction or praise despite the fact that it is not working is not helpful.
How might a coach avoid such a problem?
By examining how they ‘help’ with the intention to improve; by aiming to help skilfully.
By doing this coaches may find that the purpose of instruction and praise changes:
Instructions may serve not only to inform the participant but also to show the coach what the participant already knows.
Praises may serve not only to motivate the participant but also to inform them on what they are doing correctly.
Going back to the bob-and-weave example, the coach may first avoid causing confusion by noting their posture, position, and angle, and then use their words precisely:
‘Bend the knees, turn the shoulders and hips, and circle back to standing.’
‘Move down your centre line and circle back to your starting position’
‘Imagine the letter W in front of you, move down the middle of it, and then out to one side.’
They may then offer praise based on effort and progress. What they will not do is offer vague instruction or empty praises.
What is the lesson in all of this?
To avoid taking one aspect of coaching to an unhelpful extreme, evaluate every aspect of coaching based on whether it skilfully helps the participant or not.
References
Egan, G., 2018. The Skilled Helper. Mason, OH: Cengage.
Maslow, A., 1966. The Psychology of Science. New York: Harper & Row.
Wrisberg, C., 2007. Sport Skill Instruction for Coaches. Champaign, Ill: Human Kinetics.
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