If you have been racing for years, and you have had many coaches, and then one day you get a coach that just works well with you, it feels like you have just won the lottery. Everything goes great. You experience success over and over again. And then what happens when one day that coach leaves? What do you do then? Quit racing? Complain about every coach who comes afterwards? Fling yourself off the nearest mountain? You could, but there really isn't any point because it doesn't change the fact that you lost a good coach. And with that, your chances of improving along with it. That is what has happened to me recently. As a result I have some new coaches, along with coaches I have had before. I am not going to give up on the fact that my skiing won't improve this year because I have lost a coach that made a big difference with me at one time. One thing I know is that when you get to a certain level of skiing it is really important to know how to coach yourself. It was great having a coach that could make a big improvement in my skiing in such a short period of time, but realistically you can't completely rely on someone else to decide your fate; whether you will improve this season, or whether you won't. As a master's racer who is experienced, you have to learn to be your own coach, and use your coaches as tools in your learning process. For example, if you feel that all you get from your coach is an opportunity to run gates, then that is what you capitalize on. Set your own focus, what are you going to get from the experience of running through gates? If you can't verbalize your focus, then you aren't coaching yourself. Not all the feedback you get may be of the same quality. You might have to distinguish the difference between helpful feedback and "not so helpful" feedback. And if you find your coach isn't making a difference with you, you might have to actively develop the relationship you have with your coach to get to the point of where you can get the coaching relationship to work better for you. If you have been working with the same coach for years, and you find that their coaching style doesn't work for you, you might have to invest more time into the coaching relationship to get it to work better. After all, there is a lot to be said for a coach that sticks by you. They not only know how you ski, but they are motivated to see that you improve, as loyalty grows with time. So what happens when you lose a good coach? Review your notes, remember what they said, and figure out how to transfer their strengths to the coaches you have now. And most importantly, be your own good coach.
I wrote this post at the beginning of the season, and it is interesting how I feel now as I am reflecting back on it. I took this approach with one of my coaches and I did try to develop the relationship so that the coaching relationship would work better, not just for me but for both of us. There were times when I thought I was driving him crazy, but now as I am approaching the end of the season, I realize that the development of this relationship contributed to me having the best season in my 10 year racing career. My technical and tactical knowledge has improved incredibly over the past two months, not to mention how much my gate skiing has improved. Unfortunately he threatened to quit, over some things that happened this year and that affected me deeply. I know the relationship I have with this coach will not last forever, but it just shows how important it is to have a relationship with your coach if you want to improve your skills. It is not only true for the athlete but also for the coach. Learning is a two way pathway and it occurs through the exchange of feedback between the coach and the athlete. The athlete figures out how to improve their skills through feedback from the coach, and the coach learns how to teach the athlete better through feedback they receive from the athlete. For this to occur they have to have a good strong relationship, and there is a payoff for both if it can be developed.
ReplyDeleteFunny how I wrote the above comment on March 2, and my feelings on this have developed even further. The coach I was talking about in the above comment, is the one who has made the most difference with me as an athlete over the last 20 years. My tactical and technical knowledge, as well as my skill development have skyrocketed, since I have had him as a coach. That is especially true of this year. When I reflect on why this has happened, I would say only because the learning has been so dynamic this year as compared to other years. Dynamic because of the constant change of feedback between all of us (us as students and him). I think it has only been possible because he has such a good relationship with us, and we have good relationships with each other. Many of us he has coached for a few years now, so it just consolidates some of the ideas I have expressed in other posts: that developing a relationship with your coach is important in order for learning to occur.
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