Lies Your Coaches Told You… And You Tell Yourself And Others Rick Albrecht, Ph.D. Department of Movement Science Grand Valley State University Copyright  Dr. Rick Albrecht., 2003

As Coaches, Always Remember This... "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few." --Shunryu Suzuki

Lies Your Coaches Told You… And You Tell Yourself and Others “Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.” -- Franklin D. Roosevelt "All great truths begin as blasphemies." --George Bernard Shaw

Lie #1: “Pattern Your Coaching After A Successful Coach...” Rethink The Way You Coach… Make Deliberate And Conscious Decisions Fight Against The Natural Tendency To Coach Out Of Habit Fight Against The Natural Tendency To Coach Like Others Don’t Just Be ‘As Good’ … Be BETTER!

Lie #2: What They’ve Told You Is... “Motivations Come From Within -- If Your Players Are Not ‘Self-Motivated’ There’s Very Little You Can Do”

What The Research Tells Us Is... Okay, This One’s a Half Truth… Motivation is a Combination of a Player’s “Personality” AND the “Situation” in Which They Find Themselves Personality Motivation Situation

So What Should You Do As A Coach? If Motivation Can Be Changed By Altering Either A Player’s Personality or The Situation… Which Should You Spend Your Time Trying To Change? THE SITUATION!

It’s All About What You Can Control... “When You Blame Others, You Give Up Your Power to Change” -- Anonymous

Lie #3: What They’ve Told You Is... “If You Want To Be An Effective Hockey Coach, Your Main Job Is To Motivate Your Athletes”

What The Research Tells Us Is... Your MAIN Job is to Motivate YOU! How Do You Expect to Motivate Others If You Can’t Motivate Yourself First? Motivation is Contagious You Have to Control The Things YOU Have Control Over -- Nothing Else You Need to Develop a TGIF Attitude M

The Serenity Prayer God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change… Courage to change the things I can… And wisdom to know the difference

Lie #4: What They’ve Told You Is... “If You ‘Light a Fire’ Under Your Team, They’ll Perform Better”

What The Research Tells Us Is... What We ONCE Thought… Performance Arousal (Fired-Up) Level LowHigh Poor Good

What The Research Tells Us Is... Performance Arousal (Fired-Up) Level LowHigh Poor Good THEN What We Thought Was …

What National-Level Hockey Players Started Telling Us Was... What Did We Say About An “Expert’s Mind? Performance Arousal (Fired-Up) Level LowHigh Poor Good

There’s More To The Story That You, As A Coach, Need To Know… Importance of “FUN”!! Fun Challenge Opportunity Threat Chance to Fail Poor Performance Arousal (Fired-Up) Level Good Low High

Lie #5: What They’ve Told You Is... “The Following Are Excellent Goals For Young Hockey Players To Set For Themselves...” “Winning the Game” “Making the Team” “Scoring A Goal in Tonight’s Game” “Winning The League Championship” “Winning The Gold Medal” “Competing to the Best of My Ability”

What The Research Tells Us Is... To Be Effective, Goals Need To Be: –Based on performance -- NOT OUTCOME! –UNDER YOUR CONTROL –Specific and Measurable –Realistic but Challenging –Focused on the PROCESS (How not What) –Set for every competition and PRACTICE!

Lie #6: What They’ve Told You Is... “There’s No ‘I’ In Team -- Setting Team Goals is an Great Way to Promote Good Hockey Team Performance”

What The Research Tells Us Is... There is nothing but “I”s in Team “Teams” Don’t Really Perform Skills -- Only Individuals Do Having “Team Goals” Can Often Be Counterproductive –Nobody (no human being) is Actually Responsible for Accomplishing Team Goals Your Job is to be the “Conductor”

The Law of the Jungle (Rudyard Kipling) Now this is the Law of the Jungle -- as old and as true as the sky And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper but the Wolf that shall break it must die. As the Creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back...

The Law of the Jungle (Rudyard Kipling) For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.

Lie #7: What They’ve Told You Is... “The Following Punishments Are Generally Effective in Correcting Performance Errors…” Yelling/Screaming/Criticizing/Ridiculing Removal of Playing Time Running/Skating Laps Running/Skating Sprints Push Ups, Sit Ups, etc.

What The Research Tells Us Is... As Physical Educators, One of Your Main Goals is to Promote Lifelong Physical Activity Why Would You Ever Want To Use The Very Thing You Want To Promote As Punishment?

Other Reasons Punishment, in General, Doesn’t Work It Only Works When You’re There, You See the Mistake, and Are Willing To Punish Waste of Valuable Practice Time Makes the Game Unpleasant Increases the “Fear of Failure” and Thus Decreases “Risk Taking”

Lie #8: What They’ve Told You Is... “A Bad Performance Can Hurt a Hockey Player’s Confidence Level”

What The Research Tells Us Is... By Believing This, We Give Ourselves A Convenient Excuse For Future Failure It’s Not The Performance -- It’s What You Think About The Performance Your Players Spend Countless Hours Training and Perfecting Their Performance -- What Makes You (or Them) Think That One Bad Performance Will Destroy All That Hard Work?

Lie #9: What They’ve Told You Is... “Practice Makes Perfect and There’s Almost Never Enough Practice or Ice Time”

What The Research Tells Us Is... Only “Perfect” Practice Makes Perfect Most Practices Last Far Too Long -- You Just Risk Mental and Physical Fatigue and Injuries (80/20 rule) –Place More emphasis on Practice of Mental Skills -- Less on Physical Skills –Use of “Mental Practice”

Lie #10: What They’ve Told You Is... “Injuries Are An Athlete’s (and a Coach’s) Worst Nightmare” -- There Are Few Things Worse Than An Injury

What The Research Tells Us Is... “Benefits of Injury” “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more wisely” “You learn very little from winning -- losing is the great teacher”

Reconsider The Opening Quotations “Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.” -- Franklin D. Roosevelt "All great truths begin as blasphemies." --George Bernard Shaw "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few." --Shunryu Suzuki