The concept is in training manuals all over the internet; I finally get it, it took coaching and playing myself to understand it, and I still only get the first two steps from a coaching standpoint. Therefore that's what I'm writing about today.
I coach and sub coach my daughter's soccer and basketball; I've played basketball my whole life, never competitively, but just rec. Soccer, I subbed for an intermural team in college, with two broken ankles in boots; as a goalie, that's my experience in soccer. There's my resume in a nutshell.
I went into coaching my daughter's soccer team with a vision of what I wanted to get accomplished. Teach these girls how to play the sport, improve their confidence and be a positive role model for them. My lack of ability and understanding of how to get it done began my coaching career in unconscious incompetence; it took me a season and a half to move into conscious incompetence.
In the unconscious incompetence, I thought I needed to get these girls to learn the fundamental skills of soccer, and that as my understanding was dribble drills, juggle drills, footwork drills. I thought that with fundamentals came confidence, and with confidence comes skills. This approach kept both the kids and myself solidly in the unconscious incompetence realm of skills. We didn't know what we didn't know.
Here's what I learned as a coach, and I believe it will apply to just about any sport ongoing. To move the needle from the UI to the CI, knowledge must be gained, NOT skills. I thought drills drills drills, but with zero understanding of why these drills were any advantage, all drills were falling flat, lackluster results, bored kiddos, and my lack of confidence in my fundamentals theory. (It was not fun!) I had a breakthrough while subbing as a basketball coach a few months back when I allowed the girls to hold each other accountable. I wasn't sure if it would work, but it did, and I also at the time didn't know why it worked; now I understand why.
That one action moved the girls from UI to a glimmer of CI; by taking their minds off of "drills" and onto skills, they began watching their teammates and expecting work out of them, and by holding each other accountable, they then understood they too were being held responsible. This very slight change in mindset caused a swell of interest in the sport itself. A fundamental understanding of how the game is played, a switch that went on; we drill to learn skill in order to play. Drills were viewed positively.
I watched my younger daughter's game last season and the opposing coach sat in a chair the entire game. It was amazing! At that time, I didn't know why it was so amazing; I thought it was just because he was so quiet a controlled, and I clearly am not; therefore, I thought the chair was the answer.
My first solo coaching game, I showed up, did some drills with the girls, I handed my handy dandy whiteboard to one of the players and asked her to put the kiddos in position; and began my battle with setting up my symbolic chair. Because, of course, if I sit in a chair, I must be as good a coach as the dude that sat in his chair! Before I knew it, it was game time; all the girls were out there ready to play. Ironically as I write this, it probably was the chair that helped move the team and me into CI because I was distracted by it, which was the moment the girls took ownership. (At least that's what I'm going to tell myself). The chair's beauty is the proof that that coach has reached at least CI, maybe even further even, but CI at a minimum. In my blunder of fighting with that chair, I understand that the girls are currently consciously incompetent; I believe they all now know what they don't know. I think their confidence is going to skyrocket as they work at drills to gain skills, to learn what they don't know.
I, too, have learned that I don't have the necessary skills. This glimmer of hope to personally come into CI is invigorating. My guess is the girls will far surpass my skillset as a coach this season. Time will tell. I'm going to try to keep up.
I believe some of the girls may even reach Conscious Competence (for their age/ability) this season. As I said earlier, I've played basketball my entire life, and just over the last two years did I reach Conscious Competence with my basketball skill set. I write this because I believe the next step for me to reach CI as a coach is to get the girls into a CC situation. Allow me to indulge; pick up basketball has been a pass time for me all my life, great exercise, and I was always the tall guy that disappointed, give me the ball, and I'd panic, make a silly error, and repeat. My skills were never great, but they certainly were better than I presented in a game situation. Throughout the lockdown, I continued to play, often by myself or one on one. Hours and hours of drills began to allow me to for the first time experience CC. This does not mean that I became a better basketball player. I now perform to my ability when duty calls. Still quite the disappointing tall guy, but at least now I don't disappoint myself.
It will be fascinating to watch these girls the rest of the season and their potential to morph into CC. I'm looking forward to taking a seat (see how I did that) and watching the show!
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