Six Smart Stocking Stuffers...

Happy Holidays. It's another installment of quotes from people way smarter than us, this one a six-set-sampler for around the tree.

First up is Oxford Brookes University Senior Lecturer and Subject Coordinator for Sport, Coaching & PE, Danny Newcombe. Here, Danny talks about the idea of giving our athletes problems to solve instead of the solution first.

"So, once we set that problem, then how do we help them? How do we support the players to solve it? So, it's not just, ‘I’m going to throw the child in the deep end of the swimming pool’ and set the problem. but I have to coach. What I’ve seen, I guess, is we coach the solutions before we've set the problem. So, it's not the game as the teacher because I still think there's a vital role in what the coach says in that process.” 

Chris Chamides is in his 3rd season as the head women's soccer coach at Loyola Marymount University. In that three years, he has taken a program not known at all for soccer and turned them into a WCC feared opponent. He was named the WCC Coach of the Year for 2024, and in this chat, he speaks of under coaching to get to know his players and what they are capable of.

“The reads that a player has to make cannot be something where they're glancing over the sideline to me. They have to be in real time like any athlete does. And with that, I have to foster that. I have to foster that sense of ownership for their game. And so, for them to get to their highest levels, I have to give them a million reps of freedom in order for me to understand how they're wired and how they typically do things without ignoring me, just how they do things. And once I understand how they do things: how they pass the ball, what choices they make, what are their inclinations in this moment versus that moment, once I understand them really well, then I can begin to coach them. So, I under coach to learn them. I don't want to give them too much information. And then once I get them going where I have a sense as we as a staff, can kind of wrap our head around who they are as a player, then we begin to give some information, not too much, just some in order for them, in my opinion, that maximizes their abilities in the long run and it makes them enjoy their game more.” 

"You can't really influence somebody until you meet them where they are and then lead them from that point. You can't just get frustrated that they're not where you want them to be. You got to figure out where they are. why they are there, connect with them at that point, and then build up some equity to influence."

This sage advice comes from Jenny Boucek, a former player, WNBA coach and now an assistant coach with the NBA's Indiana Pacers. She speaks from several opportunities to coach and interactions with players. 

Staying with the NBA, New Jersey Nets Head Coach Jordi Fernandez, who has coached with some of the NBA's greatest, saw his team coming together a few weeks ago after a win over the Phoenix Suns. It was also a win the same day he found out his top player and leading scorer would be lost for a month due to injury.

"I think that we're coming together. We're valuing the same things. At the beginning, you hear it, but you know, you start buying into it when you see it, and that's the most important thing. In every five-game series, we were two and three, and finally, in this one, where we're three and one right now, we have the opportunity for one more before we play the fifth. And it's important, because that shows you growth. A lot of times you look at the season, like, 82 games, and you can get lost with, you know, goals. It's a lot of games coming at you. So, I learned that from teams that I've been with and always has helped your focus. Whether you're in a good place or you're struggling, you got to look at things with perspective and find the positives and clean up the negatives. And I think that that was a big step. It was our second chance that we had to win three in a row, the first time we couldn't do it, we couldn't accomplish it. And now we did."

Harvard Professor, author, podcaster and self described happiness expert Arthur Brooks spoke of the disconnect when trying to solve complicated and complex problems.

"In mathematics, there's two kinds of problems. There's complicated problems and complex problems. It sounds like I’m splitting hairs, but I’m not. Complicated problems are solvable with enough genius, but they don't change, and you've got a solution forever. Complex problems are human and dynamic. They're behavioral. They're like falling in love or winning the Super Bowl. Those are complex problems. You can simulate the Super Bowl, the Patriots versus the Seahawks, over and over and over and over again, and you're not going to get it right, because it's a highly complex and epic human situation. So, if your work is all that complex, 1,000% it's about love. It's about success. It's about human interaction. It's about sports interpretation of the experience. We've got all these complicated solutions to complex problems, and that's why we feel empty."

Finally, Pittsburgh Pirates skills coordinator, mental performance coach Andy Bass tries to drill down on what constraints actually are in coaching, how they can be used and how coaches should use this as a tool, not a coaching replacement.

“I wish he'd made a different name than constraint. It does not mean inhibiting movement. That can happen, but it's not a constraint. It isn't a strait jacket where you're limiting movement and signaling movement. It's a constraint, like an evolutionary constraint. It’s basically allowing the drill to do the talking. And I know that from a purely theoretical standpoint. I think coaches hear this and they say, well, I should never talk. Not true at all. Outcome goals give them external cues, but it's thinking about making the drill get more information in the coaching itself. It's not tones when you're drilling through in soccer. It's allowing the environment to dictate the outcome of the movement, and it's allowing the athlete to explore through failure and variability, versus one guided repetition."

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