Welcome back to regular readers and warm greetings to those finding the Prepared Blog for the first time. Over the past couple of weeks I have enjoyed the challenge of delivering remote coaching for a high school track athlete I worked with previously who moved with her family to Ontario (roughly 3,500km east of here, for those not familiar with Canadian geography). That experience and other observations over recent months were in part what inspired this latest offering.

To explain the title, one of the most common cognitive biases in how we see the world is encapsulated as ‘what you see is all there is’. In other words, we have a tendency to overlook what is not immediately visible or obvious. We tend to assume that what we see in full view constitutes the only aspects at play. We are slow to consider that there might be additional unseen factors at work that might lead us to an alternative explanation for what we are seeing.

THE UNSEEN PARTS OF THE LIFE OF A PERFORMER..

The example in relation to sport that immediately comes to mind is that when we watch top performers competing on the screen we do not fully consider what goes on behind the scenes when the cameras are off. In reality the moments that athletes spend competing under the lights are a tiny fraction of the thousands of hours they invest in the endeavour. The analogy of an ice berg is often used to illustrate the unseen aspects of athlete life.

This realisation is crucial for young aspiring athletes. The reality is the vast majority of the time is spent practising and preparing. If a young athlete wishes to pursue the elite sport path they must understand this reality.

In the digital era performers’ social media accounts arguably provide a glimpse into this life, albeit one that is somewhat distorted. Speaking of social media, the continual references to #thegrind are entirely unhelpful from this viewpoint. Rather, aspiring high performers should learn to embrace and enjoy the process, given that training represents by far the biggest time allocation of an elite performer.

THE UNOBSERVED PARTS OF ATHLETE PREPARATION…

Considering the parts that we don’t see is crucial. And in reality much of what an athlete does is beyond the purview of coaches or practitioners. Even when I was working full-time with a team or with an individual athlete, the extensive time the athletes spent in my company was still only a fraction of their day.

Beyond supervised training sessions, some proportion of any athlete’s preparation and self-management is undertaken unsupervised. The recent period is perhaps the best example. Circumstances required individuals to find a way and to train in a self-directed fashion for an extended period. In some ways it has been the ultimate test of the individual performer and their willingness to invest in the pursuit without direct coaching supervision and removed from their normal training environment.

Beyond training, the day to day choices that an individual makes and how they conduct their life beyond the training facility have a massive bearing on the outcome. Two of the most important elements are sleep and nutrition; both of which are largely down to the athlete given this all mostly occurs on the athlete’s time when they are away from the gaze of the coaches. And this is as it should be; after all, this is their show.

The unknowns and miscellaneous elements that are beyond the direct control of the coach do however pose challenges when it comes to planning and programming. Our ability to forecast the future in general and predict how another human will respond in particular are pretty poor. The inherent uncertainty means that the plan must adapt as things evolve and we must be responsive in terms of what we deliver, according to the athlete’s state on any given day.

NAVIGATING THE UNOBSERVABLE IN COACHING…

As coaches of humans (inclusive of parents, teachers and others) we are always working with incomplete information. There are inevitably unknown or unobserved aspects at play in any given scenario with any given individual. Certainly the intricacies of an individual’s life beyond the practice or competition environment will never be fully knowable.

Returning to our original theme, just because it is not visible to us does not mean it is of lesser importance. An extension of the ‘what you see is all there is’ fallacy is that what is easily quantifiable tends to be given more credence. The less tangible aspects that are hard to capture or measure are in turn often relegated to a position of lesser importance or disregarded entirely. Ironically, it is these intangibles and hard to quantify aspects that are often what make the difference in reality.

As a wise friend and fellow coach shared, the best monitoring system is a coach who pays attention. It is here that the human element of coaching comes to the fore. Being attentive and attuned to both verbal and nonverbal cues generally provides the best indication during instances when external events or unrelated stressors are taking a toll on a performer.

Finally, and most importantly, enlisting the athlete as an integral part of our information-gathering is crucial. By definition, they are the richest source of information. Clearly the only person in a position to register how their body is feeling is the performer themselves and only they have access to what is going on in their own mind! Sharing this information requires a level of trust that must be developed over time, and ultimately the choice of what and how much to share remains with the individual. It is also an ongoing process to help the athlete to become better attuned to their own body (what practitioners term ‘body awareness’) so that they are able to discern and report what is going on with a greater degree of accuracy. The more aware and better equipped the performer, the better able they will be to manage and regulate themselves when the coach is not around.

Enjoyed the read? Sign up below to receive these updates direct to your inbox and please free to share with those in your network who might find value.

Thanks also to all those who have shared feedback on the recent release Prepared: Unlocking Human Performance with Lessons from Elite Sport (click on the image below for details).

Readers who are interested can also enquire to find out more about what coaching provision we can offer both in-person for those local to Vancouver and remotely. For more, including how to arrange an initial assessment, see the ‘Enquire’ link at the top of the page or email us direct at PreparedATH@gmail.com.