Hello Football Fans,
This is CoachD on behalf of the California Football Coaches Association. Today I am going to discuss Effective Communication & Feedback Skills.
Communication is something we do throughout our lifetimes with very little formal training. We will be expected to interact with a wide variety of people: parents, coaches, board members, league officials, referees and most important, our players. Sometimes it will be to provide information, other times to change attitude or behavior or resolve conflicts or emotional confrontations. Think of past coaches in your life and what made them effective communicators.
• Get to know our players and learn something unique about each of them.
• Take an interest in the players and demonstrate we care about them as players and people.
• Players won’t care what we know until they know that we care.
• Actively listen – focus on the problem, let them know you are listening, provide feedback
• Sometimes it’s not what we say, but how we say it – body posture, vocal tone, etc…
One of the greatest things I heard at a recent football convention was “if you are yelling at a player then you are doing a lousy job as a coach”. The coach went on to say that if we are yelling at a player for making a physical mistake or mental error, then obviously we didn’t do a good enough job teaching him in the first place. We have to find a way to teach everyone, even if it means coming up with several different ways to teach the same skill or technique. When a player misses an assignment, it may be that he used the wrong technique or was confused with the assignment. Both can be fixed with effective communication skills and teaching techniques.
One of the recent coaching clinics put on by a local college I attended included observation of practice. As I watched the offensive line, I noticed one ball player in particular kept making the same mistake over & over again. The coach had hoped the player could make the adjustment without his assistance, but after the 3rd mistake, the coach quietly called the player over. Without saying a word, the coach put his arm around the player and they both observed the next few reps. Eventually the coach turned to the athlete and gently said "See how he is getting off the ball, taking his steps and getting into his man? That's how I want you to do it, just like you have done it a thousand times before. Are you ready to get back in there?" The player nodded with enthusiasm and excitedly jumped back into the drill, mistakes corrected and proceeded to dominate his opponent throughout the rest of the drill.
Whether it is in practice or games, after good or bad plays, we must provide direction through feedback. Remember the times when a coach gave you a “pat on the back” and how that made you feel. Now remember the times when a coach said “you stink”. How likely are you to listen to the rest of what that coach says in either situation? Which one will motivate you into permanently performing at a higher level?
- Never miss an opportunity to praise an athlete. Give 4 positives with every negative.
- Correct errors and mistakes.
- Focus on the athlete’s strengths and weaknesses.
- Give feedback immediately unless there is a need to wait until the athlete needs to gain emotional control.
- Give realistic expectations based on the player’s age & skill level.
- Be consistent & fair with everyone. You can’t do something different or talk any differently with your starting QB or star player than you do with everyone else.
- Be specific with an observable behavior.
- Avoid moral or value judgments, penalize the behavior, not the personality.
- MOST IMPORTANT: reward effort as much as or more than the outcome. All too often, a player won’t give a great effort if they don’t expect an outcome that will be acceptable to the coach. We want to teach that with great effort come great results.
Make sure your feedback is sincere and truthful. Players will know when you are not being honest. One great strategy is to sandwich the necessary feedback between two positives:
• Give a sincere compliment: “Good! Your feet were shoulder width apart and your head was up on that one”
• Give specific feedback: “Now this time, take the step with the foot closest to the hole we are running to”.
• Finish with another positive: “Great effort! You will get this soon, just keep working at it”.
If we make the commitment and take the time to provide effective feedback to the players, we will reap the benefits of greater learning and improvement in our team.
In my next blog, I will be talking about Teaching the Basics and Fundamentals to your football players.
As always, please let me know what you think about this and any other article. You can contact me at: coachd@calfootballcoaches.com.
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