The way we teach vs. The way they learn

How many times have you spent what seems like forever meticulously introducing, going over, or reviewing a topic only to turn it over to your athletes and they are unable to execute what you just taught them?  Frustrating isn’t it?

Another scenario we have all seen is, we introduce a technique or tactic and they “master” it during a drill in practice.  We get to our next game, the exact scenario we just covered arises and they fail to execute.  At this point we assume it is the players fault since we “taught” it to them.  Right?  Wrong!  It doesn’t matter what we teach our athletes, it only matters what the athletes learn.  If an athlete gave an honest effort during practice and did not learn what we taught them, then we need to take a closer look at our methods.

Rome was not built in a day

Sometimes what we teach the athletes is sticking, but we get impatient because they cannot immediately transfer what they did in practice to competition.  When put in situations of stress (competition) athletes will revert to what is natural and what is most comfortable.  It takes time (and correct reps) for new techniques to take hold.  Be patient!

Appeal to a wide variety of learners

A good teacher in the classroom will carefully craft their lessons to meet the needs of auditory, visual, and tactile learners. Teaching by having athletes explore a skill, then answer questions about what they did is a good way to incorporate tactile and auditory learners.  Visual learners can be reached by having another athlete (or coach if necessary) demonstrate the skill correctly.  

In reality most of your athletes will learn best when the information is presented in a variety of different ways, however if you can learn which of your athletes learn better by which method, you will increase your chances of reaching them.  

Use technology

With technology being readily available to so many of us, it makes sense to use it to our advantage as coaches.  The simplest way to use technology is to video athletes attempting the skill, and playing it back for them to critique.  This method will reach visual and tactile learners very well.  Combine the video with a verbal critique of what they can to improve and you have now reached all three types of learners. 

A more advanced way to teach with technology is to post videos on a website or blog, or send athletes the URLs of videos you want them to view.  The videos can be of you teaching a skill, of an athletes performing the skill, or any other instructional video you find on the internet.  They can view these videos at home and come to practice prepared to discuss the video and try the techniques.  This method also reaches all three types of learners. 

Have them teach someone else

Think about how much more you understand about the game of baseball now that you teach it.  Coaches have the ability to give their athletes a taste of this by having them teach techniques their teammates, or to a younger team (I do this every Friday when we have our Sophomore team practice with our Varsity).  This will not only give your players a deeper understanding of what they are doing, but it will give them ownership over the technique they are teaching.  

If you want to get more advanced, have your athletes go home and view a video of your choosing online.  Tell them to come to the next practice ready to teach what they saw in the video their teammates.  Allow them to use notes if necessary.   

Summary:

Being an athletic coach is not unlike being a classroom teacher.  If teaching and coaching were as simple as telling people what to do, anyone could be a a great teacher and coach.  The real art of coaching lies in the effectiveness of conveying your message by any means possible.  

Do sports reveal character or do they develop it?

Chances are, every single athlete you coach will earn a living doing something other than playing sports.  Regardless of the profession they eventually choose, having good character and leadership skills will be a must in their professional career.  As a coach, realize that your job not only consists of teaching your athletes the game, it also includes teaching athletes skills they will use outside of the sports area.

I have heard people discuss, and have seen articles debating whether sports reveals character or develops character.  Most of those arguments take one side or another.  I see no reason why it has to be an absolute on either side.  My research and experiences indicate that sport can both reveal and develop character.

Sport reveals character through the various situations an athlete encounters during practices and games.  Regardless of the sport you coach, you have seen the player who you thought would rise to the challenge crumble under pressure, or blame others when times get tough.  Likewise, we have also been surprised by the one athlete who we consider to be  “gamer.”  This is the player who never fully showed their true positive characteristics and leadership skills until they faced adversity in competition.  These situations show you and the athlete where their strengths and weaknesses in character and leadership lie.

In addition to revealing an athlete’s character, participating in sports allows them an opportunity to work on character deficiencies and enhance character and leadership strengths.  Sports are the perfect forum to develop these characteristics under pressure in an environment where the consequences for failure are minimal.

For many coaches being a role model who can effect an athlete’s development as a person is a very daunting task.  The single most important factor in how your athletes develop character will be your behavior as a coach.  It does absolutely no good to tell your athletes to behave in on manner when you do something completely opposite.

Negative characteristics your athletes will mimic

1. Arguing with officials
2. Bad sportsmanship
3. Placing blame on uncontrollable factors such as officials, weather, field contions or bad luck
4. Blaming one play or player for the outcome of a game
5. Tying self worth/self confidence to wins and losses
6. Berating or talking bad about others (opposing coaches, players, parents ,officials)
7. Breaking or even “bending” rules in the name of winning

Avoiding these negative behaviors will set a good example for your athletes, and will give them a positive role model to mimic.  Regardless of your team’s wins and losses, if you are able to help athletes develop positive traits and leadership skills, your season will be a success.

My next post will give some tips for how to identify and develop leaders on your team.

Pitcher Safety Part II - Post Pitching Recovery

Similar to the controversy surrounding the use or over use of pitchers, the debate of whether pitchers should use ice after a start or not rages on in some circles. Many pitchers (including myself) just iced because it’s what we are supposed to do.  Many pitchers ice because they are afraid not to.  Some truly believe in the benefits and some will never know pitching without it.  On the other hand, many pitchers do not ice after starts.  Some pitchers don’t ice because they do not have access to it, some don’t like the way it makes their arms feel, and some don’t do it simply because they are lazy.  No matter what your personal belief on icing is, if a player requests ice, you should give it to them.   

I should again preface this by saying that I am not a doctor, athletic trainer, or physical therapist.  The findings I am reporting in this article are simply based on the research of others and are based on my reading and experiences as a player and a coach.

 
It is important to note that if the player has an acute injury to his arm such as getting hit by the baseball, a ligament sprain or muscle pull, they should be highly encouraged to ice.  It is true  that ice may be more effective for acute injuries such as those, and it may not be as effective for eccentric injuries (repetitive deceleration).   Understand that the type of injury that occurs after after pitching is a delayed onset muscle soreness, which is essentially micro-tears of the muscle.  This type of soreness usually peaks 24-48 hours after use and is characterized by stiffness of the muscle and joint.  

It makes sense that if stiffness is a problem, and ice causes constriction and stiffens the muscles and joints by constricting blood flow, it may not be the best modality to use after pitching.  There are several other options a pitcher has to decrease the amount of time that he is sore after and extended outing.  

1.) Proper warm-up prior to throwing (in order)

a.) Start with an activity that will get the heart rate up

b.) Dynamic stretching (most done at 10-20 yards)

i.) High Knees

ii.) Butt Kicks

iii.) Karaoke 

iv.) Lunge Twists

v.) Skip Series

vi.) Side shuffles

vi.) Jog to sprint series

c.) Warm-up your core

i.) Core twists

ii.) Twisting yoga poses

iii.) Med-Ball exercises

d.) Arm tubing

i.) Internal rotation

ii.) External rotation

iii.) Scap Squeeze

iv.) Iron Cross

2.) Refuel your body

a.) Eat something high in carbs and protein within 30 minutes of pitching

b.) Eat a balanced meal within 2 hours of pitching

3.) Next day stretching

a.) Shoulder girdle stretches prior to any activity

b.) Shoulder tubing prior to any activity

4.) Monitor post pitching practice and game activity

a.) Give your two-way players lighter throwing work loads in the two days after pitching

b.) Give a day off or game off if possible

c.) Try to avoid allowing pitchers to catch on a regular basis

Research shows that there are more (and possibly better) ways to recover from a start than to ice.  Encourage pitchers to experiment with their post throwing routines to find the one that works the best for them.  

References:

Yeager, D.W. (2011). An alternative to ice: A more comprehensive method to post pitching recovery.  Retrieved from www.baseballstrengthcoaching.com.

ASMI position statement on youth pitching. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.asmi.org/asmiweb/position_statement.htm.

Lyman S, Fleisig GS, Andrews JR, Osinski ED (2002).  Effect of pitch type, pitch count, and pitching mechanics on risk of elbow and shoulder pain in youth baseball pitchers. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 30, 463-468. 

Baseball Coaching Philosophies Moving!

I apologize for not having a post up recently, I have been working on a new project recently and will be transferring my blog over to my other website.  I will still be putting my posts up here for those of you who have been reading and would like to continue to reading on blogger.  The new website for the blog will be... www.cornerstonecoachingacdemy.com/blog.

Thank you again for all of you who have been reading and I look forward to more discussions with you about baseball and other coaching topics.

Look for Part II of the Pitching Injuries post to come up shortly.

Coach Nelson