Before you criticize a Coach…

It happened again! Almost every time I am watching the game from the stands, I’ll hear parents questioning the coach while talking among themselves. I’ve been on the receiving end too – from spouses, officials and even volunteers. In some rare cases, they not only question my methods and/or tactics, but also advise the players to go against them.

Before people criticize coaches (or anyone), they should first ponder over these questions (or perhaps they should themselves go try coaching for a season first)…

Am I criticizing so that I can have an excuse to say “I’m better than you”?
Am I blaming the coach so that I’ll have an excuse to defend my kid or spouse when comparing them with the better athletes?
Is the coach really doing something incorrectly OR, I just have a preference for how a coach should be like? (Some parents may unknowingly prefer coaches who are like themselves, i.e., biased towards their own kids just like themselves).
Do I have the whole picture? A coach may seem to be overly harsh on a player, or be deemed unfair in his handling of the team. Perhaps she has good reasons for doing so and I should clarify with her instead?

Of course, some criticism are well-meaning and since we can’t afford to stop learning and listening, we should be open to suggestions on how we can get better. On our part, we can also be more proactive by having meetings with partners to establish certain communication guidelines, and to also share our training plan with them whenever possible.

“Learn to take criticism seriously but not personally.” Hillary Clinton

Anyways, as coaches, I reckon criticism is to be expected…that’s the nature of our job isn’t it? In fact some of the most critical people are coaches themselves – often of other coaches! Sometimes we just have to close our ears and let these fellas say what they want to say lah…it’s their problem, not mine.

Coach Hansen

Putting It into Context…

The boys are much more serious about learning and applying mental skills after a couple of competitive games – they are paying attention and asking questions to clarify instead of just “pretending” to be learning.

Mental Prep for Monday's Game vs ACSB — Mental Prep for Monday’s Game vs ACSb

As a psychology coach, I have gotten quite used to this especially with the younger C-Division athletes. These fellas struggle to understand the relevance of mental skills since they can’t really associated the material with a concrete and authentic context, i.e., they often have little or no prior experience of having to perform under pressure.

Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) is a concept that reflects a common sense notion that learners learn better when they are taught knowledge within the context of actual experience, rather than abstractly. As much as I try to incorporate CLT strategies into my coaching such as getting the players to focus on process goals under simulated conditions, it seems that nothing beats “real life” experience!

I reckon this is true even outside the context of sport. My former student was sharing investment advice with me last week, and I probably wouldn’t be able to make sense of the advice if I did not have the relevant experience in biz and investments.

“Learning only occurs when the learner wants to learn, is ready to learn, and has a reason to learn…”

Furthermore, I am sure all of us have experienced some sort of screw ups at work or even in relationships, and it was only on hindsight that we realize that all the trouble could have been avoided if we had heeded or remembered a particular someone’s well-meaning advice, which at that point in time seemed irrelevant and/or unnecessary!

I guess it’s human to err, and to err is probably the best way for humans to learn!

Coach Hansen

“The impediment to action advances the action, what stands in the way becomes the way…” Marcus Aurelius

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Yup! We did not qualify for the 2017 Asean Para Games (APG).

Our commitment was questionable (attendance wasn’t up to mark) and although the women’s team had good results from friendly games, these were not IBSA sanctioned competitions. Results from IBSA sanctioned events are used as the main benchmarks for qualification.

Unfortunately, the latter is a real challenge mainly because the APG is the ONLY IBSA sanctioned competition for South East Asian countries. The level of competition for other IBSA events are at a much higher level and only Thailand competes at these competitions.

The cost is also high – USD 600 per player for a recent Asia Pacific competition organized by Thailand. Also, our players may not be able to take leave for overseas competition due to work or school commitments.

In addition, unlike our regional counterparts where selection can be made from domestic competitions, we do not have a big pool of players for any meaningful domestic competitions.

Given these circumstances, we will work with the SDSC to come up with a revised plan to measure the team’s progress leading up to APG 2019 (which also marks the end of the team’s five year plan). Should qualification for APG 2019 be improbable, then we will be better off directing our efforts towards a different pathway so long as the team’s core purpose – ‘To provide opportunities for persons with visual impairments to participate in a competitive team sport’ is still met.

Coach Hansen