No Sh*t Coaching. When I was first starting out in coaching, I attended a conference where one of the presenters introduced me to that phrase. What is No Sh*t Coaching? It’s saying the obvious thing rather than the helpful thing. Imagine a basketball player standing at the free throw line. She goes through her ritual: bounces the ball four times, raises it up, shoots…completely misses the rim. She throws up an air ball. Now imagine her coach jumping up out of her seat, stomping her foot and crossing her arms while yelling, “Come on…you’ve got to make that shot!” To which the player is surely thinking, “Really coach? The idea is to make the shot? No sh*t.”
The one thing a coach should never have to comment on is the mistake itself. The player (and their teammates) knows that the basketball ideally goes into the hoop and the volleyball should be spiked in bounds…so we don’t have to remind them of that. The more helpful and accurate correction is to tell them how to get the ball in the hoop or in bounds. Before you get to that point though, you should work on getting to know everyone on your team so they’re more likely to be responsive to your critiques. Lay the groundwork early and you will have a team of players who aren’t super sensitive to correction.
3 ways to appreciate your team and create good relationships with your players
1. Make a personal connection. A while back, I wrote an article about ways to create rapport with your team. As a coach, we’ve got to get to know “the team” as well as our players as individuals. I’ve written about things I’ve done during preseason so that “the team” is solidified early. With individuals, there’s no substitute for good, old-fashioned time. Whether it’s chatting with each player during their warmup or having position practices where you can get your athletes in a smaller setting…we coaches should be intentional about getting to know our players. This way, when we have to make a correction, we can give it to them in a way that they’ll receive it.
2. Look for opportunities to celebrate. This goes along with making a personal connection. Do your players play in the orchestra or on another team when your season is over? Or are they active in other student groups? Be sure to let your team know when good stuff is happening on with their teammates. Keep your ears open to find your players doing being successful outside of your sport. Now they know that you care about them as a person, instead of only as someone who can directly benefit you and your program.
3. Acknowledge their successes. I’m not saying I don’t get after my players when they deserve it, but I try to congratulate them when they deserve it to. I’d rather find the one person who’s trying exactly what I want and highlight them rather than complain about the team playing like crap (though I do that sometimes too!). If you take the time to create an atmosphere of praise in your gym, your players will quietly desire to be the one singled out for doing things right. Before you know it, you’ve Jedi mind tricked them into doing what you want without having to give them a figurative kick in the butt.
Try it out and see! I believe that correction, critique, and solid relationships go together. We need the last one in order to be able to do the first two.
