I recently spent some time in New Zealand and had the opportunity to join my friend and her 15 year old kids during some water skiing practice, along with some others who were also visiting the irrigation pond/water ski lake (not often these go in the same sentence!).
This was a new experience for me and I had nothing more taxing than enjoying being in the boat during practice, while my friend drove. We were also joined by another guy, who it soon became clear knew a lot about the sport.
It didn’t take long to realise I was observing a master class in coaching.
I’ve been reflecting on what made it so effective and I think it came down to three things:
- seeking input. He watched what was happening and asked curious questions of my friend and the kids – which he listened to. This was very relaxed, which prompted very open and unselfconscious critique.
- focusing on one or two things and not moving on until they were both happy that they got it. This was broken down into simple instructions which were multi-sensory – tell, show, as well as how it should feel.
- stopping on a win. This wasn’t waiting for mastery or perfection, it was gauging when something clicked, and importantly, before the student got tired, frustrated or hungry. A fine line when dealing with my teenagers at least!
As a parent, every day is a learning opportunity, however it can feel like it’s more of a slow burn feedback loop (I hope they get it by the time they’re 25!), so there might be a fourth and probably most important thing… it was my friend spotting an opportunity to have someone else coach the kids!
Tough Mother 