I recently looked like an idiot on Twitter because I didn’t care to look this guy up before responding to a tweet:
Fun Fact: Steve Black wasn’t a head coach, but he was a helluva coach.
Here’s a video of him at work:
My eventual comment to a Cody Royle tweet actually afforded me the ability to write this piece.
Cody sent me this article, and if you’re on this newsletter, I think you’ll love it:
Steve Black Different and Better Article (Read this before continuing)
After reading it, lightbulbs started going off, so I threw out a few tweets:
The right organizations and HCs will celebrate the range of Steve Black.
At the same time, a ton of organizations won’t hire you for the exact same reasons… Yes, this is currently happening to me.
Here’s the greatest point of resonance for me in that article:
Former England fly-half Danny Cipriani said: “He was an unbelievably special human being. He was all about making people better and sharing his insight with anyone and everyone he met.”
Bristol Rovers manager Joey Barton described him as “one in a billion" and a "unique character”. Former Sunderland boss Peter Reid said he was a “wonderful man.”
Because he did things differently, Black's job title could be hard to pigeonhole. He was variously described as coach, fitness expert and psychologist, even though he didn’t have any formal qualifications for the latter role.
In 2019, he said: “People have said for years, ‘What should we call you?’ Coach, General Manager? I’m not bothered. It’s the effect I’m worried about. The philosophy is to help people.”
Read the last sentence again. When you ask yourself questions like:
You’ll come to the same conclusion Steve Black did…
The philosophy is to help people.
Meaning… If you have range you can help players in more ways than one.
The Thing About Range…
Steve Black and the teams that have hired him possess what all New Wave organizations have in common…
Balls.
An excerpt from The Wave:
The issue with hockey right now is coaches need years of experience to be deemed “qualified” for positions. And as a result, they spend years learning in the same environment that produces the same types of thinkers. They are never able to bring in new experiences or thoughts as the environment doesn’t allow for it.
Our organizations love a specialist.
What the hockey world needs are more generalists. People who have an understanding of a variety of topics, who can draw from experiences from a number of fields, and those that have understood how multiple systems work, not just the “system of hockey”.
Because when we have generalists, we are able to better get a message across, better motivate players, and better realize the context of situations. And the biggest advantage generalists have over specialists is context.
The Old Guard can only help you become a better player with their tactics and systems.
Lack of range = Lack of ability to “help”
Reminder from Steve: “The job is to help people.”
A New Wave coach can help you improve in all 4 coactives as a person and player.
They can teach tactical, but also can help you improve movement efficiency, technique, habits, strength, speed, off-ice behavior, confidence, ability to get into flow state, etc…
If you have someone who can impact 1/4 of the player vs. someone who can impact 100% of the person and player through their range and skill stack of talents… Who is more valuable?
I’ll answer that for us… The New Wave Coach is.
And this is why the Old Guard is scared of us. They’ll try to label us, put us in a box. This is self-limiting… Something they are great at doing with players…
Now they want to limit you because they are limited.
The job is to help people.
That means by any means necessary.
Use your entire skill stack.
Having range is the ultimate coaching “flex.”