Oh, the rabbit holes you’ll go down.
After Tanner Reklaitis recommended the book Alchemy by Rory Sutherland for the 90th time on social, I had to order it.
But after I did, I thought, “I have no idea what alchemy means…”
So start with the definition and then plunge down the rabbit hole, right?
My Working Definition
Let’s get on the same page first. Here’s what I’m using for my definition:
Alchemy is working with something and helping it transform from one thing into something better.
Looking Through the Coaching Lens
Replace a few words with what’s in brackets and this is what coaching is.
Coaching is working with (someone) and helping (them) transform from a (past version) to a (future version) of themselves.
Alchemy in Coaching
It has undercurrents of high-agency, creativity, and perceived value.
High Agency
High-agency because the alchemists were finding a way or making a way to induce transformation. Not satisfied with current circumstances and willing to take personal responsibility to change them. These alchemists were taking it upon themselves to turn lead into gold.
As coaches, we are on two transformation journeys:
Improve as a coach
Improve our players
There are challenges with making personal change and helping others change. We must find a way or make a way to connect.
Sure there is a time and a place for removing a player from your roster, but I think in most cases we are too quick to write a kid off as “uncoachable.” (I’m guilty)
In a conversation with Connor Cadaret, he summed this idea up perfectly:
I think once you introduce trades into hockey (or any sport) teams and coaches are too quick to lose faith in a player or just not try to develop them because it will be "too much work". When you’re stuck with the team you have, like in minor hockey, you work harder to help the players sometimes.
Constraints actually push you to find a way to connect in minor hockey. Not being able to ship off your problems makes you think of creative and relationship-building solutions.
Speaking of creativity…
Creativity
Alchemy also has an undercurrent of creativity.
The best definition for a creative is by Seth Godin.
“A creative is someone who has made the decision they want to change things.”
-Seth Godin on The Knowledge Project Podcast
The status quo is not sufficient. They have a vision for the future that doesn’t look like the present. Alchemists and good coaches are trying to do things both, “different and better.”
“Different and better” was the ethos of Daryl Belfry when he was trying to make his early mark on hockey. Through self-awareness and understanding how the game was currently coached, he approached it as “a creative.” He decided teaching the game needed to be done differently and better than the status quo. He drew inspiration from sports like tennis and soccer. Professions like school teachers, professional psychologists, and neuroscientists in order to deliver a better development environment for his players.
The status quo in coaching currently is looking at every problem rationally.
Here’s the issue with that…
Humans beings are an enigma. A cocktail of thoughts, feelings, emotions, motivations, drives, and moods. Not to mention they act completely different in groups.
Pretty hard to use rationality when we map it out this way…
Solving problems only using rationality is like playing golf with one club.
-Rory Sutherland
The difficult answers we seek to solve are going to need creatives who will look upon them with different eyes and bring “silly ideas” to the table.
People who will putt from the rough and use a driver off the deck.
Creating Perceived Value
When an alchemist is trying to turn lead into gold, they have to work “with” the material.
When a coach tries to teach a player, the relationship has to be strong enough to work “with” each other. You need to know the player’s drives, what motivates him, why he might be hesitant to make this transformation, etc.
Working “with” the player often calls for creating perceived value.
It’s not about why the intervention works, the science behind it, and all the technical jargon.
It’s about what the player wants. What does he value?
Let’s say you have a basketball player that doesn’t like doing a weighted jump exercise in the weight room. How do you get him to want to do it?
Don’t tell him loaded jumps elicit a stretch-shortening cycle response in the musculotendinous junction and by adding weight, it will create… bored yet?
Instead, create perceived value that is important to him.
Tell him this exercise will help him “posterize” defenders by improving his ability to jump over defenders on his way to dunking at the rim.
Increase the perceived value. Work “with” him. Paint the picture he wants to see. Create value he cares about out of the ether. Turn lead into gold.
Apply Now
How can I take on the role of an alchemist on the individual player development level?
How can I take on this role on the team level with this group?
How do I create perceived value for that “hard to reach” player?
Great post, great book!