“As soon as we learn something, the battle against forgetting begins.” -Doug Lemov
Let’s take this quote but back up one step…
First…As soon as we teach something, the battle for the players to learn it begins.
Then… Once players show some learning, the battle against forgetting begins.
Last… The battle of retrieving it over and over again will put it into long-term memory.
After 3 long battles, it transfers consistently into the game. Well, more consistently.
I know you’re probably saying, “that sounds like a lot of work.”
You’re right. It’s a process. We have to be okay with that.
Easier said than done, I am very impatient by nature and the struggles showed in my first 2 years of coaching. I was always looking to change my approach when things weren’t working.
It’s good to explore how you can do things better, don’t get me wrong. But if you don’t stay consistent long enough for the players to catch on, they’ll always be chasing you with no chance of catching up or catching on.
I needed to learn more about:
Teaching better
Learning as a student (user experience, what it feels like from player perspective)
Learning a new skill again to remember what it was like
I’ve gone on that journey over the past year and am ready to share with you the adjustments I’ve made and what I’ll experiment with when I coach again.
Learning from Lazary
I just listened to a podcast with Saginaw Spirit Head Coach, Chris Lazary. He had an idea in the podcast and one more after I reached out via DM. Both are worth applying and seeing how your players respond.
A Check for Understanding
After your team meeting, pre-scout, practice prep, or any other interaction with players, grab one on the way out and pull him aside.
Ask, “what was that meeting about?”
If he can’t talk to you about the 3 main points, (if you made 3 points)…
Then you failed as a coach and need to reflect and make adjustments.
If he can’t, have a conversation so he can make you better as a coach. Find out why he doesn’t know what you went over. If you have enough trust built, he’ll be honest.
maybe you couldn’t hold his attention
the information wasn’t taught in an engaging manner that included player input
maybe he’s just having a tough day and is “out of it”
Additional Touches/Reps
After a short DM, Chris added some more value and suggested taking a check for understanding one step further. This is what he said:
Happy you found something of value and thanks for listening. Have been experimenting with the idea of sending a message to the group nightly as a daily reminder of the two or three key points from the day which should force them to recall information and further retain why was discussed that day. Small touches to keep key concepts in their minds.
I think this is a great idea to give your players chances at additional reps with the material you are trying to teach.
Building on that Idea
I am thinking about using something similar and doing a newsletter-type delivery to the team.
After a week of practice, I will write a newsletter with key topics and points of emphasis from that week of practice. I’m thinking Thursday evening after practice to review before the “test matches” on the weekend.
Maybe one section of the newsletter would look something like this. I’ll share what I’m thinking and you can build on it yourself. Since I’m not coaching a team at this moment in time, I’ll use a team I watch a lot of as an example.
Additional Entry Mental Rep of the Week
Guys we worked on entry habits and skills this week at practice. Let’s look at this example and talk through what we are seeing. In our game model, we have entry principles, watch the video and tell me how many you see and what those allow in terms of space creation which is the ultimate goal of offense.
Habits and principles of play #19
Get off the wall
Attack laterally towards other Dman(this leads to next point)
Draw 2 (occupies the attention of 2 players before moving the puck to a teammate)
Habits/Principles of #26 and 17
changes his angle of attack on the first touch
scans to see his teammate #17 is ahead of the trackers
pulls his check out of middle ice (good ice)
17 reads 26’s lane change and fills the good ice his teammate and defender are vacating
Let me know your thoughts, and feel free to build on top of this.
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