Rule of Thumb/Heuristic Definition:
A useful principle having wide application but not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable in every situation
This tweet is a rule of thumb.
Here’s a 2nd one I wrote about in Surf The Wave:
In Peter Theil’s book, Zero to One, (discussed more later) he tells a story about a rule of thumb he used when deciding whether or not he would invest in a tech company. If his VC firm, Founders Fund took a meeting with a potential tech startup, Theil ended meetings quickly if the CEO and other executives wore a suit. They had a hard and fast rule that they would not invest in tech companies where the founder wore a suit to their meet up.
A rule of thumb is about satisficing. A Rory Sutherland term from Alchemy. His definition is in the book.
In my own words, satisficing is this:
In a world where we overthink, don’t act, and keep researching until something is perfect, it’s better to just fucking put something out there that’s good enough in most situations and let people have a think…
Satisficing is great for tweeting. Like Jack Butcher says:
The reader completes the writing
One of our New Wave Coach members asked posed a logical question to a rule of thumb tweet:
The rest of the article is my answer.
1- Don’t Deter Their Greatness
As a coach, your job is simple. Don’t fuck them up.
Most coaches disregard this and overcoach.
Youth coaches don’t like turnovers because they’ve heard on TV that they shouldn’t like turnovers from Barry Melrose and other people you shouldn’t listen to.
Turnovers at the youth level are great.
At best it’s self-directed learning for the player.
Most players know what they did wrong, even at the youth level. It’s your job to guide their discovery and not deter them. Here are 2 related posts on that:
Just like kids know when they fall off their bike that something didn’t go right… They have this awareness when they turn the puck over.
They don’t want to. They didn’t mean to. You probably don’t need to tell them.
What you could do is reframe them.
At worst, they are a starting point for conversation. This video highlights the 3 questions I use either in film or quickly on the bench.
The worst thing you could say is, “don’t turn the puck over” to a 12u player.
They are probably ahead of the game.
Find out if it was a choice or execution error and go from there. But with a youth player, neither of these mistakes “must” be bad.
2- Your Most Creative Players Will Make the Most Execution Errors as a Youth
Imagine a 12u player knows he needs to sauce a puck from goalline extended to the back door over 2 opponents’ sticks and onto his teammate’s stick for a slam dunk chance.
He tries it because it’s his first game with you and flubs the pass. Turned over.
As a coach you now have this choice:
If he saw the right thing, you need to say the right thing.
Read that sentence again.
Right choice, wrong “weight” on the pass… You better not bitch the kid out…
That would be deterring his greatness, scroll back up to reason 1.
But even the wrong choice as a youth player, might not be the wrong choice.
What?
I’ll explain.
3- More Choice Mistakes Happen When You’re Ahead of the Game
Your most creative 12u player is playing “ahead” of the game in the most literal sense.
He sees spaces and plays that his teammates won’t understand until 14u. 2 years from now. Yet he sees them today.
He expects them to skate in a certain space so he makes an area pass to “nobody.”
But he was expecting his teammate to make a run into that space.
The creative player you’re about to yell at for his “boneheaded pass” was actually a really nice read… You just don’t see it that way.
The turnovers you see as a youth turn into this, they just need time and reps, which means freedom to keep trying…
Half-Life
Context is cool. Ask thoughtful questions like Travis. Happy to explain “how I think.”
Don’t deter their greatness. If he saw the right thing, you better say the right thing.
Is what you say going to invite him to feel pressure next time he wants to make a play or permission?
I’ll leave you with a video clip from a fantastic coach:
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