Reply To: Developing a Season Plan

[hockeygod]

Problem Solving!

Tom,

You should check out Tony Wagner's site and read some of his books. Very interesting stuff.

http://www.tonywagner.com/

Also, do you think this should become it's own topic? "Problem Solving for Coaches?"

I remember working at Sport Chek while attending school and playing hockey. I was about 7 or 18, standing around in the hockey department – hanging out as there were no customers and I had completed everything the 'Full-Timer' had left for me to do on my shift. I was bored silly; waiting for customers.

The Assistant Store Manager walked by and asked me what I was doing.

"Nothing" was my reply.

He spend five minutes with me – not being a jerk, but actually kind of mentoring me in a firm way – and told me / showed me what to do when it was slow. Facing shelves, updating the inventory of the heat-press stock (numbers / letters), looking at the displays like a customer – what attracted my eye first / last – and how to move stuff around so there were always 'new' things to catch the eye (at eye level) when entering the department from both sides… lots of stuff I would have never thought of on my own!

Until then, I had been 'trained' in life as someone to wait for orders, then complete them (by my parents, school, coaches – pretty much all of society!) I hadn't been trained to think for myself. (Same as what happens in typical hockey drills. Stand around, wait for your turn, then mentally and physically engage for 12 seconds of a rep, then after the shot or after the whistle, turn off physical and mental processes as you return to the end of the line.) Everybody laid things out for me or told me how to do it – rarely saying anything when I did it right but certainly told me when I did it something wrong! But nothing like this had ever happened before.

He taught me the importance of taking initiative and adding value through the use of my time. In a round about way (many years after introspection!), he was teaching me to think about potentially occurring problems or issues and solve them before they happen! I remember thinking at the time, "Wow, I didn't get in trouble… I learned how to be a better person and employee by taking responsibility for using my time constructively – not just waiting (and wasting time!)" It was a teachable moment and it made a tremendous impact on me. Just goes to show you the power anybody has – to inspire or destroy! We should keep this in mind and use it to inspire!

It felt like an 'awakening' in my life. I was encouraged to think and problem solve for myself without having to wait for someone to tell me to do something. It might sound kind of crazy to some, but based on my upbringing, it was a revelation. I started looking at lots of things in my life very differently after that; thanks to Steve the Manager for that!

Now… I wonder if we coaches can learn from this introspection and try to inspire initiative / way of looking at things for individuals during their coaching – or while working in nursing, etc. I have always felt that this should be part of the topic, "The Art of Coaching" that is delivered at coaching clinics.

At one of the first Hockey Canada coaching clinics I worked at (late 1980's / early 1990's), my old college coach, George Kingston gave his presentation on "Making an Old Drill New". Using two overheads, everybody had the opportunity to sketch their favourite drill; then come up to present them. George would use a different colour pen and make some changes to each; demonstrating to everyone 'how' to think outside the box. Not only did he give coaches additional (practical) drills to walk away with (which all coaches love!), he helped people see how 'easy' it was to make changes to 'old' drills – to relate to an old cliche, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." He was teaching us to fish!

Does anyone have any thoughts about these comments?

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."