Lesson 4 - Communication is key

One of my favorite things I’ve heard along the way is “communication is not what’s said, it is what’s understood”. One of the key skills as a coach is to be able to get your message across; something may seem really simple to you but that means nothing if the athlete has no clue what you are talking about. I have realized you need to be explicit when working in a team, especially when delegating tasks. It may seem like you are teaching people to suck eggs at the time, but you’ll be grateful down the line when everything is functioning well.

 After my first week of coaching back in 2014, I had a foot operation which left me in a plaster cast and on crutches for 8 weeks. I often reference back to this time as a big learning curve for me as I started my coaching journey. As a former athlete, it is really easy to rely on demonstrations to get my message across. After the operation I was no longer able to perform demo’s, I had to really develop my coaching language and communication skills to help athletes understand what we were learning in each session.

And of course. we have to remember that sometimes you just won’t get your message across. In times like this I always remember what my old coach Linford Christie used to say “if you cannot hear, you must feel”