Tournament Coaching - what's happening?

“What do you say to players between games?”  This is one of the most frequently asked questions to experienced squash coaches, and as with most questions the answer is both simple and somewhat nuanced.

Why is this question worth writing about?  Glad you asked.  Two basic reasons.  Firstly there may be circumstances where parents or kids may need to coach players in tournaments or school matches, and it would be great to make this an enjoyable and successful experience!  Secondly, if everyone is on board with “the process”, then it becomes easier for the player as they understand expectations and simpler for the parents, as they know what is happening and how to help.

The briefest of brief checklists looks like this…

Step 1 – Let it go

“Let it go” was fashionable in between games, even before FROZEN!  Fundamentally the most important things that can occur between games for a player is that they emerge mentally regulated and ready to compete to the best of their abilities in the next game!  If the previous game was unsuccessful, the player needs to stop dwelling on their disappointment and get ready to move forward.  Strangely the same problem is encountered by a player who may have been successful.  Fundamentally I don’t want the player who walks off court thrilled at hitting 11 winners, I want the player to be in the mental state they were in when they first walked on court to commence that super successful game.

Step 2 – Establish a tactical agenda preferably based upon pre-match discussions and the players “A” game

I’d always suggest not to add anything new and to strongly avoid technical feedback.  Fundamentally players should be most aware of “where the ball is going”, rather than “how is it getting there!”   For example, if the player can’t hold the racket properly, you ain’t gonna teach them in the 90 seconds between games… Players should be able to recreate patterns of play that they have rehearsed in practice, this is one of the most important components of successful programming.

Step 3 – Affirmation 

“Come on Phil, you can do this!” – is an example of an unoriginal, but fundamentally respectable affirmation as long as the player’s name is Phil.  Ideally we send players out with an emotionally resonant exhortation.  There may be no atheists in fox holes and there is certainly nothing too cheesy for an affirmation.  Whatever makes the player feel empowered is more than appropriate, and obviously the closer the relationship between coach and player the more likely this affirmation is to assist in performance.

Clearly this is the most basic of basic 101 checklists and I would be loath to break things down to “just this”… but hey, let’s not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.  Consider the 3 steps of  between game squash equivalent of the medical practitioners Hippocratic Oath to “uphold specific ethical standards”, or at least to do no harm!

Dunning-Kruger Effect and why is it a useful concept?

WHAT IS IT?

In a nutshell, the Dunning-Kruger effect may be defined (thanks to your online encyclopedia Britannica) as “a cognitive bias whereby people with limited competence in a domain greatly overestimate their own knowledge or competence in that domain relative to objective criteria or the performance of their peers…” and it effects almost all of us!  Quite a mouthful, but pretty easy to grasp the idea…

A simple example could involve my own personal capacity to cook.  I am so breathtakingly inept that I both lack the capacity to cook well, but additionally I have also not managed to cultivate a discerning palate enough to realize that I can’t cook!  Realistically, I am not so much “cooking” as “torturing food” which is consumable, but produces relatively little pleasure to those involved.  Now perhaps I’m exaggerating slightly, however the principle is valid, I am of a culinary level where I do not have a solid enough grasp of the competency to judge myself, let alone others and, being a human and open to the same flaws we all are… I OVERESTIMATE MY ABILITIES!  I think I’m a bit like Gordon Ramsay, just better looking, and I just don’t know any better until I actually get in a kitchen with an expert and, well, ouch, embarrassment city!

WHY SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT THE D-K EFFECT?

Well, candidly, I’m not sure that we need to lie in bed at night worrying about it, however the concept is a useful one to acknowledge, not just for our squash but for our general lives.  Squash, however provides the easier gateway into the learning, as it does with many other aspects of our lives such as fairness, honesty, hard work and suchlike. In the case of the D-K phenomenon, it gives us a guide as to being cautious in our goal setting.  If you win a Silver it is possible, but unlikely you’ve moved onto winning JCT’s this season.  “They don’t look that good” is something I’ve heard more than a couple of times, and, without wanting to sound grumpy, don’t be that guy!  Goal setting is unquestionably the foundation of motivation, without goals we’re not going to work hard… but inappropriate goal setting will seriously mess with a young players development as disappointment sets in.

ENDGAME

The simple solution to the potential problem, as with so many other things, is “ask your coach”.  A developing player, someone learning the game, is not normally equipped to appreciate how good, or, well, how “not-good” they are and respectfully, it’s unlikely Mom or Dad is either.  When you set your goals, when you dream of achievements, just make sure they’re within the bounds of credulity and when you look at some of the best juniors or seniors, just be sure you know what you’re seeing… you’ll be happier in the long run, I promise!

P.S. if you have a few minutes to continue on this.. check out some of the formal research here!

Long Term Player Development - what, why, how..

WHY IS LONG TERM PLAYER DEVELOPMENT (LTPD) IMPORTANT TO JUNIOR SQUASH PLAYERS? Briefly, LTPD is important to junior squash players as a roadmap to assist them in achieving their goals in the sport. Juniors are not simply “little adults”, they have a variety of different mental and physical needs predicated upon their age and stage of development which should be at the forefront of programming their training. A failure to pay attention to building blocks of training eventually results in players failing to achieve their potential in the sport due to inadequate training, injury and even burnout.

TAKE HOME QUOTE “Children are not “little adults” and shouldn’t be simply put through the same programming as professional players.”

BACKGROUND Long Term Player Development or Long Term Athletic Development is a concept I first came across in the 1990’s when I was an athlete in the Victorian Institute of Sport in Melbourne, Australia. The then Head Coach, Roger Flynn had a rigorous academic understanding of sports development and introduced the squash program to a Canadian academic by the name of Istvan Balyi. In many ways Balyi was a pioneer in the field and has written many scholarly articles and books on the subject of LTPD and its role in producing world class performance. The Squash Tigers methodology derives many of its principles from LTPD, but with many modifications to take into account the individual differences of our players and the demands of being a student athlete in 2022!

WHAT ARE THE STAGES IN LTPD? Famously, Balyi initially put together three stages in athletic development: training to train, training to compete and training to win. These three stages are great building blocks for understanding in broad terms our attitude towards producing players. For Tiger purposes, we break it into: * Learning to Play * Learning to Train * Learning to Compete * Training to Compete * Training to Win Conceptually the model begins with players who are under ten and peaks with recruitment to college – however it is important to note that this doesn’t necessarily need to be the case! The methodology and principles have been proven with a variety of “late starting” players, many of who have taken up the sport at under fifteen and still managed to “catch up” to the field, make it to the top echelons of the rankings and compete in college.

WHAT DOMAINS NEED TO BE TRAINED? Within the broadly different emphases of LTPD are the FIVE S.M.A.R.T. TRAINABLES of athletic development – another Tiger Pillar of development. The five trainables are: * Strategy * Mental Skills * Athleticism * Real World Skills and * Technical literacy Conceptually, we have the stages of LTPD, which then modify the manner in which our Five Trainables are taught. Your 16 year old will get different feedback from your 9 year old and both will get different feedback from a professional player, so next time you're a little curious as to the "why" behind the feedback given to your child ... come have a chat and I'd love to talk through the frameworks that we use!

See you at the club.