Coach Less

A couple of days ago I was watching a coach run through starts with some of his combine athletes.  After each rep of about 15 yards, he went down a laundry list of technical aspects and things to work on and do different than that rep.

I did a good job and didn't let my jaw drop at how inappropriate I felt it was.  It's entirely true that I don't know any background on their training or the athlete's learning style, but REALLY?  2-3 days out from his 40 yd dash and you are coaching him like this?

Reinforce basics.  Keep them focused on their PROCESS goals.  Not outcomes like high pick, money and so forth, but ARMS, DRIVE, TALL, etc...  those better have meaning by now.

I want my guys focusing on the feelings and their own specific cue words.  I want consistency and confidence.  Dont try to change anything now.  Be very careful in how you point out the small things.  If you know there is one that they know how to fix, reinforce.  If its something they haven't gotten now, let it.

I think as coaches we feel like we have to fulfill our role.  We need to coach, need to say something, need to give feedback.  If you have done your job up to now, coaching less is more.

What Does the Watch Say

Timing a sprint, whether its long or short, is probably the most basic way that we measure outcomes andprogress in training. Its a primary feedback tool as well when we tell athletes times. Two conversations I had with athletes this week reminded me of a common trap many speed coaches fall into.

Talking with a 5 year NFL vet, he was recounting combine prep training. He went with some teammates, and soon the speed coach was telling them they were running 4.3s in the 40yd dash. This was a huge red flag to the athlete, because he knew these were 4.6 type guys. Either the guy was bad at timing or he was telling people what they wanted to hear. Neither was a good trait in a coach.

I also had an athlete of mine this week hear a split wrong. He started bragging that he had broken a threshold he was working towards. I had to tell him he hadn't. I didn't want to deflate him. As a matter of fact, he needs more confidence and leaving him feeling positive was tempting, but it wasn't true.

So why tell him? Because I want him to get honest and accurate feedback. How is he going to connect the performance with the way it felt if I give him inaccurate feedback? If the athlete is supposed to be getting feedback on outcomes, it needs to be right. The point of that feedback is so the athlete can learn what it feels like when they have the best outcome. If I play games with times, they are connecting less than optimal technique and feelings with a better performance. Then I am slowing their learning.

Times also represent goals for athletes. If I am telling them they have reached those goals (when they haven't) they may lose motivation to develop proper technique or continue training with focus.

I have seen this in cases where I suspect a coach doesn't have confidence in their own abilities. They don't know what to do when the athlete isn't improving or don't have the skill to interact with the athlete.

It's OK when the times aren't perfect. Review your plan, make adjustments and work with your athlete.

When Feedback is Too Much

Feedback to athletes on their performance is very important to facilitate motor learning. They are always getting some feedback from their kinestethic sense. Whether that feedback is well tuned is an entirely different story.


We give feedback to coaches as to the quality of performance as well. Often this is just verbal, but we also use additional means.


To augment this as coaches we use methods such as video analysis, timing and more. When working on start and acceleration technique, a common scenario we may use is to utilize timers or stopwatch to time a start. Now this can occur in a few ways. One is to provide OUTCOME feedback. Did you run that short distance faster?

This is useful because it may be a specific goal that is a measuring stick for overall performance. For instance, we set 10yd goals for our NFL Combine athletes that are statistically related to their targeted 40yd dash time. We use this to get data on training progress and readiness.

Another reason we may time a start is for more PROCESS oriented goals. While experienced track athletes become very aware of differences in their performances, team sport athletes like football players seldom do. Individual sport athletes are taught to have a better awareness of the body and attention to movement detail. Its inherent in their events.

A football player is conditioned to the exact opposite. Ignore the pain, don't pay attention to the aches and pains. The is some practicality to this if your are going to play at a high level. Unfortunately it gets in the way of players training well. They don't know what their body needs and can't grade performance.

So using some feedback on reps can help this process. In the start example with our NFL Combine guys, we may do a technical drill like a wall drill. Then a few starts. Some of our guys will then be doing release starts, while others are doing bounds, and still others are doing sled pulls. After a number of reps, they will go and do a start or two.

Now here's the key. If I want them focusing on the PROCESS, how that rep felt relative to the time, I probably don't use 10yds. The reason is since they have goals for 10yds, they instantly throw how they FEEL out the window and focus on the result. They are under tremendous stress about this ultimate job interview that is the combine. They can become far to caught up in the outcome instead of getting quality training in.

Feedback is an important tool, just keep in mind what it will lead the athlete to focus on. Times and video are great tools in your coaching toolbelt, just be sure to wield it well.