Croquet Australia: WHAT IS COACHING?

This is a question that many people would answer incorrectly. They imagine that coaching involves telling you what you are doing wrong, and they think that anyone who can do that is a good coach.

This blinkered view of coaching is similar to a doctor telling you what illness you have, but having no idea how to treat it. If it is a fatal illness you may have even been better off not knowing you had it!

A coach should be able to do much more than simply watch a player and tell him/her what is wrong with his/her technique - although many who try to coach and who claim to be coaches cannot even do that correctly.

The coach must be able to quickly recognise errors in technique (= playing the strokes), or in tactics, or in the player's psychological approach to the game; and he must be able to help the player correct the errors.

Examples of such errors include -

(1) Technique: the player is jabbing at his hoops without taking a proper back-swing.

(2) Tactics: the player is missing opportunities to load hoops ahead because he thinks only of making his current hoop.

(3) Psychology: The player is much too tense and jittery, especially at the start of a game.

Even when such errors are correctly "diagnosed", it will not usually help the player much to say "You need to stop jabbing at your hoops", or "You must learn to load hoops ahead more often", or "You are too tense and must learn to relax."

This sort of advice does not help because -

(1) the player probably knows s/he is jabbing at his/her hoops, but does not know how to stop from doing it;

(2) s/he has no idea when and how s/he could have loaded the hoops that the coach says s/he failed to load; and

(3) s/he knows s/he is tense but does not know how to relax.

Coaches should be trained to not only diagnose such errors, but to treat them effectively, though it may require the player to be willing to spend time with the coach and "submit" to the treatment which will not always be completely "painless".

If you are a player with such problems - or different ones - find a competent coach who not only knows how to diagnose, but knows also how to treat the problems in your technique, tactics or psychological approach to the game.

If you are a coach and do not know how to recognise and treat a range of such errors, then you may need to attend an up-dating course when one becomes available (contact your State Coaching Director), and ensure that you keep up to date with the latest literature. Until then, you should direct players to someone else (a "specialist"?) who is more likely to be able to treat those particular problems.

Just as new medical treatments are discovered and become available, so coaching knowledge is constantly changing and progressing in all of these areas - technique, tactics and psychology. Keeping up with it all is almost as difficult in the field of croquet coaching as it is in medicine. Fortunately, the fees charged for treatment by croquet coaches are usually much lower than those charged by our medical friends.

John Riches
National Coaching Director

	WHAT IS COACHING?
	This is a question that many people would answer incorrectly. They imagine that coaching involves telling you what you are doing wrong, and they think that anyone who can do that is a good coach. This blinkered view of coaching is similar to a doctor telling you what illness you have, but having no idea how to treat it. If it is a fatal illness you may have even been better off not knowing you had it! A coach should be able to do much more than simply watch a player and tell him/her what is wrong with his/her technique - although many who try to coach and who claim to be coaches cannot even do that correctly. The coach must be able to quickly recognise errors in technique (= playing the strokes), or in tactics, or in the player's psychological approach to the game; and he must be able to help the player correct the errors. Examples of such errors include - (1) Technique: the player is jabbing at his hoops without taking a proper back-swing. (2) Tactics: the player is missing opportunities to load hoops ahead because he thinks only of making his current hoop. (3) Psychology: The player is much too tense and jittery, especially at the start of a game. Even when such errors are correctly "diagnosed", it will not usually help the player much to say "You need to stop jabbing at your hoops", or "You must learn to load hoops ahead more often", or "You are too tense and must learn to relax." This sort of advice does not help because - (1) the player probably knows s/he is jabbing at his/her hoops, but does not know how to stop from doing it; (2) s/he has no idea when and how s/he could have loaded the hoops that the coach says s/he failed to load; and (3) s/he knows s/he is tense but does not know how to relax. Coaches should be trained to not only diagnose such errors, but to treat them effectively, though it may require the player to be willing to spend time with the coach and "submit" to the treatment which will not always be completely "painless". If you are a player with such problems - or different ones - find a competent coach who not only knows how to diagnose, but knows also how to treat the problems in your technique, tactics or psychological approach to the game. If you are a coach and do not know how to recognise and treat a range of such errors, then you may need to attend an up-dating course when one becomes available (contact your State Coaching Director), and ensure that you keep up to date with the latest literature. Until then, you should direct players to someone else (a "specialist"?) who is more likely to be able to treat those particular problems. Just as new medical treatments are discovered and become available, so coaching knowledge is constantly changing and progressing in all of these areas - technique, tactics and psychology. Keeping up with it all is almost as difficult in the field of croquet coaching as it is in medicine. Fortunately, the fees charged for treatment by croquet coaches are usually much lower than those charged by our medical friends. John Riches National Coaching Director