7 Steps to Mastering Technique Coaching

My experience gleaned from instructing coaches from a variety of different sports in the performance of the Olympic lifts leads me to the conclusion that the degree of technique coaching varies considerably from sport to sport. Whereas some sports are overwhelmingly technical and aesthetic, i.e. gymnastics, diving, others have a very small technique component and hence the coaches have little need to develop the skill of coaching technique. Some sports are played in a deliberately free-style manner so that the coach has little to do with the development of proper technique. Basketball, for instance, used to have a proper set of techniques that were taught to all the participants, but that number of techniques has diminished and many coaches are happy when the ball goes in the basket.

Many coaches in the strength and conditioning (S & C) profession have had little reason to become proficient at coaching technique. Many of the movements employed are from bodybuilding and hardly qualify as kinesthetically challenging. On the other hand some S & C coaches have an extensive background in coaching technique, so much of the material in this article may appear superfluous. If you want to employ snatches and/or clean & jerks into your athletes' training (I can't imagine why you wouldn't), you are going to have to develop some skills at coaching technique.

Just What You Might Have Thought

Before I proceed, let me try to clear up some misconceptions or re-state some observations that might apply generally to coaching any sport.

• The ability to perform a complex event at a highly proficient level is no guarantee that the practitioner knows what they are doing in a descriptive mode, nor that they can coach technique performance, nor do they care to.
• Some scientists may be familiar with every biomechanical nuance of a complex movement and yet have little ability to coach the movement, nor should they be expected to do so.
• There are some marvelous coaches who have never performed events at the same level of technical proficiencies as their athletes, and yet they can coach them quite skillfully. Note that Bela Karolyi was never a female gymnast.
• There are some marvelous athletes who will make a mediocre coach appear to be much better than he or she really is. Evaluate this coach by the athletes produced-one is wonderful, the rest are mediocre.

The 7 Steps To Becoming A Great Technique Coach

Although it's no guarantee of success if you want to coach proper technique, you should learn how to perform the movement passably if not superbly. It may be that you can perform it at a lower intensity, but still properly. This will be especially helpful if you need to model the movement for your athletes. Of course, as you get older, you may not be able to model properly. During my last 20 years of coaching I always had plenty of good weightlifters in the gym who could serve as models for the newbies. Just keep in mind that many of your new athletes may have never seen the movement(s) you plan to teach them.

If you plan on coaching technique properly you need to master the following 7 steps:

1. 1. Watch a large number of good examples of the movement in question. Ideally you should watch them live. Even though modern technology is wonderful, there is some small discrepancy between the rhythm of a video image and that of the live event. If you can watch these examples in the company of a competent mentor, so much the better. The best time is to watch during a training session when several athletes are training. This will provide you with a variety of movements taking place, and you can observe the veteran coach providing cues to remediate the problems.
2. Study and learn what each relevant body part is doing during each phase of the movement. You may need to learn how to describe the movement in two languages. You need to be able to discuss the movement very technically if you are discussing the movement with a biomechanist who may have just discovered some nuance that required the use of some muscles that were previously overlooked.. On the other hand you may then need to describe the movement to your athlete in athletespeak. I've always thought that one of the functions of a serious coach is to be bilingual.
3. Develop a coaching eye that can immediately diagnose and prioritize technical errors. Again competent mentorship is indispensable. Diagnosis means that you can determine what was done or wasn't done to cause the problem or miscue.We used to have a weightlifting fan from the Midwest who used to video every lift at every national meet and provide running commentary through the duration of the competition. If you were sitting close enough you could hear his commentary. What he did was describe what anyone could see on the tape. "Oh, he pulled it out in front and missed it!" or "That weight was out of position!" His observations could have been made by just about anyone. What would have proved to be more valuable would have been an analysis of the source of the error and what should be done to rectify the problem. Remember that you will often have to diagnose and cue between reps. You will not have time to fire up your Dartfish.
4. Develop a vocabulary of coaching cues that are short and easily understood by a training athlete. After you explain the error, the cause of the error and the appropriate focus to remediate the error, the athlete usually just needs a quick reminder to focus on the most important aspect of the remediation. You can steal cues from another coach or develop your own. Just be sure to use them frequently during training so that you and your athletes are familiar with the cues that you're employing. Again you will frequently have to come up with cues between the reps of a set. We used to have one coach in our area who would shout out to his athletes, "Control the fury!" It never made any difference. His athletes missed a lot of lifts. He needed different, more effective, brief cues.
5. Learn to recognize neural or psychological fatigue in the athlete so that the athlete is not practicing incorrect movements. You only have so many attempts to practice the Olympic lifts. You should schedule technical work early in the session for your new athletes. Pay attention to signs of fatigue. These will show up most obviously in errors of timing and rhythm. When the timing and rhythm is improper. It is time to stop working on the technique. Otherwise your athlete will be practicing improper technique.
6. Learn how to administer remedial movements in the proper dosages and proper frequencies. There are specific exercises that remedy specific problems. They should be prescribed in the proper numbers of reps and sets, and at the appropriate point in the workout for the appropriate number of days per week. Once these remedial movements have balanced the weak areas of a lifter's performance, they need to be pulled back in the frequency performed or eliminated altogether. The same can be said for the amount of resistance employed. Some athletes will become enamored of certain lifts and train them too heavy too frequently. One of my best early athletes was Ray Blaha who held the American record in the snatch for the 110 kg. class at 171.1 kg. Before he accomplished this he became fascinated with the overhead squat and kept training it until he was able to perform a single with 183 kg.
7. Be patient. You Need To Realize That Coaching Is A Developmental Process

Your first technique coaching attempts will either take an inordinately long time to complete, or they will end up being less than passable. You must start somewhere. Be aware, though, that your first athlete might be very talented and will learn the complex movement you are coaching with almost no prompting from you.