The Various Ways Kids Learn

Just because you taught it, does not mean they learned it as I have shared with coaches over the years. Don’t ASSUME when you write up a drill on a white board that every player will understand and be able to execute the drill. Too often I see young coaches that I am evaluating, mentoring or when I a field, court at a rink and I see them bring the kids to a white board, write up a drill, send them off and shortly thereafter they are calling the kids back to re-explain (or worse yet screaming at them for making mistakes, not executing). Kids, like adults, learn several ways and it is important that you recognize the different ways and cover them whenever talking to your players in practices of chalk talks (now LED TV talks) before games.

• Some of the kids on your teams will have strong IQ’s for the sport and will get it merely by merely seeing the X’s and O’s on a white board and these are usually the kids at the front of the line in drills, usually top 1/3 in terms of skill level on your teams.

• Some will understand what your taught them by seeing the X’s and O’s and hearing the instructions from you (provided that you are speaking clearly, see all of their eyes and they are following one of my cardinal rules … when the coaches speak, ZIP THE LIP).

TIP – your problem child’s are usually the ones you can not see, stand or kneel, even lie down behind you, they are the ones you should always have front and centre in your sight light to ensure they stay out of trouble

• Another group of kids need to see the drill written, hear it explained and see a demonstration of what to do.  These are the kids that usually line up in the middle of the line as they like to see the demonstration but also see the first few players go in front of them so they can follow their lead.

TIP – don’t always let these kids go to the middle of the line, encourage them to start a drill at times and encourage them it is OK to make mistakes so they are safe to fail, something you should be encouraging for all of your players.  One of the reasons why kids quit sports is due to coaches screaming at them during drills as they did not run it the way the coaches wrote it up (more often than not they did not communicate it well so that kids would run it correctly)

• Then there are what coaches refer to as drill killers I counter back that these are the kids that need to see the drill written up, explained, demonstrated and watch majority of their team mates do the drill before they understand what is expected of them.  Often, it is not the kids that kill the drill, it is the coaches from the get go as they did not go thru all the steps to cover all the ways kids learn.

They are the players on your team that go to the back of the line by default, and some may have forms of learning disabilities (we are in a world where every kid has ADHD and docs think nothing of writing up scipts for meds when a generation back these very same kids were just HYPER).  More often than not, though, they usually go to the back of the line because they lack even more confidence than those that go to the middle. These may be kids that are just starting out in a sport and are intimidated by their more skilled and experienced counterparts but they also are ones that may have had coaches scare them to the point they lack the confidence they once had.

TIPS – try to keep the number of drills you have to a minimum and merely add progressions to them as you run again in practices (I normally have 20-25 drills that I run each season but build on them by adding progressions each time).

Name a drill after each player on the team (the drills they do get and enjoy) and then change on the fly during a practice (i.e. start without pucks then add pucks).  NEVER introduce a new drill at the end of practice, it should be done right after warm-up when kids are fresh, as they tire during practice, they deprive their brains of O2 and will be harder to grasp new concepts especially if you have early morning practices before school or late practices on school nights for older age groups.

Many years back when I was in college taking a sales course, I learned a valuable tip from the tenured instructor, he said in every class to 100+ students, make sure you clarify, clarify, clarify. If you work on connecting with your players early in the season and figure out what they need in terms of learning, the big key is to clarify with them to ensure that they actually do get it. Ask them to repeat back to your what you instructed them to do. Do so by looking at their eyes, ALL of their eyes, if you can’t see their eyes they can’t hear you nor can your read it they understood you. You also can figure out as I so affectionally refer to is “deer in headlights”, if one or more of your players look at you with glazy eyes then ask them to come see you before they head off to do the drill. Don’t let them the head off if you see what I saw recently,  many deer along the road on the way home but for the first time EVER … COWS IN HEADLIGHTS.

When we were approaching them we thought, BEAR … nope … little closer … MOOSE … nope A small herd of Angus Cows broke thru a gate and were crossing the road on a major highway, had we hit one or more, I suspect I would not be writing this post today. Thanks to someone who had stopped behind us and could tell by how confident she was approaching the Cows directly in front of us must have worked on a farm, she slowly guided the “herd” from blocking both sides of the highway to head back to their pasture and improvised closing the gate that had been broken. Take the extra time they need to clarify what you want them to do, do so with a positive voice and even tell them “It’s OK if you make a mistake, I want you to make UGLY mistakes” How many coaches have you ever heard say that? Take the time to get know all your kids early in the season, what makes them tick, how they learn, what they need in terms of explanations and be positive and encourage every single one to take the lead to build all their confidence and as the season evolves all their skills will improve and collectively as a team you will see the results on the scoreboard. Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids … where it belongs.