Baby Talk

You get out what you put in. Coaches say it all the time. You don’t get something from nothing. Getting fit, wining, learning new technique takes a lot of work – a million miles of rowing strokes even. You can't wish or dream it into being. There are no short cuts to get results.

Just like athletes have to put in work to get results, so do coaches. 

Coaching rowing and other sports has many facets to it. It requires being a: parent, mentor, friend, advisor, consultant, physiologist, psychologist, engineer, teacher, matchmaker…etc. The goal is always the same though – help athletes reach their full potential.

I heard once that it’s not healthy for parents to talk to their babies in baby talk. That instead it’s best for them to talk to them in normal speech so that they can learn to understand language more readily. Now the trend is to speak in sign language to children even before they can speak so that communication starts even earlier! I’m not a breeder, so don’t have any kids, but this makes logical sense to me.

This parenting tip can definitely be applied to coaching. How we approach and speak to our athletes is directly related to how quickly and thoroughly they develop? 

In talking with Montana Butsch at his youth practice in Chicago and in my experience working with First Row in Pittsburgh we both have come to the same conclusion. Youth, and in our case inner city youth, respond very well to being talked to and treated like adults. The respect that we give them leads to them respecting us and listening to us. Yes, the parents are still involved, but we communicate directly and openly with the athletes. Some examples might include: 

•        -There are consequences for no call, no shows – you have to communicate with us. 
•       - It’s your responsibility to get to the race, how are you getting there on Saturday? 
•      -  Let’s discuss your goals and how I can help you reach them.
•        -What are you taking away from practice today? What did you learn?
•       - Someone needs to be in charge of <insert role> or it won't happen, who wants to take this on?  

There is an idea that youth need to be sheltered. They are still kids, they need to enjoy the life of not having responsibilities. This is all very nice and all, but how are kids going to learn to be contributing adults if they are constantly being sheltered and having everything done for them all the time? Sport is great because it teaches these life skills inherently to a certain degree. Coaches have the ability to enhance the learning process by putting them in charge of things, holding them accountable to their responsibilities, and showing them appropriate consequences. If you only go to the adult(s) in their life, the kid never learns and appreciates the process. And for some inner city youth this isn't even an option, so the kids especially appreciate the respect that they are managing their own lives. 

Also, some coaches try to limit the information shared in a practice session thinking that kids can only handle learning so many things at one time. My theory of coaching is more a trial by fire. I’m going to throw more out there than anyone can handle to see what sticks. If they hold 10% of the information from a practice, that’s great. But if I limit what I share, or only talk surface level stuff, then I’m limiting what they can take away. All kids are different – give them a chance to surprise you and advance faster than you thought possible.

And that’s only the serious side of it.

It is also important to have a playful side. I have never bonded so much with my First Row girls than when I make fun of myself, or poke fun at them in a fun-loving way. They have shown me dance moves, taught me the new lingo that’s out there, and tried to explain what dub step music is (with not much success). I am glad to be friendly with all the athletes I’ve coached. I learn from them, they learn from me – just like adult relationships. I am not buddy-buddy with them, there is a line of respect, and that goes both ways. 

You get out what you put in. You give respect; you get respect. You give responsibility to the athletes; you get responsible athletes. You share, they learn. You play, they have fun!

What about adaptive athletes then? How about working with athletes with: hearing impairment, visually impairment, physical disability, autism spectrum disorder, or traumatic brain injury?

Do you talk slowly, louder, use 6^th grade vocabulary words, assume they have an intellectual disability, dumb down proper technique to make it easier for them, maybe have the volunteer do all the maneuvering so the athlete "can just enjoy rowing?" This would be the “baby talk” that people with disabilities sometimes unfortunately have to deal with.

Look at how classification works for the sport. With adaptive rowing there are thee classification categories athletes compete in: AS (arms/shoulder), TA (trunk/arms) and LTA (legs/trunk/arms). Athletes have to be classified by a national technical classifier who knows rowing and a national medical classifier who is a PT/MD. Many athletes row for many years before they get classified or race. The rule of thumb for coaches is to always go with the classification with higher ability for borderline cases if you’re not sure about where they will fall when officially evaluated. Imagine training using a fixed seat for a year or two, then going to your first race only to be classified as LTA and now you have to row on a sliding seat in your race tomorrow! That would be rough, and I've seen it happen. That’s why it’s better to assume MORE ability until you know otherwise.

What a great rule of thumb! Let's apply it to working with athletes. Assume that people can receive coaching, and can understand at the level of any other athlete you have coached. If you find out otherwise, then adapt. But don’t treat people or talk to people differently just because you think they can’t handle it. 

One pet peeve I have is adaptive programs that are satisfied with just getting people on the water and that's it. Folks might say, “oh, look at the disabled people rowing. Isn’t this great?” Managers of the program and/or volunteers might say to an athlete, “Susie – you are doing great! You’re rowing really well.” When sure enough Susie has never been coached and is rowing like shit, but she doesn't know any better. She might be getting a workout in, but sure isn’t rowing.

My friend, sculling coach and mentor Bill Tytus always says this. If you’re not rowing properly, he says “well you’re getting a great workout.” It's a great double entendre, so be cautious of coaches who say this or "It looks like you're working hard out there." The question is, do you want the people you coach to just get a workout – maybe even one that risks their physical health from poor technique, or do you want them to row well AND get a workout?

The art of negotiation is all about asking for a little more than you expect to get. It’s easy to get something if your standards are really low. If all you want is to have 20 people with disabilities who are getting on the water at some point in a season – then you can sure enough do that without too much effort. If you want 3 of your 20 athletes to make it to the next Paralympics, well that will be a little lofty of a goal. However, if you set your expectations high enough but not so extreme that it’s beyond possible, you will sure enough get more than you had bargained for! Don't short change your athletes. Let them rise to the challenge or at least see the full challenge they have to face and comprehend what will be required to master the sport. That way the athletes can choose how far they go in the sport for themselves. 

You get out what you put in. If you don’t coach, your athletes won’t learn. If you dumb things down, their technique will be dumbed down. If you give them all relevant information and coach them – they will learn, be fast and be successful!

No baby talk on the dock!