The Impact of Coaching Communication

Today’s episode features Nick Winkelman, head of athletic performance and science for the Irish Rugby Football Union.   Nick was formerly the director of education for EXOS, and oversaw the speed and assessment component of their combine development program.  Nick is an internationally recognized speaker, and has his Ph.D with a focus on motor learning and sprinting.  Nick also has an anticipated upcoming book called “The Language of Coaching” where he goes in detail on his learnings and methods on the impact that communication has on an athlete’s ability to learn and perform movements. Just like we’ve mentioned on episodes talking about mental training for sport, the art of communicating with athletes, and how we talk to their conscious and subconscious mind is heralded, but not given much actual attention in our daily processes.  Perhaps its because coaching, and specifically strength & conditioning often seems to draw more numbers and qualitative driven individuals than those concerned with the inherent artistry involved in the coaching profession, and in being a human being in general.  This being said, I’m really excited to have Nick on the show this week, because he is a master of the “conversation” we coaches have with athletes to help lead them to their highest potential on a physical, mental and emotional level. On today’s show, Nick goes into how he became interested in coaching cues and communication, ideas on coaching cue differences, the importance and effects of using analogies, and much more.  This episode is a must listen, because this is the type of material that isn’t emphasized in modern coaching curriculums, but at the same time, might be the biggest thing holding coaches and athletes back from reaching their highest level of performance and enjoyment in sport and human movement. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Key Points How Nick got interested in the art of cueing and language to assist in skill acquisition Why some cues and coaching models cause technique to not be retained well and how we can make our technical coaching practice “stick” better Some primary differences between internal and external cues The power of simple awareness versus hardline internal cues The power of analogies in creating imagery for athletes that assists them in technical acquisition How creativity is an important element of becoming better at the technical instruction of athletes "And then I thought to myself, "What's the number one variable, what's the number one coaching strategy that I am using to manipulate how they run?" i.e. the coordination and quality of their movement, and it hit me: my voice, my cuing, my coaching." "When I say coach I'm really talking about movement professionals in general. So if you teach movement for a living, I'm calling you a coach. Because... ...my definition of a coach is anyone that helps to move others to the place they want to be.” "I'll define a cue as the last idea that goes in an athletes head before they move." "If I want to put a little bit more energy behind that cue, I might say, drive the bar away from the bench. So the bench itself has nothing directly to do with the outcome, but by giving that focused thought of, bar away from bench, it allows me to narrow my focus in on a very tangible goal and the environment helps me do that." "So internal and external cues tend to be literal, they reference the literal body or the literal world around me that I can touch feel and see. But analogies reference the figurative and leverage the mind’s visual system to be able to move 'as if'." "When it comes to the type of things you should think about while you move, to optimize performance now, but most importantly learning later,