Your words are you

I was talking to an athlete a couple years ago. I asked him a question and his answer reminded me of a significant moment in my life.

Before going further, I want to say that the athlete I spoke with is a great kid and becoming an excellent athlete. This is not meant to be anything negative about him. He seems to be exceptional at all levels.

So, what was the question and answer? Question: “Do you want to be great?” Answer: “I guess.” I guess (ha) my story does not exactly have the same kind of interaction, but the idea holds true.

I didn’t start competing formally until I was eleven. My family moved to Washington, DC and we joined a club. Because we didn’t know anyone, my Dad asked me and my brother, who was fifteen, if we wanted to join a swim team. Answer? “I don’t care.” So, we were on the team.

Incidentally, my brother, who started swimming at 15, earned a scholarship to pretty good Division 1 university. He wasn’t a ‘natural’. He simply took advantage of the opportunities presented to him.

Anyhow, my parents had one rule about sports (or anything for that matter): We don’t care how good you are, but if you sign up for it, you can’t quit until the season is over AND you will attend every practice. Incidentally, I would contribute most of the successes I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of to this lesson.

About a week or so into my swimming career, the assistant coach on my team, who was a week or so into his coaching career, asked me if I would like him to teach me how to do a flip turn.

I said, “I don’t care.” He replied, “If you don’t care, then there’s no reason for me to help you.”

Being an 11-year-old, I had said “I don’t care” at least 700 times a day for three or four years. It was my answer to everything. I was stumped. I never really thought about what it meant.

He started walking away. Wait a minute! “I do care. I do care.” I said to myself and then to him. We spent the next however long working on flip turns.

I never ‘spoke to myself’ the same way again. I realized the power of words and how important what you say can be in regards to your success. Not only does it affect your personal outlook, it also adds or takes away from people’s perception of whether contributing to your success is worth their effort.

Thankfully, my coach, considered the lesson he taught me was worth his effort.

Complex coaching

The following  coaching and coach management views relate coaching complexity to a Harvard Business Review article on managing complexity .  A disclaimer:  this is written for the coach who is trying to be the best in the world.

Coaching and, as a result, managing coaching are ‘complex’ organizational issues but many coaches see them as merely ‘complicated’ organizational issues.

The difference?  See these quotes from HBR (everything in quotes comes from HBR):

• “Complex organizations are far more difficult to manage than merely complicated ones.  It’s harder to predict what will happen, because complex systems interact in unexpected ways.”

In coaching, to think in terms of complexity as described here, consider how many factors, both in and out of the practice, go into an athlete’s performance.  Can you predict or control all of those factors?

• “It’s easy to confuse the merely complicated with the genuinely complex.  Managers (and coaches) need to know the difference:  if you manage a complex organization as if it were just a complicated one, you’ll make some serious expensive mistakes.”

Although “expensive” in the previous quote can be appropriate in the business side of sport, also read that as ‘poor performance’.

• Example of a “Simple system:  light switch on and off”

• “Complicated systems have many moving parts, but they operate in patterned ways.  The electrical grid that powers the light is complicated:  There are many possible interactions within it, but they usually follow a pattern.  It’s possible to make accurate predictions about how a complicated system will behave.”

• “Complex systems, by contrast, are imbued with features that may operate in patterned ways but whose interactions are continually changing.”

• “Organic growth is highly complex – it contains a large number of interactive, interdependent, diverse elements.”

“Organic growth” here is referencing organizations but can be easily shifted to referencing coaching athletes, and, in turn, coaching coaches.

In a simple sense, the perception of ‘athlete  talent’ as a determiner of coaching success proves this notion of “organic”.  I know it’s a bit contradictory from what many think in reference to ‘talent’ (author included), but within a group, the athletes’ current skill level and adaptability has a direct result on short term coaching performance.  As such, managing coach performance doesn’t allow for saying, “If your athletes aren’t faster every year, you’ll get fired.”  It’s more complex than that.

• “Practically speaking, the main difference between complicated and complex systems is that with the former (complicated), one can usually predict outcomes by knowing the starting conditions.  In a complex system, the same starting conditions can produce different outcomes, depending on the interactions of elements in the system.”

That quote highlights the power of being an exceptional coach or manager in a complex system, and a system set up as a complex system:  one can exceed normal expectations.

• “It’s possible to understand both simple and complicated systems by identifying and modeling the relationships between the parts; the relationships can be reduced to clear, predictable interactions.  It’s not possible to understand complex systems in this way because all the elements are interacting continuously and unpredictably.”

This is why doing ‘cookbook’ coaching doesn’t work.  From a management of team perspective, it also states why ‘test sets’ and other over-managed black-and-white oversight doesn’t work. At best, managing a team as a complicated system will yield very good results.  Unless the team runs into an exceptional person (athlete), it will not yield extraordinary results because running a complicated system underestimates the complexity of what is going on.

This may also be a good explanation as to why many coaches fail to give up the ‘talent driven’ notion of coaching while results, over and over, show some coaches win without the most ‘talented’ athletes and others never reach the highest levels – despite coaching those deemed the most ‘talented’ athletes.   These ‘talent driven’ coaches coach from a ‘complicated’ viewpoint because their best results only come through having exceptional athletes.

As such, in attempting to achieve ‘best-in-world’ performance, the resulting reality calls for individual exceptional performance from the coaches (complex system coaches) aiming towards the same goal as the best course of action in striving for world class results.

In moving from the ‘complicated’ to the ‘complex’, what then to pay attention to?

• “Minimizing risk is crucial for anyone in charge of a complex system, and traditional approaches aren’t good enough.”
• “unintended consequences are often based on an ‘aggregate of individual elements’, not a single occurrence.”

Preparing for ‘unintended consequences’ is why strictly managing a few fairly established contributors to success becomes so important.  Some of these:  1. Attendance. 2. Quality of technique. 3. Some form of training parameters/volumes. 4. Having a positive, excellence driven environment.

Although one or two of those four things above are not necessarily ‘simple’ or ‘complicated’, it’s relatively accepted that those four (probably more) things, if done well, will contribute to success.  And, if one is not done well, it can sink the whole season.  Looking to those as a roadway for successful coaching makes sense.

Translation:  consider everything but make sure you manage a couple that can be managed (and that count).

• “Triangulate: Triangulation means attacking a problem from various angles – using different methodologies, making different assumptions, collecting different data, or looking at the same data in different ways.”

In other words, consistently ask different questions and search for different solutions.

Wrapping it up:

• “We have made tremendous progress in our ability to operate complicated systems.”

• “We have made less progress in our ability to operate complex systems, which defy conventional modeling and challenge traditional management practices.”

The punch line:

• “Complicated systems are like machines; above all, you need to minimize friction.  Complex systems are organic; you need to make sure your organization contains enough diverse thinkers to deal with the changes and variations which will inevitably occur.”

Summary:  If you expect or desire a ‘cookbook’ as the key to becoming the best team or coach in the world, you don’t understand.  Treating a complex system like a merely complicated one completely undervalues potential and yields average results – at best.

To be the best in the world, every coach needs to become their best and, most importantly, be responsible for themselves and the expected exceptional performance of their athletes and the athletes’ short and long term careers.

Taking the easy way and treating coaching like a ‘complicated’ system – making a lot of rules –  doesn’t yield world class anything (even though many of you want that so you no longer have personal responsibility for inadequate performance), the only way to be the best of the best is to treat coaching and managing coaching as a complex system.

As such, your individual performance, thought, and personal accountability are required.

How Ikkos Was Developed – Part II: Ownership of Teaching

Technique wins, folks.

Well, it doesn’t always win.  Great technique puts you in the arena for the potential to win.  In my knowledge of the modern era of sport, the best of the best have all possessed great technique in some or all facets of their specific sport.

Conversely, poor technique, despite your strength of body, mind or character, will keep you or your athletes from reaching the highest levels.  You can’t be the best without the best movement patterns.

Don’t believe me?  Remove the need for outstanding technique.   The biggest and strongest would always win.  That is not the reality of modern sport.

As a coach, effectively teaching great technique directly impacts your athletes’ and team’s successes.  Period.

Early in my coaching career, I understood training, group dynamics and team building well enough for success.  I realized, though, my inadequate teaching ability hindered the performance of my athletes. As a result of that understanding, I found a master teacher as a mentor.

Two vivid experiences shifted my view of what teaching is and where the burden of responsibility lies in the athlete/coach technical relationship.

In the first memory, I was at a meet talking to other coaches who I respect and were great mentors in many ways.  With that, one coach complained  his athletes ‘wouldn’t change their strokes’.  As in, it was the athletes’ faults there was no change in their poor techniques.  In turn, it was the athletes’ faults they were not performing at a higher level.

I remember wondering, “Isn’t that our job?”  It may seem obvious to some, as it should, but it was a novel concept in the athlete/coach world I knew.

This realization led to finding a master teacher as a mentor.

The second memory happened during the first week of working with the master teacher.  We did not know each other before I began to work for him.  We had only spoken on a couple of occasions.   During the first three or four days, I stood, hands in pockets, and watched him change the culture.  Everyone was on edge.  Out of the blue, I was given my first assignment.  He pointed at an athlete and said, “Fix his backstroke.”

In all of my previous experience as an athlete and coach, this would’ve meant, “Go play around with the swimmer’s backstroke.   If you get lucky and something ‘clicks’ within the first couple minutes, great job.  If it doesn’t, give up, blame the athlete, and tell them to rejoin the practice.”

I could tell by the way the master teacher directed me, this had a different meaning.  The way he said it, he meant, “Fix the swimmer’s backstroke.  Don’t come back until it’s right.”

As a coach, ownership of technique acquisition shifted to me… where it should be for all coaches.

How Ikkos Was Developed: Part 1

“‘Fundamentals’ Is a Fancy Word for Teaching”

From my entry into the sports world as an athlete, I had a fascination with what made people run faster or throw a ball at the perfect speed in the perfect spot.

“What made them better?”

Sadly, as I watched the coaches, they didn’t seem to understand either.  Even worse, they watched for measurable things.  Did he get a hit?  Did she make the shot?  Did they go faster?  The coaches looked, almost solely, for result-based improvement.  They rarely seemed to ask “why?” or “how?”

Even more, I observed, like on just about any playground in the world, the ones who ran faster and hit better received more attention.  There’s a whole sociological sidebar here many have written about in great detail which I won’t go into, but it’s worth referencing teaching quality and the resulting superior technique as primary keys to success.

During my first-hand observation of results-based coaching, I held the belief that I was unlucky enough, or made errors in sport and team choices, where I simply had poor coaches (not all of them, but most).  As I became a coach myself, and was later exposed to sports beyond my own, I realized I wasn’t that unlucky.  Most coaches pay attention to the bottom line and not much more.  Why wouldn’t they?  It’s easy and concrete.   They did address teaching, at times, because they’re supposed to, not because they necessarily understand they’re in the business of teaching.

The most surprising error in the results-based coaching perspective is a lack of understanding.  The missing part being:  if they committed to teaching, they, and their athletes, would be more successful.

Ironically, the coaches most woven into the American consciousness and are icons of sport – Wooden and Lombardi – are often plastered on the results-based coaches’ walls with accompanying quotes and speeches.  Wooden and Lombardi are known for ‘fundamentals’.  ‘Fundamentals’ is a fancy word for teaching.

On top of that, we’ve been shrouded with great sports movies like “Hoosiers” which praise the committed coach-teacher who sees what the hometown non-believing crowd doesn’t see… that when their hometown boys learn to play better than everyone else, they can win games – even an Indiana basketball state title!  But, the unskilled players must learn how to dribble around chairs before they can dribble around the other team.

To the point, in this master teacher/coach world, the beauty is that the ‘everyman’ can win.  With the right teacher and heart and commitment, even ‘we’ can do it.

My coaching beliefs, which, like some other failed or unsatisfied athletes, came through taking observations of ‘great’ athletes and crossing them with the ‘everyman’ theory.  “Even if I’m everyman, if I had the right teacher and technique, I could’ve made it.”

Throw in a dash of an all-too-optimistic ‘can do’ perspective most accurately summed up by Walt Disney’s, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” and you have the beginnings of developing a revolutionary teaching system.

We’ve started digging the rabbit hole.

What is Ikkos training?

What is Ikkos (Ikkos training)?

Ikkos training teaches athletes to learn movement patterns or techniques much more quickly and accurately than traditional teaching methods. To learn precise physical movement, Ikkos uses theories of neuroplasticity (the brain is malleable and reorganizes itself).  This training method enables the student to actively focus their brain at a high level, possibly recruiting more of the brain’s focus for greater ‘processing speed‘.  Ikkos is patent pending.

What can I learn with Ikkos?

Through this training method, one can learn ‘professional level’ technique very quickly and accurately. Although there are nuances involved in every sport or physical movement, Ikkos is directly applicable to most sports or physical activities.

Does every technique take the same amount of time to learn?

The speed of acquisition is very fast. Even so, that speed depends on several factors, most notably:

• Beginning skill level (For example, a professional athlete has a higher level of experience than a novice. In most cases, the professional will learn faster as they have a history of similar experience.)
• Complexity of the movement:  one time events (a jump, a start, etc) are usually acquired faster than timing events (a golf swing, a baseball pitch, etc.) which entail a chain reaction of complex movement patterns which must fire in a very specific sequence, often at a very high rate
• Motivation and focusing ability of the athlete

Is any athlete too accomplished or too inexperienced to learn from Ikkos?

Ikkos has already helped novices and world champions improve. If the athlete wants to learn, and a superior technique or known weakness exists, the athlete can improve their technique with Ikkos, regardless of their level of accomplishment.

Where did Ikkos come from?

A combination of experiences developed Ikkos. Years of daily work with elite athletes aiming for the goal of improving and teaching correct, repeatable complex movements fused with research in neuroplasticity yielded Ikkos training. (We will post a more detailed history in the near future).

I’m interested in Ikkos training. What do I do now?

Initially, Ikkos is working primarily with professional athletes or athletes who are attempting to break into higher levels of professionalism in their sport. With that, Ikkos, LLC is actively developing a product for both team and home use, which will be available for purchase.