The Teachable Moment

The "teachable moment" is regrettably becoming an overused phrase in society today. It is being applied to the mundane as well as the spectacular. A true teachable moment though, where something that is being taught, is actually learned, is always spectacular, that moment when knowledge becomes action.

In my business the teachable moment is often learned from mistakes, from doing it wrong, and knowing not to repeat it in the future. This is not a positive way of learning. Effective, but not pleasant. How then do we make the teachable moment a positive thing?

One thing a teachable moment is not is hollow praise. Too often coaches play to the lowest common denominator and praise everyone for doing something. But this is wrong. It creates false beliefs in ones abilities and sets up false expectations on the field. Also, it is not a teachable moment. Teachable moments are not always readily apparent, it may be one player off to the side practicing a technique over  and over again, and then in a game situation lets it a happen and changes the whole dynamic of a game or a team in an instant. This is the player "doing it right" to the betterment of the whole team, showing them what can happen when knowledge is put into action. This moment teaches and needs to be identified, praised, and encouraged. This is spectacular.

What is rare is a teachable moment that occurs on a large scale, within a team, all at the same moment. Why is that? One reason is developmental. Not all players develop their skills at the same rate, and sometimes they do not master certain skills at all. Other players are more intuitive about tactics than others and they lead their team-mates  in this aspect of the game.

But when does the group moment happen? Until last night I had only experienced it once before, when a team-mate and his wife had their first child, and the celebration amongst the whole squad demonstrated to me that we had become as one group, a family. Something that had taken place over a period of about three years for this particular team.

But last night I saw something different. My squad was training last evening. A beautiful spring night, warm, clear sky. A good night to work on fundamentals and technical aspects of the game. This though was not what the squad wanted to do. In fact I am not certain what the squad wanted to do. They had little focus, no intensity, were being silly and just weren't into the session. Now I tried to reset the training to make the players regroup, I admonished one or two of the players, I even started a small sided game that they usually like and is a great motivator. No luck.
Now appreciate that these are young people, not adults and not professionals,  heck, I'm not a professional soccer coach, but they still need to show appropriate respect to the situation and the others around them. Otherwise they are wasting my time, their time, the price of a soccer field and others who could use that field.

So with 35 minutes left in the 90 minute session, I called them in, asked them for their bibs/pinnies, to pick up the discs, and to go home. I never raised my voice, I never pointed out individuals, I just told them that the session was done, and that they were not up to their usual standards. Also, not to come back to the next session if they were in the same mood.

They packed up my gear, and I stood on the edge of the field with my assistant, trying to figure out what had happened. At that point the two keepers asked if they could train on their own. "No problem" I said and continued my conversation. I then looked at the touch line and I saw that all the players were still there, talking amongst themselves in three or four little groups. These groups merged and them moved to the net where the keepers were. The groups then organized themselves into a very simple shooting drill that I have used in the past, and they continued to train for the next thirty minutes.

At first it didn't strike me what was happening. It was just kids taking shots (albeit in an organized fashion). Then I noticed none had left, although they could have. I then noticed that they kept self correcting the drill and the lines, using terms and expressions commonly used by myself and other coaches. I noticed that the team leaders were leading and that all players were training relatively well.

I remained apart, about 10 meters away, offering advice as needed, knocking balls back into the training zone, but I mostly watched. And I learned.

I learned that the most important teachable moment is when it is self realized, not pointed out by a teacher or a coach, but when a team learns how to do it right all on their own.

They are kids, they are not perfect, but they sure can learn, and when they do it right, even if it takes a while, that is a teachable moment that is truly spectacular.