Five Things We Can Learn From Sports Coaches to Up Our Upskilling Game
The hurdles to your learning habits continue to block the way.
If only there was a way you could get a coach to help you better bolster your learning habits and upskilling journey.
Here are five pointers from sports coaching that we can use to aid us in lifelong learning and upskilling:
Pointer #1: Communicating your Expectations and Goals Clearly
Like how coaches plan their next season, the ability to plan, map out, and communicate your expectations at various milestones of your learning journey is incredibly important in keeping you in the upskilling game. It not only allows you to envision and be clear on your direction, the resources you will need to support yourself, but also empowers you to understand the motivations behind your learning journey.
Pointer #2: Build Meaningful Relationships
Whether it’s Team or Individual sports, the trust forged between coach, player, and teammates forms the foundation on which the team’s performance will be built upon. Parallel to this, building meaningful relationships by better understanding our peers, mentors, or even mentees, can take us further in our lifelong learning journey.
Identifying and working with the strengths of yourself or your peers during courses or lessons can aid you in enhancing your skill sets. Addressing weaknesses through advisory and seeking help with trusted peers aid in balancing out your skills gaps. And to top it off, engaging in team building not only helps with building your network, but also with your relationship management skills in the workplace.
Pointer #3: Empowering Yourself to Take Charge of your Development
Taking the above two pointers into consideration, it is easy to think that the outcome of your learning journey will be dependent on others or the direction of your mentors or training providers. Contrary to that belief, good sports coaches create scenarios and processes that enables their players to take charge of their own development.
Taking charge of your own learning also means you are able to empower yourself to explore your topic of interest after articulating your desired direction or parameters. You are able to let yourself have some say in your own development by asking targeted questions, contributing to discussions, and most importantly, play and find the fun in your learning and participation.
Pointer #4: Imparting Life Skills and Ethics to Enhance Yourself
Life Skills that can be imparted through sports are many – leadership, communication, relationship building, ethics – but for this article, we will be focussing on life skills that contribute to Character Strengths, particularly Performance Character Strengths and Relational Character Strengths.
In sports, Performance Character Strengths are skills built to develop mastery and the pursuit of success in a specific environment. Likewise in learning, building life skills like self-confidence and healthy competitiveness boost our motivation to seek new learning opportunities and thrive in a fast-paced environment.
On the other hand, Relational Character Strengths are skills built to encourage ethical conduct and harmony. Life skills built here include traits like resilience, motivation, and humility, all of which are integral to the development of a growth mindset, facilitating better learning and motivation to seek learning opportunities.
Pointer #5: Taking Care of Yourself
And finally, we can definitely take a page out of an athlete’s playbook by first and foremost, taking care of ourselves. A healthy body will fuel a healthy mind and mental resilience and grit for learning. So, take diet, water, exercise, mental state, and sleep into consideration with your learning journey!
With the above tips, are you ready for your next upskilling game? If not, stay tuned for the Skills Marketplace, a new event we’ll have just for your coaching and skill optimization needs.
If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok to get the latest updates.
Source: Camire, M., Forneris, T., Trudel, P., & Bernard, D. (2011). Strategies for helping coaches facilitate positive youth development through sport. Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 2(2), 92-99.
Source: https://www.britishcouncil.om/en/programmes/education/youth-sports-leadership-five-reasons
Posted on 07/02/24