I have written before about the “philosophy” that underlies my coaching — at its simplest, simply an exhortation to “get better”…although this has slowly evolved to include a definition of what “better” might mean for the player.
But a recent article on Medium.com has made me think again.
There is a lot of sense in Danielle’s article — a call to enjoy doing something for the sake of doing it, not for the sense of mastery (or even competence) that comes from doing something “well”.
And that is the really important message, for me.
Not that it is OK to do something badly.
With my “get better” coaching hat on, I could not be happy with ongoing incompetence, nor would I expect a participant to happily bumble along in the face of repeating incompetences
But perhaps it is OK to persevere with an activity simply because you enjoy doing it.
(And the corollary — maybe if you really don’t enjoy something, it might be time to give it up.)
Who knows, maybe you’ll even get ‘good’ at it by accident.
— Danielle Street
It ties in nicely with the motivational aspects of Race’s Ripples on a Pond model — people learn best when they want to learn.
I’m not talking about developing mastery. Just being a little bit better, a little more confident, maybe also just a little more accepting of incompetence.
Over time, incompetence will develop into competence, if only by repeated practice.
But only if you are motivated enough to stay in the “game”.
The Teesra 