How to Avoid Being a TWIT Coach

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Welcome back to the podcast. Today we are going to discuss twit coaching. So this is something very much inspired by Randy O'Sullivan. We got this from his blog. Recommend checking him out. It's the Florida Baseball Armory. Randy's sharing some great ideas as to how to apply CLA in baseball.

So anyway, what is TWIC coaching? I'm going to read it out and then we're going to take a dive into it with Adam and Gray who are joining me. So the T— it's an acronym— the T stands for tell. We tell the player how to perform a technique, maybe we even demonstrate it.

W, we watch them do it. I, we stop and immediately inform of all the things they did wrong. When we tell them how to do it better, sometimes demonstrating again while pointing out the most intricate details of the movement. If the player doesn't get it quickly enough, we make them do punishments or push-ups.

If they still don't get it, we label them uncoachable, move on, and focus our attention on the 10 to 20% who get better. Now, great blog, obviously we'll have the link, and I used to be a TWIC coach too. It's a funny acronym, but I think the scary thing is this is still what we see a lot with the dominant approach to coaching in the present day at many levels of the game.

Absolutely.

Well, yes, I can say I was never a TWIC coach, so I take some pride in that. I was always a person who asked questions, and I guess I think it's— it goes back to a cultural thing. Of course, how much of it— how much of everything we see does— it's always intertwined.

But I think the coach is often seen as the person with that knowledge, and it's their job to impart that knowledge. On that individual in front of them, i.e., the player, and that goes to the classroom as well. And it honestly, it just doesn't work that way.

I think like when you're doing that, when you're doing so much talking, you're not— especially like the letter that stands out the most in an acronym to me is immediately inform them. So they're not allowed to actually understand in their own sense what just occurred.

They're not allowed to learn. And that I think is the biggest issue that goes on when we're doing way too much talking as coaching. Because the players actually can't interact with the information that's going to be there in the game.

Yeah. And the inform piece is really interesting too, because it'd be one thing to inform in terms of like directing attention to the right things, you know, or guiding towards a particular movement solution. But when you're informing in the sense of like, it's binary, right or wrong.

So you have to impart whatever that right thing is at some point. I'm thinking at the youth level, at the high school level, I remember had coaches, I had different coaches where I would think, if you, if you know what's right, why aren't you doing this at the highest level?

You know what I mean? So there's, if you really play that out too, you're gonna run into that disconnect as a, because if they're not getting better based off of that, then there's gonna be a disconnect with why do you think you know better than me when I'm out here producing and you're still doing what you are in the place that you are?

That, and that may be a pessimistic look or a disrespectful look, but I guarantee you it happens across at least America in youth coaching and youth sports, right?

I'm sorry to say it, guys, but I've seen that a lot here. Just, I mean, I've been coming to the US for years, but obviously now it's the first time I've really been living here for an extended period. And just the glimpses I've seen of youth basketball, it's shocking.

You know, people, I've always been aware of that because people have told me, but actually seeing some of the things I've seen this year where when I've just seen some random practices and games here and there. It's TWIC coaching like to a T.

And I think for all the coaches listening to this podcast, I think where we're different is— and it's kind of like my 30-second pitch to coaches— like, it's completely different being an instructor to a learning designer. And I think this is what it comes down to with this TWIC coaching acronym.

It's it's instructing. And, you know, whether it's a skills trainer instructing or a team coach, there's a big difference being an instructor and a learning designer, where we're creating environments, facilitating learning, actually reconsidering what good learning looks like, where there's absolutely going to be some type of failure.

But it comes down to those cultural norms that you started with, Adam. And I think it's especially something I've seen in the US is parents and parent influence and perspective.

Hmm.

And I feel like that's stopping a lot of coaches from being brave and compelled to try something.

It's funny you bring that up because I had never really thought of this until you brought the parent component in it. And that's just emblematic of kind of the siloed approach as well, in the sense of you sent— the parents send their kids off to be coached, the kids are coached, then they go home.

And whether the parents like the performance, don't like the performance, usually the coach gets blamed to some degree, right? And that's Typically going to be because they're not aligned to some level, right? So if you did embrace this approach, which really is more of a holistic developmental approach to coaching development in general, I think you would see less of that.

And also, you don't have to apologize when Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, literally just came out and said they need to overhaul the youth basketball program to be more emblematic of and more like what they're doing overseas in Europe because these kids are coming in with a lack of skills.

Hey, let's, let's talk about that because I think that would be an interesting one, combining TWIC coaching with that statement from Adam Silver. And I think I don't want to dive too deep into it because obviously doing a lot of work now with, with the NBA, of course.

And it's great because now with the Junior NBA, they basically, through Transforming Basketball, we've done like the whole uh, NBA basketball curriculum worldwide, worked on the new Junior NBA program. So it's the, the right people at the NBA are listening. But for me, it's—

Right.

It's really interesting because I think everyone always looks to Europe. There's some great stuff being done in Europe, but it's not— for me, there's an even better approach that hasn't been tapped into yet. And I think, I think the search is sometimes focused in the wrong places.

So And what I mean by that is I think some very simple action items, which is the lowest hanging fruit, would be things like shot clock, introduction of that actual coach education, which I see none of in the US. You know, you have the USCB Gold license model, but that's not really coach education.

And I think if, if that was done and coaches were actually educated properly on what effective coaching looks like, sounds like, feels like And, you know, that was enforced by task constraints such as shot clock, changing game rules. That to me would be the biggest difference.

And I, I don't think it's necessarily about creating some type of academy where all the elite, quote unquote, youth players go. It's far more important that the grassroots landscape has changed, and that could be done through CLA.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Wow.

Where to begin? I mean, I see it all the time. I've been, I was involved in the grassroots because I mean, it's where basketball is most pure at this point really. And it's, it really should be all about fun and it's not anymore.

And it's, it's really frustrating to watch those coaches on the sidelines. And I really don't think they have, they have a firm understanding of the impact of some of the words that they have on, on their players. And the constant correct is, it's just not necessary.

I mean, we're losing sight of what sport really should be about. It's competing is about striving with. And I mean, it was very frustrating even just watching some of the highlights of the All-Star Game. It's, it's, that's not competition. That's, I mean, they're out there, they're like afraid of hurting their brand.

And it's just a total disconnection from why we all fell in love with the game in the first place. And it has nothing to do with right, wrong. Perfection, doing these dead drills. It was was going to the park and trying to challenge each other with our friends.

And like if we were dominating somebody, we scaled back. We like worked on our left hand instead, just so we could keep playing. The idea was to keep playing. And if the environment is the twit coaching environment, you wonder why our numbers are going down in youth sports.

I don't want to be a part of that either.

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And that's why I think this— these 2 topics, you know, American— the American grassroots system, whatever you want to call it, and twit coaching, they're completely connected. And I think it's— sport here could be so much better. And I think this is the scary thing.

Like, a lot of people are creating, you know, like some of the biggest organizations in U.S. basketball are creating committees to, to, you know, solve this problem. The problem is the right people aren't on it. And I'm not Like, for one moment, I'm not disregarding the experience of like successful retired college coaches, right?

But, you know, we have researchers, skill acquisition professors, practitioners who are actually on the ground who are applying a contemporary approach to coaching. Because every single basketball coach using the CLA in the States, obviously we know who they are. Um, and it's like, these are the type of people who should be, who should be at the table.

And the biggest problem is you know, whether it's Federation or bigger organizations, the people they keep bringing in aren't the people who actually know what's going on or have the knowledge to impact change based on research. They have great knowledge which could be contributed, but it's the only knowledge.

So it's like a silo of the people at that table just see the game through the same lens. And then, you know, all the best alternatives, like the people we would suggest being some type of committee to impact change, would be completely different.

Absolutely.

And I think you need both those groups combined to really change things here. And it's, it's funny because I always say to myself, if the US even got 50% of what we talk about here at Transforming right at a federation or whatever level, international teams and FIBA competitions, it would be over.

Yeah, straight away.

Absolutely.

And literally the only reason we can have competitive games is because of how fragmented and just how backward The whole system is here.

And to kind of go back to some things that Adam had just mentioned, I think the TWIC coaching approach also is the beginning of separating fun and competition. I think as you progress through the system, it becomes more and more— it's about the competition.

It becomes more businesslike, whereas most of the fun and creativity is what leads to the best performances that we see. You look at Jokic, you look at Luka Dončić literally smiling at his competition as he rips their hearts out. They don't have to be mutually exclusive, right?

So again, it's not an overhaul of everything you may know and love as a coach, or— and just because your kids are going to be having a better time, or it might look a little silly while you're out there, that doesn't mean you're ripping the competitive advantage out of them.

You're just going about it in a different way that actually might lead to less burnout, Longer careers, more interest in other aspects of the game, whether it be being a trainer, being a coach, being a scout, what have you. But I do think the TWIC coaching approach is like the beginning of turning it into a business, which is way too early, right?

And you're just chiseling it towards this ideal practice movement solution action, what the game should look like instead of what the game looks like as it evolves.

So let's sum this up. For, you know, the people listening to this, let's say, you know, theoretically we're involved in impacting change at some level. What would be the 5 things we could do immediately to, to impact coaching here in the US? I think first thing would be coach education.

I'll start with that. So actually using that TWIT acronym from Randy and talking about the alternative.

Mm-hmm.

So viewing the coach as a learning designer, you can get transformational coaching into that whole piece before we even get to basics of CLA. But I think the coach education piece is a, is a no-brainer.

Yeah, without a doubt.

And the right coach education.

Right, right. There you go.

And yeah, you're right. Like, that was the first thing that comes to mind. We, we need some sort of oversight for all this. I mean, right now to coach, whether it be high school, but I mean AAU, there's like almost no restrictions. I think maybe you have to get fingerprinted.

I'm not positive on that, but you don't even have to get fingerprinted. Like, those are the qualifications you need to coach kids and we're spending 20+ hours a week with these kids, right? That doesn't seem like a good idea. I think the shot clock would be fantastic just on the game level.

Second thing then, the rules of the game itself. Yeah, change—

yeah, change the rules to be as emblematic of what they're going to be facing at the highest levels. And that, that doesn't mean throw them into NBA regulation size everything and let them figure it out at the youth stage. Like we talk about here, you can simplify the task to be appropriate.

For their skill level, but also their developmental level. And we see this across sports. Uh, US hockey adopted this a while ago where they scaled the equipment size back. Youth hockey, they used to use the same size pucks, nets, and sticks that the pros did.

And that makes no sense for a 10-year-old to be using that equipment, right? So there is, if you want these skills to be developed in a true developmental manner that scales with aging and physical development. Then scale that back.

I, I think equipment scaling has got to be number 3. Yeah, so you got number 1, Coach Ed, number 2, the rules of the game itself. Like, literally just introducing a shot clock would make American players way more skilled, even if they had traditional coaching styles.

Number 3, equipment scaling. Again, the biggest advantage of Europe— kids, smaller ball, 8-foot hoops. We see that. We've got 2 more points here. I think, I think one's got to be some type of parental education. Yeah, that's And but this is the thing, Adam, I don't think it takes—

we, like, at the London Lions, we do parental education. It takes nothing. All it takes is a coach who's interested in this space puts a present together, presentation together, and literally even if it's just 2 hours, we've noticed a huge difference just having 2 hours of workshops with the parents versus nothing.

And we, we spoke about things with them like We actually introduced the CLA, the basics, and we said it's the practice is very different. So we're looking for failure. We're learning is very different. We spoke about the car ride home. You know, we spoke about not specializing.

We spoke about trying to have time away from basketball in the offseason. And I think it's easy to do these things if you do some research as a coach. You could just put together a workshop, make it collaborative, and you know coaches who high school coaches, AU coaches, whoever's listening to this.

You could just go and plan one of these next week, and I, I think the parents will be impressed at you trying to actually help them.

Yeah, integrate them. Go ahead.

That obviously is an issue because obviously we can't always get all these parents in at the same time. So I'm already like back channeling because yes, you do want to have parent conferences and discuss like, this is who I am, this is what we're doing, and this is why.

And yes, put the presentation together. I think record the presentation and then Have follow-ups with the parents. I mean, it's asking a lot out of the coach, but I mean, what are we really in this for? For the time commitment? For the money as a coach?

I know I wasn't. I just want— I wanted those kids to have the most fun they could. So just take a little bit of extra time to do that. I think it would be worthwhile for everyone's experience overall.

I think something that would be really important is to discourage specialization across sports very, very early. Like, I think multi-sport athletes Uh, it will keep their degrees of freedom open to different movement solutions across sports. They might find some overlap in something that works in soccer, that works in American football, that works in basketball, baseball, how they read body language, you know, and understand how the body moves in all of these different ways.

And also, I think it can go to— I think we separate boys and girls sports way too early, uh, pre-puberty. There's so much socialization that goes into the These differences, whereas at a particular age those differences would be washed out. So that's like taking the specialization piece all the way, scaling it all the way up.

But I do think encouraging them to be more well-rounded, to have mandatory breaks away from the game.

Yes.

You know, those kinds of things. Speaking of what you were talking about, like making sure you get time away from basketball. I remember my brother, who incredible basketball player, he played 10 to 11 months out of the year. You know what I mean?

he was just as good of a baseball or a football player. And we're washing these kids out and not letting them have fun, you know. And I think that's a big piece of it.

And it's all— they're all linked, you know.

Exactly.

The parents or education. I think, think back to Adam, what we did at college prep last year. We would, we would spend 20 minutes playing football or handball before practice. And that's the thing, if, if as a coach you're wondering, oh, how can I convince my parents to, you know, enroll their kid in another sport, just put it into your practice.

It's really easy. Make it the warm-up. There's so many different things you can do. 20 minutes of practice, you're doing this at the youth level, that's going to have an incredible impact.

And let's, and let's just talk about a couple, a few of the best players of all time. Kobe Bryant grew up playing soccer. Hakeem Olajuwon, he played soccer. He didn't pick up a basketball till he was what, 15? Same with Joel Embiid. Anthony Edwards, an incredible football player.

LeBron James, an All-State, All-Regional football player.

Dunk and swimmer. Yeah.

Exactly. We see this everywhere and it's expressed at the highest level with these guys. So I think hammering that out of these kids so early is actually doing more harm than it is doing good.

Guys, fun episode. I think at some point in the future, I'm sure we're going to be involved in these discussions as a company, but it's exciting to think what— how different the future could be. Great episode. Thanks, guys.

Thank you.

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