Think about really powerful moments in which you learned. These may have occurred in school, while learning to drive, taking up an instrument, cooking a new recipe or when acquiring a new skill, in sports perhaps.

Focus specifically on the learning moments when someone else was involved, a friend, parent, instructor, teacher or coach. Now, think about the reason why they helped you learn.

Was it based on what they knew about what they were trying to teach? Or was it for some other reason? Something that they did perhaps?

Was it the quality of their instructions or the clear demonstration provided?

Was it the timing of an observation or intervention? Did they ask the right question at the right time? Did they give you enough time and space to think? Did they acknowledge and praise the effort you gave and not just focus on the result?

Or did they let you try, fail and then help you make sense of the reasons why you did not succeed before urging you to try again?

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Now, think about your experiences either as a coach, or as an athlete working with a coach. How do coaches really help athletes learn? When are those really powerful learning moments? Why do they occur?

Paralympic women’s single sculls gold medallist Helene Raynsford knows how coaches can help athletes to learn. She was struggling with the “catch” phase of her technique – the moment when the blade hits the water.

Her coach had been adopting an autocratic type of approach, yelling instructions to her in the boat. This proved unsuccessful, counterproductive, and in turn lessened her confidence.

Another coach stepped in to help. He used frame-by-frame video analysis as a mirror to help Raynsford see the specific issues she was having. Through questioning, he helped her to see what was working and where specifically she could improve elements of the technique.

They worked collaboratively to identify how to remedy the issue. When asked why his coaching style was so effective, Raynsford said, “A good coach unpicks the learning style of their athletes. They find out how they prefer to receive information and select the right tools to support the athletes’ preference.”

Now, think about your coaching, not just your knowledge of strategy and technique, but how you coach it. Current best practices in coaching distinguish between “what-to-coach” skills and “how-to-coach” skills.

The “what-to-coach” skills refer to the technical skills of the sport (running, footwork, passing, tackling, blocking or flag pulling.) This is what the player does. The “how-to-coach skills” are what the coach does to support the planning, delivery and evaluation of coaching and athlete performance.

At a basic level, these are highlighted in the image below:

Let’s work through the process with one of these skills. Take demonstration for example.

Ask yourself where you positioned the athletes in relation to you.

Could they all hear you?

Could they all see the specific coaching points you were modelling?

Did you model this on more than one occasion and from different angles to ensure athletes got a rounded perspective?

How much information did you provide in addition to the demonstration?

Did you talk through the demonstration, or did you model the skills encouraging the athletes to notice exactly what you were doing?

How did you know the athletes understood the technical model?

Did you ask them what they noticed?

How did you ask them?

Were the questions open or closed? For example, “Did you see?” will elicit a completely different response to “What is the angle at the elbow joint when the ball is being thrown?”

The answer to the first question is likely to get a nod of the head; it means they may have heard but not understood. The second question will allow you to check what they have seen and know. It may help others in the group learn.

To find out more about to how to model best practice with these how to coach skills then complete USA Football’s Fundamentals of Coaching Course in the Youth Level 1 course.

Sarah McQuade is an independent coach education consultant, owner and director of e.t.c consultants and co-director with The Coach Learning Group. To learn more about accessing how-to coach skills workshops click the Coaching Skills button at www.etcoachingconsultants.com.