‘I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think’ – Keep’er Fit

The quote ‘I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think,’ comes from the Greek philosopher Socrates. A powerful statement for any coach, teacher, or parent.

In the world of sports coaching sometimes we think we must teach or coach every aspect of the game and skill. Instead, what if we focused more on helping people to understand, discover and think for themselves. Even taking a simple skill in any sport, ask yourself why does it have to be done a certain way? Is there a better way to do it? If we keep trying to teach players that it has to be done a certain way then could we be actually holding them back?

If we focus on sharing our knowledge and experience with people but give them the opportunity and space to think and be creative… This way we are guiding and giving them ownerships of their own development.

I had a interesting conversation with one of the coaches from the Northern Ireland team about this. It was a set play and they had asked the players to move a certain way to get on the ball. Instead one of the players suggested playing the ball a different way. This was a brilliant example of having a great player and coach relationship that players have been giving the freedom to think and suggest different ways or methods. Sometimes the best teachers are the students because they see it from a different point of view.

As our conversation continued the coach said one of the best bits of advice he got early on in his career was, “We aren’t here to motivate players, we are here to keep them motivated.” Sometimes we think we must lift players up and get them going. The majority of people who turn out to play sport are self-motivated, sometimes it’s us as the coach who de-motivates them. Even asking players what they like and enjoy is a simple but very effective way of keeping them motivated.

When we add both of these together, the ability to teach our players to think and keep them motivated, it’s a great way develop any person to help guide them towards reaching their full potentional.