What's your third favourite reptile? Child like curiosity can help you ask the right questions...

Following on from December’s blog post, looking at the importance of questioning, throughout Christmas period and start of this year, I have worked on and finally complied my question cheat sheet, accessible via this link. As like many of you, I was fortunate to spend time with family and friends over the Christmas period and talking to others made me think of and gather some great suggestions for questions to ask athletes which shall both offer better understanding of why they’re involved in sport and the person behind the athletes. However, spending time with kids offered me an added perspective to the questioning technique. I was spending time with my daughter and her friends and they threw some really funny curveballs to each other; some examples included “what is your third favourite reptile”, “what’s your least favourite endangered animal” (ruthless!!!) and “if you had to have one ice cream topping for the rest of your life, what would it be?”. All great questions in my opinion because there’s no right or wrong answer plus it makes the person being asked really think of the answer most meaningful and relatable to them and the person asking to wait for their answer before possible follow on questions.

I wanted to draft this document to encourage coaches to share their ideas and generate their own questions as I want us to consider; are we asking or being asked the right questions? My current research has helped around areas of coaching including questioning as it’s allowed and encouraged me to look at the different stages of personality development and how questions should acknowledge the stages of the person being questioned, amongst other factors. Emerging adulthood sees the start of formation of meaningful narrative for life, integrating episodic past and imaged episodic future (Dan P McAdams, 2013). Before these ages or stages, children or younger players for this example do not have or try to explain this sense of identity as Erikson identified that “integration of selfhood is not yet a psychological problem for them” (Dan P McAdams, 2001) and is not possessed or work upon until late adolescent or early adulthood years. For my example of age grade players whom are seen as late adolescent or early adulthood players, identified as in emerging adulthood stage of development, “people begin to reconstruct personal past, perceive the present and anticipate the future as an internalised and evolving self-story (using) narrative of the self that provides psychosocial unity and purpose” (Dan P McAdams, 2001), which starts as an internalised and evolving story of self that synchronically and diachronically develops.

As previously written, I feel asking the right questions can both build relationships and close the gap through understanding athlete’s motivations, areas of importance for their development and how can the environment be structured to suit their needs. I believe sports coaches of athletes of all ages should act as pedagogues and adopt comprehensive and holistic roles in the moral development of their athletes through their adopted and shared practices, languages and beliefs. If coaches are to develop knowledgeable athletes who are willing and able to make decisions, capable of performing learned tasks when under pressure and not under direct instructions, I believe this shall require collaborative transfer of knowledge or greater ownership by athletes of their development, with support from the coaches as “more capable other” in an involved yet scaffolding style approach to their athlete’s development. Research by Kidman (2001) addressed ideas such as coaches developing player’s complex skills and tactical knowledge through encouraging abstract thought processes by asking high order questions, which require athletes to apply, analyse and synthesize information. This transformational style of leadership has the coach steering as opposed to controlling decisions and actions, encouraging player discovery through evolutionary planning and organising of tasks whilst keeping sight of overall objectives and showing empathy to get the best from the athletes. Coaches acting as orchestrators whilst attempting to create a successful pedagogic setting requires coordination of activities to scan or investigate, monitor and respond with honesty to players. This may require some transparency from coaches to offer rationale for processes. It may also require negotiation of processes with players to meet individual and collective performance measures of those being coached whilst matching evolving circumstances for learning and development against attempting keeping sight of overall objectives.

I believe coaches as a recognised more capable/knowledgeable other to the athlete should engage in contextual and collaborative learning relationships, with questions forming a strong part of this, to ensure optimal psychological functioning for maximal sporting performance. I believe coaches should assist players to identify problems as opposed to solving them, asking questions, offering ideas and assistance for how to think and act as opposed to offering solutions. Asking questions using the linked document as a start, understanding the answers and whom they’re coming from will give you a snapshot for today yet this needs to be continually addressed and worked on, understanding people, personalities and environments shall change. No one would have imagined or expected the past 12-13 months we have had; therefore, be willing to ask questions of yourself and other to change ideas or structures and match what your athletes or players need today whilst being reflective and flexible to change to what they need in future.