The Power of Coaching Through Questioning!

Three Key Learning Points:

* The “sage on a stage” coaching model is failing teenage athletes and contributing to the dropout crisis.

* If a swimmer solves the problem they own the solution - and ownership leads to self-responsibility which changes everything.

* Coaching through questioning isn’t “soft or weak” - it’s exactly how the best teachers and university lecturers operate.

When you ask most adults about the coaches they had when they were growing up they will often describe very similar experiences:

The coach spoke. A lot.

The coach gave instructions.

The coach set the program.

The coach told them how to do drills.

The coach was always telling or yelling.

It’s what we call “The sage on a stage” i.e. “I’m the custodian of all knowledge and information. I’ll tell you what to do and you do it.”

That model of coaching is broken and the dropout data is screaming at us.