Questions to add to your toolbox

Add some different questions to your coaching toolbox

Photo credit: Fenwick Media Photography

After Dan Lycett’s article on experiential learning on Monday, I’ve been thinking about questions.

What questions we ask and how we ask those questions can impact the trajectory of a session and aid players in their reflections.

Sometimes I feel that I get stuck in a rut and rely on the same questions. Sometimes using consistent questions is helpful as a reflection framework for players.

However, asking different questions can prompt new responses from the team.

I messaged a few coaches in my support network about questions:

Dan Lycett - “I got younger players to write what question they’d like their parents/guardians to ask post-match on a piece of paper.”

Andy Stevens - “Most of my questions are asking one player/group/team what they’re seeing in the other player/group/team. It’s really great peer to peer feedback.”

Lucy Brown - “Can you show me how you would change your [skill, moment etc]?” “How do you feel about [skill, moment etc]?” “What were you focusing on when you did that [skill, moment etc]?”

I also asked a few players for some feedback about the questions I ask and how I ask them:

“I like how you ask a question whenn we have formed a circle. It takes the pressure off people feeling they have to be the first to answer. I’ve noticed that as soon as the first person has given an answer, other answers just flow from people. The circle works as no one is singled out.”

“The group discussions and the one-to-one chats that make us think about different way in which we can change the game play.”

“I also like how the questions you ask immediately follow the activity we've done, so it's all fresh in our minds. The questions reinforce what we've just been doing and help activities make sense.”

“Questions on the WhatsApp chat allow people to go away and think before posting a response. That's nice for people less comfortable in group situations.”

My thoughts

So here’s some thoughts about what questions I ask, what questions I might add into my toolbox and when/how I ask questions.

Over the time I’ve been coaching, I’ve tried to frame things positively. Improvements are things do to in order to get even better and any problems are opportunities.

Over this season, I’m going to focus on feel (partially inspired by Lucy Brown’s questions) and hearing as well as sight in my questions.

When/how I ask questions

• On a whiteboard - I’ll write a question on the whiteboard and players can write down some answers. I’ll then refer to the question early on in the session. The question is usually to prime the players, to prepare them for the focus at training.

• In the WhatsApp chat - I may sometimes drop videos into the team chat with a question or photograph the whiteboard so players can think about the question before they arrive.

• One-on-one - Sometimes I grab a player for a chat in the middle of an activity or in between activities to give them a challenge.

• Mini teams - When splitting the players into two teams for a game, I’ll go to the different teams and ask them some questions.

• Whole team huddle - Asking some questions or facilitating a discussion as a whole team.

Questions I ask including ones I’m going to use more

• Team headbands, what did team non-headbands do well (and then vice versa)?

• How does this activity stretch our brains?

• What are three things that worked well?

• What’s one improvement we could make to get even better?

• What are we seeing, where’s the opportunity?

• Can I give you a challenge?

• Would you like some feedback?

• Why do you think I choose this activity?

• Can you show me [a skill or moment] that happened in the game/can you recall a specific example?

• Who demonstrated a superpower and what was it?

• What’s the cheat code for this game?

• Why is this activity useful for our development?

[There’s probably some I’m forgetting too] [Thanks to Andy Stevens, Dan Lycett and Lucy Brown and the team]

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