Shakespeare, Seibold, Sea Eagles - Coaching as role playing

All the world’s a stage... [we] are merely players.
— 'As you Like it', William Shakespeare

I’ve come to see coaching and teaching the same way. Not just as performance, but as role selection.

Some moments need you out front.

Others need you to step back and let someone else lead.

Problems arise when leaders play the same role in every scene.

Great coach development is chameleon-like — adapting delivery without losing values. Like a good song played differently for different crowds.

Any Aussie pub solo singer-guitarist knows that. Whether they are dodgy or not…

So do good teachers. Anthony Seibold does too by the look of the below article. Forgive my notes…

I was exhausted readinig this. Let alone the amount of roles the coach-teacher Anthony Seibold enjoyed playing.

Learning doesn’t need better scripts.

It needs leaders willing to adapt honestly, moment by moment. The article on a day in the coaching coalface show Anthony Seibold to be chamelon-like indeed.

I personally get a little dismayed when grassroots or development sports coaches look to learn from ‘high performance’ sports coaches. In reality they are better off watching a ‘high’ or primary school teacher-coach. In my experience only of course…

However, I believe this author has drawn forth useable information for any coaching pre-season. Yet, consider your context and adapt. Throw out the script…

The ‘stage’ is different from HP to grassroots coaching. Select your role well.

There is much to reflect on. What do you notice?

If I was to use the AITSL standards for teachers I see 1.2, 2.1-2, 3.1 and stopped counting. There is gold in here for my learning/reflection.

I enjoyed the humour of the players, as is evidenced through the photos the author chose to reperesent the day. But my biases focused on the emphasis on learning, especially, the collaborative sharing and coaching of assistants and key players.

to teach without zest is a crime
— Virginia Woolf

But like a great performer, coaches and teachers need to at least ‘act’ with vigor. It’s a non-negotiable.

Learning, Gunn

Jackson Brown - Every Man:

Everybody's just waiting to hear from the one

Who can give them the answers

And lead them back to that place

In the warmth of the sun

Where sweet childhood still dances

Who'll come along

And hold out that strong

And gentle father's hand?

Long ago I heard someone say

Something 'bout Everyman

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Coach like Atticus Finch