Are You Coaching in High Def?

Discover how to maximize your coaching through TV technology!

Believe it or not, we can actually improve our coaching through all the great advances that have been made in TV over the years. While I know it might sound bizarre, hear me out.

Think about the following: Black and White, Color and High Def. All of these were fantastic advances during their time – Black and White TV was a huge step up over radio, and Color TV made Black and White come to life. Then High Def, flat screens and surround sound hit town and things got even better – and yet all of these are simply improvements in the delivery system.

Think about your favorite TV show or movie and then tell me which delivery system you’d want to watch it in – Black and White, Color or High Def? Of course you’d pick High Def. Why, because it changes everything. High Def makes everything clearer and brighter and better! The show or movie is still the same whether you watch it in black and white or High Def, and yet the delivery system makes all the difference in the world.

So what does this have to do with coaching? As coaches we’re simply a delivery system for whatever information we know. So many of us are constantly in search of more information in an effort to improve our team, and yet our team doesn’t improve. If that sounds familiar then you might want to consider your delivery system. You might be coaching in black and white…boring!

Just like with TV, the delivery system is extremely important to coaching! Imagine how it all sounds and looks to your players:

• Watching TV in Black and White is kind of boring, not very clear, and kind of fuzzy. You get the general idea but the details are lost and there’s no transmission of emotion. If you’re a TV junkie then you love the nostalgia that comes with watching old movies in black and white and hearing the crackling of the audio, but the overall quality of the delivery system is poor.
• Watching TV in Color is a big step up from Black and White, and yet pretty quickly it gets boring too. Think back to the Wizard of Oz and how the first part, when Dorothy is still on the farm in Kansas, was all shot in Black and White. Then, when she lands in OZ it switches to Color. How GREAT was that movie, and how powerful was the use of Black and White and Color? Black and White made Kansas look bleaker than ever while switching to Color made OZ come to life! Color made the witch and the munchkins and the flying monkeys and the yellow brick road so much more real. In fact, it actually was yellow in Color where in Black and White we’d simply have had to take her word for it! But what made the Wizard of Oz such a great movie was the acting and the story and the songs – the Color delivery system just made the exciting part of the movie more impactful.
• Then High Def, flat screens and surround sound came along and everything changed. Details became more defined, colors became the stars of the show (think CSI Miami) and sports looked like you were actually inside the stadium. High Def brings the emotion onto the screen through the details. You can see the blades of grass on the ballfields, you can hear the birds in the African trees, and can practically smell the food.

These differences are tougher to get across in writing than in person, but here’s a shot at it:

• Black & White: “it’s all in the delivery”
• Color: “It’s All In The Delivery!”
• High Def: “IT’S ALL IN THE DELIVERY!!!!!!!!!”

Coaching in Black and White sounds very boring, lacks player involvement, and is not very clear. The players can make out the general idea but the details are lost. It isn’t exciting and doesn’t motivate anyone.

Coaching in Color is certainly a step up and isn’t quite so boring but is still pretty flat. While sometimes the message is more exciting the delivery still lacks the details, specifics and high powered emotion.

Coaching in High Def is just like it sounds – BIG! It’s packed with emotion, voice inflection, high powered energy and player involvement. No matter what your message or knowledge as a coach, if you coach in High Def then your players want to come back, they want to be involved and they want to buy in! Coaching in High Def is what high level coaches do – and it’s what YOU can do! It doesn’t require that you become the smartest softball coach in the country, or the winningest – only that you become fully engaged and upgrade your message delivery system. One day there will be something even better than High Def. Something that is clearer and brighter and sharper, but until that day – YOU be in High Def! You COACH in High Def!