Deliberate Practice- Moving from Good to Great!

I spoke to two different coaches this week regarding what it takes to move a team forward and to accomplish shared goals. Both coaches’ answers were influenced by the work that has been done within our school system to move closer to classroom 10 learning. The 1st coach shared his new practice template with me and I was surprised to see that he had basically taken the classroom 10 handout that we all received at THS during our last half day and reworked it so it applied to his basketball practices. Pretty cool stuff!




I was even more impressed the next day when another coach sent me a power point to help me answer the question of “how do we move from good to great?”



During a conversation I had with Coach Burnham last week while we were driving kids to Ellensburg for a practice, we identified our athletes’ practice effort and intensity as an area that we would like to improve. Don’t get me wrong, I was pleased with our team's 4th place finish at the state wrestling tournament last year but we can do better. If our boys are truly going to have the opportunity to win it all this year, changes to my practice plans and coaching style need to be made. During the drive to Eburg( GO WildCats!), Doug pointed out that the technique we teach is good but we had neglected to teach them skills that will elevate their level of practice to a championship level( aka Tahoma Style practice room )



Three days later I received an email with an awesome power point presentation on Deliberate Practice from Doug. The power point presentation is going to help both the wrestling team and a group of student athletes that our athletic director and I are working with this year on leadership and influencer skills.



My point is, both the practice plan and power point that the two educators/coaches created were influenced by the “planning templates, influencer strategies, system thinking, and the capacity to engage in skillful conversations” that are a major piece of what makes us Tahoma.



GO BEARS!!!!

special thanks to my friend coach Burnham for creating the poster on this post and also for inspiring me to be a better coach!