All else being equal, the athlete who optimizes their unsupervised training will develop to a higher level than the athlete who does not..

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1 Improving Self-awareness in your Athletes using Training Logs, Monitoring, and Debriefs Bradley W. Young, PhD University of Ottawa School of Human Kinetics Training Time Athletes spend 95-99% 99% of their sport- related time in practice (McCann, 1995). How much of that time is supervised? How much of that time is unsupervised? All else being equal the athlete who optimizes their All else being equal, the athlete who optimizes their unsupervised training will develop to a higher level than the athlete who does not.. 1

2 Development of Athletes Effort: 10,000 hrs of deliberate practice supervised, unsupervised Motivation: Mundanity of Excellence Shepherding motivation over long periods of time Delaying gratification Agency: Responsibility, initiative Students of the sport Internal locus of control Resources: Coaching Family Facilities The Self-Aware Athlete responsibility for planning, monitoring, and evaluating aspects of daily practice routines pro-active efforts to control the intensity and duration of their behaviors across a multitude of training activities, while negotiating fatigue or injury consideration of how chosen training activities serve as preparation for upcoming races 2

3 Self-Regulated Learning Theory (Zimmerman, 98) GOAL SETTING & PLANNING SELF- EVALUATION OF OUTCOMES TRAINING LOGBOOKS - archive - represents what athletes are aware of MONITORING OF PRACTICE STRATEGIES MONITORING OF PRACTICE OUTCOMES Do Logbooks work? (CIS Swimmers; Young, Medic, & Starkes, 2009) 3

4 Do Logbooks work? (CIS Swimmers; Young, Medic, & Starkes, 2009) Do Logbooks work? (CIS Swimmers; Young, Medic, & Starkes, 2009) 4

5 Do Logbooks work? (CIS Swimmers; Young, Medic, & Starkes, 2009) Log users become more concerned about attendance at practice sessions Log users become more concerned about their punctuality at practice, and report more confidence in managing other aspects of their lives to get to practice on-time. 1. Introducing Logbooks Educate about the value of logs Suggest types of info that can be put in a log keep info limited early on Schedule on-site time immediately after practice, for the entire group to do logs Teach athletes to find evidence of progression and mastery by getting athletes to compare own info across successive workouts 5

6 Establish Cause & Effect Evidence of progression: improvement, progression, approach instance, effort, personal productivity, equal performance with less effort, equal performance/effort with less discomfort Try to help them establish the link between these effects and something that they have done - 2. Evolving Logbook Use At the group level,, selectively schedule on-site log activities after certain practices At the individual level,, encourage athletes to use logs at home, to summarize, and have weekly meetings with each athlete to discuss Coach athletes to find reasons for progression that relate to their efforts/strategies: cumulatively and persistently focuses on long-term perspective, and stability differently short-term perspective, changes 6

7 2. Evolving Logbook Use Encourage athletes to journal info about how they felt in or about their workouts Teach athletes how to self-reward 3. Mature Log Use Volume of info is personal - expect more/less Off-site log use Continue regular summary meetings Athletes and coaches view the log as conversation pieces to discuss what has (or has not been) working in practice, and level of preparedness for future races Encourage athletes to consider aspects of recovery, fatigue, and soreness 7

8 3. Mature Log Use Instruct athletes to couple negative with positive info What info do athletes attend to in logs? (Young, McCardle, Starkes, & Ste Marie, 08) Self-reflection in logs offers trace evidence of key self- regulatory processes (Zimmerman, 00): Self-observation Self-judgment Self-reaction 8

9 Results: Dominant Themes Describing conditions during practice related to self 58 % - how the body felt, how they saw their mental state: I could feel muscle soreness that wouldn t go away I was very focused on my kick technique Identifying task strategies and periods of physical effort during practice 15 % Results: Dominant Themes Judgments with no standard of comparison 60 % - typically were brief descriptive tags: My times were not incredible Workout was okay I did a crappy job on kick-outs SELF- OBSERVATION: WHAT WE SEE A LOT OF SELF- OBSERVATION: WHAT WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE OF SELF- JUDGMENT: WHAT WE SEE A LOT OF SELF- JUDGMENT: WHAT WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE OF References to a standard of comparison Causal attributions about success and failure 36 % 4% 9

10 Results: Dominant Themes SELF- REACTION: WHAT WE SEE A LOT OF Expressing Emotion Today stunk GENERAL My starts were discouraging today SPECIFIC I surprised myself in the effort that I gave SPECIFIC 56% SELF- REACTION: WHAT WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE OF Inferences about Effective Practice Strategies Future Outcome Expectations Self-Efficacy Comments 20% 18% 5% What can coaches encourage athletes to do? to identify: one specific learning strategy they tried, and to judge its effectiveness a particular segment of workout when they invested effort/attention to evaluate workouts using comparators (better, faster, deeper, further, etc.) with specific reference to goals or past performances 10

11 What can coaches encourage athletes to do? to try to develop reasons for success/failure to link aspects of the present workout to: future outcome expectations what do you think this means for.? to link aspects of the present workout to future goals in training i to asterisk any info that makes them more confident Cautionary suggestions Set guidelines that portions of the training log are for athletes eyes-only Personal log books should not be a tool for comparison with other athletes, or a tool that athletes use to compare with one another 11

12 Cautionary Tale AMO OUNT OF LOG USE TIME Post-race Debriefs It is important for athletes to learn to make accurate interpretations of race performance, independently, accurately, and in a manner that facilitates future training Athletes will seek info to validate what they see as a good/bad race, and especially if they are unsure A coach s verbal and non-verbal feedback is very salient to an athlete, and will override other info 12

13 Post-race Debriefs As a coach, develop a post-race decorum and script that t is consistent, it t irrespective of an athlete s race outcome Calm disposition Let the athlete come to you in their own time Tell me how that was for you. Delay full debrief if possible let athlete think about strategies and occurrences first Debrief should be private prevents social comparisons Using Logs: Post-race Debriefs Logs are a resource for sustaining motivation, especially after a dissatisfying i race If race evaluation is negative: athlete and coach can reflect on completed work, search for explanations (omissions, compromised training) long-term perspective if no explanation in training log, this might help identify a competitive issue that can be addressed in all cases, training logs should be used to identify changeable aspects that are in the athletes control 13

14 Using Logs: Post-race Debriefs Comparisons to other competitors will occur in post-race debrief use training i logs to transition from how to beat others to identify strategies to improve self in practice in order to beat others Improving Self-awareness in your Athletes using Training Logs, Monitoring, and Debriefs Bradley W. Young, PhD University of Ottawa School of Human Kinetics byoung@uottawa.ca 14