Upping your Coaching Game – Shoshin

You work hard to provide a valuable service to riders of all levels. You earn your certifications through #BICP to hone your preparedness dealing with groups, assessing abilities, and building better skilled athletes, but is your journey complete?

In researching different approaches to take when coaching/mentoring/studying, I stumbled upon the concept of “shoshin” – what wikipedia defines as “a word from Zen Buddhism meaning “beginner’s mind.” [The concept] refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner would.”(1)

Digging deeper, I found a thought-provoking article by James Clear, author of Atomic Habits and creator of the Habits Academy, where he asks, “Who is to say that the way you originally learned something is the best way? What if you simply learned one way of doing things, not the way of doing things?” (2)

He continues that:

“There is a danger that comes with expertise. We tend to block the information that disagrees with what we learned previously and yield to the information that confirms our current approach. We think we are learning, but in reality we are steamrolling through information and conversations, waiting until we hear something that matches up with our current philosophy or previous experience, and cherry-picking information to justify our current behaviors and beliefs. Most people don’t want new information, they want validating information.”

Four (4) constructive techniques you can start thinking about today and continue honing your skills as an effective coach can be found here: https://jamesclear.com/shoshin. *side note – very short read: less than 4 minutes.

As we say at BICP, “every riding session presents a unique situation” so, too, does coaching others. How best to identify the needs of your students than to approach instruction with their eyes and a clean slate yet having the breadth of experience to make sound decisions and make the class safe and fun?

*What other ways do you find effective and practical in your drive to be a better coach?* Comment below!

#inspirethestoke #coaching #mentoring #continuousimprovement #practicepracticepractice #bikesbikesbikes #neverstoplearning

Footnotes:

1. Unknown. (2018, May 29). Shoshin. Retrieved September 23, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshin

2. Clear, J. (2018, June 12). Shoshin: A Remarkable Zen Concept Used to Let Go of Old Assumptions. Retrieved September 23, 2018, from https://jamesclear.com/shoshin

3. Photo credit: Instructor Trainer Phil Waidner & Summit Bechtel