Hi everyone,
Welcome to my first newsletter.
First of all, a massive thank you to all 144 of you that have joined me on this journey. If you have not subscribed, click this link or please share this with others to grow the community.
This month’s newsletter reflects on how Google got me into this, world-class practice and where I am in this journey.
Let’s go!
How did I get into Biomechanics?
I was close to never making this journey.
Why?
Well as a Math’s graduate I was supposed to go and get one of those nice graduate scheme jobs in London.
So what changed?
Well you can blame Google.
It was January 2009.
Dreading joining the rat race and unemployment looming large post graduation…
I opened Google and entered ‘Maths and Sport’
At the top.
Sports Biomechanics Masters – Loughborough.
Perfect.
Thirteen years later…
(thanks to Google’s algorithm and some great people – more on that shortly)
Here I am.
World-class approach
I recently discovered Corey Wilks among others.
Hungry to learn more.
(and not to waste my recent paternity)
I started subscribing to newsletters of content creators, copywriters, scientists, coaches etc.
I wish I had done it sooner.
(for those interested… I started following a few.. kept those which work for me… and leveraged them to develop a variety of skills)
Why do I love this?
Someone else is doing the hard-work (collating the knowledge) and translating the key messages – saving me LOTS OF TIME.
Oh, and it is FREE!
Anyway, back to the world-class approach…
In one of Corey’s newsletters he discusses the 3 Pillars of World Class Coaching.
He talks about the effort it takes to develop into world-class :
‘World-class coaches, like all elite-level performers, spend decades putting in a metric ton of effort to make the end result look effortless’
And the three fundamental skills which require mastering:
- Building Rapport
- Asking Open Questions
- Practice Active Listening
Where am I on my journey?
Thirteen years in.
I have more letters after my name than in it.
These were gained through dozens of classes and hundreds of hours of supervision from superb academics.
(special shout out to Dr. Mark King and Dr. Fred Yeadon for their role in shaping this, and Stuart McErlain-Naylor and Pete Alway for there ongoing support)
Add to this a list of funky job titles centred on Biomechanics and Human Movement Science.
And some may be adding expert to their CV and social media bios.
But…
Knowledge and practice continually evolve.
Those letters and job titles only confirm that I was once able to demonstrate that I had some key knowledge and skills.
What was once world-leading, can soon become world-misleading.
(Think mixed actions and stress fractures – more on this in a future newsletter)
It is why I continually look for opportunities to self-develop and I am delighted to be starting the ECB Advanced Coach Course in January.
My thoughts on those skills?
Building rapport
‘Rapport is just about making people feeling comfortable enough to open up and have a deep, meaningful, candid conversation.’
Corey Wilks
When I first started. I was terrible.
I spent what felt like a couple of years with no idea what half the technique language meant.
I just agreed and bluffed my way through it.
But I was lucky.
World-class people invested and built a rapport with me.
(none more so than Kevin Shine)
They spotted a talent in me (or I lucked in with my nods).
Over time I was able to understand their knowledge and build mine.
Eventually, I was able to start extending this knowledge and the tide turned.
They started wanting to understand my knowledge to build theirs.
I now have a large network with which I can have deep, meaningful and candid conversations.
How do I build this network?
I offer to invest time getting to know them.
Every student, player or coach I build a rapport with is an opportunity for me to learn from their knowledge and experiences as much as they have the opportunity to learn from mine.
This approach features heavily in my teaching and coaching philosophy and sits nicely with my curious nature.
Asking open questions
I used to have quite a closed mindset to technique.
I do not mind admitting this.
When did this change?
I spent a period of time consulting on a bowler with an illegal action.
There was a common census at the time that illegal actions were due to technique issues.
Based on this closed approach, we spent almost a year focusing on changing the bowlers technique.
Nothing changed!
One afternoon, I was messing around with a friend with a shoulder mobility issue. He could not bowl with a straight arm.
The light bulb moment.
The bowler could not do what I was telling them.
My mistake?
I never asked any open questions or consider anything else.
A few months later, after some work with the physio they returned to the game with a legal action.
And have been playing professionally ever since.
I got lucky.
They easily could have been lost from the game if circumstances had not been so kind.
Ever since, I question what an individual can do before recommending technique change.
This has led to coaches taking more appropriate action leading to incredible results.
Practicing active listening
Active listening is about listening so deeply you can synthesize and offer context to what someone says to help them make connections they wouldn’t have made on their own.
Corey Wilks
I am an over user of this quote by the Dalai Lama (apparently).
When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new
Dalia Lama
I learn the value of practicing active listening very early.
I mentioned earlier that I spent what felt like a couple of years with no idea what half the technique language meant.
I was in at the deep end, I had to learn, and eventually I was going to have to help make connections.
It is not until recently however, that I have discovered the power of writing these down while listening.
It has allowed me to build upon these and develop conversations rather than thinking about these and returning to them at a later date.
Final thoughts?
These skills are not mutually exclusive.
There is no good building rapports if you do not employ open questions to explore them and adopt active listening to interpret the answers.
When used together effectively it can rapidly accelerate your development.
But you also need to be prepared to handle critical feedback.
For example, I recently mentioned some feedback on Twitter I chose to receive from someone I have a good relationship with.
To paraphrase, it was along the lines of:
“Don’t forget your humility, respect where you came from, and remember those who support you along the way”
I initially I thought this may be a little harsh but on reflection it was probably fair.
Am I world-class?
That’s for you to decide.
But you will not find me claiming to be an expert, a guru, or the only person allowed to talk about a particular part of human movement science and cricket.
That’s all for this month
To recap:
I am in biomechanics thanks to Google!
I aim to continuously develop my knowledge and have developed key skills in:
- Building Rapport
- Asking Open Questions
- Practicing Active Listening
Thanks for reading.
Paul
The Cricket Biomechanist 