Coach Development

Targeting Different Learning Styles for your players

“Tell me and I forget, Teach me and I may remember, Involve me and I learn” – I have to disagree here.

It’s a famous quote and it’s used a lot but looking at it, it doesn’t consider learning styles, learning preferences or individual needs.

We as coaches are educators and for us to educate our players to impart our knowledge and give them the best chance of learning, we need to understand the ‘person first, player second’ – reason being, we need to understand their likes, dislikes and learning needs to best help them.

“Tell me and I forget” – not really applicable to those audio learners, those who retain information and acquire skills by listening. How can you affect these learners with your coaching? Talk clearly when demonstrating and offer chances for Q+A. This could be very applicable to the other styles though (coming up, I promise!)

“Teach me and I may remember” – Most learners may fall into here. They might retain information, they might not, but teaching involves a range of strategies, so chances are your players will pick up something! How? Demonstrate by talking, showing (those visual learners will thank you!) and include them in the planning or collaboration stage (those Reading/Writing learners may like to have whiteboards, tablets, pens and paper here – involve a range of tools).

“Involve me and I learn” – Best suited to your Kinaesthetic learners who learn by doing but likely encouraging for all players.  How? Include players in your demonstrations; allow slow paced walkthroughs before you go into a higher tempo for the exercise.

This is a snapshot of ways you can address the different learning styles in your group.

For more information on ways to spot learning styles and how to match them, check out my book: Targeting Different Learning Styles

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/gb/book/targeting-different-learning-styles/id6448788441

Amazon Kindle: https://amzn.to/43no583

Also available on the Shop page on this site.


Twitter: @LloydOwers

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