Opening Up Yourself to Criticism

Devan McConell

As Strength and Conditioning Coaches, we often talk about holding our athletes accountable, about making a difference in their lives, about whether or not we should be included in accolades for our team's success and criticism for our team's downfall. Many of us probably have some sort of yearly review, where the person who oversees our position or department makes general critiques of our “performance”, even though they probably don't have a grasp on what we actually do. But how often do we get concrete feedback from those who actually matter: our athletes?

At the end of this past season I realized I had never asked my entire team these types of questions. I had never systematically addressed “What do you like about our program? What don't you like? How can I help our team get better? Do you have any ideas that you think would be beneficial to add to what we already do?”
So I set out to do just that.

These are the specific questions I posed to our team:

In general, what can I do better?
What do you like and dislike about our program? All aspects are fair game…the actual training, the data collection and analysis, facility, nutrition, etc.
Adherence to the daily questionnaire and Borg scale was spotty by some (great by others!). How can I help you be more accountable to this important information?
Many of you have friends in different programs, or at the pro level. Are there things they do that you think are better than what we do? Have you heard any ideas that seem like a great idea?
Any other feedback, positive or negative.

The logistics of getting this feedback were pretty simple. I wanted the questions to be able to be answered anonymously. I wanted the athletes to be able to complete them on their own time. And I wanted an easy way to assemble the answers and compile a list of the most important things I needed to address, if there were in fact any. So I set up an online, anonymous questionnaire that the athletes could complete in the period between the end of the playoffs and the start of our off-season training program. The first day back in the weight room, I started off the session going over the general results, talking about my answers to a few things, letting them know what changes we were going to make, and what I was going to keep the same.

The responses were very interesting. Some of the feedback was great, some was a little kick to the gut, some was ridiculous, and some was funny. I'll share some of the highlights:

Quicker dynamic
Continue to be positive and have energy
Continue to share your knowledge with us, from the workouts to how important nutrition is
The nutrition aspect I felt was lacking. Only a few guys took it seriously and the importance should be stressed more.
Don't let your mood that day effect how you address/instruct us that particular day. Our team responds to your mood (both positive and negative)
Possibly change up dynamics a bit so they aren't so repetitive.
I feel we could do more nutritionally like having more food or snacks around the rink before and after skates and lifts.
I like all the data collection and the feedback you give us on it. The phases of training we do, and the motivation you give us.
Nutrition. I feel that our team should be better educated.
Penalty for team not doing the questionnaire
Install some type of consequence
Make guys do bike sprints if they don't do the questionnaire
Be harder on us. Punishment for not completing it.
Love the chicken parm…keep the chicken parm!!!

Once I had all the answers, the next step was actually addressing the feedback. After all, what good is something like this if you don't take action? In fact, doing nothing would probably have undercut me, as I would have essentially said to my team “I didn't like your criticism, so I'm not going to do anything.” That wouldn't do much to build trust.

So, what are some of the changes we have made? I added some variety to our dynamic warm ups…I had done this in the past, but got away from it this year. I'm not sure why, but this off-season we did some different things, and I'll have some new ideas to implement during the season. I have not shortened them…everything we do has a purpose. But I do acknowledge the repetitiveness and have adjusted accordingly.

I have been more conscience of my mood and energy each day…let's face it, our job can be a grind. But part of our responsibility is putting on our game face and getting things going in the right direction. It doesn't matter if my two kids have decided to keep me up all night, or if I'm being pulled in 10 different directions behind the scenes at work, or any other excuse. This is what we tell our players, right? So it's only fair that I walk that talk. I'm certainly not a “rah-rah” coach, but I've made an effort to check my energy when the team shows up to the rink, and if I need another cup of coffee, the Keurig isn't far away.

Nutrition knowledge, or lack thereof was an interesting one to me. I thought I did a pretty good job of this. But when I think about it, our upperclassmen probably have a good base of education, but I may have lapsed with our younger players…sometimes you forget that the freshmen and sophomores haven't necessarily heard the same message that the older players have. I did a nutrition seminar with the team this off-season, but I still need to have a better system of constantly educating and talking to them about the importance of eating well. We have also added a smoothie bar in our lounge, and stock the freezer and fridge with frozen fruits and veggies, along with things like Greek yogurt, chia seeds, string cheese, and other healthy options. We also subscribed to a snack service which provides us with various trail mixes and other snack options. Our pre and post game meals have always been covered, but we are working on expanding our menu to offer some different options throughout the year.

The accountability feedback was maybe the toughest one to take. I thought I did a good job here…I'm with the team 24/7. We track and monitor a lot of different things. We use that information to adjust training on an individual basis. But, hindsight is 20/20, and looking back I began to realize that I was having the same conversations with the same people over and over. The questionnaire feedback made me realize that the rest of the team noticed the same thing, and that they actually wanted me to be harder on the team. So the new rule; if one player messes up…doesn't get their questionnaire in on time, is over our body fat threshold, is late, etc., the team pays the price. Everyone has bike sprints to do. I've always held individuals accountable, but some guys never learned. Now, instead of me being upset at them and having to spend some time on the bike, they have 29 of their friends pissed off and that carries much more weight. The other thing that has surprised me about doing things this way is that there is no complaining, no whining, and no excuses. Someone messes up, they admit it, they apologize, and everyone gets some extra work in. It's been the most important change I've made to how I run our program in a long time.

Opening up yourself to criticism is never easy. But the reality is, those who we all claim to work for and care most about rarely get an opportunity to tell us what we are doing well and what we aren't. Our athletes might not understand everything we do, they might not fully comprehend all the things that go into our jobs, and what other obligations we have besides them. But that doesn't mean that they don't have valuable insight for us. People will remember how you make them feel long after they forget what it is that you said. If we truly want to become better coaches, we need to start asking the people we coach what they feel about their experience.

And as for the chicken parm comment? I'm still not sure if that was a joke or a legitimate comment. But I love it, so we are keeping it.

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