Watch what the good players do.

My freshman year at Port Angeles High School (go Roughriders!) my dad and I finally convinced my mom to let me play football. I had the gear, I formed my mouth-guard, I looked the role. And I ran. I ran slants, and fades, and I ran out and ups, and posts. I ran as hard as I could and I caught all that I could. I was finally a football player!

After a few days of practice, Coach Floreshinger called to me, "Dynamo! (that was my nickname, meant I was amazing) Come here!"

I sprinted over the sidelines, eyes wide open, ready for praise.

"I want you to stand next to me for a bit and watch what the good players do."

It took a couple of minutes to sink in. But my 14-yr old brain finally saw the scene: I was standing on the sideline watching the good players.

Ouch.

Even though I lost my battle to fight back the tears, WHAT HAPPENED NEXT MADE ME BETTER.
Flor pointed out how one player swam the defender to create distance between them. I watched another run a route, use his head to mislead the defense, and get inside of the defender. Granted, this was a bunch of freshman, but they were still better than me. I had a lot I could learn from them. I just had to stop spinning my wheels and working so hard, focused on my own two feet.

And I needed some timely individualized feedback. It took 10 minutes, it hurt for a bit (still smarts, 26 years later) and I got better. That day.

You don't know what you're doing wrong until someone points it out. And not just says, "Hey, you're doing it wrong." They show you what you're doing wrong (as a teacher: video recording of you teaching, student assessment data, number of office referrals, student feedback to you, etc.) and they show you what the right way or better way looks like (peer observations, modeling in your classroom, training on intentional grouping and discussion techniques, teaching framework rubrics).

My last post talked about allowing people to problem solve. But if they don't know there is a problem, they're just doing the best they know how, as fast as they can. But with little results. And a lot of frustration.