PETER HART MASTERCLASS
106 JULY 2019
Jargonised
A similar scenario can arise with language. It wasn’t until the last day that one
lady, a good sailor, revealed she had no clue what the clew was. Everyone else
obviously knew, so she felt a fool to ask. Furthermore, at the outset make sure
you’re clear on directional interpretations. What is ‘forward’? Is that towards
the nose or the sail. And ‘inside’ and ‘outside?’ If you’re unsure, get the coach
to run through the whole lot before you hit the water.
Knowing you – what ARE you like?
A man goes to the doctor.
“Ah Mr Jones,” says the doctor. “We have your results. Please sit down. I have
to ask you if you’re in the right frame of mind to hear some difficult news?”
“Well actually ...” said Mr Jones. “I’ve had a terrible day, just lost my job so,
er, no ... not really.”
“Ok” said the doctor and paused to think ... “You’ll be fine!!”
I was forced to tell that joke to Nic, a top bloke but also quite ‘Jekyll and
Hydey’ – good hearted, jovial, very smiley most of the time; but at others,
strangely dark. When the first time I pointed out his late rig change and
straight legs, I might as well have suggested his mother ran a brothel – death
mask, defensive posture, no eye contact – just a grunt.
Later on and back to being smiley Mr Hyde, he confided in me that probably
due to hellish experiences at a draconian boarding school, he had a visceral
reaction to criticism. He accepted that it was my job to put him right – but
asked if there was a way of sugaring the pill. From then on the feedback was a
study in what the sociologists call ‘mitigated speech’ (getting across what you
mean without actually saying it): “That was fine Nic. In fact it was one of the
best gybes I’ve ever seen. But just a thought ... another way, and by no means
better ... just different, is to try it with bent knees.”
A good coach can work out from the initial exchanges how people react to
critique and how they like to be fed back to – but there’s no harm in giving
them a clue beforehand. The complete opposite to the above is where the
young, newly qualified instructor, teaching a group of mature adults, has
a crisis of confidence and just smothers them with platitudes. If you are a
prime minister/rock star/captain of industry, it’s worth letting the ingénue
instructor know that you want to be beasted and told how it is, even if it
means ritual humiliation in front of the group.
It helps right from the start if you can tell the coach how best you learn and
how you like to be coached.Words – the blessing and the curse
My first windy instructing job was in Switzerland where I regularly had
French, Germans and English in the same group. Although I speak passable
French and German, my English is considerably better. So it was the Eng-
lish in the group who were given far lengthier and more detailed technical
explanations. It took me a while to realise that on the water the non-English
often did better, having NOT been burdened with mostly irrelevant science.
Words – the right ones at just the right moment - are SO powerful; but too
many at the wrong moment – disastrous.
One of the most interesting characters I ever taught was Ed. On day one
I was going through the basics of the small board tack. After two sentences
Ed shouted out: “Stop! I don’t do words. Show me and then let me get on
with it.” Ed was super bright, but as he revealed later, had mild Asperger’s
syndrome. He said that too many words scrambled his brain. What he liked
was images to work with. Another fortunate symptom of his condition was a
lack of social cues and graces. He had no filter and said exactly what he was
thinking. Many people fail to speak out for fear of upsetting the proud, sen-
sitive coach. Ed couldn’t give a damn. Every 15 minutes or so he would come
in and say “one tip please.” Eager to help I would give 2 and was immediately
told to ‘shut up – I just want one!’ He was the easiest bloke to coach be-
cause you always knew exactly what he wanted from you. Let the coach know
how you are with words and verbal explanations in general. Many struggle to
convert words into physical actions and prefer the ‘monkey see monkey do’
approach – notably kids. By contrast, others will only let themselves have a
go when they fully comprehend every stage.“GOOD COACHING IS NOT A TORRENT OF
INSTRUCTIONS – IT’S A CONVERSATION.”
Video coaching remains the
most compulsive coaching
tool – again so long as
you’re a part of the conver-
sation – even more powerful
when delivered semi-naked.
PHOTO Hart Photography.