The Need for ‘Why’ in Coaching

As a high school coach, my role is not just about teaching skills, but also about conveying the reasoning behind our methods. This is a shift from the past—I grew up in an era where the question “why?” was met first with “because I said so” and then “just do it.” But now, as coaches, we have the opportunity to be more than just authority figures. We can be mentors who guide our athletes by helping them understand the ‘why’ behind our methods, making those athletes feel valued and integral to their own development.

It’s time to shift our perspective. Many modern high school athletes are seeking the ‘why,’ yet coaches at clinics—especially football coaches—are quick to label kids as “not the same as they used to be.” But what if this change is a good thing? Could a team of athletes who understand the ‘why’ behind the play call or the unilateral squat be better prepared to execute? Instead of focusing on the differences between generations, let’s embrace change. Let’s be confident in our ability to answer the question why? and empower our athletes with knowledge.

This article seeks to convey the meaning behind the pursuit of understanding, identify how understanding concepts translates to skill development, and encourage coaches to investigate how we communicate our programs. While many references are made to football coaches, athletes, or situations, the message’s applications are relevant to other sports coaches and the field of strength and conditioning as a whole. The article is divided into three sections:

1. Why we, as coaches, often neglect exploring the ‘why’ behind our methods.
2. What the research says about the importance of knowing and communicating our reasoning.
3. Practical methods for exploring our why and tips on integrating these communication tactics moving forward.

1. Digging Deeper into the ‘Why’

This may surprise some of my friends (heavy sarcasm), but I was habitually in trouble in my youth. I was sent to a small Christian school with a stringent set of rules. Being a natural troublemaker, this posed a problem at points in my academic career—that is, until I was asked not to return to that school and found my way to a public school. It wasn’t that I was innately a ‘bad kid’; I was just naturally inquisitive about the process. I needed to know the why behind everything. Not out of a sense of rebellion, but rather as a means of understanding so that I could better perform whatever the task or assignment.

I needed to know the why behind everything—not out of a sense of rebellion, but rather as a means of understanding so that I could better perform whatever the task or assignment, says @CoachDMullins. Share on X

Naturally, this made elementary math rather boring to me—2+2=4, 5×6=30, and so on—but when I found geometry, calculus, and physics, I flourished because I could rationalize the process. This wasn’t just in academics either. As a basketball player, I needed the why behind the weaknesses of the 1/3/1 defense. I wanted to know exactly where to attack when I was on offense and where other teams would try to attack us. As a lackluster athlete, this helped me for a time, but my natural gravitation to the why allowed me to flourish when I found coaching.

One of my favorite activities is sitting in the room with coaches who are talking shop. I love to listen to their reasoning for everything and reflect on our program. Early in my career, this carved out a deep connection between my processes and the reasoning behind each one. As I’ve been lucky to learn from some amazing coaches thus far in my career, I’ve realized that our ability to understand our reasoning and answer the question why? is one of the most powerful attributes in a coach’s arsenal—not only to develop our own systems, but in engaging the athletes we are entrusted with.

When I first took over the program in my current role, for example, players often expressed their desire to train heavier than prescribed. This stems from their association with football performance and the connection to maximal strength capabilities, but at the core, this is simply because this was the only way they had ever seen training done. My response would often be: “Why don’t NFL teams pay the competitors from the World’s Strongest Man competition to be their offensive and defensive line?” Through conversation, this began to flesh out the need for strength development for our athletes while at the same time communicating that strength is not the only attribute supporting high-level performance. Now, this is a reoccurring conversation in our program, but our athletes who realize the reasoning behind what they’re being asked to do have embraced the task and have seen the greatest reward because of the connection between the ‘what’ and the ‘why’.

Our athletes who realize the reasoning behind what they’re being asked to do have embraced the task and have seen the greatest reward because of the connection between the ‘what’ and the ‘why,’ says @CoachDMullins. Share on X

Across the country, football coaches are famous for answering the question of why? with some iteration of “we won a lot of games doing it that way.” This can often lead to the follow-up question: “I get that you won games running a 4-4 defense, but why did you choose to do it that way?” A quick glance at social media displays example after example, myself included, of coaches’ conversations where ego and feelings stand in the way of communication and learning.

We may often feel as if a coach is asking the question: “Why do you like ‘X’?” or generally disagreeing with a method as a personal attack or some arbitrary attachment to their own system. What about human nature connects us so deeply to the way we do things that the thought of altering or even questioning those methods brings thoughts of disdain or disgust? I’m not here to answer those questions, but let’s talk further about the science of why.

2. Reasoning, Motor Learning, and Skill Development

You don’t have to be a research nerd to understand the power of the ‘why.’ Industry leaders in the business world value understanding of practice and place communication of reasoning in high regard. In an article for Forbes, Stacy Pezold references several primary reasons that communicating a company’s why behind their practices better serves the organization:

1. An employee’s understanding of company practice leads to increased productivity and greater confidence for the employee in completing the task.
2. It casts a vision for the company and promotes critical thinking and innovation.
3. The better an employee knows the why behind the methods, the more likely they are to align with the company’s vision and take ownership of their work.

Would you like a team of athletes who are more bought into the vision and what you are asking them to do? Explain the why.

This may seem obvious when working in the corporate world, but that has nothing to do with athletics. Or does it? Sports are one of the only places within society that continuously challenge the limits of our physical, mental, and psychological states. This consistent challenge of limits leads to the dynamic nature of sports performance. As these limits have been challenged, research has focused on how to better push the proverbial ceiling on performance. One of the primary sports psychology or mental components of performance comes in the form of anticipation.⁴ This often manifests in the coach’s office as comments like “he just always knows where to be,” “she’s never flustered,” or “that kid always seems to be one step ahead.” Increasing an athlete’s ability to anticipate what is coming is a significant marker for increased performance capability.

Athletes who better grasp the entirety of their task have a higher likelihood of expressing greater perceptual-cognition relationships. Perceptual cognition is the ability of an individual to “capture, process, and actively make sense of the information that our senses receive.”¹ This means that the more effectively an athlete or coach understands the why, the easier it is for the athlete or coach to pick up on an external stimulus, filter the stimuli in terms of the threat level to the task, and streamline the response, whether physical or mental. An example of this is the better understanding an offensive tackle has of the concept of wide zone or outside zone, the greater the likelihood the athlete will be able to adjust to a walked-up outside linebacker to the play side. Increasing the understanding of why increases the individual athlete’s ability to execute.

Athletes who better grasp the entirety of their task have a higher likelihood of expressing greater perceptual-cognition relationships, says @CoachDMullins. Share on X

The same can be said of coaches. Understanding the meta-cognitive impact on our ability to implement the program frees coaches to improve their ability to implement the programs we build. Practically speaking, the better an assistant S&C coach understands the reasoning behind the exercise selection, volume and intensity protocols, or the other training variables, the more effectively they will coach the program—even if they were not the one who wrote it.

The better our ability to understand the ‘why’ behind our methods and communicate that reasoning, the more significant the impact our methods will have. Communicating the connection between exercises or methods and on-field performance can empower our athletes and help avoid conflict or misunderstanding before athletes inevitably ask: “Why are we doing this?”

3. Practical Steps to Embracing ‘Why’

When high school teachers are asked about the markers of a successful high school education, many mention that they want to develop critical thinkers capable of making their own decisions. While this is a valid goal of the secondary education system, are we really fostering this in our classrooms, weight rooms, and film rooms? We’ve established the potential benefits of increasing understanding from athletes and fellow coaches, but what are some practical methods to accomplish this?

In his book How to Become a People Magnet, Marc Reklau gives readers tips for improving communication and attracting people toward a common goal. One of the 62 lessons he proposes is #9: It’s what they want, not what you want. In the related chapter, he states: “We have to speak their language, use the words they would use, and talk in terms of what they want.”

I will be the first to acknowledge that I don’t understand the current teenage/TikTok vocabulary. Reklau is speaking less literally—he’s not saying we must speak the same diction as our audience, but more that we must use our words to connect to that audience’s soul, purpose, and drive. Equating our methods to their physical, performance, and team goals will increase the buy-in we will likely receive. An example of this could be speaking to the soul of most 14-to 18-year-old boys by programming curls, shrugs, and other pump-chasing exercises as a tradeoff to buy equity in what we need down the road. No one I know loves to do the Cossack squat, and I mean no one. But there are many benefits to our athlete’s development in doing them with attention to detail. When introducing the exercise, communicating the implications of the Cossack squat on player health and performance will likely increase the attention to detail with which the athlete executes their reps.

Teach the anatomy. At the most basic level, every coach knows (or should know), the basic gross anatomy required for performance regardless of the last time you stepped into a classroom. Take a few moments each day to educate your athletes about a muscle group they’re using, the energy systems of their sport, or how the spring ankle exercise impacts their sprint, jump, and change of direction ability. These little moments of education promote the athlete’s confidence in us as practitioners and communicate that we value their personal development. This fosters an atmosphere of discovery and empowerment in the weight room, meeting room, and practice field. Embracing the ‘why’ behind our methods promotes an environment where confidence, pride, and understanding are valued.

Take a few moments each day to educate your athletes about a muscle group they’re using, the energy systems of their sport, or how the spring ankle exercise impacts their sprint, jump, and change of direction ability. Share on X

The Final Challenge

To bring this thought full circle, I would argue that with many of the football coaches I referenced earlier who repeat “this is how we’ve always done it”…the method itself may not be wrong. And, the coach may not be wrong for implementing the method in question—it may be a valid reason for why all those games were won.

I would challenge those of us “new-age” coaches to craft our questions in a manner that does not seek to embarrass or call out other coaches. Is our intent actually to understand, or are we seeking to invalidate a method by exposing a lack of reasoning? This can be equally as alarming a practice as incorporating a method without a reason. We should strive to deeply understand our methods and communicate those methods to create a driven and aligned training and performance environment.

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References

1. CogniFit. (2016, February 18). CogniFit. Perception- Cognitive Ability CogniFit.

2. Feraco, T., & Meneghetti, C. (2022). Sport practice, fluid reasoning, and soft skills in 10- to 18-year-olds. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 16.

3. Frömer, R., Stürmer, B., & Sommer, W. (2016). Come to think of it: Contributions of reasoning abilities and training schedule to skill acquisition in a virtual throwing task. Acta Psychologica, 170, 58–65.

4. Pezold, S. (n.d.). Paycom BrandVoice: 4 Benefits You Gain When You Explain the “Why.” Forbes. Retrieved May 31, 2024, from

5. Williams, A. M., Ford, P. R., Eccles, D. W., & Ward, P. (2010). Perceptual-cognitive expertise in sport and its acquisition: Implications for applied cognitive psychology. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 25(3), 432–442.