Using Film Cuts To Reality For Coaches
The use of film as a medium to help improve instruction for Teachers has long been used, and advocated for. Film has been a recommendation of teachers and schools for a long time. Even as teachers are just learning to ‘teach’ often instructors will ask teachers to film themselves and reflect on their practice. Coaching has seen an influx of video usage as well, with most of the film review coming from watching players movements that are recorded either from games or from the practice setting.
Coaches will spend hours pouring over film of players to help try to identify the one mechanical flaw, or the one key that will help unleash a players ability. Coaches are consumed with video, and showing it to players to help them gain a better understanding of what is happening when they play the game. Coaches can cut film, share film, and analyze film almost instantly. The use of film to help players improve is almost as close to universal adoption of a practice as there ever will be in sports.
But what about the coaches themselves? How often are coaches reviewing films of themselves in action? How often do coaches turn the camera around and film their own instruction? Isn’t it true that if we find sharing, and analyzing film of our own players that we ourselves would also benefit from this same practice. Many of the same things that players benefit from watching film of themselves is also true for coaches. This is an area of almost untapped, and unrealized value in coaching/instruction especially in baseball.
The benefits of using film to review coaching sessions are vast. I want to put the focus for this article on three different areas that should help coaches. Film for anyone who has ever watching a video of themselves snaps you back to reality very quickly. Film helps to give coaches a clear picture of reality. You as the coach unfortunately can not observe yourself in reality. Yes other can watch you and provide feedback, but film allows you to get an unbiased, and clear picture of what happened in the heat of a coaching session.
Within the busyness of instruction coaches are not able to perceive everything that is happening. You can not step out of your own body and observe your facial expressions or your movements, the decisions that you made in a snap second. It just isn’t possible. Film helps to create a situation where you have something to be accountable to and reflect on later on. Coaches are focused on instruction and making decisions that lead to improvement in players.
Secondly as you coach more you start to fall into a groove of sorts. Not in a bad way, but you start to get ingrained patterns that you relay on consistently. You become desensitized to decisions and things become more automated. This is good for coaches, but can also be an area that film helps us with. Film help to identify these different areas that we have created into habits and allows us to observe them freely. This is where you realize things like crutch phrases and facial expressions go that you can’t always observe. The habits that are formed early and coaching are often carried forward with little adjustment from the first few times you executed the instruction.
Within our own minds we are consistently telling ourselves a story about how everything is going great, and how you are making all the correct decisions. When you watch film back you will almost never go on to say that everything you did was solid. You start to check what you are doing, and you begin to see through some of the story that you are telling yourself. Without film this lastly point can be extremely dangerous. If we are consistently telling ourselves that everything is going great, but never stop to check that point then how do you know if you are truly improving?
Video slices straight through the heat of these three areas and gets coaches to see a fuller picture of reality. But like a player when they see themselves on film. The importance of film can not be overstated when looked at through the prism of the coach. Film is an untapped area of coaching improvement, and development that I think should be considered more deeply, and an area that I think all coaches should examine when it comes to improving their own instruction.
