Improving SelfSelf-awareness in your
Athletes using Training Logs,
Monitoring and Debriefs
Monitoring,
Bradley W. Young, PhD
University of Ottawa
School of Human Kinetics
byoung@uottawa.ca
Training Time
 Athletes spend 9595-99% of their sportsportrelated time in practice


(McCann, 1995).
How much of that time is supervised?
How much of that time is unsupervised?
 All else being equal,
equal the athlete who optimizes their
unsupervised training will develop to a higher level than
the athlete who does not..
1
Development of Athletes
 Effort:


10,000 hrs of deliberate
practice
supervised, unsupervised
 Motivation:



‘Mundanity
Mundanity of Excellence’
Excellence
Shepherding motivation
over long periods of time
Delaying gratification
 Agency:



Responsibility, initiative
‘Students of the sport’
Internal locus of control
 Resources:



Coaching
C
hi
Family
Facilities
The ‘Self‘Self-Aware’ Athlete
 responsibility for planning, monitoring, and
evaluating
l ti aspects
t off d
daily
il practice
ti routines
ti
 pro
pro--active efforts to control the intensity and
duration of their behaviors across a
multitude of training activities, while
negotiating fatigue or injury
 consideration of how chosen training
activities serve as preparation for upcoming
races
2
Self--Regulated Learning Theory
Self
(Zimmerman,’98)
GOAL SETTING
& PLANNING
TRAINING LOGBOOKS
SELFEVALUATION OF
OUTCOMES
-
archive
-
represents what
athletes are ‘aware
of’
MONITORING OF
PRACTICE
STRATEGIES
MONITORING OF
PRACTICE
OUTCOMES
Do Logbooks work?
(CIS Swimmers; Young, Medic, & Starkes, 2009)
3
Do Logbooks work?
(CIS Swimmers; Young, Medic, & Starkes, 2009)
Do Logbooks work?
(CIS Swimmers; Young, Medic, & Starkes, 2009)
4
Do Logbooks work?
(CIS Swimmers; Young, Medic, & Starkes, 2009)
 Log users become more
concerned about
attendance at practice
sessions
 Log users become more
concerned about their
punctuality
t lit att practice,
practice
ti , and
d
report more confidence in
managing other aspects of
their lives to get to
practice onon-time.
1. Introducing Logbooks
 Educate about the value of logs
 Suggest types of info that can be put in a log –
keep info limited early on
 Schedule on
on--site time immediately after
practice, for the entire group to do logs
 Teach athletes to find evidence of
progression and mastery by getting athletes
to compare own info across successive
workouts
5
Establish ‘Cause & Effect’
 Evidence of progression:
 improvement,
improvement
 progression,
 approach instance,
 effort,
 personal productivity,
 equal performance with less effort,
 equal performance/effort with less discomfort
 Try to help them establish the link between these
effects and something that they have done -
2. Evolving Logbook Use
 At the group level,
level, selectively schedule onon-site
log activities after certain practices
 At the individual level,
level, encourage athletes to
use logs at home, to summarize, and have
weekly meetings with each athlete to discuss
 Coach athletes to find reasons for progression
that relate to their efforts/strategies:
 cumulatively and persistently – focuses on long
long--term
perspective, and stability
 differently – short-term perspective, changes
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2. Evolving Logbook Use
 Encourage athletes to journal info about
how th
h
they felt
f lt iin or about
b t their
th i
workouts
 Teach athletes how to self
self--reward
3. Mature Log Use
 Volume of info is personal - expect more/less
 Off
Off--site log use
 Continue regular summary meetings
 Athletes and coaches view the log as
conversation p
pieces to discuss what has ((or
has not been) working in practice, and level of
preparedness for future races
 Encourage athletes to consider aspects of
recovery, fatigue, and soreness
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3. Mature Log Use
 Instruct athletes to couple negative with
positive info
What info do athletes attend to in logs?
(Young, McCardle, Starkes, & Ste Marie, ’08)
 Self
Self--reflection in
logs offers trace
evidence of key selfselfregulatory processes
(Zimmerman, ‘00):



Self-observation
SelfSelf--judgment
Self
Self--reaction
Self
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Results: Dominant Themes
SELFSELFOBSERVATION
OBSERVATION:
WHAT WE SEE A
LOT OF
SELFSELFOBSERVATION:
WHAT WE
WOULD LIKE TO
SEE MORE OF
Describing conditions during
practice related to self
58 %
- how the body felt, how they saw their mental
state:
‘I could feel muscle soreness that wouldn’t go away’
‘I was very focused on my kick technique’
Identifying task strategies and
periods of physical effort during
practice
15 %
Results: Dominant Themes
SELFSELFJUDGMENT:
WHAT WE SEE A
LOT OF
SELFSELFJUDGMENT:
WHAT WE
WOULD LIKE TO
SEE MORE OF
Judgments with no standard of
comparison
60 %
- typically were brief descriptive tags:
‘My times were not incredible’
‘Workout was okay’
‘I did a crappy job on kickkick-outs’
References to a standard of
comparison
Causal attributions about success
and failure
36 %
4%
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Results: Dominant Themes
SELFSELFREACTION
REACTION:
WHAT WE SEE
A LOT OF
SELFSELFREACTION:
WHAT WE
WOULD LIKE
TO SEE MORE
OF
Expressing Emotion
‘Today stunk
stunk’’ GENERAL
‘My starts were discouraging today’ SPECIFIC
‘I surprised myself in the effort that I gave’ SPECIFIC
Inferences about Effective Practice
Strategies
Future Outcome Expectations
i
Self--Efficacy Comments
Self
56%
20%
18%
5%
What can coaches encourage athletes
to do?
 to identify:


one specific learning strategy they tried, and to
judge its effectiveness
a particular segment of workout when they
invested effort/attention
 to evaluate workouts using comparators
(better, faster, deeper, further, etc.) with
specific reference to goals or past
performances
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What can coaches encourage athletes
to do?
 to tryy to develop
p reasons for success/failure
/
 to link aspects of the present workout to:


future outcome expectations – what do you
think this means for….?
to link aspects of the present workout to future
goals
l in
i training
i i
 to asterisk any info that makes them more
confident
Cautionary suggestions
 Set guidelines that portions of the training
log are for athletes’ eyeseyes-only
 Personal log books should not be a tool for
comparison with other athletes, or a tool
that athletes use to compare with one
another
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AMO
OUNT OF LOG USE
Cautionary Tale
TIME
Post--race Debriefs
Post
 It is important for athletes to learn to make
accurate interpretations of race performance
performance,
independently,, accurately
independently
accurately,, and in a manner
that facilitates future training
 Athletes will seek info to validate what they
see as a g
good/bad
/
race,, and especially
p
y if theyy
are unsure
 A coach’s verbal and nonnon-verbal feedback is
very salient to an athlete, and will override
other info
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Post--race Debriefs
Post
 As a coach, develop a postpost-race decorum
and
d script
i t that
th t iis consistent,
consistent
i t t, irrespective
i
ti off
an athlete’s race outcome
 Calm disposition
 Let the athlete come to you in their own time
 ‘Tell me how that was for you.’
 Delay
l full
f ll debrief
d b f iff possible
bl – let
l athlete
hl
think
h k
about strategies and occurrences first
 Debrief should be private – prevents social
comparisons
Using Logs: PostPost-race Debriefs
 Logs are a resource for sustaining motivation,
especially
i ll after
ft a dissatisfying
di ti f i race
 If race evaluation is negative:
 athlete and coach can reflect on completed work,
search for explanations (omissions, compromised
training) – longlong-term perspective
 if no explanation in training log, this might help identify
a competitive issue that can be addressed
 in all cases, training logs should be used to identify
changeable aspects that are in the athletes’ control
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Using Logs: PostPost-race Debriefs
 Comparisons to other competitors will
occur in
i postpostt-race d
debrief
b i f – use ttraining
i i
logs to transition from ‘how to beat others’
to identify strategies to ‘improve self in
practice in order to beat others’
Improving SelfSelf-awareness in your
Athletes using Training Logs,
Monitoring and Debriefs
Monitoring,
Bradley W. Young, PhD
University of Ottawa
School of Human Kinetics
byoung@uottawa.ca
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