Friday, 20 September 2019
This edition of my blog is going to be about
"Grit". It is taken from, and based on a Ted talk originally given by Angela
Duckworth in 2013. I have put the link to Dr Duckworth's talk below so you can
use the link to view, and hear her talk. Before reading on I invite you to use
the hyperlink and view her talk. This will help make this blog post more
meaningful and applicable. Here is the hyperlink:
To review Dr Duckworth's talk, she begins
by defining "Grit" as being:
"Grit is
passion and perseverance for long-term and meaningful goals. It is the ability
to persist in something you feel passionate about and persevere when you face
obstacles. This kind of passion is not about intense emotions or
infatuation."(Oct 3, 2017)
Dr Duckworth also states that in her experience and
research it is
not the highest IQ kids, or wealthiest kids, or the best looking kids that are
successful. It is those kids who have "Grit" who are the most successful. Dr Duckworth, by
definition states that Grit is to have a passion and perseverance for your goals.
To have have Grit means that you are "sticking with your future, day in and
day out". Furthermore to have Grit is to live life like it is a marathon and not a
sprint. To have Grit means to have stamina to
achieve your goals, or desired outcomes. Her research was done with students in the public schools of Chicago and in other areas around the country.
Application and Discussion
President Theodore Roosevelt, our country's 26th President once stated: “Far better is it to dare might things, to win glorious
triumphs, even though checkered by failure…than to rank with those poor spirits
who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that
knows not victory nor defeat”.
In developing grit a person must be willing to engage in new things, new processes, different challenges and tasks. A person must not fear, or shun performing any given task required. Instead a person must be willing to welcome the opportunity to work at some task that is new, different or foreign to their normal routine. I think President Roosevelt's quote about to "dare mighty things" is appropriate for developing Grit.
As coaches we can help the swimmers develop grit by challenging them, and teaching them to try new events. We should teach them the processes required by the new event. Speak to the athlete about what is expected of them in the proper performance of the new event. It is not good enough to just teach them, and talk to them about going fast. The end result is to go fast, but the processes they need to go through are extremely important in the learning to have grit process. Give the athlete measurable bench marks that make up the process to a successful performance. These can be things like give them a stroke count to hold, or tempo to sustain, or kick beyond flags off every wall on a freestyle race, use 6 instead of three underwater dolphin kicks, be within a certain percentage of a given qualifying time, and so on. A critical thing here in the development of grit is for the athlete to understand their improvement towards a given goals. By looking at benchmark expectations we can help our swimmers develop grit.
The Art of Using Praise
According to social scientists, the use of praise does nothing more than to feed, or boost the ego. There is little learned from ego boosting feedback and evaluation. If we, as coaches want to see an increase in grit we must teach what is required and then expect those results. as we teach and give feedback, our feedback must be positive and provide sincere evaluations of the performance given. We should praise the athlete's efforts to complete the processes required. For example, a coach who has taught his/her swimmers to do their turns so that they take their first stroke beyond the flags on each wall, and they do 3-6 dolphin kicks off each wall and they are to build the tempo of their stroke into every wall. Now if a swimmer does this on 5 of 8 lengths of a 200 the coach could say something like, "You did a great job with your turns, push offs, fly kicks and tempo into the walls. You made 5 lengths of the race doing everything correct-your turns, push offs, dolphin kicks were right on for 5 lengths and then you struggled with the remaining processes of the race. Next time lets shoot for 7 fo the 8 walls by doing...." You always want to point out what they did wrong in a positive light, for example, "Hey you had 5 turns where you streamlined well beyond flags off each wall, had tight streamline on push off, and your tempo looked good as you sustained your momentum into the walls. What you need to add now is do these very same things on the remaining 3 lengths of the race, by keeping your focus on doing things right. You can do it."
The coach should avoid negative feedback, and feedback that feeds the ego. For example you might want to avoid sayin, "Don't let your tempo drop off into your turns", or "You did not kick 3-6 dolphin kicks of your turns and this is why you did not achieve a better time." Keep all your feedback positive and grit enhancing. Avoid ego feeding feedback like, "You are so great! Your swim was awesome and you looked great". These statements do little to help the swimmer learn and develop grit.
GRIT Scale
For
those who are interested you can use the following link to take a test that
will indicate how much grit you have, or on the funny side of things how “gritty
of a person” you are. Be honest in taking the test and have a great time
exploring your grit level: https://angeladuckworth.com/grit-scale/
The next link is a link to a Ted Talk by Carol Duckworth about Mindset. I addressed this topic a few weeks ago and will come back to it next time and tie Mindset and Grit together. Enjoy.
