Have you ever wondered why soccer coaches even bother to show up to games? They don’t seem to do much. In fact, they can’t do much. A soccer pitch is enormous and the range of play is so great that you would need a megaphone to make yourself heard to your players.

The question is what would the coach say even if they could communicate to their players?

When you talk at someone, and in particular when you give instructions, you are engaging the left hemisphere of your subject’s brain because the left brain is responsible for language processing and linear reasoning. Left-dominant brain-patterning is okay in a classroom setting.

But in the real world you don’t have a script to follow, and you probably don’t have a coach following you around bellowing instructions. You need situational awareness which is a right-brain function. You develop situational awareness not by reasoning, but by feeling.

Is my shoulder packed? Are my glutes loaded? Can I pick that up again? Can I keep going?

A coach can’t tell you the answer. You have to feel it.

Once the timer starts the coach’s job is to stop talking because the more coach talks, the less you feel.