Thought Experiment Thursday: The Veil of Ignorance

Welcome to Thought Experiment Thursday’s on the Five W’s podcast.

In these episodes I will be posing a philosophical viewpoint in the form of a narrative, story or question that will hopefully serve as a self-reflection prompt in relation to your coaching planning, delivery and review.

The Five W's Podcast

What Works for Who in What Context and Why

The podcast explores a biopsychosocial approach to athlete development, Each episode explores a unique perspective on the topic from the viewpoint of academia, athletes, coaches, practitioners, psychologists, researchers, S&C and sports scientists, and seeks to be relevant to anyone interested in athlete development. 

DEFINITION OF TERMS

(My current working definitions):

BioPsychoSocial:  A recognition that athletic and sporting performance depends on the interaction of a large number of interconnected factors; Bio (Physical), Psycho (Psychological) and Social (Socio-Environmental) and the practitioners deliberate planning, implementation, practice and reflection of all three aspects combining to provide optimised individual learning opportunities for athletes and coaches.  

Psychosocial:  The understanding and appreciation of how psychological (e.g., pedagogical / andragogical strategies, motivation, coach-athlete relationship) and socio-environmental (session design, social interaction, leadership) factors underpin physical (bio) performance

This podcast is a form of knowledge exchange for my Doctoral studies which I am currently undertaking at Leeds Beckett University, so I do want to highlight their contribution to my skills, knowledge and experience as well as a HUGE thank to my supervisory team Professor Kevin Till and Dr Tom Mitchell, as well as all the other lecturers within the Carnegie School of Sport that have and continue to support me on my research-practitioner journey.  

Transcript

Welcome to Thought Experiment Thursdays on the Five W’s podcast.

In these episodes I will be posing a philosophical viewpoint in the form of a narrative, story or question that will hopefully serve as a self-reflection prompt in relation to your coaching planning, delivery, and review.

THE VEIL OF IGNORANCE

This episode is inspired by the 1971 work of John Rawls exploring notions of justice.  

Imagine you and a group of people have been tasked to decide upon the principles that would establish a new society.  

However, none of you know anything about who you will become in that society.  Notions such as income level, sex, ethnicity, religious belief are all unknown to you.  After you decide upon those principles you will live in the society you established. 

What would that society look like?

As coaches we have the opportunity to take part in such an experiment, though on a much lesser scale.  Our society can be seen in the environment we design, develop, and deliver to the coaches and athletes we work with. 

I am currently exploring the socioenvironment within my research, but it is also something I confront on a daily basis with my practice.

I predominantly work with athletes 13 – 19 years of age, and the development of psychosocial skills within sport is an area of utmost importance in my opinion.

The following quote haunts my thoughts and is actually forms part of a poster I have hung in the weights room. 

It comes from Frank Martin when he was Head Coach of the University of South Carolina Men’s Basketball team. 

“You know what makes me sick to my stomach?  When I hear grown people say that kids have changed.  Kids haven’t changed.  Kids don’t know anything about anything.  We’ve changed as adults.  We demand less of kids.  We expect less of kids.  We make their lives easier instead of preparing them for what life is truly about.  We are the ones that have changed”.

Of course, there are numerous ways that we as adults have grown, developed, and implemented change for the right reason (e.g., research, pedagogy, safeguarding) but we also get it wrong sometimes when trying to do right.  For example, through experience we recognise the trials and tribulations this thing called life throws at us, and naturally we want to remove the hardships and pain from future generations without considering that those obstacles in the way are the things that instilled resilience, adaptability, and work ethic.

The socioenvironment is something I constantly reflect upon.

I am getting it right?  Am I making it too easy?  I am making it too hard?

The ability to frame the environment, task, objective in the best possible manner and to optimise the development of the athlete is a skillset the coach must consistently strive for.

How often have you heard the very dangerous statement “we have always done it that way” when people talk about environments.

Or

“They did it this way at my old environment”

Without ever considering the why.

Why they did it that way

Why did it work

What were they trying to achieve

The phrase “better people, better athletes” or words to that effect often get thrown around sporting environments, but how are you making your athlete better, not just from a physical perspective.  How does the environment you have created empower athletes to recognise and control emotional arousal during high-performance?  How often do you consider the autonomy for the individual in your environment?  How often do you consider appropriate role modelling behaviours?

In an environment that you, as a coach, have control over to help optimise performance, how often do you reflect upon the objectives, outcomes, and operations that you have put in place?