Looking through the Oven Door!

Ok I know reading these blogs mean you have to have a certain sense of humor. You have to a slightly creative bent and a wry smile on your face as you read. This one is no less obscure and I hope, no less thought provoking. It’s not the first time we have taken tennis metaphors to the cake tin either. Remember this one ? Click Here!

Anyway I digress. I want to talk about the frustrations of being a coach and something I have discussed regularly with coaches and parents in the last year. Child learning is often like baking a cake! Stick with this one..

If your first foray into making money was selling cakes for the Queens Silver Jubilee for your family and friends (mine was.. it was a good little earner as Mom bought all the ingredients and I took all the income) then you know the process of baking a cake.

First build the environment (switch the oven on) and get the ingredients right. Follow the recipe and then put it into the tin. You are pretty sure that you are setting things up right, after all you followed the recipe right? But now to the frustrating bit and the bit I want you to really understand.

Having put the cake in the oven you are waiting for the cooking to start. Or for us coaches looking for some sign that learning has taken place. Nothing! A few bubble surface in the mixture, after a while it looks like it has melted, gone backwards, we wait in frustration for something, then slowly things start to happen.

In fact it is after some time and just when we are questioning our baking skills the cake rises, browns and learning has happened! Yay!

But the thing to remember is that … LEARNING was always happening. (the cake was always baking!!) and  just like the cake sometimes you look at your charge and wonder why they are not learning but actually… they are and you just can’t always see it. Learning isn’t just at the point you reach the objectified finish line, learning is a process that sometimes starts slowly. Be patient, trust that you have put the ingredients in place, and have a clear vision of where you are heading. Avoid turning the oven up too high .. it may result in something that is flat and a little burnt around the edges.