{"id":4232,"date":"2016-03-07T05:07:20","date_gmt":"2016-03-06T18:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playerdevelopmentproject.com\/?p=4232"},"modified":"2024-04-08T12:28:54","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T02:28:54","slug":"140-character-coaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playerdevelopmentproject.com\/140-character-coaching\/","title":{"rendered":"140 Character Coaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

PDP Contributor, TEDx Speaker & Founder of Raising Excellence<\/a>, Reed Maltbie<\/a> delivers\u00a010 practical steps\u00a0on coach communication in the age of millennials who have grown up on social media.<\/h1>\n

\u201cOne could change the world with 140 Characters\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

February 8th, 2007 at approximately 6:57PM PST, Jack Dorsey \u201ctweeted\u201d this now famous line.\u00a0 At the time, Twitter was still in its nascent stages as a company. These words changed Twitter forever.<\/p>\n

Even in 2007 they wielded a powerful effect on the company and its small group of rabid followers, most of whom were still geographically centred around the West Coast.\u00a0 Today we can see the undeniably profound impact those words have had on a more global scale.<\/p>\n

The 140-character limit has changed the world.\u00a0 News outlets, celebrities, heads of state, corporations, dignitaries, and even the regular Joe like you and I adhere to this 140-character limit, and tell our stories through it. We communicate more rapidly, more effectively, and sometimes more meaningfully through the 140-character medium of Twitter.<\/p>\n

Moments in history, with global reach, have unfolded on Twitter. Stories of massive impact have been told on Twitter. Games, shows, programs, and events are all shared on Twitter.\u00a0 Every single one of them encompassed in 140 character messages.\u00a0 The world has been condensed into 140 characters with tremendous efficiency. Twitter is one of the most compelling communications products of our lifetime.<\/p>\n

In 2007, Jack was addressing the need for change in his company.\u00a0 The service was borne out of the idea that people could send a text to a random number and have it broadcast to a group of friends who \u201cfollowed\u201d them.\u00a0 If Jack Dorsey wanted to tell all his buddies that the club he was at on Mission Street was \u201chappening\u201d, he simply needed to text one 5-digit number and they would all receive his message.<\/p>\n

The short code system used by phone text messages, SMS, was limited to 160 characters.\u00a0 Anything over that number was split across multiple messages and this presented a problem.\u00a0 The coders were struggling with technical issues that arose with the large character sets.\u00a0 Minor headaches that could be fixed.<\/p>\n

Users were frustrated by receiving multiple messages strung together in succession.\u00a0 Again, fixable.<\/p>\n

Phone bills were racking up as multiple texts incurred multiple charges.\u00a0 All these were wholly fixable, but more importantly, Jack and his team asked the question that mattered most.\u00a0 It had nothing to do with technical parameters, message counts, or skyrocketing phone bills.\u00a0 It had a more meaningful mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy can\u2019t we say what is most important in less characters?\u201d<\/p>\n

So Jack mused that one could change the world in 140 characters. \u00a0He wanted to change his company’s operating parameters. He changed the world.<\/p>\n\n

Coders limited tweets to that number (140 allowed for 20 extra characters to include the user name). The world caught fire and the way we communicate has forever been changed.\u00a0 The gauntlet had been thrown for us to prove we could convey meaning, provide detailed information, and share our most important stories in a concise and clear manner.<\/p>\n

Jack was prophetically, unequivocally right.\u00a0 The world did change.\u00a0 We have had hostage situations thwarted in 140 character messages.\u00a0 We told the story of US Airways Flight 1549 landing on the Hudson through the 140-character limit. We even announced the elimination of a terrorist threat, on a covert mission nonetheless, via Twitter. \u00a0 Twitter has taught us to tell our story in the most condensed and effective manner possible, and the world has embraced this concept.<\/p>\n

140 characters allows us to take up very little space on a person\u2019s screen and in their already crowded mind. It allows us to say what we need to say and get on with life.\u00a0 It certainly allows us to remember important information more easily (and the unimportant things too\u2026I have seen way too many people\u2019s pictures of food over the years and heard too many times when they were \u201cgoing to the bathroom now\u201d).<\/p>\n

Those 140 characters, and Jack\u2019s prophetic words, also provide coaches and educators with a unique opportunity to grow their craft.\u00a0 If 140 characters was enough to thwart a hostage situation or tell the heroic story of a pilot landing a 747 on the Hudson River, surely 140 characters is more than enough for coaches to instruct their players on what matters most.<\/p>\n

Coaches face the constant, uphill battle of trying to buy valuable headspace with their players.\u00a0 What we teach is in continual competition with school, social media, TV, video games, and more.\u00a0 Children are inundated with messages today more than ever before and the attention needed and retention required to learn and assimilate what we teach is in constant flux.\u00a0 We also run the danger of boring them if we talk too much.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s athletes think in 140 character spurts.\u00a0 It is their language.\u00a0 They don\u2019t even use the phone like it was used in the \u201colden days\u201d! If you want to talk to a millennial, text him.\u00a0 He won\u2019t answer his phone. \u00a0He will text you in brief, to-the-point messages.<\/p>\n

Smart coaches have figured out that if they can say what they mean in less time and words, they have a better chance at being heard and understood.\u00a0 If they want players to learn and apply the important technical and tactical principles of the game, they need to speak the language of the players.<\/p>\n

140-Character Coaching.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I challenge you to become a Twitter coach for a few games and test the results.\u00a0 Learn to compress what you need to say in as few characters as you can, make it powerful and memorable, and then get out of the way and let them play.<\/p>\n

This type of communication is most effective in game situations, when time is of the essence.\u00a0 They have little time to listen and even less to make the adjustments you seek.<\/p>\n

As on Twitter, where you become more deliberate about what you say, so too in games, you must be concise and clear.\u00a0 It really is not vital to tell the world about every mundane detail of your day via Twitter.\u00a0 It is also not vital that you speak every moment of every game about every mundane detail.\u00a0 Find out what matters to the overall welfare of the team and the game and speak only about that. Do so in 140 characters too.<\/p>\n

Here are some hints for Twitter coaching in games:<\/strong><\/p>\n