Why Am I Talking? The W.A.I.T. Principle Every Coach Should Know

One of the most interesting concepts that I came across in my coach education journey was something called the [W.A.I.T.] principle. … [It’s in] something called the NCCP Mentorship module, which is not really a module that is taken by a lot of people. It’s very difficult to get that booked.

And I think that there is a principle inside the Mentorship module that should be included as one of the foundational principles of every coach level one course.

W-A-I-T. Why am I talking? Why am I going to interrupt the group right now and say something? Is that a good idea? Should I be silent? Is now the right time to say something? Or even, am I the best person to say what needs to be said? And then, of course, does something need to be said at all?

When you’re working with athletes, number one, you might not have enough information about the person to give proper guidance, and that’s, of course, when a lot of people get into trouble. They give feedback in a way, or at a time, when the athlete is not open to that feedback, and that can cause a lot of challenges for both parties.

During my coach developer journey, I was very fortunate to experience a guiding-first experience, where the facilitators are really there to guide and moderate conversations, and only if necessary, if they’re not hearing what the students [need to show] during the course, does a learning facilitator step in as an instructor.

Around the same time, I got a chance to go into the middle phase of my training as a Master Coach Developer, which included being in the same room as the Master Coach Developer as I supported coaches going through the learning facilitator training and evaluation.

So imagine there’s 10 coaches taking a course. There’s the learning facilitator. And then there’s me and the Master Coach Developer watching the learning facilitator and taking notes and deciding: does something need to be said? Am I the person to say it? Is now the right time?

Because we’re trying to role model every level down. We’re trying to role model how to navigate creating an optimal learning environment for the students, whether they’re adults or children, with … an appreciation for the time it takes to master these concepts.

When you jump off the plane and arrive in some community and you are not part of the community, you need to demonstrate very quickly … [that] you can acknowledge that everybody brings unique experiences to this course, and that my role is exclusively that of a facilitator. And there’s three ways that I’m going to show up for you.

Number one, I’m going to guide you through a number of learning activities that are problem-based, that help you reflect on your personal experiences and match the goals that you have for the course. If some type of disagreement arises, my role is to role model how to moderate that discussion and find common ground.

And finally, if there are information gaps that I deem necessary for me to say and fill today … Does something need to be said? Am I the right person? [Is] now the right time? Do I have to say something in order to guarantee the safety or the general knowledge of the group? Then yes, okay, maybe I’m going to do a little instruction.

But if there’s an opportunity that, you know, you and I are going to connect after this course or [on] an ongoing basis, and I can provide those little bits of information later in your experience, then, hey, maybe I’m not going to say anything.

• 1. GuideProblem-based activities that start from what the group already knows.
• 2. ModerateWhen two people disagree, model how to find common ground.
• 3. InstructOnly to fill a gap that matters today, especially for safety.

One structure that helps with the “guide” part is called 1-2-4-All: everyone reflects alone first, then talks it through with a partner, then in a group of four, and then the whole group shares.

In HopOn, there’s many things that the instructors learn during the season. I remember doing these weekly mentorship calls, and I knew week one what they were going to talk about and what I was probably going to say. Whereas week four, the topic was totally different, because they had built some confidence and now they were looking at some more of the details of the teaching.

Whereas in week eight, or we move into the summer season, let’s say, after May and June, now we’re figuring out how to teach these basic skills outside of the safety of the school grounds, and we’re in parks and trails and all sorts of other places that provide other challenges to overcome as an instructor group.

That’s the biggest thing that you need to remember as a learning facilitator: you’re a guest in this community. And your time is limited.

I was in Nova Scotia, and we were doing a HopOn learning facilitator training. We had people from all over Atlantic Canada there, and I wanted to help them find common ground. So we actually played a fun game as an icebreaker.

There’s a board game called Mastermind … So we played Mastermind with cones on a field, and I think we had some type of mat that we put up as a visual block, and it was a fantastic way to help figure out, in this group of five or six people, how they work together: who is able to identify the patterns, who is able to help guide the conversation forward, or, when the conversation went backwards, [who was] able to pivot the whole group.

It was a fantastic way to see pattern-recognizing behaviour and leadership skills in guiding conversations gently and making recommendations as a group.

If you can understand why you’re doing something, why everyone else is doing something, why is everybody here today, then that can help you match your values with your actions. And you can all work together in some type of harmony towards the vision or the goal.

And of course, the path may waver or be bumpy at times, but if the why is clear and the vision is clear, then yeah, okay, the way to get to that outcome can be different.