我们都经历了由COVID-19. Our lives have been turned upside down and we’re surrounded by tons of uncertainty. This has greatly impacted our coaching businesses and as a result, our athletes as well. The sports world has come to a screeching halt, events are being postponed or canceled around the world; leaving athletes asking, ‘Coach, what now?’
作为一名教练，这将不是您最后一次通过未知的水域为运动员提供帮助。无论是像闪电关闭当地游泳池一样简单，您的运动员问：‘教练，我无法参加游泳锻炼；我该怎么办？’，或者由于天气或全球大流行的严重程度而被取消的种族。作为一名教练，您必须加强领导。当我们选择执教时，我们选择成为领导者。当我们意识到教练不仅仅是制定培训计划时，正是这样的时候。
这绝不意味着我们玩鸵鸟，把头放在沙滩上，并假装用众所周知的玫瑰色眼镜看一切。相反，相反。我们应该遵循一个简单的三步过程：解决情况，同情，（不同情；我们在这里不是在这里辅助运动员，我们在这里指导和领导他们）并提出解决方案。
Scenario 1: “Coach, I’m done, I broke my collarbone!”
一名运动员打电话给我，立即，很明显有什么问题。在眼泪的边缘，他说他刚从医院回到家。那天早些时候骑自行车，他坠毁了his collarbone. He had big race plans that season and sadly expressed, “Coach, I’m done, I broke my collarbone.” I just listened for a few minutes as he described what happened. He was under the impression that he was not able to train for weeks.
I started by解决情况: “Joe, I completely understand; injuries like this can be very challenging and painful. And yes, we are going to have to put some workouts on the shelf, like swimming and upper strength training.”
Then moved on toempathizing. “I realize you’ve put a ton of work into your recent training and this is very disheartening.”
Lastly, I challenged him towork through a solution together：“但是，这是个好消息，我们可以做很多工作。因此，我们将重点关注这一点，而不是对我们无法做的事情的任何关注或精力。明天，您将去健身房尝试较低的体重锻炼。”
You would have thought I handed Joe a pot of gold. His spirits lifted as he realized he could still get in some good workouts during the healing process. This is all the athlete is looking for. They want to be coached and they want to be led.
Scenario 2: “Coach, my race is postponed/canceled; I’m going to stop my coaching plan.”
This is very relevant in the current global pandemic. An athlete reaches out to you and says, “Coach, all of my races have been postponed. What if these races are never rescheduled? What if I put all of this work in and I cannot race until later in the year? I think I am just going to stop my coaching.” Notice how the athlete asked, ‘what if?’ twice.
According to《福布斯》， “如果？”陈述使压力和忧虑的火灾燃烧。事情可能会朝着一百万个不同的方向发展，而您花更多的时间担心可能性，您将花在专注于采取行动的时间越多，以使您平静下来并保持压力受到控制。平静的人们知道问“如果呢？”只会把它们带到他们不想要或需要的地方.
At this point, the coach’s calm in chaos becomes invaluable. We have to understand that these knee-jerk reactions are very common.
So, our response is解决情况并同情by saying: “I completely understand, as these are extremely challenging times for all of us. And as an athlete myself, that would be my first reaction as well.”
Then通过解决方案挑战他们by saying: “So, let’s do this, we are going to keep this ‘race’ on the schedule. I will make some changes to a workout so that you’ll achieve race-effort intensity. And then, we are going to keep moving forward with the training. Then once the race schedule resumes, we are going to take this fitness you’ve built and crush it. Plus, by staying consistent with your workouts, you will remain sharp, both physically and mentally. We are going to build some big fitness over the next few weeks and months which you can then showcase in the near future!”
这三个简单的步骤适用于众多场景，除了这两个介绍。它们的功能甚至超出了运动之外，并且在日常生活中同样有价值。考虑屏住呼吸，并与您的运动员一起浏览每一步，然后才能在生活抛出曲线球时开始惊慌失措。
Coaches, I wish you all good health and safety as we are all in this together as we feel the effects of this global pandemic. Let’s take our coaching and our leadership to new heights and let’s continue to help assist our athletes in achieving goals they never thought possible!
