I’ve never been a professional teacher, but I’ve done a lot of teaching, in a wide variety of settings, and I’ve observed and worked with a lot of professional educators. I’ve come to believe that there’s a lot more to teaching than being smart or even being able to explain things very clearly. Teaching is also about empathy. It’s about understanding where your students are coming from and presenting material in a way that guides them toward greater understanding. I think this is what people mean when they talk about “getting through” to someone.
This is especially important in one-on-one poker coaching, because it is a highly critical process. That is, I teach by criticizing, hopefully in a very constructive way, the play and thought processes of my students. Unlike my experiences teaching debate, where I was often dealing with audiences who would be the first to admit that they had virtually no prior knowledge of what I was teaching and so no pre-conceived notions to cling to or defend, when coaching poker I am dealing in a subject in which my students are already well-versed. My job is not to teach them something entirely new so much as to refine and in some cases correct things they already know or think they know.
It is difficult for anyone, no matter how open-minded and confident, to handle criticism. Even when students understand and agree with my critique of a hand, they sometimes feel the need to explain or defend themselves anyway, as if to say, “OK, yes, I see now that that is best, but I guess what I was thinking at the time was….” This is a perfectly understandable reaction and, if anything, a failing on my part.
I take my coaching very seriously, I care about the development of my students, and I believe I am always a good coach. I do my best to listen, to explain myself clearly, to answer questions patiently, and to guide without being heavy-handed. But there are a lot of good coaches out there, I’m sure.
When I am at my best, when I am offering great coaching, I am helping my students to circumvent their natural resistance to criticism and to re-thinking. I am creating an atmosphere that is conducive to open-mindedness and creativity. New ideas and information come across as eye-opening rather than threatening. Ideally, this is role I believe a coach ought to occupy, that of the guide rather than the advocate.
Tony Robbins everyone. Never lost a tourney.
Good to Great: Why Some Coaches Make the Leap… and Other Don’t. You are genuinely the one of very few poker players that I’d want to get coached by. Hopefully I can afford it one day.
Thanks very much, Pete. I hope so too!
I get the sense, but have no proof, that many poker coaches became coaches because they are good at poker. Your willingness to hone your craft as a coach, as well as a player, is to be commended.
I viewed your acknowledgement that you must criticize as recognition of “sometimes the best example is a bad example”. I recently participated in a course on leadership, where everything was presented in the form of “here’s what to do”. I don’t know if leadership can be taught, but I am certain you can learn some things NOT to do. So I asked for examples of bad leadership.
I think you simply hit on human psychology. We can usually accept being told something new to do, but its difficult to accept being told NOT to do something we have previous done. Golf and Poker Mindset coach Jared Tendler wrote about this recently. Truly improving requires elimination of mistakes as well as repetition of your good habits.
I meant to add that this is one of the things I like/appreciate about your blog. You post analysis of as many “bad” hands of your own as you do your winners. Thanks for your time and effort.
Thanks, pie. Very well said, and of course I appreciate the kind words.
We can all benefit from “beginner’s mind”! We learn from our students, so teaching and mentoring are mutually rewarding. Meeting students where they are is very powerful. Being humble, teaching through your mistakes, is a great strategy which shows that you feel secure and puts the student at ease. This is a good reminder for me starting a new semester! Thanks, Andrew!