QUOTE
We don’t learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience - John Dewey
OBSERVATION
It’s important to diversify assessment usage
I still remember my time with my last military contract and how excited the upper brass were to show off our TOPS (Test of Performance Strategies) scores. And yet - I couldn’t help feel frustrated as every cycle the data would roll in.
TOPS scores always improved
General consensus was the cognitive performance program was a waste of time and they would rather spend time on actual mission work
Personnel consistently stated, “We believe in you two, but we don’t believe in the program”
It was an experience that always stuck with me and carried back into sports. How can I better show value through assessment work? That is a great opportunity for us in the field. To diversify how we view and use them.
AN ACTIONABLE IDEA
Focus on monitoring and supporting key factors
Quick example here for reference. I may be teaching certain skills and routines with a football team. Supporting key elements of their performance - so I want to put an assessment tool together that reflects that. We created a post game eval, conducted via qualtrics that reflect the game and week. Below are a couple examples:
Pre-Snap, my focus was clear from distractions (1-5 likert scale)
Between drives, I was able to reset energy and focus (1-5 likert scale)
During the week, I was able to memorize my opponent and responsibilities without confusion (1-5 likert scale)
What these types of questions allowed us to do as a staff was to adjust support from game to game. If focus was distracted, we could easily identify if it was due to an inability to self-regulate or was it due to poor film study and lack of memorizing responsivities? This in turn influenced the routine we would emphasize for the following week. What this does is help coaches see our value as intertwined within an athletes performance - not as a separate set of mental skills that may or may not be relevant.
Assessment usage can be a great way to showcase that value - as long as we do it in a creative way.
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Thanks!
Russ
This is something I kept trying to convey to the organizations I worked in. I tried explaining that sport-specific and athlete-oriented assessments, especially in individual sports would be more meaningful, but I couldn't succeed. Here in India, there is almost like an obsession to administer tests without really putting a thought into what will even be helpful or not.
I think the best book to read in this area is "The Tyranny of Metrics" which isn't quite as anti-metrics as it may sound. It speaks largely to how we tend to measure what's easy, and not what matters.
For me as a budding practitioner, my concern is to demonstrate value, not just to my client or employer, but to myself. I want to get better at measurements and assessments, although I don't want to be reliant on them, I think they have a great deal of complimentary utility.
The approach I favour is like that of the US Federal Reserve Bank, and their "Beige Book" which gives a snapshot of the health of the US economy. It has metrics of course, but those metrics are coloured by anecdotes of behaviour that give life to the metrics. I think this serves to feed both the scientific and the story-minded among us.
Great article Russ!