Leonard Cohen’s Preface to the Chinese translation of his collection of Beautiful Losers poems includes this passage:
When I was young, my friends and I read and admired the old Chinese poets. Our ideas of love and friendship, of wine and distance, of poetry itself, were much affected by those ancient songs. … So you can understand, Dear Reader, how privileged I feel to be able to graze, even for a moment, and with such meager credentials, on the outskirts of your tradition.
His thoughts sprang to mind this week when I had an opportunity to meet two coaches (a head coach and an assistant coach). I did feel immensely privileged to spend time with them. I had been following the coaching career of the head coach for over a decade. The assistant coach has been involved in my critical friend project for five years.
When we met I had one question: “How have you turned around the energy in the team?”. What they shared, in confidence, fascinated me. When I watched the team perform, I saw at first hand the outstanding performances of understanding they had co-produced with the two coaches.
I was in awe of the privileged access I had to their coaching on the outskirts of their everyday practice … grazing.
Photo Credit
At the game (Keith Lyons, CC BY 4.0)
Outside (Keith Lyons, CC BY 4.0)
Hello Keith I would love to know a bit more about how they changed the energy in the team. I’m currently acting Dean in the Cardiff School of Educatiin and Social Policy at Cardiff Met and am working on doing just that. Any tips would be gratefully received.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Julia
Thank you for finding the post, Julia. I will write.