Coaches – Do You Have a Muscle Memory Goal for Your Athletes?
Coaches typically always set practice goals and seasonal goals for their team. Coaches may even set a few individual performance goals to push specific athletes. However, it’s rare that a coach articulates specific muscle memory goals for their team or their athletes.
This is not to say that coaches don’t constantly drill techniques and skills to build muscle memory. But I just don’t think enough coaches vocalize a specific target for the execution of a muscle memory process. Let me explain.
Muscle memory is the ability to execute a skill flawlessly without thinking. When an athlete commits a skill to muscle memory, they’re more accurate, faster, and more efficient. Coaches typically teach muscle memory through repetitive drilling. Unfortunately however, the problem with this is that repetitive drilling is boring and boring practice sessions are less effective.
In the coach’s mind as their athletes are drilling there is a goal for accuracy, speed, and efficiency. Yet, in the athletes mind these goals are vague. The athlete is doing their best to repeat the drills to some mythical standard that keeps the coach from yelling at them. That’s pretty much all the athlete has to go on. Over time, all but the most elite athletes lose interest.
What if athletes explicitly new the muscle memory goal the coach was attempting to reach when doing these repetitive drills? What if there was a measurable, specific standard? Athletes could then be recognized and “level upped” each time they hit a muscle memory goal. This then makes the repetitive drilling not so boring as process goals like this drive a tremendous amount of motivation for the vast majority of athletes.
While it may not be simple or common for coaches to articulate muscle memory goals to their athletes, it’s well worth the effort.