Every Saturday morning is dedicated to my grandchildren in their junior bowling program. At those particular times, I am just "Grandpa Choc," cheering them on with enthusiasm and understanding. I let the voluntary, yet very skillful, coaching staff take over. As a certified coach myself, I like to observe and learn from other coach's advice and, particularly, their style of instructing.

While they are all teaching the same basic fundamentals, the way they go about passing on their knowledge sometimes differs by a lot; yet, they all manage to get their points across. But, isn't that what it's all about? In the Bronze Coaching seminar, we learned Fred Borden's golden rule about coaching, "In coaching, there are no rules."

Over the years, I have developed my own coaching guidelines and I have titled them, "The 4 Phases Of Coaching." Also, my own definition of the purpose of coaching is, "To assist, guide, and motivate students towards agreed upon goals." My style of coaching is "participative" rather than "directive" - I want my bowler to be involved with me all the way in order that they enjoy the journey through our lessons.

With that, here is the "Choc-List" of the 4 Phases of Coaching:

1) Introduction - The "getting to know you" time. Building rapport. Setting the groundwork for an open and friendly relationship. Feeling each other out so that the future coaching sessions will reap the utmost benefits to both people. In many cases, my first lesson is free because we spend a lot of it talking.

2) Probing - Why have you come to a coach? What do you want to achieve with your game, average, and/or scores? Do you want overall knowledge? Do you want to develop specific parts of your form or style?

3) Planning - "Probing" formulates thoughts and ideas used to develop goals together. Set benchmarks. Set up a step-by-step, week-by-week schedule of what is to be done. Agree upon the road map for how the student will get to the desired goal(s).

4) Action & Evaluation - How is progress to be measured? Can we set definable targets? Each goal or objective should not be too easily attainable, nor should they be too difficult to get to. (Remember The Baby Bear in "Goldilocks and the 3 Bears.")

The coach is responsible for controlling the 4 Phases while the student has to ensure that his/her focus centers on the content of the information and being able to gain an understanding of the principles that are presented.

A Hui Hou! (See You Again!)