Last week I met a guy who gave me a pretty cool illustration. What if you had an empty cup and were told that you need to get the air out of it? We could probably come up with some kind of science experiment or something involving vacuums. Honestly, that was my first thought when I heard this. Perhaps it’s yours too. But this problem is easily solved. To get the air out of the empty cup we can just fill it with liquid.
This idea certainly applies to coaching athletes. Coaches have to help athletes fix mistakes. That’s a big part of your job. And the way in which that is carried out goes a long way toward determining how effective that correction will be. If Johnny should step with his left foot and he steps with his right, I can coach him to “step with the right foot”. I can repeat it as needed. I can even get animated about it if we get to that point. But coaching him to “stop stepping with the left foot” is less effective. It’s kind of like the old “try not to think about an elephant” deal. It just works better if a player hears “keep your feet moving” instead of “don’t stop your feet”, or “get your elbow in” instead of “stop letting your elbow fly out”.
Coach Fisher DeBerry says this: “A good Coach tells a player what he can do, not what he can’t”. Just this week, I am seeing that quote in a new way. It says “what he can do”, meaning what he is capable of. It doesn’t say, “what he’s already doing right”. We can do that too; pointing out the things others do well is important. But so is fixing mistakes. So when we fix mistakes, we can work to give our athletes a picture of what they should be doing, rather than what they are doing incorrectly. Remember, they will usually become what they think we think they can become.
Fill their cups with water and the air will always leave.
This principle works in our lives too. Spiritually, if there are areas of my life that need development, it will be very difficult (or impossible) to see real growth by trying to get rid of the ‘bad stuff’. If I’m trying to stop being a liar, I don’t need to focus on not lying. I can focus on being truthful. Only thing is, usually my own desire and effort to change are not going to get the job done, so to become a different person I’ve got to fill my empty cup with the Living Water of Jesus, training under Him to become like Him.