Teach How
to Teach

Icebreaker

Why Your Best Players Struggle to Teach

• Once a skill is automatic for you, you forget what it felt like not to have it. Researchers call this the curse of knowledge.
• So you go too fast, skip the steps that feel obvious to you, and explain in shorthand only you understand.
• The beginner is not slow—you are teaching from where you are, not from where they are.
• The fix is deliberate: slow down, break it down, and teach from the very first step.

Break It Down

• Deconstruct the skill into its smallest teachable parts—the foot, then the leg, then the horn, then the timing.
• Teach one chunk at a time, and do not add the next until the first is solid. Working memory can only hold a few things at once.
• Name each part so your people have language for it—you cannot fix what you cannot name.
• Assemble the chunks back into the whole only after each one holds on its own.

I Do. We Do. You Do.

Model the Standard

• Demonstrate it perfectly, slowly, and more than once. People copy what they see far more than what they hear.
• Narrate as you go—say what you are doing and why, so they learn the thinking, not just the shape.
• Be the reference. The standard is whatever you show them, so never model it sloppy.
• Show the wrong way once if it helps them see the difference—then erase it with three reps of the right way.

Check Before You Move On

• “Any questions?” is not checking for understanding. Silence is not proof that they got it.
• Make them show you. Have them do a rep, or teach the step back to you in their own words.
• Check everyone, not just the confident one up front—the quiet ones are often the ones who are lost.
• If they cannot do it yet, that is information for you: re-teach the chunk a new way, do not just repeat it louder.

Feedback That Actually Fixes It

• Be specific. "Fix your timing" is useless—"you're a half-count early on the horn snap" can be acted on.
• Be immediate. Correct it in the moment, before the wrong rep sets in.
• Tell them what to do, not just what is wrong. Feedback without a next step is only criticism.
• Praise the effort and the process, not just the talent—that is what keeps them working.

Repetition Is the Mother of Learning

• A skill is not learned until it is automatic under pressure. That takes many correct reps, not one.
• Make them deliberate reps—slow and perfect, then up to tempo—not mindless run-throughs that only rehearse mistakes.
• “Don't practice until you get it right; practice until you can't get it wrong.”
• This is THE Standard of Excellence: we keep drilling the fundamentals long after they already look fine.

Then Let Go

• You have taught it when they can do it without you—and, better still, teach it to the next person.
• Hand off responsibility as they prove ready; hovering forever only keeps them dependent on you.
• This is scaffolding: build the support, then take it away one piece at a time.
• A section that can run itself is the highest compliment to the leader who taught it.

The Whole Rep

• Break it down. One eight-count becomes the mark time, the step-off, the horn carriage, and the timing.
• I do. Demonstrate the full eight-count clean, then each chunk on its own, narrating the how and the why.
• We do. Walk it together at half tempo; they try it while you count and catch errors on the spot.
• You do and check. They run it alone; you watch each person and confirm before moving on.
• Feedback and reps. Fix the one thing that is off, drill it until it cannot fall apart—then release.