Knowing when to step in, what to give, and when to step back out
By Coach Barry Jones
IIHF Level 3 High Performance | USA Hockey Level 4 Performance
Throughout this series, I've talked a lot about exploration.
Design the problem.
Keep meaningful information in the task.
Give athletes room to discover solutions.
Let them calibrate those solutions through experience.
But there's an obvious question:
What happens when they don't find one?
Sometimes an athlete explores a problem and nothing useful emerges.
They repeat the same unsuccessful solution.
They can't organise the movement they need.
Or perhaps we can see an opportunity that simply isn't available to them yet.
This is where I think conversations around nonlinear coaching can become unnecessarily divided.
Either we let athletes discover everything themselves, or we step in and teach them.
I don't think coaching works that way.
Sometimes the best thing I can do is provide information.
The coaching skill is knowing how much.
Exploration Doesn't Mean No Instruction
I still demonstrate movements.
I still use technical instruction.
I still create brief periods of blocked repetition.
Sometimes I even tell an athlete exactly what I want them to try.
For me, none of those things conflict with designing exploratory environments.
The question is:
What information does this athlete need right now to continue exploring?
That changes instruction from being the default starting point to something we can use deliberately.
Instead of:
I know the answer, so I'll give it to you.
It becomes:
You're stuck. What can I give you that helps you move again?
That's a very different coaching behaviour.
The Reverse Toe Drag
I saw this recently while working with an athlete on a puck problem.
I had deliberately constrained some of the solutions available to them.
Not because those solutions were wrong, but because I wanted to make other possibilities more visible.
As the task developed, a reverse toe drag started to become relevant.
But it didn't simply emerge perfectly.
The athlete could see the possibility, but didn't yet have enough movement experience to organise it effectively.
At that point, continuing to say “figure it out” wouldn't have made the environment more athlete-centred.
It may simply have left them stuck.
So I changed the environment again.
I brought in a performance player who already used the reverse toe drag effectively.
For a few minutes, the task became much more traditional.
Watch this.
Try it.
Get some repetitions.
Feel what the movement does.
There was nothing particularly nonlinear about those few minutes.
And that was fine.
Because the block wasn't the destination.
It was a scaffold.
Put the Information Back
This is the part I think matters most.
After those repetitions, we didn't stay there.
The athlete went back into the problem.
Pressure returned.
Space changed.
Timing mattered again.
The movement now had to compete with other possibilities.
The athlete had to recognise whether the reverse toe drag was actually useful.
And the movement started changing.
It became less like the demonstration and more like their solution.
That's an important distinction.
We temporarily removed information so the athlete could organise a movement.
Then we put the information back.
If you remove information to help develop the movement, have a plan for putting the information back.
That principle has become increasingly important in my coaching.
Isolation can help.
The danger isn't necessarily removing information.
The danger is forgetting to return it.
A Scaffolding Ladder
I've started thinking about intervention as a ladder.
If an athlete becomes stuck, I don't necessarily need to jump straight to demonstrating the answer.
I can add information progressively.
I might begin with:
What did you see?
If that doesn't move them:
Where was the available space?
Then perhaps:
Could you solve it UNDER, OVER, AROUND or THROUGH?
Still stuck?
What happens if you move the defender's stick first?
And if the movement itself is the limitation:
Try this and tell me what you notice.
Each step gives the athlete a little more information.
The important part is that I don't have to stay on the bottom rung.
Once the athlete starts moving again, I can climb back up.
Less instruction.
More information from the environment.
More ownership returned to the athlete.
That's scaffolding.
Don't Confuse Support With Prescription
Sometimes athletes need support.
New-to-game athletes may need more.
A movement they've never experienced may need more.
A complex coordination problem may need more.
And even performance athletes sometimes need someone to show them something they haven't encountered before.
Providing that support isn't failure.
The problem occurs when the scaffold becomes permanent.
If every problem immediately produces a demonstration, athletes don't get much opportunity to search.
If every mistake immediately produces correction, they don't get much opportunity to calibrate.
If every movement has a prescribed model, they don't get much opportunity to adapt it.
The scaffold should help the athlete access the problem.
It shouldn't become the problem.
Coaching the Individual
This is also why I don't think the same level of instruction works for every athlete.
Two players can face exactly the same problem and need completely different information from me.
One might need:
Find another way AROUND.
Another might need to watch a teammate.
Another might need me to manipulate the defender.
Another may need thirty seconds of direct technical instruction.
The task can be shared.
The support doesn't have to be.
That is where coaching becomes individualised without necessarily isolating the athlete from the game.
We're not asking:
What is the correct amount of instruction?
We're asking:
What does this athlete need to continue solving this problem?
Step Back Out
Perhaps the most important part of scaffolding is knowing when to remove it.
It's easy to step in.
Coaches are good at that.
The harder skill can be recognising when our intervention has done its job.
The athlete has enough information.
The movement has started to organise.
The problem is becoming solvable again.
Now step back.
Let the defender change.
Let the space disappear.
Let another opportunity emerge.
Let the movement fail occasionally.
Let the athlete decide whether the solution still fits.
Because the purpose of the scaffold was never to make the athlete dependent on the coach.
It was to help them re-enter the problem.
Take It to the Ice
At your next practice, notice one moment where an athlete becomes stuck.
Before giving them the solution, ask yourself:
What's actually limiting them?
Can they not see the opportunity?
Do they understand the problem but lack a movement solution?
Do they need another attempt?
Could a question redirect their attention?
Could changing the environment reveal something?
Would watching another athlete help?
Or is this one of those moments where a demonstration and a few blocked repetitions would actually be useful?
Give them the smallest amount of information that helps them move forward.
Then watch for the moment you can remove it again.
Because good scaffolding isn't measured by how much support we can provide.
It's measured by whether the athlete eventually doesn't need it.
Coming Next: Stacking Problems
Finding one solution is useful.
But games rarely present one problem at a time.
In Part 5, we'll explore what happens when UNDER, OVER, AROUND and THROUGH begin interacting, and how coaches can create environments where athletes start combining movement solutions without us prescribing the combination.
Barry Jones is an IIHF Level 3 High Performance Coach and USA Hockey Level 4 Performance Coach. His work blends ecological dynamics, nonlinear design, and athlete-centred leadership to build adaptive teams that thrive in uncertainty. He is also the developer of Task Sketch, a tool designed to support coaches in creating game-representative training environments.
