By Coach Barry Jones | IIHF Level 3 High Performance | USA Hockey Level 3 Performance

We Don’t Develop Coaches by Telling Them What to Do

Coach development has traditionally followed a simple model: deliver information, demonstrate drills, and expect replication.

The assumption is that knowledge leads to better coaching.

But knowledge doesn’t change behaviour. Environment does.

The Problem With Traditional Coach Education

Most systems are built on certainty: this is the drill, this is the system, this is the correct way.

It creates coaches who can run sessions, but struggle to adapt when the environment changes.

Because they’ve learned what to do, not how to think.

From Instruction to Exploration

If we want better coaches, we need to change the environment they learn in.

Instead of giving answers, we create problems. Instead of prescribing drills, we ask questions.

Learning becomes active, contextual, and adaptable.

Designing Coach Development Environments

If you want coaches to think, adapt, and design, the environment must demand it.

Coaches build tasks, test them, adjust them, and reflect in real time.

Mentorship Is Not Instruction

Traditional mentorship gives answers and directs behaviour.

A better approach guides attention through questions.

What did you see? What behaviour did your task create? What could you change?

Creating a Culture of Experimentation

Development happens in exploration, not control.

Coaches need space to try, fail, and adjust to evolve.

Teaching Coaches to Design

I was asked to build a training program for a club in Western Australia.

Instead of delivering sessions, I asked: how do I help these coaches build their own?

Don’t Give Coaches the Answer

This led to the development of Task Sketch.

A system that allows coaches to design small area games, explore constraints, and connect tasks to behaviour.

It doesn’t give answers. It develops thinking.

From Running Sessions to Building Capability

The goal isn’t better sessions. It’s better coaches.

Better coaches create better environments, which create better players.

Identity Through Environment

Coaches change because the environment demands it.

They shift from asking what drill to run to what behaviour to create.

Closing Thought

We don’t develop coaches by giving more information.

We develop them by changing the environments they learn in.

Coaches become better by seeing more.

What Comes Next

What happens when this approach is applied at the highest level?

Author Bio

Barry Jones is an IIHF Level 3 High Performance Coach and USA Hockey Level 3 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.