A TWI Story Id like to relate a story that points to the universality of the TWI principles.

In the spring of 2006, I was voluntold to be the coach of my youngest sons soccer team. Minor soccer in Calgary is organized in tiers, based on player ability. My sons team was at the lowest tier Division 4b. Although I played soccer as a kid, and one season in university, Id never coached a sports team in my life, much less kids. My consulting practice was ramping up, and the last thing I wanted or needed was to be saddled with coaching a not-very-talented team of beginners. The time came for our first practice, and I had no idea what Id do. I showed up at the field, and as the kids arrived, they grabbed balls and ran around and I watched them, trying to get an idea of their skill level. It was, to put it mildly, abysmal. It was obvious that most of them had never played, they had difficulty with basic passing, dribbling, trapping. What had I gotten myself into? I remembered some drills from when I played, and needed to quickly figure out how to teach these kids what they needed to do and keep the practice moving. How? A few weeks prior, Id been exposed to a remarkable learning system from WWII called Training Within Industry TWI. One component of the system, called Job Instruction (JI) was supposed to be able to teach skills rapidly to brand new workers. It had been used to create the Rosie the Riveter phenomenon of training a completely new nontraditional workforce for the war effort. I grabbed a portable whiteboard and a pen, and quickly wrote out plans to teach a few progressively more complicated drills based on the JI methods, then called the kids together to get started. JI uses a 4 step method for instruction 1) Prepare the individual 2) present the operation 3) Try out performance 4) Follow up. Based on what Id seen while the kids were running around before the practice, I didnt hold much hope, but I got them started. All I can say is Wow!. They caught on, faster than I would have thought possible, and we got through some very complex drills in that first practice. You have to remember, these kids had been labeled as the least talented in the club, and most of them had never really played the game before. That first

practice, and the JI method, laid the foundation for our season they learned how to play the game, they dominated their opponents, they were undefeated and they came within an overtime goal (and a lucky one at that) of winning the city championship. Of the 16 kids, 9 were recruited at the end of our season to play for higher division teams, usually in higher age groups too. And all of them moved up to the higher divisions their next season. They started out as a bunch of bumbling kids, and they finished as a team of athletes with focus, skill and determination. Damn, I was proud of them. And I learned something: the TWI methods have powerful applications far from industry. They just work. Period. Id pretty much forgotten about that phase of my life until this week at the TWI Summit in Orlando FL, when I met Swen Nater and the team from a new organization called BeLikeCoach. Swen is a retired NBA player, a first round draft pick after winning two national championships with UCLA, playing for the legendary Coach John Wooden. BeLikeCoach has adapted the TWI methods into a comprehensive system for sports instruction called Training Within Sports (TWS). It is, in a word, brilliant. I used JI, and to a lesser degree JR (when dealing with parents, mostly) and I could hardly call what I did systematic. BeLikeCoach has taken it much further, and developed a comprehensive system for developing coaches. Their aim is to create coaching programs that allow kids to excel because they believe (as I do) that lessons we learn in sports are vital lessons for life, and kids who play and learn on the sports field are better prepared for the challenges they will face outside of sports.

Im very impressed with what BeLikeCoach is doing, and it proves yet again the universal applicability of the TWI methods. I encourage you to look them up at www.BeLikeCoach.com, take a look for yourself and get involved with them in your community. - 30 -