Picture the coach who spends hours with a player working on ironing out technical faults and giving tactical solutions to common situations. The player is inexperienced and benefits from improved techniques and awareness of game situations
Great coaching right?
In fact it can be part of a unhelpful cycle of behaviour called The Drama Triangle.
What is it and - more importantly - how do we avoid the trap while still helping players?
Stop Rescuing Cricketers
According to the Drama Triangle, the intention to help can lead a coach to become a "rescuer".
A rescuer is a role that feeds unhelpful thoughts and behaviours in players. In other words, it reduces performance.
Rescuing is built on good intentions to help. In reality it makes the player reliant on the coach to fix them. The have not learned any skills of self-sufficiency: problem solving, resilience or self-awareness. The coach does not allow the player to have any agency of their game.
It's so easy to fall into this trap because many players are playing another role: Victim.
The victim role is characterised by feeling powerless. They need a coach to tell them what's wrong. They need a coach to fix things. The victim has no confidence in their ability so they look for two things,
someone or something to blame (a Persecutor).
someone to save them (a Rescuer).
The coach enables this role by taking the role of rescuer. Each role feels good to those playing it so it feeds itself. The coach gets an ego boost from being essential. The player feels like they are having their problems solved. Unfortunately, it leads to the common issue of players who look great in nets but freeze under match circumstances because they can’t lean on the coach.
A coach can also become the persecutor when the victim mentality looks for someone to blame when they get a duck or get hit for 26 in an over.
I've experienced this.
I have had players blame my coaching for not "making" them better. I have also assumed I had all the answers and just needed to "fix" players.
To break this cycle, we need to stop rescuing cricketers. Even if they want us to.
Coaching is the Opposite of Rescuing
The Drama Triangle happens so often because we don’t realise it’s happening. It creeps up on us while we try to help and be player-centred. We say things like,
“Why would I waste time when I can just tell the player what’s wrong and how to fix it?”
“I’m the expert, I’ve studied and practised for years, I’m a better judge than the player”
“I’m player-centred and the player is asking for help so I give it.”
“Players don’t know what they need, I can show them even if it takes tough love.”
“What’s the point of a coach if it’s not to iron out flaws and build up strengths?”
Thinking like this is seductive because it makes sense. It’s not wrong. However it also reinforces the roles in the Drama Triangle. So it’s not optimal. It;s a form of thinking trap.
So let’s go the opposite way, and see what happens.
A more helpful approach is to set your role as the guiding coach, not the instructing rescuer. This is as much a philosophical change as a practical one - and that takes some work - but you can do some things right away too,
Find ways to ask empowering questions to players. This can be actual questions, but it can also mean setting them challenges in the environment.
Understand resistance from the victim mentality and be aware when a player has slipped into it ("can you just tell me what I’m doing wrong?") so you can guide them back.
Think carefully before shouting. A player might need a rocket but often it's just making you a persecutor if the rocket is not also backed up by support.
Once you spot the drama triangle in yourself and players, it's easy to get out of but it takes constant work. Remember, this is not a judgement of your character, it's just a thinking trap we sometimes fall into. Reflect on how you coach now (it's a good time) and decide if you can find ways to break out of it when it happens.