Dunning-Kruger Effect: Us young coaches think we are great

Picture at last weekend's Ton Le Gaoithe Wind Sprint Meet (Brian Corcoran, Paul McKee, Paddy Fay, Shane McCormack)

According to Wikipedia, the Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which low ability individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability as much higher than it really is. The graph below was presented by Athletigen, a sports genetics and performance company, to represent the Coach's brain.

The profile of a large percentage of our elite (sprints) coaches in Ireland is very young, i.e. coaching only 5-10 years. All probably early in their coaching careers, all enjoying relative success and all thinking they are somewhat the bees knees. Confidence is high.

As we progress and go through generations of athletes, achieve more success but also failure and generally become more experienced, per the Dunning-Kruger effect we will likely hit a crisis of confidence. 

It's at this stage in our coaching lifecycle when we will need a steadying hand on the ship, someone who has been there and done that, a mentor. So for a coach on this journey don't try to be a hero, reach out and get advice from an 'old schooler'.

You know the 'old schooler' type. They are the ones calmly walking around the track, no gizmos or gadgets, maybe a stopwatch, probably always in conversation with one person or another, not punching the air with a win or tossing a water bottle with a loss and will have been there and done that and got the tee shirt (an Asics one, an Adidas one and probably a New Balance one too).