As parents and coaches, we can get into the habit of telling our kids what to do and how to do it. Whilst there is a time to explicitly instruct, an overuse of using explicit instruction can lead to a dependency from learner to teacher or child to parent.

To build confidence,  a strategy is to first observe them as they explore and use their own creativity to solve the problem/obstacle allowing them the process of trial and error. It is all too tempting to jump in and say what technique or body movement might work. In the same way when you have seen the latest movie, you are excited to tell everybody the ending. But you know if you tell them the ending, it will spoil their experience, so you tell them to go see it first and then you can talk about the experience together once they have seen it. I encourage you to approach Ninja in the same way.

Avoiding “Spoilers” encourages them to rely on themselves first before turning and getting someone else to fix their problem/obstacle. The inner voice we want them to have is one that says “ok, that did not work, I will try something else”. Instead of “ I am not good enough, somebody needs to tell me what to do.”

There is not one perfect way to do an obstacle, but many different ways. The highly trained Ninja, learns all of them and uses the right one in the right moment.