Electric Hurdles
Hub / Progression and Confidence / 7

Coaching Language

Say the words that produce the response. Keep the live cue, the teaching explanation and the technical account separate.

Founder method
Teach this lesson T
01Teach from here

Words Are an Intervention

The coach says the words that produce the response.Forceful metaphor, profanity, exaggeration and superhuman imagery are tools.

“I need you to put a hole in the track.”
SourcesKU-010A
Coach notes
  • Founder examples: "I need you to bust through a f'n wall." "I need you to put a hole in the track." "I need you to do some other superhuman thing."
  • Do not translate live coaching into sterile, dictionary-style prose. Precision without emotional connection can fail as coaching.
  • The right phrase is the one that unlocks the response in that athlete. The same phrase can work for one and fail for another.
SourcesKU-010A
02Teach from here

Three Registers, Three Fields

Every important cue carries three fields.What is said. The response it should produce. What it means technically.

RegisterJob
Live cuetrigger the emotional and physical response now
Teaching languagehelp the athlete understand before or after the rep
Technical accountdefine, explain, measure and defend the mechanism
Registers
Coach notes
  • The technical explanation may clarify the cue but must not replace or weaken it. Every cue on this site is stored that way.
SourcesKU-010A; DEC · 2026-08-07 Coaching Language Is a Performance Intervention
03Teach from here

Name the Destination

Put attention on the desired state, not a catalog of faults.Repeated attention to what is wrong can strengthen it.

Coach notes
  • North Pole Doctrine is a formal psychological doctrine: name the destination, set the direction, prepare for the destination's demands, and let the pursuit rule out incompatible choices. Fear-based correction may sometimes work; it is not the governing method.
  • Real versus Feel belongs to the same psychological architecture: a felt instruction is judged by the real action it produces.
SourcesKU-015F

Related

  • Practice Runs on Themes -- Each working unit carries one stated theme. The coach names it, saturates it, and the athlete brings it forward.
  • Forward Lean, the North Pole -- Forward lean is the one positive target that organizes the trail leg, the core, stiffness and the torso at once.
  • Hitting the Track -- Hit the track before you hit the track. The effective strike lands slightly behind you and sends you down the track.

Every screen