When have you heard performers (or coaches) make the following kind of statements: “I felt totally in the groove”, “I feel like I’m going to crack under the pressure”, “I’ve got a knot in my stomach whenever I think about it”, or “Trying to change that would be opening a can of worms”.As coaches, we seem to implicitly understand each of these statements, and can put ourselves in the place of the performer.  We look through the metaphor of “pressure” or “knots” and make an interpretation about how they feel or what that might actually mean.  Acting as if we understand them, we might interpret the metaphor as “anxiety”, and then identify a strategy to reduce this. As human beings, our communication is “littered” with metaphors – they are pervasive in our lives, although we often look through, rather than look at, them. 

A metaphor essentially carries meaning from one thing or place to another, with the term being derived from the Greek, meta meaning “above”, and pherein meaning “to carry or bear” (Kopp, 1998).  Rather than just be linguistic patterns, metaphors actually provide us with a wonderful opportunity to work within the performer’s “map” and facilitate rapid changes that will be readily accepted and resilient under pressure.

The first step is noticing someone’s use of metaphor – this is actually harder than you might think.  As metaphors are so pervasive within our communication, we often use them unknowingly.  Alternatively, we can ask an individual who is seeking improvement (e.g. with a golf swing), “What does it feel like?”, “What is that like?”, “What images come to mind?” By asking these, forms of questions, you will typically get a response which is laden with metaphorical language (e.g. “It’s like I’m strangling the club”, “It’s just not smooth”, “It’s not grooved yet, its like a  record skipping”, “Changing that would be opening a can of worms”) – at this point, it’s vital that you look at the metaphor. 

Let’s take the “it’s just not smooth” metaphor.  Rather than assume that we understand this, let’s ask the performer to describe the metaphor further – What images come to mind?  What does “smooth” and “not smooth” look like?   At this point, the client might make statements such as “It’s like the wheels need greasing, all the gears are grinding at the moment”.  With the answers to these questions, you are helping the performer to explore their “metaphorical landscape”, identifying key aspects of the way that they symbolically represent this skill / movement in their psychological world. 

Once the performer becomes more aware of their metaphor, we can invite them to make a change (e.g. “If you could change the gears in any way, what might you do?”, or “What would it be like to apply just a little grease?”  “If you could grease just one wheel, which would that be?”) The metaphor represents the “meaning” of the situation, and so exploring and transforming this allows individuals to quickly change their perceptions and therefore their potential choices.   

Often as coaches, we often “add to the mix”.  We teach technical skills to a performer – like adding clay to a statue.  By working within the client’s metaphorical landscape, we aren’t adding clay, we’re chipping away until the underlying structure is revealed. 

Contemporary coaching research clearly shows that clients coached through metaphorical approaches don’t suffer from technical paralysis and the skills are much more resilient under pressure.  In a game like golf, this is sorely needed!