Narrow the options to drive decision making and promote change.
When you are in conversation with your athletes / players or coaches, there will be a time when the conversation swirls, wonders and wanders, weighing up pros and cons and surfacing issues and ideas. You have a critical role to play when you get to this point!
There will be a time that discussion and debate require decisions. it might be clear to you and the client, which of the options is the best one to pursue.
Your job as sports scientist is often to help prioritise and to do so there is a need to deliver a key skill to summarise. When you summarise you will need to do so with a suggestion as to which you feel is the strongest (or least worst).
In this case narrow down the options in the following way;
- say how many options you think there are
- keep the options to 3 if you can
- give a few pros and cons
- leave your suggested approach to the last one you suggest
- be brief
Summarising is a key skill for practitioners, you will always need it. Learn how to develop and practice this skill in discussion to drive decisions.