Take A Deep Breath: What AI Can Teach Us About Coaching, Teaching, & Parenting
Haste makes waste... slow down to improve performance
Memorable sayings you can remember and use time and time again:
“Haste makes waste.”
“Be quick, but don’t be in a hurry.”
When working towards improvement, the best place to start is usually doing something at a pace that feels like molasses in winter.
AI Improves Performance via Human-like Prompts
In a research paper called "Large Language Models as Optimizers," the Google DeepMind team developed a technique to improve math ability in AI language models like ChatGPT.
How'd they do this?
By simply improving their prompting/instructions. By using human-style encouragement, the AI/LLM improved math skills dramatically. This matched with what prior research has shown.
DeepMind researchers found the phrase "Take a deep breath and work on this problem step by step" to be the most effective prompt… Which is wild given that computers don’t have lungs.
Hockey Coach Connection
The connection with hockey coaches is obvious: when a player is struggling or being prompted by a coach, coaches should ensure players do not rush their thinking.
Just like researchers found that "take a deep breath and work on this problem step by step" was an effective phrase, so is a similar prompt from a coach to a player.
Slow is smooth and smooth is fast
There are many times when slowing down improves technique the most, whether mental or physical. We’ve highlighted this a few times in regards to skating development.
and
The physical is much easier to showcase, given the video to back it up. Mentally, this is just as effective. So next time you find a player rushing through a situation... give them a simple prompt to "take a deep breath and go through this slowly."
Further Reading