- The Deep Dive
- Posts
- Do you know, or just think you know?
Do you know, or just think you know?
Tools and questions to help you move from guesswork to clarity
Dave Keelty
October 20, 2025
Table of Contents
Do you know, or do you think you know?
It can be a confronting question, depending on the context and who is asking. (As my wife can attest, I can be pretty confident with my opinions and perceptions, so when she poses this question to me, it’s a pretty strong indicator I may be slightly overconfident with that particular take 😬).
As coaches, we’re in the business of people—and people are multi-faceted and complicated. Our day-to-day reality is full of complexity, assumptions, and potential miscommunication. That’s why “actually knowing” is something we should challenge ourselves to do, to help us navigate this landscape.
Why does Knowing matter?
Questions that take up mental space, like :
Did that message have land?
Is the environment functioning well
Is training helping players feel more confident?
Is that player feeling connected?
are really important questions. And I’m sure they're just some of the thoughts that occupy space in your mind on any given day. Knowing helps bridge that liminal space, from wondering and worrying to having insight and answers.
It’s easy to default to answers like:
“yea I think so” or “We’ll see I guess”
Sometimes, that’s all we have to go on. But more often, we can be more curious and deliberate, so we actually know. Below are two examples of what this could look like:
Do you know if your messages have landed?
When you’re having conversation that may be difficult – perhaps a player’s role is changing, it can be hard to know in the moment how that conversation went. You leave the chat, and someone asks:
‘how’d that conversation go?’
Your initial response might be ‘yea alright, I think???’
However, if that role change is important, or the player is a critical part of the team, or they’re relatively inexperienced (or any other reason you can think of), it might be worthwhile to check in with them the following day so you can answer that ‘how’d it go’ question with more confidence.
That might be as simple as asking that player a question like
‘hey, what were the key points you took out of that conversation we had yesterday?’
and then ‘what questions might you have for me based on that chat?’
The key here is to ask questions that help you understand if your message actually landed. So try to avoid the generic ‘how are you going?’ or ‘was I clear’ or ‘did that make sense?’, as you’re likely to not get the insight you need.
Do you know if you were clear on your learning intentions for a particular session? Do you know if training that day helped a player feel more confident in their game?
These are slightly trickier questions to ‘actually know’, but still ones I think we should push ourselves to understand. I’m stealing this from Sam, because he’s tried to help his coaches actually know the answers to these questions too. Within his role in the AFL, he’s experimented with using surveys, asking players after a training session questions like:
What was the key learning for you from the session today?
On a scale of 1-10, how challenging did you find the session today?
For the drill ‘access corridor (so insert any cricket drill/activity in here)’, what was the key learning for you?
This is an attempt to get more insight and understanding of how their training actually landed. Rather than just thinking they know, they’ve designed a way to try and actually know if their messages landed, if their learning outcomes were clear, if their sessions challenged their players enough.
Where in your coaching could you move from “thinking you know” to “actually knowing”? What’s one area this week where you’ll check for understanding or clarity, rather than assuming?
Remember: The question “Do you know, or just think you know?” is a helpful sense-check in your quest for more insight, and ultimately, better coaching.
Quote of the Week
“Be curious, not judgmental”
Ted Lasso/Walt Whitman (one the great TV scenes 👇)
An Even Deeper Dive
Have a read of this short piece on Eddie Jones. As you'll see from the title of the article, he's also asking him and his coaches this question too - well, how do we know?
Want to discuss anything you’ve read? Email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!
Want to share the Deep Dive with friends? Just send them the link below to subscribe
