Universal Design Coaching vs. Traditional Coaching

Last week’s post introduced neurodiversity in sports. It explains what neurodiversity is, what it could look like in your practice, and why it matters. If you haven’t read it, I would highly encourage you to do so. It sets us up for a closer look at Universal Design Coaching vs. Traditional Coaching.

Here’s where the idea comes from.

What Universal Design Coaching Is

Universal Design Coaching (UDC) draws from a design principle called Universal Design: the idea that you build an environment or a product so that, as much as possible, everyone can use it.

Now, what does that actually mean?

You already know it. I know you do, you just might not know that you know it. The most common example is the curb cut. It was designed for wheelchairs, but think about who else it helps:

• The delivery driver pushing a dolly
• The parent with a stroller
• The older person who can't quite manage the step up

One design choice, made for a few, that quietly serves everyone.

Or automatic doors. Built for people with mobility challenges, but they help anyone:

• Pushing a shopping cart
• With a stroller
• With their hands full of bags
• Who'd rather not touch a germy public door handle

UDC is the same idea, adapted for our coaching. It could look like:

• Walking through a play physically before you diagram it.
• Giving one coaching point at a time instead of three.
• Telling your athletes at the start of practice when something's going to run differently today.

Small design choices that especially help athletes who'd otherwise fall through the cracks, while also supporting everyone else in the process.

What Traditional Coaching Is

Traditional coaching is built like a conveyor belt. One system, one way of teaching, and the athletes who can't keep up either struggle or quietly drop off. We often tend to label those athletes as soft, weak, or just not getting it. We've all seen it. We've probably all said some version of it.

"These kids are just different. They don't get it."

Or the athlete who gets quietly filed under "not smart" or "can't be trusted with the playbook," when the truth is nobody has tried teaching it to them a different way.

Or the way we hand the "leader" label to whoever has the most charisma, and overlook the athlete who leads in an effective, but quieter, more low-key way.

Or the coach who's screaming because an athlete isn't understanding the drill, so now the whole team is running. Except the coach explained it the exact same way five times without changing a single thing. It reminds me of the definition of insanity… doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Universal Design Coaching starts somewhere else entirely: we design the system so more athletes can thrive inside it. Traditional coaching assumes athletes show up already equipped to handle whatever conditions we throw at them, and the ones who don't get sorted out. Benched. Cut. Quietly written off.

So when I hear a coach say "you just can't teach that," it gives me pause. I’d encourage all of us to ask: Is it really a skill that can't be taught? Or do we just not know how to teach it yet?

What Universal Design Coaching Is Not

I can hear the questions from here, partly because I asked them myself when I started working through what this looks like in practice.

You might be thinking:

"This is great in theory, but I have a team to run. I can't accommodate everyone, and the game sure doesn't accommodate anyone. Eventually, my athletes have to perform in real conditions: loud gyms, tight moments, and hard feedback. So what am I actually supposed to do?"

Or maybe something like:

"Why do I need to make accommodations at all? If an athlete can't handle the demands of the sport, maybe they should find another way to spend their time."

Let’s take these one at a time.

First, on capacity.

Universal Design Coaching isn't five different practices for five different athletes. It's changing the defaults of the one practice you already run, the kind of choices I mentioned earlier. Walking a play through before you diagram it. One coaching point at a time. A heads-up when something's going to run differently today. Those aren't separate accommodations you're juggling for each kid. At the risk of sounding redundant… they’re small design choices that especially help athletes who'd otherwise fall through the cracks, while also supporting everyone else in the process.

Second, on performance.

UDC doesn't lower the bar. We all know that the game is still loud, the fourth quarter is still tight, feedback is still hard, and performance matters. What changes is how we think about what athletes need in those moments. Instead of treating those needs as fixed traits, either you've got it, or you don't, we treat them as skills that can be built and supported through the environment.

Sensory regulation is a skill you can support through the environment. So is emotional regulation. So is processing under pressure.

So what does "supporting a skill through the environment" actually look like?

Sensory and Emotional Regulation

• Clothing matters more than you'd think. Certain textures can impact an athlete's ability to stay focused and engaged. You know how annoying it is to have a pebble in your shoe? That’s what it’s like for some athletes, but it’s all the time, and all over their bodies. Allow them to wear a different shirt underneath, or remove the tags.
• Build a reset corner. A spot where an athlete can go to take space when needed. The space can include an item or two that helps the athlete regulate. Bonus: it gives you and their teammates an easy read on when someone's getting overwhelmed.
• Intentionally carve out space for quiet. Maybe a silent warm-up that gives athletes the opportunity to acclimate to the new environment and mentally prepare before the noise starts. If that doesn’t work for everyone, you can split the difference: two ends of the gym, quiet on one and talking on the other.

Processing

• Keep your language short, simple, and visual. Reminders, not lectures. If you’re making more than one or two points at a time, you’ve most likely lost them.
• Have a consistent routine for introducing and teaching a new drill or play.
• When an athlete's struggling to understand, break the steps down further than feels necessary. (This video is a great example of how something we assume is "simple" can actually be wildly complicated: https://youtu.be/j-6N3bLgYyQ)

Start with the environment, then build the skill on top of it. And give it time. Building skills is slow work, mastery might not look the way you pictured it, and some skills will always need a little environmental support, which is okay.

Third — why even bother?

Because we almost always talk about neurodiversity in terms of what's missing, and that leaves out the gifts that neurodiversity brings. The athlete who feels everything deeply. The one who notices the detail nobody else caught. The one who'll tell you the truth. Those aren't athletes you have to manage around. They're the ones you want in the room. The important question is whether you've built an environment that lets them show you what they can actually do.

So, What's the Next Step?

The answer is to start with yourself. Get curious about your own assumptions and biases. As coaches, we need to know where we are starting from before we can change anything about our environments.

Here's an exercise. Complete the five case studies in the PDF below. When your answer drifts toward "well, it depends." Good, but don't stop there. Ask yourself: depends on what? What is it about the athlete in front of you that's pushing you toward one answer instead of another?

The answer you land on matters far less than the thought process that got you there. So write that thinking down. Then read it back and get curious about the assumptions hiding inside it. That's where Universal Design Coaching actually begins.