Lessons on communication and thinking from Neil deGrasse Tyson - 3/4

8 lessons field hockey coaches in 4 weeks from Neil deGrasse Tyson's insights on Scientific Thinking and Communication. This is week 3/4.

So the previous weeks we talked about understanding that being right isn’t enough without effective communication, about recognizing cognitive biases in player evaluation, about embracing scientific thinking and tailoring your messages to different athletes.

Get ready for lessons five and six from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, applied to field hockey coaching 😉

TLDR;

Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of the world's great thinkers, shares his insights in how to think, teach, and communicate more effectively. This series of articles explores eight essential lessons from one of the world’s greatest science communicators that directly apply to coaching field hockey: understanding that being right isn’t enough without effective communication; recognizing cognitive biases in player evaluation; embracing the scientific method in tactical innovation; tailoring communication to different athletes; using progressive teaching strategies; measuring what matters; leveraging body language; and fostering genuine curiosity in your players. These aren’t abstract concepts. They’re practical tools that can transform how you develop players, implement tactics, and build winning programs.
For four consecutive weeks we'll share two lessons each week with you...

When Science Meets Sports

When Neil deGrasse Tyson delivered a masterclass on Scientific Thinking and Communication it wasn’t only about astrophysics, his field of expertise. It’s about how we discover truth, overcome our biases, and communicate complex ideas effectively. These are precisely the skills that separate good coaches from great ones.

We’ll explore eight lessons from Tyson that directly apply to coaching field hockey at competitive levels. Learning from Tyson’s insight that “the scientific method is, do whatever it takes to not fool yourself into thinking something is true that is not.”

We explore how to tailor your coaching to different types of athletes, implementing his principle that “the same ideas, the same concepts, can be framed, shaped, in different ways depending on the audience.”

Today its about lessons five and six we wanted to share, based upon the masterclass given by Neil deGrasse Tyson. But make sure you also take a look at these earlier posts:

→  Danny Kerry: World Cup 2023 panel talk 
→  Simon Blanford: How data analysis can change your team’s circle behavior 
→  Simon Blanford: A gentle introduction to data analysis in hockey 

These lessons aren’t theoretical—they’re immediately applicable to your training session tomorrow, your team talk on gameday, and your season planning for next year. Let’s dive in….

Lesson 5: Progressive Teaching: Build Understanding Layer by Layer

You’re teaching a new tactical concept: rotating between your two central midfielders to create numerical superiority in the build-up. A simple concept at the international level, but your players look lost after your explanation. So you explain it again, in more detail, with more terminology, covering every possible scenario. They look more lost.

The problem isn’t that you didn’t explain enough—it’s that you explained too much, too fast, without building a foundation first.

Tyson describes his teaching philosophy: “I put a lot of thought into what level of information am I going to share with you in this moment versus a later moment. More thought than might otherwise be apparent.”

He uses the example of explaining Earth’s shape. First level: “It’s a sphere. It’s definitely not a cube.” Once that’s established, add complexity: “Earth rotates, so it’s slightly flattened at the poles—an oblate spheroid.” Then more detail: “It’s actually slightly wider below the equator—pear-shaped.” Finally: “Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador is the farthest point from Earth’s center, not Mount Everest because of the shape of our Earth.”

Each level is accurate but progressively more precise. Crucially, stopping at level one isn’t lying—it’s pedagogical approximation, providing the level of truth appropriate for the current understanding.

“Almost everything any educator ever tells you, is some approximation of a deeper truth for the purpose of the lesson plan of the day,” Tyson explains. “I could have broken off the conversation at any point, depending on the need of the lesson.”

Apply this to teaching that midfielder rotation:

Level 1: “When we have the ball at the back, one of you comes deep to receive, the other stays high.”

That’s it. That’s your first session. Drill it. Repeat it. Don’t explain why, don’t cover every scenario, don’t discuss what happens if the opposition adjusts. Just establish the basic pattern.

Level 2 (next session): “The player coming deep creates a numerical advantage—now we have four at the back against their two forwards. This makes it easier to play through their press.”

Now they understand why the pattern exists. You’ve added purpose to the pattern.

Level 3 (the following week): “The player staying high pins their defensive midfielder. If she drops to mark you, we have space in behind. If she stays, you’re free to receive. Read her position.”

You’ve added the opponent’s decision-making and how to exploit it.

Level 4 (after it’s working in matches): “Notice when their right winger is slow to recover. That’s your trigger to rotate right rather than left. We can expose the space she’s leaving.”

You’ve added sophisticated pattern recognition and variation.

At each level, the information is true—but it’s appropriately complex for the current stage of understanding. Tyson makes a crucial point: “I can give them the whole truth and they’ll forget it ten minutes from now. Or I can give them part of the truth, which is kind of interesting. They get curious and then later on they research it more themselves.”

This is the key: Progressive teaching doesn’t just prevent overwhelm—it creates curiosity. When players master level one, they naturally wonder about the next level. They start asking questions. They become active learners rather than passive recipients.

Too many coaches try to demonstrate their tactical sophistication by explaining everything at once. Tyson warns against this: “If they don’t know anything about a subject, you don’t give them the full hammer of details. That’s pointless. Because they’ll just get lost in the details, and they’re not going to learn anything.”

Consider your preseason planning. You have three months to build your tactical system with a new team. Instead of installing the entire system in week one and spending the rest of preseason “polishing” it (which really means fixing the fact that nobody understood it in the first place), build it progressively:

• Week 1-2: Defensive shape and principles

• Week 3-4: Pressing triggers and principles

• Week 5-6: Build-up patterns and principles

• Week 7-8: Attacking patterns in final third

• Week 9-10: Transitions (defense to attack, attack to defense)

• Week 11-12: Set pieces and game management

Each phase builds on the previous one. Each phase is mastered before adding the next layer.

Tyson’s wisdom applies perfectly to coaching: “What I’m trying to do here is stimulate your curiosity. And curiosity, I don’t think, is fed by dumping a bucket of water on someone. It’s fed by giving them a taste of it.”

Give your players a taste of tactical understanding at each level, and watch them hunger for the next.

Danny Kerry, gold winning coach in Rio with the GB women, discussed the need for patience and persistence in skill development, noting, “It’s necessary to keep pushing past that... You need patience and persistence to do this” . This underscores the importance of gradual progression in teaching.

Never hesitate to Assistant.Hockey more tips about this from the many other coaches we hosted in our masterclasses and workshops. If you’re already a paying subscriber… thank you  🙏  and please read on for the next lesson on cognitive bias. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, join us to get the most out of what we share here 😉 and  make sure you don’t miss our next posts with the remaining lessons… and explore the previous posts if you haven't yet.

Lesson 6: Measure What Matters—And Know Your Measurement’s Limits