One of the most frustrating challenges coaches deal with is the perception that their athletes aren't learning.

There are a lot of reasons that this breakdown in learning might be taking place, but there's one, in particular, that's regularly misunderstood. Essentially, we think that athletes should be able to learn whatever we teach them.

Reality is much more complicated.

Enter: the zone of proximal development. This isn't a cure-all for coaching, but it's a way of more accurately assessing what your athletes (or any performer, really) are ready for in their learning and helping to make that learning accessible.