Sidecoaching: helping without taking over

Sidecoaching is the trainer's most powerful and most dangerous tool. Called from the edge of the stage mid-scene, a good sidecoach is invisible; a bad one becomes the scene.

Three principles keep it clean.

Coach the behavior, not the content. 'Make a statement' helps; 'say you're her dentist' hijacks. The players should never feel that your idea replaced theirs.

Coach in positives. 'Stay in the kitchen' lands better than 'stop leaving the location'. Brains under stage-pressure drop the word 'don't'.

Coach rarely. If you speak more than three times in a scene, stop the scene instead — it's kinder. Some scenes need to fail completely for the lesson to land; rescue-coaching steals that gift.

And the golden test: after your sidecoach, did the players get braver or more careful? Braver means you helped. Careful means you graded them mid-flight — and next scene they'll play to avoid your voice instead of listening to each other.