What is a preceptor? Does he need to know the ritual? Lodges tend to select their best ritualist when it comes to the election of a new preceptor. My experience in sport and freemasonry tells me that this is not the best way forward.
    At some time or another we have all suffered from the brilliant mathematician who could not teach maths. The ability to do something well has little or no relevance to the ability to help others reach the same standard. It could even be argued that the person who has the greatest difficulty in learning and retaining ritual has the greatest understanding of the problems facing junior members, and therefore the greater empathy.
    Within the Craft, preceptors help freemasons to perfect their ritual in order that they may present the best possible performance for the satisfaction of themselves and their lodge.
    Within sport, coaches help athletes to perfect their skills and fitness in order that they may present the best possible performance for the satisfaction of themselves and their team.
    There are many parallels to be drawn between the work of the preceptor and useful lessons to be learned. Good sports coaches, capable of operating effectively at high levels of performance, say there are a number of facets to their overall coaching ability.
    First, and perhaps most obvious, is their sport-specific knowledge, next their understanding of human performance, and third the art of coaching.
    To evaluate these three aspects, and in doing so I recognise the immediate danger in quantifying them in this way, I would suggest that for the elite coach, sport-specific knowledge rates between 5% and 15%, understanding human performance between 25% and 45% and coaching skills between 50% and 70%.
    So what are the principals of coaching? Within the world of sport, coaches support the efforts of sportsmen and women in all abilities and in a huge variety of activities. Through their knowledge, experience and practised eye, coaches would score higher than most in their ability to recognise potential in their chosen activity. Why, then, do the also-rans and under-achievers receive coaching?
    Is it because the coaches who are helping them are less able than most and do not appreciate the limitations of their prodigy, or is there some other reason?
    The sort of people who become successful coaches often are compelled by a simple desire to help others.
    They realise great personal satisfaction from helping other people achieve success, at whatever level that may be. Indeed, it could be said that coaching, particularly in the amateur world, is a very masonic activity, being concentrated entirely on the process of helping others to achieve a degree of personal success.
    Good coaches are acutely aware of the powerful and sometimes debilitating effect they can exert simply by being present during a performance. It is well known that many people, particularly children, dislike being watched when practising some skill or other.
    The theory of evaluation apprehension recognises that this debilitating effect is proportional to the size of the audience, their ability to evaluate (knowledge of the activity) and their proximity to the performance.
    How many times have you heard “It was great when I did it in the bath earlier.”
    In this sense, being observed by a collection of people who are too far away to be aware of the detail of the performance, or who have so little knowledge that they will not be able to differentiate between a satisfactory or excellent performance, produces little or no stress.
    On the other hand, having an audience of experts in the same room, such as at a Lodge of Instruction, can be very stressful for a new member or someone with the potential for being nervous.
    The atmosphere in a Lodge of Instruction must, therefore, be as friendly, supportive and stress-free as possible.
    Most coaches recognise the need to vary their approach when dealing with different athletes. Some respond to coaxing, others to the proverbial kick in the pants. My own background in individual sports makes this fairly easy.
    Coaching ethics suggest that we deal with each individual as exactly that, with discussions being treated discreetly between the coach and performer. In the group situation, however, a mild kick in the pants to someone who responds well to such an approach, in the hearing of a new member who is nervous or uncertain, can have a quite devastating effect on the new member.
    Prompting, too, can have a debilitating effect on performance and should be carefully restricted to the preceptor or Immediate Past Master.
    When training coaches I stress that they are not there to demonstrate their own knowledge, simply to encourage and support their pupils performance. Remember, no matter how bad your pupil may be, the best effect you can have is to send them away feeling good, enthusiastic to learn more and keen to return next week.
    The Lodge of Instruction is mainly for practice and encouragement, to practice what has been learned so far, and to be encouraged to learn more. Don't tell them what they did wrong, TELL THEM WHAT THEY DID RIGHT!
    It is easy to get rid of the under-achiever, to put them off and to make them aware of their limited abilities. A good coach, however, will find a measure of success in every performer and build on that success.
    Some of us need coaxing and some need a mild kick in the pants, that is the nature of people. However, a kick in the pants for someone who needs it, and with whom you have a relationship that will allow that, within earshot of someone who only responds to stroking, can be detrimental and seriously off-putting to the latter. It is important therefore that in public we coax everyone and reserve the occasional, even mild kick in the pants for private conversations.
    Being a good mason is not simply a case of being a good ritualist, it is many things, with the retention of ritual possibly one of the least important. A charitable or masonic view would surely say that 90% of the points are scored against how hard we tried, and only 10% for how well we did.
    On the other hand, we also need to do well enough to satisfy ourselves and to feel we have been a useful part of the proceedings. It is here that I find the essence of coaching, that we all have a right to feel good about ourselves, to feel we are a useful part of our chosen activity and valued by our brethren.
    One example of coaching in freemasonry involved a man who I will call Bill. He was Junior Warden and seemed to be missing many LOI evenings due to tummy upsets etc. It was noticeable, however, that he seemed to be well on the days before and after LOI.
    A private LOI was set up for Bill by three lodge members at one of our homes. On the first night Bill was clearly nervous, but relaxed noticeably when we explained the format. During this first session we would all use our ritual books rather than trust to memory, and we would also do the same thing on the second week.
    On the third week we would start without the book for the first few lines and mark with a pencil where we had got up to. On subsequent weeks we would note any extra words or lines as progress was made.
    The evenings tended to be a little slow, perhaps even boring on occasions, but we were all friends and enjoyed the company. There was, however, a complete lack of pressure, no goals were set and no assessments were made.
    Bill learned the opening and closing through all three degrees along with the calling on and off. He went through the chair and various members performed the ceremonies during his year. He was then quietly encouraged to learn the Charge to the Wardens that he now does regularly and to great effect, and finally to learn the second degree, for which he returned to the chair a couple of years after his Mastership.
    Bill is proud of his Provincial Rank, so are three other members who spent part of one summer coaching.
    The best preceptors, like the great coaches I have worked with, say very little. They don't have a need to continually demonstrate their knowledge of the subject by giving advice or instruction, and by interrupting at every minor mistake.
    They encourage enjoyment and the continual growth of self-esteem. Within this atmosphere it is possible to guide the pupil's growth and development to a mutually rewarding satisfaction.
    Preceptors try to teach, but with limited success. Good preceptors/coaches create learning and guide their pupils within them. Why not have a Lodge of Instruction for budding preceptors? Coaching is about people, about helping, loving, encouraging, supporting and serving people. Freemasonry is about man's relationship with man. Preceptors coach freemasons.

Brian Wright has a Batchelor of Science (Hons) Degree in Applied Sports Coaching. He was a National Coach (Archery) for 25 years and served as UK Director of Coaching for archery for 11 years.