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Illustrative Coaching Story Integrity Check

A lesson can stand without a false witness.

Fifteen minutes for one practical decisionFree · Two-page fillable PDF

Companion to Tell the Team a Useful Illustration Without Pretending You Lived It.

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See a worked example

Hypothetical example: A coach explicitly introduces a made-up clipboard handoff and asks athletes to identify the missing assigned owner without claiming it happened to the team.

01Give the story an honest introduction

State the teaching choice and fictional status.

Ordinary decision to teach

Words identifying the illustration

Real story or private detail to exclude

02Build the scene around the decision you need to teach

Build an original proportionate scene.

Original focal scene

Adult responsibility within it

Detail that adds nothing useful

03Keep the ending inside what the example establishes

Check the proposed ending and any factual claim.

Proposed concrete response

Technical claim needing a separate source

Outcome the fiction cannot prove

04Carry the illustration label into the next telling

Preserve the label in delivery and reuse.

Label retained in speaking notes

Misunderstanding to correct if it occurs

Actual question the group can answer