Text Help

Is this coaching?  Is this cheating?

"Michael Phelps Helps Poker Player Win Championship"

After you read the article, you wont think so.  At least, I presume you wont think so.

Even tho the article clearly states, "....the swimming superstar sent his pal several tweets and text messages before and during the closing session of the final table."

During?

Hmmm, I know on EVERY tour or tournament I have ever played on/in we cannot use our phones and we definitely are not suppose to text people. 

Why?  Because people could be coaching us.

Coaching?  Via Text?  Come on.

Yes. Coaching isn't just about what shots to shoot, it's also providing confidence, giving mental advice, trying to lift your spirits, or calm you down, or pump you up, or remind you something about your ore-shot routine.

You all have seen the friend run into the bathroom behind a player who took a bathroom break so they can offer encouragement.

Is that coaching?  That's a break - can we talk to whoever we want to or text whoever we want to during a break.  There's no rule about that.  Right?

A friend of mine plays a league in another city and their league has no rules about texting during matches.  She has texted me during her matches to get advice or vent to me.  Is that a form of "coaching" even though texting is allowed on this league?

I had to handle an extremely difficult argument once between two female players because one accused the other of getting coached from a friend across the room via text.   I eventually refunded the one player her money, and then the Tour instituted a new rule that cell phones were not allowed during matches anymore (to solve that problem). 

BTW, I found out the player was indeed receiving texts like, "calm down, stay down, breathe," etc. during that match.

COACHING.

I think we all do it unintentionally sometimes - we see a friend who's jumping up, we motion to stay down; we tell a friend in passing to breathe; we tell another who is taking her break next to you that they seem distracted and to focus better. 

We don't do all this to "coach" someone per say, but we do do it to try and help out.  Ooops, COACHING.


Side Note:
As I Googled "text coaching" for an image to use for this piece, turns out there are some companies out there that text messages as a form of coaching.  Oh, technology.