Today some professional coaches came in from a organisation called JOLF which basically stands for junior golf. They were dissatisfied with their current situations and so formed their own initiative programmer , which is a way of engaging people of various ages in sport and physical activity through a golf based approach using putting , chipping and other golf centered skills.
However there was not a strong emphasis on the actual skill of golf neither was there a particular interest if the participants were able to complete the task effectively. The focus was on participating , the coaches were happy to let us play the games how we want , which reminded me as beginners in a sport it is important to let them play to there level which they are comfortable rather than not having them play at all. We adapted the games all so to suit our own ideas and abilities , this again was not a problem and it showed that some times particularly with beginners it was important to let them play how they wanted , in a way make them feel that they had free choice over what was going on. Of course with elite players this would not be the case and a more structured session would be more appropriate.
The coaches from Jolf all so showed a different way of approaching instructions , they did not address us at the start of the session in one group explaining what was expected or needed and so on but instead left us to our own devices for a minute or two then spoke to us in much smaller groups of 2 or 3 individually assessing things that needed to be addressed in that group. And finally they showed a very good example of what was possible with the right equipment , laying out a very specially efficient area to play in but all so a very interesting and mixed environment , where although they did have some special pieces of equipment the majority of it was just cones and poles.
Thursday, 1 November 2012
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Sports development visit
This Tuesday with the sports development class we visited a local martial arts club. We discussed many issues of running a club including the coaching elements of his club. He was very passionate about his coaching and it was a large part of his life. As a result he explained how important to him it was to have the right group in his sessions how in experience having even a large group of people who are not particularly willing to co-operate you must try and apply your best coaching practice. Although your attention may be focused on controlling the group and keeping a level of discipline there may be a participant in the group who is really enthusiastic about developing but they me completely missed or ignored. I have found this in my own experiences of coaching either being coached or coaching , that if one individual draws the attention of the coach away from developing to disciplining then the rest of the groups experience suffers.
Secondly something that is often seen in coaching with younger children , as there are still at this stage often significant differences in ability , but coaches often tend to focus attention on the more talented or gifted children and ignore the needs of the children who perhaps just need more encouragement. The coach at the martial arts club reminded me of a point made that I had come across before with my cycling coaches , that those with the right hard working attitude in the long run will always go further than those who are naturally gifted and rest on their abilities , however if you get a naturally talented person who has this hard working attitude that is when we get the real superstars of the world. This is a good reminder for coaches that everyone deserves the same coaching quality and attention , they may not stand out immediately but if those children are willing to work they will surpass all expectations.
Secondly something that is often seen in coaching with younger children , as there are still at this stage often significant differences in ability , but coaches often tend to focus attention on the more talented or gifted children and ignore the needs of the children who perhaps just need more encouragement. The coach at the martial arts club reminded me of a point made that I had come across before with my cycling coaches , that those with the right hard working attitude in the long run will always go further than those who are naturally gifted and rest on their abilities , however if you get a naturally talented person who has this hard working attitude that is when we get the real superstars of the world. This is a good reminder for coaches that everyone deserves the same coaching quality and attention , they may not stand out immediately but if those children are willing to work they will surpass all expectations.
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Practical 1
We did our first practical session the other week , it was really enjoyable but at the same time quite informative and an eye opener to what sometimes it requires to put on a effective session. It reminded me of some of the things that we take for granted as accomplished sportsmen/women that are actually for the purpose of this weeks session when we were focusing on coaching very young children maybe 4 or 5 years old , were actually very difficult skills that have taken years to develop or us that we take for granted.
We discussed in the session stripping back games to the very basics of movement looking at creating games that the youngest of players could play. For example we devised a game similar to bench ball but using a bean bag , as to use a ball of any kind is assuming that the children have developed skills of passing and have developed advanced levels of spacial awareness. When if you think about it children at that age have very limited spacial awareness and if you asked a 4 year old to throw a ball to you from 10 yards away they would probably struggle. Therefor we eliminated the need for these skills so that we could focus more effectively on the principles of invasion games. It was a useful first session that we were going to progress on next week. This session all so helped me work on one of my weaknesses as it required to think about the game from a participants view , which of course would seem fairly difficult , but if I was to look at it from my own players perspective it would be a simple task so it helped me think about devising a session from the players ability point of view , not mine.
We discussed in the session stripping back games to the very basics of movement looking at creating games that the youngest of players could play. For example we devised a game similar to bench ball but using a bean bag , as to use a ball of any kind is assuming that the children have developed skills of passing and have developed advanced levels of spacial awareness. When if you think about it children at that age have very limited spacial awareness and if you asked a 4 year old to throw a ball to you from 10 yards away they would probably struggle. Therefor we eliminated the need for these skills so that we could focus more effectively on the principles of invasion games. It was a useful first session that we were going to progress on next week. This session all so helped me work on one of my weaknesses as it required to think about the game from a participants view , which of course would seem fairly difficult , but if I was to look at it from my own players perspective it would be a simple task so it helped me think about devising a session from the players ability point of view , not mine.
An Introduction
Throughout my blog I will be posting things that I either find useful to myself or others as a coach. Firstly I am just going to create a little bit of a base for me , showing where I feel my strengths and weaknesses lie.
I feel I have a number of strengths , of course I would hope to have some strengths as otherwise I would be in a bit of trouble. My first strength is that I am confidant , this always is a benefit when coaching as it gives not only myself belief in what I am doing , but all so gives the participants confidence that they to can use that they believe in you to coach them effectively. I feel that if you don't believe in what you are doing then how can you expect others to do the same ? Having confidence all so helps me to relate and communicate with participants of all ages , it is often easy to assert your self as a coach over a young group as they see an authority with the age , but being able to communicate with a older group is often more difficult , not every session you get is going to be committed athletes wanting to improve, you may often get more relaxed sessions where the participants are not as willing to listen , this is where I feel I have further strengths as I never feel a issue communicating with differing age groups or types of people. I do have more strengths but I feel these two as a base are very important to me as it allows me to settle in any situation with any group.
Like anybody I have weaknesses as well , no coach should really be able to say they are the finished article there will always be areas they can improve or look back on and think what they could of done differently. Firstly a weakness I feel I have or a habit even it could be considered is my tendency to want to get involved in the session from a players point of view. I often find it hard to take of my players head off and sideline myself to be a coach , particularly when coaching football I found it so tempting to jump in such as when playing a game at the end of a session. Another weakness that I am looking to change however through means such as this blog is recording what I have done and keeping records of sessions. I try usually and attempt remember sessions in my head etc , which on a weakly basis is generally o.k , but at the end of a season or a year when reviewing the year it is hard to see where things have changed and where you can improve on things.
On this module I would like to achieve a number of things , firstly to improve my understanding as a coach of skills and methods that can benefit the participants the most. As a module with a large number of practical sessions in it I believe that learning and benefiting from these is equally as important if not more as I am a very practical minded person more than the written side of the module as these skills can be directly applied to my own sessions. I am looking forward to getting involved in the practical sessions , meeting new people and sharing coaching styles as I don't know many people from the coaching side of the school. And finally I am looking forward to developing myself as much as possible as a successful coach that can look back on what I have done and build and continue to improve.
I feel I have a number of strengths , of course I would hope to have some strengths as otherwise I would be in a bit of trouble. My first strength is that I am confidant , this always is a benefit when coaching as it gives not only myself belief in what I am doing , but all so gives the participants confidence that they to can use that they believe in you to coach them effectively. I feel that if you don't believe in what you are doing then how can you expect others to do the same ? Having confidence all so helps me to relate and communicate with participants of all ages , it is often easy to assert your self as a coach over a young group as they see an authority with the age , but being able to communicate with a older group is often more difficult , not every session you get is going to be committed athletes wanting to improve, you may often get more relaxed sessions where the participants are not as willing to listen , this is where I feel I have further strengths as I never feel a issue communicating with differing age groups or types of people. I do have more strengths but I feel these two as a base are very important to me as it allows me to settle in any situation with any group.
Like anybody I have weaknesses as well , no coach should really be able to say they are the finished article there will always be areas they can improve or look back on and think what they could of done differently. Firstly a weakness I feel I have or a habit even it could be considered is my tendency to want to get involved in the session from a players point of view. I often find it hard to take of my players head off and sideline myself to be a coach , particularly when coaching football I found it so tempting to jump in such as when playing a game at the end of a session. Another weakness that I am looking to change however through means such as this blog is recording what I have done and keeping records of sessions. I try usually and attempt remember sessions in my head etc , which on a weakly basis is generally o.k , but at the end of a season or a year when reviewing the year it is hard to see where things have changed and where you can improve on things.
On this module I would like to achieve a number of things , firstly to improve my understanding as a coach of skills and methods that can benefit the participants the most. As a module with a large number of practical sessions in it I believe that learning and benefiting from these is equally as important if not more as I am a very practical minded person more than the written side of the module as these skills can be directly applied to my own sessions. I am looking forward to getting involved in the practical sessions , meeting new people and sharing coaching styles as I don't know many people from the coaching side of the school. And finally I am looking forward to developing myself as much as possible as a successful coach that can look back on what I have done and build and continue to improve.
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