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.
You have made some interesting observation and recognise the different approach that JOLF takes in terms of delivery. It might have been worth your time considering the strengths and weaknesses of such approaches from the participants and coaches perspective and the range of skills beyond simply technical that such an approach might encourage. In addition you also suggest that this approach would not be appropriate for elite performers and a more structured coaching session would be better, Why? What evidence can you present to support such claims. It might be argued that elite performers require less structure and more freedom to experiment and finely hone their skills.
ReplyDeleteOverall you are engaging in the process , my suggestion though would be to read more widely, especially around articles related to Play Practice and Teaching Games for Understanding ( TGfU) and draw upon this academic literature to inform your blog and more importantly your understanding.