Lesson 2: Sports Coaching skills, roles and responsibilities

Research suggests that expert coaches engage in both kinds of reflection on a regular basis and that reflective practice plays an important role in their development as experts (Gilbert & Trudel, 2001).

Motivation

Success

Attitude

Learning Objective Recap!

What is it?

Performance

Goals

Ideas

Support

Not just something you're trying to instil in your participants/athletes, YOU need to be motivated too

LO2. Explain at least two ways in which your motivation can affect your athletes/participants

LO3. Justify why good time keeping is essential in Sports Coaching, and explain the impact it has on your athletes/participants

Why? What do you need to be motivated to do?

Self reflection

How can you demonstrate your motivation as a Sports Coach?

Time keeping

Done that? ... Now do this!

Complete Stretch and Challenge learning objective

• Do you have enough time to do your college work?

Learning Objectives

2 minutes: In pairs, come up with three reasons/benefits of being reflective as a Sports Coach

Assignment 1

• How much time do you spend at college and home doing things that don't contribute to your success? 2 minutes

LO1. Summarise the importance and effects of communication skills as a Sports Coach, and how you might use communication in your coaching (sport specific example!)

LO2. Explain at least two ways in which your motivation can affect your athletes/participants

LO3. Justify why good time keeping is essential in Sports Coaching, and explain the impact it has on your athletes/participants

What will this impact, and how?

You will be producing several case study on the varying roles, responsibilities, skills and techniques needed to be a successful coach.

You will be describing the importance of FOUR skills and qualities that coaches need, how they can USE/DEMONSTRATE these skills, how they support the LEARNER, and how they can IMPROVE the athlete.

Stretch and Challenge:

Where, and why is time keeping important as a Sports Coach?

Sports Coaching

attributes and skills

Expectations:

• Active note making (bullet points, sub headings, titles, arrows to make links, mind maps, etc.)

LO4. Propose at least two ways in which you can develop communication skills, motivation or time keeping as a Sports Coach

• Participation in discussions! Share your ideas with each other, ask questions and challenge views. This will help you to develop ideas for your assignment!

• Planning your sessions, setting up equipment, delivering coaching sessions, travel, fixtures, training

Toni Minichiello

Who is he?

• Shows you value your athletes/participants

“The purpose of reflection is to try to improve our coaching, not just understand it better, and improve the context in which our coaching takes place” (Ghaye, 2001, p9)

Jessica Ennis-Hill's (2012 Olympic champion, 3x world champion and 2010 European champion) coach

• Shows participants, parents, spectators and other colleagues that you are reliable, organised and can plan ahead

How long has he coached Jess for?

About 17 years (since she was 13!)

Why is this significant?

What about Toni and his coaching do you think has helped Jess become such a successful athlete?

• Creates a trust and confidence between the coach and the team/group

Communication

2 mins: Discuss with the person next to you and be ready to share with the group!

Many coaches develop their skills and expertise through their experiences and by watching other coaches. However, simply acquiring experiences does not guarantee coaching competence.

(Farres, 2004)

• To be able to progress athletes/participants as much as possible - no time wasted

Self reflection helps:

How can we be self reflective as Sports Coaches?

What is communication?

Reflect during and or after the session or event

Starter

What is the difference between analysis and reflection?

During: coaches read the environment and respond accordingly. For example if a drill was breaking down, the coach would change or adapt it

"Communication is the art of successfully sharing meaningful information with people by means of an interchange of experience or knowledge" (Walkin, 1990, p.164)

After: more time to assess the situation and consider possible alternatives to improve or progress the activity. For example, after the practice and upon reflection, the coach may realise that a different drill would be better suited to help the athletes learn the concept.

• coaches to develop elite coaching knowledge
• initiate change
• create links between theory and practice
• improve understanding of how to cope with the ambiguity of practice
• improve understanding of the coaching process

Analysis: a review of data or other evidence, usually with an interpretation of results. What do the results show? What do they mean?

Why is it important in coaching?

Group 1

Cowboy

Whisk

Refereeing

Group 2

Wig

Types of communication

Twitter

Bowling

Ballet

Popcorn

Goldfish

Humpty Dumpty

Jeremy Corbyn

Conversion kick (rugby)

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

Snake

Lacrosse

Teacher

Baseball

Robot

Donald Trump

Sports Coach

Verbal communication is the spoken word

Nonverbal communication involves actions, facial expressions, body position, and gestures

Let's play the nonverbal communication game again...

2 minutes for your team to guess as many words as possible

How can we communicate?

How can you communicate non verbally as a coach?

Frown, look of disbelief, a disgusted shake of your head, a smile

Between 65% and 93% of the meaning of a message is conveyed through tone of voice and nonverbal behaviours (Burton & Raedeke, 2008).

It is more than the content of a message or communication - you need to consider its emotional impact, or the effect the message has on the person receiving it.

Reflection: the thought process that occurs after analysing the evidence of a situation. Thinking about what happened, and how successful it was, then make decisions about how you would approach these similar situations in the future. Reflection should help you to improve your future practice.

Learning Objectives

Communication can occur in one-on-one or group settings, and in written formats (e.g., printed materials) or in visual formats (e.g., pictures, videos, and observational learning)

LO1. Summarise the importance and effects of self reflection as a Sports Coach, and how you might use it in your coaching (specific examples!)

LO2. Explain at least two ways in which your problem solving can affect your athletes/participants

LO3. Justify why CPD is essential in Sports Coaching, and explain the impact it has on your athletes/participants

A Question of Sport

Stretch and Challenge:

Crookes (1991) believes that difficulties in communicating with an athlete may be due a number of issues including the following:

• The athlete's perception of something is different to yours

• The athlete may jump to a conclusion instead of working through the process of hearing, understanding and accepting

• The athlete may lack the knowledge needed to understand what you are trying to communicate

• The athlete may lack the motivation to listen to you or to convert the information given into action

• The coach may have difficulty in expressing what she/he wishes to say to the athlete

• Emotions may interfere in the communication process

Barriers to communication in Sports Coaching

• There may be a clash of personality between you and the athlete

These blocks to communication work both ways and coaches need to consider the process of communication carefully.

What blocks/barriers might there be to communication as Sports Coaches?

You might believe what you are saying is objective and that the athletes will always receive the message as intended, for example "fake before you pass"

This isn't always the case, and athletes may interpret what you say differently to how you intended it.

Coaches also need to think about the emotional impact of the message on the athlete and how they perceive and react to the communication

LO1

LO4. Propose at least two ways in which you could measure your progress, success and effectiveness as a Sports Coach

For instance, as a coach you may shout "Run hard!", intending it to be a positive note of encouragement, whereas the athlete could interpret it negatively, "She/He never thinks I run hard enough."

https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/662d6a10-72dc-4cdf-a1d8-af27564c7943

Effective communicators and coaches focus on how the message might be interpreted, and how it might affect the participant as well as the content itself

Phones out, teams of 2!

Summarise the importance and effects of self reflection as a Sports Coach, and how you might use it in your coaching (specific examples!)

How as coaches can we ensure our communication is effective?

In his article, Crooks (1991) stated that all coaches should ask themselves:

What questions could we ask ourselves?

Do I have the athlete's attention?

Am I explaining myself in an easily understood manner?

Has the athlete understood?

Does the athlete believe what I am telling him/her?

Does the athlete accept what I am saying?

Learning Objective Recap!

LO1. Summarise the importance and effects of communication skills as a Sports Coach, and how you might use communication in your coaching (sport specific example!)

Skills and Qualities

CPD

What is it?

in preparation for

Sports Coaching Assignment 1

Continuing Professional Development

Additional qualifications, research, reflections, seminars and talks, studies and assessments

UK Coaching say...

"CPD complements qualification-based learning with varied, informal and formal learning. This includes workshops, working with other coaches, mentoring, eLearning and reflective coaching"

What does CPD do?

• It develops and enhances your existing skills
• It helps you to continue learning and improving
• It adds to what you can offer your participants/athletes

How will CPD affect your coaching and your participants?

Alex Walburn a.walburn@wlc.ac.uk

In pairs, identify an example of a Sports Coaching qualification or CPD that you could do - be ready to share it with the group (60 seconds!)

Organisation and administration

Problem Solving

Any coaching environment can be inconsistent and unpredictable

Imagine you are arriving to take a session at Torbay Leisure Centre. What could go wrong? In pairs, list as many as you can.

Why is problem solving important as a Sports Coach?

Individually, list three examples of organisation and administration in Sports Coaching

How will this skill impact your athletes?

Why is this an important skill for you as a Sports Coach?

What are the effects on yourself as a Coach, and your athletes?

References:

Burton, D., & Raedeke, T. D. (2008). Sport psychology for coaches. Human Kinetics.

Crookes, G., (1991). Athletics Coach. Complan Column, 25(3), p.13.

Farres, L.G., (2004). Becoming a better coach through reflective practice. BC Coach’s Perspective, 6, pp.10-11.

Ghaye, T., (2001). Reflective practice. Faster Higher Stronger, 10, pp.9-12.

Gilbert, W. D., & Trudel, P. (2001). Learning to coach through experience: Reflection in model youth sport coaches. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 21, 16-34.

Walklin, L. (1990). Teaching and learning in further and adult education. Nelson Thornes.