Lets reflect on our reflection!

Semester 1 review

Over the first semester, I have learnt quite a lot about not myself as a coach, but as a person. This has been the first time I have ever kept a logged diary of my coaching sessions, and the first time I have really looked to reflect on myself and my sessions in greater depth.  As coaches we should always strive to reflect on everything we do, but sometimes it could be a reflection on an idea, a discussion with another coach, anything! I think my weak points over the first semester have been my failure to constantly update my blog. Having had several issues with the password, and getting used to the whole concept of "blogging" has made for a slow start but I am hoping to keep on top of it more in the second semester.

 

One of my strongest points has been my innovative thinking I have done throughout the first semester. Not just my thinking when coaching, but when away from the coaching setting, I am always thinking of things, or being involved in discussions with other coaches on certain aspects of coaching. I think one thing to add to my innovative thinking now is to do a little more academic reading around the coaching field, reading more about the the things I am thinking/talking about.

 

One of the best things to come out of semester one was being tested with my biggest fear, coaching a sport I am unfamiliar with (1), and being put on the spot to coach (2). These two are my biggest fears and both came at the same time when asked to coach a "set" in Netball. As coaches we all have our own sport which are familiar with, and when coaching in that sport we call it our "comfort zone", I think sometimes as coaches it's important we test ourselves by going out of our comfort zone to coach. This Is what I am looking forward to more of in semester 2, being tested, being taken out of my comfort zone to coach. I mean how else are we supposed to learn and develop as coaches if we don't test ourselves?

 

I am looking forward to getting semester 2, I have two brilliant opportunities to go out and do coaching in America, and also going out to Zambia, using sport and recreational activities to raise awareness to some serious subjects.

 

BRING IT ON!

The Critical Discussion!

TL2133 The Reflective Coach - Assessment 1 Critical discussion (40% of module mark)		Mark Awarded			72
Student Name	Connor McGowan
Demonstrates achievement of relevant learning outcomes		1st	2.1	2.2		3rd	F
•       Demonstrate coaching knowledge and evaluative skills to assess your own and other’s coaching practice.		X
(Participation in Discussion)		1st	2.1	2.2		3	F
Did you approach the discussion in a logical and coherent manner i.e. turn taking?		X
Did you exhibit listening skills and an ability to take on board other participants’ views?		X
Did you support other participants by probing and asking questions?			X
Did you actively manage the discussion to enable achievement of learning outcomes for all participants?		X
Were themes discussed in a confident and professional style?			X
COMMENTS: To added to and built upon the points others made well. It seemed you also took more of a lead at times.
(Content)		1st	2.1	2.2		3rd	F
Did the session plan submitted prior to your practical session provide a structured overview of the session?				X
Did you provide evidence of careful planning with reasons for intended activities demonstrating understanding of content?			X
Did you analyse and discuss the material/evidence supplied in your annotated bibliography?			X
Did you demonstrate critical use of theoretical models/concepts and draw insightful conclusions from them?			X
COMMENTS: Good use of literature to back up some of the points you make. Good comparison with JOLF coaches approach and what you delivered. You also use analogies well to back up the points you make e.g. the ‘tig’ example.
(Reflection)		1st	2.1	2.2		3rd	F
Did you reflect on how your session went identifying and discussing positives and areas for improvement?		X
Did you identify things you may have done differently and explore any improvement that could have been made?		X
Were the processes you used to reflect both in and on the session clear, and links with theory/literature made?				X
COMMENTS: Some discussion of use of video but more needed on the process of HOW you reflected.
GENERAL GROUP FEEDBACK Your discussion was rooted in your practical delivery and you explored a number of areas of your coaching delivery. As it progressed you drew upon some academic theory to inform the discussion and this helped to clarify your understanding. Your discussion around differentiation, especially around age and children, was very good and you underpinned this with some theory. However, this might have been an area for further investigation underpinned by theory. It might also have been worth exploring the issues around how motivation helps support the development of performance. Overall your discussion reflected a very good level of understanding and critical awareness that you were able to apply to your practical session.

 

I won’t make this a long post, but something to just reflect on briefly what we did and what was said in the discussion. It wasn’t what I expected at first, I turned up expecting Cliff and John to be the ones asking the questions, where it was the complete opposite. The discussion was started by us and only us, with no input from the tutors.

 

At this point it was time for someone to take lead and get the ball rolling, which I was happy to do. At first the discussion was quite slow and took a while before we started to really look more in depth at our session, but once we got going the conversation flowed.

 

We did use some good academic literature to support what we were saying, but I felt maybe we could have all done a little bit more, particularly myself to get a higher grade than 72, but don’t get me wrong I’m pleased to have got such a high score.

 

As you can see, John said in the feedback, our academic literature helped to clarify our understanding. Touching on some particular subjects like differentiation, around age and children.

 

Like John says, maybe looking at ways to look at Motivation and how that can play a significant difference and helps support the development of performance. Just like I said in a post a while back how Lai (2011) talks about how intrinsic motivation is animated through personal enjoyment. So maybe next time if we look to make the activity a little more fun, then hopefully they will be more motivated, and performances will follow accordingly.

 

Lai, E., R., (2011) Motivation: A literature Review. Research Report.

Its time to get this show on the road!

So it's time to get this show on the road, well not so much a show but a practical!

 

We had took into consideration the discussion with cliff and broke down the session so that it focused on the basics of spatial awareness without a big technical element to it.

 

The aim of the session was to keep possession from the other team working in a given area which was marked out (Badminton Court). We used 6 participants in a 3 v 3. The reason we chose smaller numbers was to allow for more space to work in. If we chose more, there would have been less room, therefore defeating the purpose of the session. We could however progress the session to allow for more participants, but for this we have to utilise the S.T.E.P process, and manipulate the Space and the Participants.

 

We started with a Tennis ball, and allowed them to throw any way they wanted. The reason we never told them how to throw was because firstly it wasn't the aim of session to coach a throwing technique, secondly it gave them a sense of freedom as they could throw it anyway they wanted. We chose to do this from the JOLF session, the freedom of choice of equipment and how we approached the stations. One question was raised as to how they could throw it and when answered with "how you want" it immediately seemed to add an element of fun, as players were trying different ways to throw/pass the ball, which was fine.

 

We used a more Question and Answer approach when we froze the session and brought the participants in. We asked them how they were finding it and they said they were struggling to keep possession. We restarted the session and then the minute we saw them bunched together we froze it once more, again using questioning as our tool to coach rather than being direct. We asked this time for them to look around and tell us what was wrong (bunched up) and how they can solve it to keep possession better (use space that's not being used). We restarted the session, and the participants started to use open space and one team then either team looked to control the game when in possession. The use of effective questioning can allow the players to think for themselves, and rather than the coaches being teachers and spoon feeding information, it allows the players solve the problem rather than us giving them the solution.

 

For the final part of the session, we introduced a bean bag in place of the tennis ball. We then restricted them to passing on the floor only. The reason we chose this was because once you have developed spatial awareness on a bigger scale, this meant that players were lower down, so had to make sure they kept their head up and be more alert and aware of other players. This was our progression stage, and we anticipated that progressing it, manipulating the Equipment (S.T.E.P) and final giving them some restrictions, we would see players revert back to old habits and start to bunch up again. Which they did! Once again we froze the session for some more Q&A. Again we asked what they could do to stop the bunching up, then we also asked what they could do as a team or individuals to help keep possession better. They answered with Communication, which in fact was the answer we wanted. Rather then telling them, we asked them why communication is important in situations/games like this, one participant replied with "we can let players know how much time they have in possession, where they can go to avoid losing possession (I.e go left or go right!)".

 

After the session had finished myself, Sam and Ryan all had a debrief on the session. We thought that the session overall went relatively successful. By successful we determined that we had stuck to the plan the whole way through. We wasn't really tested on our ability to adapt to a session as it went to plan, but I'm sure if there was an issue and we needed to make a change we wouldn't have struggled.

Time for a practice run!

Like most things, it's always good to have a practice run of the coaching session. By doing this we was able to see whether we was on the right tracks for our session. Our session started with a 5 v 5, it was only until after the session finished we realised the numbers were too big for the space had. I suppose we could have used the S.T.E.P. process and manipulated the space by making it bigger to do a 5 v 5.

 

Instead of manipulating the Space, we chose to manipulate the Participants instead and making the numbers smaller. The reason for this decision was because the aim is to improve/develop spacial awareness, if we have a big number of participants, we are limiting the space. Remember from the last post, I mentioned we are looking to start simple, breaking it down to the basics. Rather than starting with a 5 v 5, we decided to with a 3 v 3, making the 5 v 5 a possible progression.

 

With our finalised session plan set, it was time to prepare for the real thing!

 

Tutorial Meeting

Today our group met with Cliff for a brief meeting. We had a well needed discussion with him regarding our practical session. We said the objective of the session was to look at improving/developing special awareness.

 

After we shared a few ideas with Cliff, it was clear he understood our goals and was heading in the right direction. However he gave us a few pointers to consider not just for now, but future reference.

 

Sometimes he said it is best to break it right down, and start with the basics of the technique or skill you are looking to develop. I thought this was a brilliant way to approach the session. If I think about it, this is a very useful tip which I can implement in future sessions when working with children.

 

The breaking down of a skill or technique to the very basics is an excellent way to start any coaching session. The aim and purpose of doing this is to allow all players to start at the same level and progress at different rates. It allows you to see who finds that particular skill easy and those who don't. For the ones who do, you can set them individual tasks, or if one player struggles you can use someone who finds it easier to help/guide them. Players helping one another to execute a skill/technique is a good form of guided discovery in a way. You are allowing players to become indecent from the coach, and rather the myself being the coach, the players help to coach each other.

 

All of this leads back to a post I put up a few weeks back, where I talked about the use of different coaching intervention methods, to allow for more effective coaching. The brief tutorial with Cliff has really helped me understand the importance of breaking down skills, rather than them being too technical. Even breaking them down to basics, you don't get the same technical element, but the specifications of the session are still there!

 

Ill update soon to let you know how the session goes, fingers crossed it goes well!