Coaching the coaching continuum

I had the pleasure of coaching sports coaches at the Heinrich-Heine Gymnasium in Kaiserslautern, Germany this weekend. The focus was on the coaching continuum.

Many of us rely on just a few methods of coaching, according to our personal bias or habit but there are many ways that range from Direct, controlling to free play. All are useful and serve their purpose in different situations.

My presentations and practical sessions tried to show how all of them are used, using four different scenarios:

• Spatial awareness (physical and global).
• Game development and play.
• Movement Framework.
• Warm-Ups.
• Foundational strength.

Developing spatial awareness

For example, after my first presentation that gave an overview of the three main roles of the coach and the three main needs of athletes, we spent 45 minutes ‘doing’.

I used the following coaching methods (the coaches were given handouts explaining this and the exact cues/tasks I was using before the course started):

• Part 1 Problem solving, exploration.
• Part 2 Guided Discovery.
• Part 3: Inquiry.
• Part 4 Group Task (cooperative, different roles).

This was a good way to break the ice.

I am a great believer in coaches having to ‘do‘ and practise their coaching. They don’t have to do a lot or go fast or for long, but just to try things out. This gives them a feel for the sessions and some empathy for their athletes when they start to coach.

Integrating the changes

The following four theory and practical sessions followed a similar pattern but with different information. Quoting from John Wooden, I said at the beginning,

‘You haven’t taught until they have learned.’

The handouts and the practicals gave coaches some tools that they could use immediately as well as a framework to help develop their planning and integrate into their existing good work.

There is little point in me dropping in, bombarding them with information, and then returning home with little or no changes made.

Discussions and idea sharing

After the ‘formal’ learning and teaching had stopped, I spent the next evening and day sharing ideas, answering questions and observing some of the athletes in action. This was intellectually challenging but stimulating: I am out of practice having these discussions thanks to the COVID pandemic.

There were lots of good ideas despite the language barrier (my German is poor). I busted some myths and found some common ground. We had more discussions with Jan Christmann, the sports director, over dinner and yet more whilst hiking through the forest the next day.

The outdoors is a fantastic environment in which to share and discuss, even if the young Germans were determined to leave me behind in their biggest forest.

I watched a second-division badminton match on Sunday: that was impressive. A mixed team event, a bit like the Davis Cup in tennis, with matches only going up to 11 points. This was sport at its best: no money, no corruption, no wasted funds. Just committed athletes, umpires and supporters investing their time in their sport and experiencing the highs and lows that go with it.

Christian Stern, who had come to our GAIN Europe course, was a wonderful host and all of the coaches went out of their way to welcome me. I hope that they got something useful and can continue to help their athletes.