I think that coaching is like a knife and has to be kept sharp.
You can’t put it into a drawer for a few months and pull it out expecting it to work.
Neither can you use it all day long, week in and week out: it becomes dull
The trick is to balance regular coaching, with regular development and reflection.
Have a good Bank Holiday weekend
What are you reading this summer? Is it a book, a journal or just stuff on the internet?
Ex Prime Minister Gordon Brown on his recent trip to Africa encouraged African countries to expand their internet coverage. This is similar to a laptop to every pupil schemes by US philanthropists.
However, giving kids or families a computer and internet access without them having an educational bent has not improved learning ability in the Western World. Low income and low education families use the internet for: porn or games depending on their age group.
Giving pupils access to cheap or free books over the summer vacation actually increases educational achievement the next academic year. It prevents them for having dips in learning which can’t be made up. Other recent research states that having 20 books in the house is the number that differentiates later academic learning from early school leavers.
One theory is that teach someone how to read and then give them a book and they become a “reader”. This is a different class of person from someone who doesn’t read. Reading allows you to access the thoughts of minds and experiences greater than your own and encourages ambition and further learning. Having a computer and internet connection allows you access to entertainment and information- that is different from an ability to learn.
It is not about money- why not join your local library this summer and see what you can find?
It seems to be the time to read more books, not sure whether that is due to rubbish tv, more people on holiday, or less email traffic. Here are some of mine.
“How to help Children find the Champion within themselves”. David HemeryThis is a great little book, easy to read, but with valuable insights into coaching young people. A must read for the enthusiastic parent, or coach of yongsters.
It is broken down into sections for the parent and for the coach- how to do things at home as well as on the field. The cartoons throughout aid the process. Useful tips on the communication process.
Beyond Winning: The timeless wisdom of great philosopher coaches. Gary WaltonA biographical book of 6 great (mostly American) coaches: Woody Hayes, John Wooden, Vince Lombardi, James “Doc” Counsilman, Brutus Hamilton and Percy Cerutty.
The premise here is that these coaches added something more than just tactical and technical nouse to the field of coaching.The book has a chapter on each and a summary chapter of the essence of philosopher coaching.
A useful book for more experienced coaches on how they are developing their practice.
This isn’t a textbook: A somewhat intemperate look at sport, teaching, Coaching and life. Kelvin GilesA collection of thoughts, blogs and experiences from the past 20 years or so from this very experienced coach. Another easy read, although I made the mistake of taking it on holiday and kept reflecting on my own practices rather than relaxing. (Not to self, only take fiction and hisory books again).
It is interspersed with good motivational quotes, that break up the reading. The format may not suit a beginner, as there is no progression. I found it useful as I could relate to a lot of it. It does offer some training principles and reinforces the need for movement efficency before metabolic conditioning.
“Don’t let the music die within you.” Wayne BennettI read the updated version by this great rugby league coach. It has insights into how he deals with the media, young players, loyalty and leadership. The writing is quite simplistic (maybe aimed at rugby league players) and is pleasant enough, but not ground breaking.
The chapter on “duty of care” is recently added and very relevant to today.
One for the fans maybe, or perhaps I have just read a lot of these types of books.
Will Roberts: Senior Lecturer in Sport, Coaching and Physical Education
There is an increasing amount of research in the fields of strength and conditioning and sports coaching, and with an increasing interest in the profession of coaching there are more and more practitioners in both of these fields.
It is quite common that researchers rarely ‘do’, and practioners rarely have the time to ‘research and reflect’.
What happens? Well, there is a gap between the theories of coaching, and the actual every day practice of coaching. Unfortunately, what has not been dealt with is what sits in this gap. Recently, what this gap has referred to is the lack of knowledge of either the coach or the researcher (which is never the same person) which impacts on the level of ‘good’ or ‘effective’ coaching that can take place.
As I reflect more on this ‘gap’, and having witnessed James Marshall and his colleagues deliver a coaching day in Exeter recently, is that this ‘gap’ (and those that are in the gap) is young people’s athletic development. If researchers and practitioners don’t start collaborating then these young people that we are charged with coaching will continue to be physically, technically, tactically, socially and psychologically underdeveloped.
James Marshall and his colleagues are starting to build a bridge across the gap of academic and practitioner. Thorough reflection, mentoring, challenging the traditional, reading, writing and thinking coaching, James is questioning long held beliefs about the ways in which we should coach young people, and the types of things we should be coaching young people.
From nutritional workshops, to free play, to technical skill development for running, (one young man couldn’t run at the start of the day – his technique was a little closer to athletic by the end of it, a genuinely impressive improvement) James and his colleagues followed up a series of coaching sessions with the day long workshop.
You might think that this is not unique, but done well it certainly is. You don’t have to be an ex-athlete, a household name, in possession of a PhD, or a consultant in coaching to be effective.
James and his team are a great of example of what coaching should be. In order to bridge the gap between those researching and those doing, we need to become both.
It is vital that coaches in future are innovative, thoughtful, thought provoking, challenging, researching and DOING. Only when this happens, will we really bridge the gap and service those that are looking for support and guidance so that we have competitive, healthy, fit young people that are the athletes, participants and future coaches and teachers.
For some further thoughts on sports coaching, it may be worth reading the following:
Robyn Jones (2006) The sports coach as educator: re-conceptualising sports coaching published by Routledge: London
Robyn Jones and Mike Wallace (2007) An Introduction to sports coaching: From science and theory to practice published by Routledge: London
Having been in business full time for approaching 10 years, I thought it was time to assess where we stood. Having had a couple of heavy deadlines earlier in the year, I decided to take the time to get some input on where the company stood.
I am in the last stages of a 4 part audit of Excelsior.
Myself and the staff did an extensive survey of what the athletes and customers wanted and expected from us. This included verbal Q&A and written questions. We looked at this information about what they didn’t know, common questions they had, where they looked for information and in what form.
One of the surprising things that came out of this was that they wanted Excelsior stash!
This information has helped shape our workshops, current and future, as well as the blog and resources.
As part of the Transformational coaching course run at Bath University, Wayne Roberts has been observing some of my coaching sessions at different locations. He then assimilated his thoughts into a very productive feedback session. I am not sure how many of you get observed coaching, and then get constructive feedback- I recommend it. Of course it has to be from someone who can give non judgemental feedback (don’t get your line manager or close colleague to do it). When there is no financial incentive from either party, it seems to enable honesty.
I had an intensive 5 days on the GAIN conference in Houston (detailed blogs to follow) which covered a vast array of topics in the Athletic Development field. This was a chance to get my practices and thoughts challenged and analysed by expert practitioners from around the world. I haven’t assimilated all the information yet, but it was a useful process to get away from my existing peer group.
Feedback due next week from the staff, including the Interns, on their experiences and the company as a whole. Probably the toughest critics, they have seen at close hand what work is involved and have been instrumental in helping develop what we do.
I aim to use August to collate this information and get a head start on the next few years. Being a small company we can adapt quite quickly to changing demands, but we need to ensure that we have a stand out service and record to help our athletes and coaches in these difficult financial times.
We are now counting down to the end of our internship with James at Excelsior, and this is a good point to reflect on what I have experienced!
But before that I just want to mention the events from the last few weeks at Millfiled School.
For the last three weeks we have seen a new intake of girls for next year’s sessions. James has aimed to get them moving correctly over the summer to provide them with good technique and so that he can start then loading in September. We have gone through the 5×5 injury prevention programme with them as well as given them agility and leg exercises to do over the summer. Providing a good base (if they train consistently over the summer) to aid future training and improvement.
Self reflection of an Intern
Throughout this process I have learnt many things, which I will list in a minute, but the most valuable of these has been the chance to gain firsthand experience with quality athletes and coaches.
As Matt mentioned in his last blog it is great to assist a good quality coach and mentor, but it is also important to have the chance to coach by yourself and think for yourself. This is something I have had the chance to do recently and has helped me become more confident as a coach.
If you want to be a coach, or even work with athletes, then I have discovered that experience is the most important factor to consider.
As well as experience, other buzz words I would relate to this internship include:
These words and phrases have all cropped up in previous blogs over the last year and are concepts a coach should regularly consider.
Although this internship has been invaluable, I know my learning and growth as a coach is far from over.
From observing young female athletes doing certain practices, I would say yes.
One warm up I have done is to get 2 athletes to shadow each other mimicking movement patterns. That is all the advice and instruction I give, then say go. Doing this with 13 year olds and you see a massive variety of different things being done. It looks like free play and creativity.
Doing this with 16 year old girls this week, I had to stop it and then explain the necessity of experimentation and creativity. “I don’t know what I am supposed to do” and “I can’t think of any different movements” were two of the quotes given to me.
What I saw from the 16 year old girls was a very linear, static, rigid pattern of copying drills taken from the “warm up 101” book of “doing the same as every other sports team in the UK”. It was just too precise and tidy. I didn’t know whether it was an effort to be seen to be doing the right thing, to please the Coach (me) or really a lack of creativity (is this in the exam Coach?)
I then stopped my planned session and got the group to come up with 2 different competitive games, coach them, play them, and then discuss ways of improving. What was apparent was that the girls were not used to being asked to think for themselves, or to input into sessions.
The boys on the other hand at 16-18 years old tend to go a bit crazy and try and out do their partner in weird and wonderful things.
Are the girls the product of the “I need to do well in school to please the teacher/ coach” or is this a genuine physiological \emotional difference between age and sex?
My gut feeling is that their Creativity and Individualism has been restricted through the environment? What do you think?
Last year we mentioned that very experienced coach Yoda. But what can we learn from Darth Vader?
The three main lessons are:
Just because you have been taken down the Dark Side of Coaching does not mean that you can not change.You may have invested hundreds of hours and pounds in reinforcing certain beliefs, but you can still change.
Vader was seduced by the Dark Side and led astray by the Emperor Palpatine. It took a certain self sacrifice by Luke Skywalker and faith in his father to help Vader realise that he was wrong. You may have been seduced by the power of the “Workout of the Day”, the “Frontal Plane Lifting Association” or the “Get massive by spending lots on supplements” Sith Lords, but you can still change.
Despite Vader’s advice, the haste and impetuousity of youth will lead to mistakes. “You don’t know the power of the Dark Side.” Nope, but also haste will also paper over cracks which will appear later on. Probably at the Athlete’s expense.
It might be in an employer’s or athlete’s interest to hire people with no family commitments, but that may not lead to a functional society. Dedicating solely to work, or to sport, without recognition of balance will cause dysfunction.
The fact that you have had no contact with your children for 20 plus years, they kiss each other, you torture one and then chop the hand off the other, does not make you a candidate for “Dad of the Year.”
Any favourite Star Wars quotes relating to coaching are welcome.
I used this theme when presenting at the Active Devon Coaching Conference last weekend.
Do you do endless footwork drills in order to get more agile? Bruce Lee called this organised despair- it looks really productive and efficient, but it has very little transference to open, fast moving situations in a game.
You use your eyes to see what is happening, and your brain to make decisions. They are both located in your head which happens to be pretty heavy and is balanced precariously on top of a long body and legs. As soon as we learn to walk we are constantly fighting against gravity and our imbalances to stay upright. This is great for stability and moving around normally, but in sport we want to move fast and in many different directions.
Instead of trying to keep our head still and letting our limbs flail around underneath us like drunken spiders, move your head violently and decisively in the direction that you want to travel.
That was the basis of my workshop at the conference. I was lucky enough to have a very engaging group, who were willing to try out the random practices and situations that I was creating for them. (The 2 key note speakers were also keen participants Maggie Jackson -England Netball Coach and Andy Jones -Tom Daley’s diving coach.
Malcolm Cook of freeflow coaching ran a great workshop on coaching, I recommend you get along to see him if you get a chance. He looked at technical drill based instruction (he helped write some of the football coaching manuals) and then offered player centered guidance as an alternative. Inspiring and informative, as well as bucketloads of common sense.
Are you all sausage and no sizzle?
As a coach it is important to sell the sizzle to both the athletes and the funders.
To the athlete it is important because it is only a rare breed that thrive on training, most like to play.
The sausage is the main part of training: knowing what works and what doesn’t; using sound training principles and progression accordingly.
The sizzle is making it enjoyable, adding a bit of razzmatazz and competition and fun.
To the funders– it is selling benefits and making sure the people with their hands on the purse strings are aware of what is going on. In the real world, just focussing on the athletes means that your work is not credited your funding is at risk. It means telling the boss how brilliant you are and what a great job you are doing.
Of course all sizzle and no sausage leaves an empty stomach.
Working within school or university environments and on training camps, there seems to be a need to structure every session. The time tabling of lessons and lectures, meal times, and transport means that very minute is accounted for.
On camps there is the additional problem of support staff having to prove their worth and being given sessions to do. So the timetable is dictated by fitting around the staff having something to do, rather than what works for the athlete.
Ironically, it is in the down time, the 10 minutes before or after a session where the athletes can play and experiment that a lot of decision making and motor skill development takes place.
I have recommended to some tennis coaches that they have a 2 hour “jumpers for goalposts sessions” where there is no coaching or drills, but just an opportunity for young players to play in an unstructured fashion- and to have fun.
We will see how that goes.
