A competent coach has many qualities and should be able to cater for the individual needs of people in the session
A competent coach has many qualities and should be able to cater for the individual needs of people in the session.
. Describe, compare and critically evaluate two successful coaches. Evidence will be in the form of a written report.
2. Design a poster presentation that identifies, compares and evaluates a range of techniques. Evidence will be in the form of a poster and notes.
3. Complete 4 observations checklists identifying, comparing and evaluating the needs of four different performers/athletes.
INTRODUCTION
For most people in life they will always remember a good coach or teacher; a good coach/teacher can be the difference for someone taking part ion sport in later life. Although I haven't experienced this, I have read that people have had bad experiences with coaches or teachers and have been put off sport for life. This shows how important a coach or teacher can be in developing children for later life.
I have to compare two coaches that I believe to be successful; I have decided to choose a former teacher and a former coach. I believe it will be interesting to compare them as they were both successful in different, one was successful as he produced good results for the team and the other was successful in producing and help develop children into good players. My first coach was Adrian Tame, he was my cricket coach but was also a Devon coach will help me develop and also get a chance regularly to show Devon selectors my ability, some people are at clubs where they don't send representatives to Devon trials, I was lucky in that sense. He was a coach that focused on developing my skill rather than looking at a way of using my skill to win games, you could say he looked at the technical side of the sport rather than the mental aspect. My other coach was my football teacher/coach at my secondary school. He was a person who I got along with and he was more of a coach that didn't coach our skills but coached us win with our skills, he used different techniques to motivate us and to help us win matches.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Whether you are a qualified coach or just someone who does it for fun your attitude towards children is a big part in whether you are a successful coach or not.
Wanted
Our
Future
This diagram shows how and where you can use your coaching skills. Even if you are not qualified you can skilled help develop sport in certain situations. It just means you are restricted to amateur set-ups where they are usually grateful for the help whether from a qualified coach or an unqualified one.
Each sport has their own way of training and educating people to become qualified coaches but there is a set structure
At the core of the Programme is a four level ladder, ranging from beginner coach to international coach, with a number of sports offering an Introduction to Coaching Course. Each level deals with three major modules: - The Sport, The Participant and The Coach.
* The Sport - Principles and Rules, Strategy and Tactics, Technique and Skill, History and Structure.
* The Participant -Motives and Needs, Physical Fitness, Mental Fitness, Skill Development.
* The Coach -Planning and Appraisal, Role of the Coach, Practice and Competition
ROLES OF A COACH
The role of the coach is a varied one. It involves being a teacher, a trainer, a motivator, a manager and a friend. It also involves being disciplined (and knowing how to discipline), being willing to listen and being willing to learn.
In a purer sense it is the art and science of sharing your accumulated knowledge with a player to improve their performance.
Coaching is not just about improving the physical performance of the player. The changes in behaviour, mental and physical condition which coaching can bring will carry over into everyday life. That's where the saying everyone remembers a good teacher/coach comes from.
In taking on the role of a coach, you must accept that the development of the player as "a whole person" is as important as that player's success in the sport. Coaches must use the influence they have on players, particularly young children, with care, consideration and concern.
Here are six of coach's most important roles they have to play within helping a young or experienced athlete to improve.
. Advisor - Advising athletes on the training to be conducted and suitable kit and equipment.
2. Assessor - Assessing athlete's performance in training and in competition.
3. Demonstrator - Demonstrate to the athletes the skill you require them to perform. To achieve this it is important that you also keep fit.
4. Mentor - When athletes attend training sessions you are responsible, to their parents and family, for ensuring that they are safe and secure. You have to monitor their health and safety whilst training and support them should they have any problems or sustain any injuries.
5. Motivator - Maintain the motivation of all the athletes the whole year round.
6. Supporter - Competition can a be very nerve racking experience for some athletes and often they like you to be around to help support them through the pressures. Role of a 'Friend' and perhaps 'Counsellor' come in here to.
I have missed one role out from this list; I believe the most important role of a coach is that of an educator. His job is not complete when he's delivered his message, but rather, when the moment comes when the athlete/player completely understands what you're saying and is able to contribute his own ideas to the conversation. Some children can learn by listening, others learn better with visual images, and still others learn best kinaesthetically, by going through the motions. So it is important that a coach doesn't use the same technique for getting information across with every child as each child is different and may find it easier to learn a different way, each coaching technique must be Taylor made for the athlete/player rather for the coach.
SKILLS OF A COACH
For a young athlete/performer it is important to have a good coach as everything you learn at an early age will transfer to later life, it isn't so bad if you get told inaccurate points when your older as you have a fair idea of what is right and wrong for you, but when your younger it sets the foundation for your later career and it is important that your coach has the correct skills to enable you to keep learning and learning in the correct way. There is a core set of skills that every coach should no matter what sport you coach as it applies to all sports.
* It is important you know how to communicate with your athletes and you know how to adapt your communication depending on the situation.
* Although knowledge of the sport isn't always essential it is important you understand the training principles and the learning process (for example to know not to overload a young performer with too much information at once.)
* Although you probably have your own coaching style it is important to be aware of all the other coaching styles as not every child or athlete is the same and you may have to adjust your style to suit a performer.
* When coaching young children you must be aware of their growing capabilities and too understand when to push them and when not to.
* For a young person to improve their performance it is also important for them to learn about their sport, for example rules and regulations.
* You must recognise how to prevent injury and the effects of over training.
* You should use evaluation tests to monitor training progress and predicting performance.
* Although it may not seem important for a young person, nut it is important for a coach to get a message across about the correct diet and the importance of nutritional needs.
* As the performer develops and has to deal with the mental aspect of sport they will need to be educated on relaxation and mental imagery skills.
* As an athlete gets older and the difference between them and other athletes grows smaller they will want to increase their chances of improving this will sometimes involve taking supplements and it is the coaches job to advise which ones are legal and which ones will help them the most.
* Probably the coach's most important skill is that to evaluate their athlete in many situations but most importantly evaluate the athlete's competition performance and evaluate their training performance.
COACHING STYLES
I would say there were three different coaching styles - autocratic (do as I say), democratic (involve the athletes in decision making) and finally probably the least used Laise Faire (which is where the coaching gives an idea or point and the athlete goes off and learns for himself. The autocratic style can be broken into two types - telling and selling and the democratic style into sharing and allowing. Coaches will use a variety of styles/types depending on the coaching situation (mostly depending on the type and personality of athlete they are coaching)
Autocratic Style - Telling
* The coach decides on what is to be done
* The athletes are not involved in the decision making
* The coach defines what to do and how to do it
This is a very straight forward style to understand, the coach will give an instruction and the way he wants it to be completed and then the athlete will go and do what the coach has said, for example the coach wants his prop to do sets of 3 with 6 reps on bench press.
Autocratic Style - Selling
* The coach decides on what is to be done
* The coach explains what is required and the objectives
* The athletes are encouraged to ask questions to confirm understanding
* The coach defines what to do and how to do it
Obviously it is similar to the other autocratic style with a slight difference, the coach will basically tell the athlete the purpose of what he is about to do and will also give the athlete a chance to ask any questions of his own but still the coach will decide what the athlete is doing. For example will tell the athlete that by doing 3 sets of 6 reps on bench press will build his strength in his chest. Then if the athlete doesn't understand he can ask the coach his questions.
Democratic Style - Sharing
* The coach outlines the training requirements to the athletes
* The coach invites ideas/suggestions from the athletes
* The coach makes the decision based on the athletes' suggestions
* The coach defines what to do and how to do it
The two democratic styles are obviously more f an interaction between the coach and the athlete, with the sharing style the coach will tell the athlete they want them to improve upper body strength and then ask the athlete what sot of exercises they prefer doing for upper body, the athlete may say 'cleans'.
Democratic Style - Allowing
* The coach outlines the training requirements to the athletes
* The coach defines the training conditions
* The athletes brainstorm to explore possible solutions
* The athletes make the decision
* The athletes define what to do and how to do it
This is the most relaxed style with the exception of Laise Faire, the coach will say to the athlete that they want them to work on the upper body and to do sets with no more than 8 reps, and will show them the correct technique for the exercise but it allows the athlete to personalise the workout suited to their preference.
Some people don't see the coaching styles falling into the categories above; the other known view on coaching styles is they fall into four sections.
* Command style - direct instruction, coach dictates
* Reciprocal style - athlete takes some responsibility for their own development - monitored by the coach
* Problem solving style - athlete solves problems set by the coach
* Guided discovery - athlete has freedom to explore various options
TWO SUCCESSFUL COACHES
ADRIAN TAME
I have tried to pick two coaches that were quite different in both their styles and approaches; this will show how two very different coaches can still be very effective. My first coach was Adrian Tame he was my first proper cricket coach, he starting coaching me from about age eleven and he probably coached me properly for at least five years. I believe when you first start a sport you don't really have to be taught by a qualified coach as you still learning the basics, which anyone can coach, but I feel once you reach the level when you are a competent player you will need to coached the correct way. Adrian is almost a professional coach, I think he has taken almost all the coaching courses available and has coached different age groups for Devon and also for the West of England section, which is very high standard. As far as Adrian is concerned I always felt he was a coach that concentrated a lot on developing my skill rather than looking at other aspects of the game, I think this was quite noticeable when I tried to transfer my skill into a game situation. I often found batting in the nets wasn't a problem for me and I felt I looked like I was improving all the time, but when I played in matches I struggled as I wasn't used to dealing with some of the other aspects of the sport especially the psychological side of the sport. I would say Adrian's roles as a coach were quite varied, he was an assessor, and he was also a mentor and an advisor. I think his most important role as far as I was concerned was a demonstrator, when learning new skills or trying to correct skills he would always demonstrate the correct technique which I believe to be a great help especially for me as I like to see the skill being performed as I struggle to digest some of the technical words used when learning a skill and I struggle to get a mental picture from just listening to someone describe the skill. I would certainly say that Adrian was an advisor to me; he would always explain things that I needed to do to improve whether that involved me buying equipment, involving different fitness techniques or to go to representative trials. Although I said Adrian's most important role, as a coach was being a demonstrator I believe he was almost equally as important being a mentor to me. I remember one incident when I was hit in the face with a cricket ball while playing with some mates in a field and he paid for me to buy a helmet so that I didn't get hit there again, I remember some occasions when some of the team were messing around and he use to stop the whole training session so that everyone was just watching us, he didn't want any proper sporting activity going on whilst we were messing around, this also made us quite embarrassed not to do it again. One thing that always found helpful was some of Adrian's techniques when coaching, believe he was a few years ahead of his time, I remember when I was twelve just before a Devon trial he recorded a whole training session and played it back to us to help us see what he was seeing I thought this was different idea especially at the time, I thought it helped me a lot and I would have liked to have done this more regularly.
Many people see a coach as a person who hasn't got any skill in the sport so they coach it instead, most of the time this isn't true but coaching itself requires a lot of skill itself. A lot about being a good coach can come from your personality but don't underestimate the skills that a coach has. I think personally one of the most important skills a coach can have is the ability to adapt to a situation or person. For example you may have a set caching style but you may recognise a person in your ...
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Many people see a coach as a person who hasn't got any skill in the sport so they coach it instead, most of the time this isn't true but coaching itself requires a lot of skill itself. A lot about being a good coach can come from your personality but don't underestimate the skills that a coach has. I think personally one of the most important skills a coach can have is the ability to adapt to a situation or person. For example you may have a set caching style but you may recognise a person in your club that you know will struggle with your method of coaching so you may change or adapt your style to suit that athlete. I think there is one great example in which Adrian proved he could adapt to a situation. After I was at the club a couple of years a deaf boy called John joined are club and this was very difficult at first for everyone including John. He was a quite talented sportsmen but he seemed to have trouble with his temperament and Adrian had to use a very different way of coaching to help John, as well as the group coaching sessions he did a lot of one-to-one coaching with him as a lot of the subtle things that take place in a training session made it hard for John to fully understand what was going on. He also used a lot of video footage to help john see where he was going wrong as you can imagine telling what he was doing wrong didn't help very much. Linking on from that difficult situation Adrian had to coach in; communication is another extremely important skill and one that I think that Adrian uses a lot to his advantage. I think because he has worked with children a lot he has learnt the best way communicate with them, and has learnt the best way to put across his point. Obviously every child is different and he probably need to adapt his method for every child but he will have learnt a specific way of communicating with children and will have learnt what they respond to and what they don't. I would say that communication is not an important skill for a coach it is an essential skill and I believe you cant even be a good coach without this skill. Even now there was something about Adrian's coaching that I can still remember being really important to my learning, he gave us checklists for the season with a lists of all the skills he was going to cover once you had achieved one skill to the standard he was happy with he would introduce the next skill to you, I think this was a really good idea as some people progress quicker or slower than others and most coaches will introduce skills to the whole group, some players will struggle and won't progress as quickly as some of the others and therefore wont be ready top move on when everyone else, and it works both ways some players may progress so quickly that they may not learning as they have to wait the others to catch up so it is important that everyone is challenged all of the time. There is no point in you doing something over and over when it is easy for you, then again there is also no point moving on to the next level when you are still struggling with the previous activity. What Adrian did with the checklists was not only useful for progression but also for evaluating, it gave him a simple way of looking at what sections of the sport we were struggling with and what skills we found easier. I think the evaluation process is an important part of learning, it is all well and good learning skills but you need some sort of evaluating that can be done in a number of ways like feedback and reinforcement. I think those checklists were not only a great way of tracking progress but also a terrific way of evaluating as well. Something I was taught from an early age were the rules of the sport, it is all well and good being a good cricket player but if you don't the know the rules of the sport you will struggle, I think this would apply to all sports. I don't think you can reach your full potential until you know your like 'the back of your hand', as you can use the rules to your advantage you can learn how to adapt your skill to certain rules. I think if you play the sport for long enough you pick up the rules gradually anyway, but my coach asked us to watch the sport on TV and to watch how the professionals play the game. I think knowing the rules is the second most important part of the game behind actually having skill to play it, and if you can learn the rules quicker it is helpful as you can start putting your knowledge of the rules into your game earlier.
The most notable and biggest difference between coaches will usually be what sort of style they apply to their coaching. A persons coaching style is what usually defines them as a coach. I think it would take a while before you become comfortable with a certain style and one that suits you, I think the better coaches will adapt their style to suit the situation but overall they will have a set style which they use the majority of the time.
I think Adrian was the sort of coach that was very adaptable in his approach, as the team got older he approached changed as we matured we could understand how to interact with the coach, and how to improve our own games. I would certainly say when I was first coached by Adrian he used an autocratic telling style, I think when you need to be told what to do and I think that style works as long as the coach understands the wants and needs of children at the age in respects to their sport. Most children of around 10-11 just want to play games, but for their development you can't just simply play games but it is important learning skills all the time can become boring and so finishing training sessions with games is like a reward to children. They realise that after they do all the 'boring' stuff they get a fun game at the end. I think when we got the age of about 13-14 he started to become a little bit more relaxed, as I think he knew we were starting learn a lot more about the sport at that we had our own opinions and knowledge about the sport so he gradually moved into an autocratic selling style, which basically gives the element of interaction between coach and pupil which was absent before hand. It was only really in the last year or so of playing in the juniors when I was 16 when I noticed a more democratic style introduced, by the time you get to this age you have learnt a lot about your own ability and what works for you and you know to a certain extent what things are best for you, and therefore a democratic style would be more suited towards a person of this age group.
JASON TREVARTHEN
Although Jason only coached me for two years I thought it would be very interesting to look at someone who has a completely different style of coaching to Adrian. Being in a sports college, the emphasise although not publicized was on winning, it is important when you are a sports college to have successful sports teams. Jason Trevarthen was my football coach for year eight and nine; in both years we reached the Devon cup final and one year winning it. He wasn't a coach who spent all the training sessions trying to coach different skills, we wouldn't have had time develop our skills in that way, he worked on the theory that most of us played football for clubs outside school and would be getting the coaching there. What was completely different about Jason's style in contrast with Adrian's is that he looked how he could use our skills to win.
I think Jason had three main roles as a coach, a mentor, a supporter and finally a motivator. Jason played at quite a high level at football and I think that is certainly evident in his style of coaching. I think he was a mentor in a different way to us, he was someone we looked up to and had a lot of respect for and therefore where more responsive to his orders. Being a teacher it was his job to make everything safe and secure for us, but that was something he had to do, I think he was mentor in different way you could almost say he was a role model to us. We saw in training how good he was and that inspired and certain amount of competitiveness into us thinking we want to be that good and in training we where always looking to impress him as any praise from him meant you had done something well. I thought the most important role for me was him being a supporter, we didn't have any left wingers in our team and was mainly used in central midfield or central defence, but as we had a lot of players who could play their he asked me If I would play on the left wing, and for the first few matches that I did play their I found it tough and struggled, Jason kept telling that the good performances will come and it will take time to get used to the position I believe If I hadn't got that constant support from the coach I would have wanted to give up. The role I remember him playing the most clearly was as a motivator, some of his sayings still make me laugh now. One of the main techniques he used to motivate us was to play music in the changing room before we went out onto the pitch, a favourite of his and the song that was played before every was 'Eye Of The Tiger', I think he played it five times for the cup finals. When we were playing badly he used a completely different technique altogether, at half time he used the 'shouting and balling' technique which was something we feared and something we new would happen if we played badly. In the first final we played in we were two-nil down at half time and I don't think I have ever heard anyone shout as loud as he did at half time.
I think Jason's skills as a coach are a lot different from Adrian's skills; he is someone who looks a lot at psychological aspect of sport and that's where the majority of his skills come from. He spent a lot of time with us trying to get us to visualize and relaxation and to create a mental picture in our heard. He believed in getting that 'small edge' that could win you the game, that mental toughness. I even remember in a GCSE PE revision class getting us to visualize us opening the exam results card and seeing A* on the sheet and that if you put the work in the reward will be there. He was also one of those coaches that believe fitness is just as important to a sport as the skill and even though we where only 13-14 he made sure our fitness levels were correct and if anyone looked unfit they didn't make the team whatever skill they had. He was the sort of coach that wanted commitment from his team and he expected everyone at training and he wouldn't pick players who didn't turn-up to training unless they had a valid reason and even then sometimes he didn't pick them.
He also wanted everything done correctly; he was stamped down the importance of sportsmanship and sticking by the rules. He would rather e had lost a game than cheat a win.
Although most of us saw him as a mate and we got along with in that way, (which was quite a strange thing as at that age you don't get that a great deal with teachers at that age) he still made sure we knew who was the boss. Although he was quite laid back, he was an autocratic coach, most of the time it was autocratic telling but there were a lot of occassions where he used the autocratic selling technique. Because he wasn't the sort of coach that taught us skills, every he did was on the basis that he was using the skills we had and use them to help the team win, and this sort of technique either needed a laise faire technique or it required an autocratic telling style, he was one of those people that you always respected and you knew if he told you to do something it was going to benefit you in someway.
COMPARING COACHES
As I have already stated there is quite a difference between the two coaches, in the roles, skills and techniques. As I have already said Adrian was a coach that tried to develop us technically while Jason tried to develop us psychologically. To me both coaches had different roles as a coach, although they where different there were crossovers which is interesting to look at as they seem completely different. Adrian uses his knowledge to help us develop technically he also uses passes a lot theory and knowledge. Adrian is a very hands on coach, for example he will do a lot of demonstrations himself while Jason will usually pick someone from the team for demonstrations this also helps build confidence of players, giving a little bit of pressure even within training which is getting them ready for the pressure of a match. If I were to pick one role which describes Adrian best it would have to be demonstrator, the most important part of the learning process is that you understand what you have to perform you need a correct model to watch, some coaches that can't perform the skill themselves may use a member of the team or may use a video of a professional but it was very helpful that Adrian performed the skills for you as it gave us a chance to see it up close. I would say Jason's main role as a coach was as a motivator, he tries to find ways of using players to skill to the best of his ability to create a winning side. I remember him spending a lot of time speaking to and motivating a midfield player we had, as he seemed to be just wondering around there pitch and when he was fired up he was awesome. I think in both ways each coach had an important role as a coach, although sometimes there methods weren't very successful. In year eight we struggled in the league a lot we finished in the bottom four of the league and we didn't have the same motivation for the league matches and without the motivation Jason's coaching wasn't very effective. A similar effect happened with the cricket team, when we came against sides that tried to intimidate us we 'went into our shells' and didn't perform to our best ability. Both coaches had important roles but there roles as coaches only worked a small amount of time, theirs roles needed to be backed up with something else and you would have to say that if the two coaches were to team up then you would have a good combination. One coach dealt with the technical side and the other dealt with the psychological factors, which we struggled with when being coached by Adrian. If you looked at the two coaches, you would say they were incomplete as coaches they only have half the requirements but if you combined there roles as coaches you would have a formula that could be successful. In terms of making improvements you would have to say that it would be hard for Jason to find the time to coach our skills, and so he is doing the best with the time he has available. You could suggest that maybe he could spend less time on the psychological side and maybe try to introduce the technical side of the sport especially elements like set pieces. This would help each member of the team learn a bit more about each others game and thus improve each others understanding for each other. I would certainly say that Adrian could learn to use aspects of the psychological side of the sport in his coaching. He could maybe go on courses for coaches that deal with mental toughness either that or learn techniques that help players to deal with that side of the sport.
In terms of the skills that each coach has they are quite similar, both coaches use their skill communication to great effect, but it slightly different ways. As I have said before Adrian is a technical coach and Jason is a psychological coach, both fields require communication but it is the way you communicate that determines whether you are successful. Communication is the single most important element of being a coach, if you cannot communicate then you might as well not even think about becoming a coach it is as simple as that. For people that find communication one of their strengths then teaching and coaching are ideal occupations. When delivering instructions you need to do it in a way that the athlete understands your views, points and opinions, there is no point having tremendous ideas if you cannot get your point across to your players. You can sometimes make up for a lack of knowledge if you have good communication skills. I said earlier I believe that both coaches have good communication skills, but they do it in different styles. Adrian communicates through his past experiences and in a very correct fashion, being a qualified Devon coach he is very much a 'textbook style coach' everything is done correctly and he likes to portray that attitude when he speaks and demonstrates skills. He uses communication as a way of enhancing and developing skill, he also uses in conjunction with other methods of coaching like visual demonstration, he will use communication of breaking down a skill so that the performer understands every part of the skill, he basically explains the positive and negatives of using certain skills so you understand what he knows, it is way of passing his knowledge across to you. In contrast Jason was using his communication skills in a different way, rather than using them to make you understand something he was using them to inspire you. You didn't always have to understand what he was saying he was using them for you to get that feeling that you want to perform well. You weren't necessarily learning anything when he spoke but you got the feeling that you wanted to perform to the best of your ability just to impress him. He is one of those people that when he started speaking people just sat and listened as he always had something you wanted to hear. It was very morale boasting and it didn't necessarily improve you as a player but it got the best out of you, so in a way it did improve you as it helped you to reach your full potential, while Adrian used to communication to try increase your full potential. You would struggle to find a way to improve both coaches' communication skills, as both are very effective in the way they use communication and both are successful with their methods. If you were to make any recommendations to improve in the future you would maybe suggest that maybe use their communication in different styles, as if they are successful using it one way then if they learn a new style of using communication then they could be even more successful, both seem to be very set in their ways. Adrian is a 'textbook' coach and some situations it requires to be unorthodox which is something you don't get from him in any element of his coaching especially through communication. Where as Jason is very unorthodox and it would be handy for him to progress as a coach to have some correct techniques even through motivation, there are usually some taught ways how to motivate people and it wouldn't hurt to learn it the 'textbook' way as well, just having that extra knowledge can only benefit you as a coach.
I think the use of communication is the only similarity that the two coaches have in common in terms of their skills as coaches. They both have good communication skills and they both use them to their advantage but in slightly different ways. Other than communication the two coaches have very much different skills as coaches, and you wouldn't expect them to have too many similarities as we have already discovered they are very different in terms of what sort of coach they are and what they try to coach. In terms of skills Adrian is amylase he likes to monitor and evaluate this helps him to see how the athlete are progress, he also sets targets for individuals rather than the team. Jason on the other hand likes to see success and monitors progress through success, he doesn't set individual targets as he believes being a team game that the targets should be set through the team. He likes to take credit for any success that the team has, where Adrian very much praises us when we have done well and doesn't usually accept credit when the team has done well, he is believer that he just helps us out it is us that have earn the achievement not him. Adrian is a coach that likes to get involved constantly, he may show a skill to an athlete let them have a few attempts and then come back and help them again, Jason is from the school where he likes his athletes to get along on their own where possible, he will set them jobs to do and will only look at progress afterwards. I think one most important skill that Adrian has that Jason doesn't have is the ability to adapt, which I believe is so important when coaching. Every athlete is different and needs to be treated as such, Jason could be called 'old fashioned' meaning he has a formula that works for him and therefore he doesn't change it, where as Adrian can notice the need to change his role or style to suit the individual as he knows that sometimes his style isn't suited to a performer and therefore will not get the most successful. I think this is a great skill to have as this means you have a broad coaching style, which probably means you could take your coaching style into other sports if you had the knowledge of the sport. Whereas Jason has a style that at the moment is suited to football, but if he were to coach say a rugby team he would probably be unsuccessful as he doesn't have the ability to adapt his coaching.
As the performer develops and has to deal with the mental aspect of sport they will need to be educated on relaxation and mental imagery skills.
If you could talk about perfecting a particular skill, you would have to say Jason Trevarthen is very close to perfecting the way to help athletes deal with the mental aspect of sport. Many experts believe this to be the hardest thing to coach, as many sportsmen have enough ability to perform at the highest but a lot of the time they do not have the mental attitude to cope. One example of this would be Andy Cole, at one time he was one of the most prolific strikers in the country scoring forty goals in one season before, but he has only ever scored one goal at international level. He was always in and out of the England side many people say this wasn't just down to his attitude but also through bad timing and injuries as well, but most experts believe his attitude for international football was all wrong, he struggled to deal with failure which is something he hadn't dealt with before at club level. I still remember some of Jason's speeches that he made to help us deal with pressure, especially during our cups, I recall him making a five-minute team talk before a quarter final once talking about 'becoming heroes' and 'I was our chance' and 'it's now or never'. I think he knew exactly how to get the best out of us, and he was very good at bringing players 'out of their shells', he made people feel confident about their ability and I also think he made players that didn't have as much ability become better players just through their mental attitude. This was something that was missing from Adrian's coaching, he did cover the mental aspect about the sport in small doses, but I always remember going into games and the majority of the team-task he made where what we where going to do in regards to our skills, like setting targets for the game and how we where going to win through tactics and performance, I don't we really had any team-talks about winning psychological battles. Having seen both sides of the coin, I would certainly recommend that coaches concentrate as much on the psychological side of the sport as the technical side, nowadays the mental toughness can be enough to win you matches, having said that you still need the skill to perform and you cannot win games purely on mental toughness where as you can sometimes win games purely on skill. The most successful teams and coaches will in cooperate mental toughness with the technical side as well; you have to get the balance right as coach and as a team.
A coaches technique is what defines them as a coach, usually when looking back on a coach later in life you will remember their more than anything else, you remember whether they were ' a shouter and screamer' or a 'calm' coach. I think when I look back at my football coach Jason Trevarthen I will remember exactly what sort of coach he was, he was a coach that liked everything done his way, he believed he had a successful methods of coaching and that he knew best. Adrian's coaching is harder to define as he adapted his style to suit the athlete. I think if he coached adults all the time he would be a laise faire coach, I found as I got older his coaching got more relaxed as he realised we were becoming aware of are own skill and started to realise how to improve our own games which I believe you don't have until you get a little bit older. You certainly wouldn't progress at ten years old if your coach had a democratic style, you wouldn't have the discipline to do the exercises that benefited you the most, you would tend to do the exercises that were the most fun, at that age you need the discipline to progress. So I think the ability to adapt your coaching technique is one of the most important skills you can have, and if I'm honest I think if you can adapt you automatically become a better coach than someone who can't adapt. I thin it is one of the skills that can't really be learnt, I believe it to be habitual, you either have it or don't. Most coach's that have a set technique and that don't change their style will almost never change their ways, they find a technique they believe to be successful and they stick with it. The one problem with this is that most techniques will become out dated and in time will become unsuccessful so as well as being able to adapt you have to update. Jason trevarthen is very much an autocratic coach, and I believe that limits you to how far you can go, I think there is a place in sport for an autocratic leader but in today's modern times there isn't really place in modern professional sport for dictators, long gone are the days when one man controlled everything to be successful team nowadays in needs the combination of many peoples ideas and thoughts. This view comes from saying 'several brains are better than one'. I certainly think there is a place for an autocratic style coach for younger children and I almost think it is essential for children to have an autocratic style coach, but as you coach older people your style has to change to get the best results. I would certainly say Jason's coaching technique is suited to school children but I think if he coached men's football he would be out of his depth. In terms of Adrian's coaching technique he is probably a little bit too adaptable and if he gets further up the ladder would have try define himself to a technique but that is something easily done, and would certainly his adaptability would get him further even if he didn't get as much success as Jason at this level.
SUPPORTING AN ATHLETE
As I looked at earlier there are many roles a coach has to fill, they don't just have to coach an athlete how to play the sport. One of the most important roles a coach has to play is to support his athlete. Being known as a supporter can also be seen as a friend as well. There are many ways in which a coach can help their athlete with the mental aspect of the sport and to help keep their confidence high.
GUIDANCE: - processes by which a teacher or coach helps a learner to acquire a skill; these may be verbal (instruction), visual (demonstration) or manual (support or physically guiding the movement).
VERBAL GUIDANCE
Verbal guidance although not my preferred technique is still a very important section of the learning process and should be used ion conjunction with visual guidance. I would say this type of guidance would be best suited to someone who has been playing the sport a long time and could be classed as an autonomous performer. Verbal guidance is often associated with visual guidance to identify what needs to be done and how learner should do it. The coach should make sure they are: Clear, precise, simple, accurate, relevant, highlight important cues.
Problems: Can learner understand instructions (language)
Remember them (channel capacity
Translate word to movement?
VISUAL GUIDANCE
For me visual guidance is the most important type of guidance, as not matter how well spoken the coach I still cant get a mental picture of the skill until I have seen someone perform the skill well. You can get a good idea of the skill by reading about it and by someone explaining it to you, but I feel more comfortable with a visual demonstration. Visual guidance can come in different forms:
. Demonstrations: 'Real life' instant picture
Focus attention on performance cues
Must be accurate demonstration
2. Modify Display: Highlight/modify cues by emphasising important aspects
of surroundings e.g. colour of ball, marking targets.
Targets
Bibs
3. Visual Aids: Video, T.V., Photos, Charts
MANUAL AND MECHANICAL GUIDANCE
I believe this technique is somewhat of a last resort to help a learner improve, this way a coach can use themselves or something mechanical to aid the performer.
* Mechanical: Swimmer using float, trampolinist using belt
* Manual: Catching legs in handstand, holding bike of beginner.
Advantages
Builds confidence, reduces fear in dangerous situations.
Helps timing and development of special areas
Gives some idea of kinaesthetic awareness of motion
Disadvantages
No true knowledge of forces acting on body
intrinsic feedback could be incorrect which can lead to bad habits and therefore the wrong transfer of learning
Reduction in learner's participation, which could lead to a reduction in their motivation.
Manual and mechanical guidance is important in early stages of learning but research suggests it is not effective for long-term learning. As I said earlier it should only be used as a last resort and if a coach does decide to give the performer manual/mechanical guidance he must ensure that the learners don't rely on them too much and to produce the movement themselves as soon as possible.
FEEDBACK: - information about a movement, which derives from the performance of the movement.
Feedback is an essential component to help and athlete develop and improve, you cannot become a better athlete if you don't know what to improve on, and this is where feedback comes in. There are four ways in which feedback can be used for:
* Information about performance or outcome.
* Reinforcement (either positive or negative)
* Punishment
* Motivation
Feedback is broken down into two sections Intrinsic (Inherent) and Extrinsic (Augmented).
INTRINSIC FEEDBACK
As the name states you receive this type of feedback internally, this type of feedback is produced by your body from it knows is good and what is bad. For example when you hit the golf ball sweetly you will get that feeling that you know its going to be a good shot and in cricket when you hit the ball you can tell whether it was a good shot by the feeling and from past experiences when you have felt a good shot. This type of feedback is purely based upon internal feeling.
EXTRINSIC FEEDBACK
This is probably the most effective of feedback; it will usually come from sources around, which have a better idea of your performance than you do. Most people assume that this type of feedback will come from your coach, but it can also come from the crowd, for example if they cheer then you can assume that what you did was done well and if they boo or jeer you will get the idea that you didn't perform as well. Other forms of extrinsic feedback can come from officials, video analysis, a results board or even teammates.
Extrinsic is the most commonly used, well-known and recognised form of feedback and it is slip up into different dimension.
IMMEDIATE
Presented immediately after the action
DELAYED
Some time after the action
CONCURRENT
Presented during the movement
TERMINAL
Presented after the movement
VERBAL
Presented in a form that is spoken or capable of being spoken
NON-VERBAL
Presented in a form that is not capable of being spoken
ACCUMULATED
Feedback that represents an accumulation of past performances
DISTINCT
Feedback that represents each performance separately
Whole Practice
Ideally a skill should be taught as a whole as the athlete can appreciate the complete movement and execution of a skill. The whole method of instruction can sometimes mean the athlete having to handle complex movements e.g. the whole high jump technique.
Part Instruction
When a skill is complex or there is considered to be an element of danger for the athlete then it is more appropriate to breakdown the complex movement into its constituent parts. The parts can then be taught and then linked together to develop the final skill. When part instruction is used it is important that the athlete is demonstrated the whole skill so that they can appreciate the end product and understand how the set of parts will develop the skill.
Whole - Part - Whole Instruction
Initially the athlete attempts the whole skill and the coach monitors to identify those parts of the skill that the athlete is not executing correctly. Part instruction can then be used to address the limitations and then the athlete can repeat the whole skill with the coach monitoring for any further limitations.
No one method is suitable to all occasions, but studies have shown that:
* Simple skills (and perhaps simple is relative to each individual) benefit from the whole method
* Skills of intermediate difficulty benefit from the part method
* Closed skills are often taught with part instruction
* Difficult skills are best dealt with by oscillating between part and whole
REINFORCEMENT: - the process of increasing the desired behaviour by giving satisfaction to the learner.
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT: - providing a feeling of satisfaction to increase the likelihood of the desired response being repeated.
NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT: - removing an unpleasant experience in order to increase the likelihood of the desired response being repeated.
Davis, Bull and Roscoe
Reinforcement is a stimulus, which follows and is contingent upon behaviour and increases the probability of a behaviour being repeated. Positive reinforcement can increase the probability of not only desirable behaviour but also undesirable behaviour. For example, if a student whines in order to get attention and is successful in getting it, the attention serves as positive reinforcement, which increases the likelihood that the student will continue to whine. This tip sheet describes different kinds of reinforces which have been found to be effective in changing student behaviour and a discussion of how to select and deliver appropriate and effective reinforces. There is much literature on this topic and you are strongly encouraged to consult additional resources for a more in-depth discussion of positive reinforcement.
Additionally, negative reinforcement and satiation (when a rein forcer loses
Its effectiveness) are also discussed.
RELAXATION
Relaxation itself can be useful in a number of circumstances including:
* The promotion of rest, recovery and recuperation
* The removal of stress related reactions e.g. increased muscular tension, etc.
* The establishing of a physical and mental state which has an increased receptivity to positive mental imagery
* The establishing of a set level of physical and mental arousal prior to warming up for competition
When combined with positive mental imagery it is useful in:
* Developing self confidence
* Developing pre-competition and competition strategies which teach athletes to cope with new situations before they actually encounter them
* Helping the athlete to focus his/her attention or concentrate on a particular skill he/she is trying to learn or develop. This can take place both in or away from the training session
* The competition situation
CRITICISM
Criticism is very much a big part of professional coaching. Keep in mind that it can be positive or negative. Further, the coach and the player can perceive it differently. Sometimes coaches belittle or offend a player on purpose, especially in front of the rest of the team. On occasions, a coach and player may have a relationship that would allow for the coach to overly criticize a key player to send an indirect message to the rest of the team. However, there are more and more players who are not only playing a more individualistic game but they are thinking more selfishly. A coach's obligation is to develop a team, which includes reserves and all of the ancillary support people. This type of approach is not recommended for everyone but it is clear that when a player is out of line and placing his own concerns above all else he may use subtle comments, then direct remarks and then if there is not a measured positive response a serious confrontation. There have also been a number of reported and unreported unpleasant confrontations in the in all manner of professional and amateur sports. In virtually all of the cases everyone is embarrassed and apologetic after he has had the opportunity to think about it.
Fear has rarely been a successful long-term motivational tool at any level. If you are coaching in school or college competitions there is no reason to use negative methodology or to challenge a student who has very little recourse. This style is more common in rugby and is generally more accepted by the rugby players. It is thought to be "macho." However, each student-athlete should be considered unique and it is the coach's responsibility to provide for the individual differences as long as it doesn't impede the growth of the rest of the team. Some coaches and managers have resorted to spontaneous cursing and asinine criticism, and although there are cases and situations where this is appropriate, as a whole this technique is less successful. A coach can/will lose the commitment of the player in question and many of his teammates who are capable of drawing their own conclusions.
GOAL SETTING
Goal setting is a hugely powerful technique that can produce a lot of positives in all areas of your life.
At its simplest level the process of setting goals and targets allows you to choose where you want to go in life. By knowing what you want to achieve, you know what you have to concentrate on and improve. Goal setting gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation.
By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. You have something to aim for and therefore you can analyse progress made and you can make changes to suit the improvements you have made.
By setting goals you can:
* Achieve more
* Improve performance
* Improve the quality of your training
* Increase your motivation to achieve
* Increases your pride and satisfaction in your performance
* Improve your self-confidence
There are many positives by setting goals not just in terms of sporting achievement.
* Suffer less from stress and anxiety
* Concentrate better
* Show more self-confidence
* Perform better
* Are happier with their performances
Sam Torrance is considering asking England football coach Sven-Goran Eriksson to help Europe's Ryder Cup campaign.
The Scot believes Eriksson's motivational techniques could provide the team with an extra edge.
"I have to think about whether it's right for the team," said Torrance.
"I sat next to him last year on a flight to Spain and he's a very interesting man. I was trying to pick his brains as much as I could then."
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson was lined up to address the team during the competition last year.
But the event was postponed because of the 11 September terrorist attacks.
"Fergie was going to come last year. I'm sure it would give the players something.
"Someone like Alex would be fantastic, but someone like Sven-Goran is coaching an international team and doesn't work with the same players every week.
"So that's more similar to something like the Ryder Cup."
www.bbc.co.uk/sport
Motivation is typically defined as the forces that account for the arousal, selection, direction, and continuation of behaviour.
As a coach you should know how to motivate your players/athletes these are some of the ways in which you can do this.
. Use behavioural techniques to help athletes exert themselves and work toward remote goals.
2. Make sure that athletes know what they are to do, how to proceed, and how to determine when they have achieved goals.
3. Do everything possible to satisfy deficiency needs -- physiological, safety, belongingness, and esteem.
a. Accommodate the instructional program to the physiological needs of your athletes.
b. Make your room physically and psychologically safe.
c. Show your athlete that you take an interest in them and that they belong as part of the team.
4. Enhance the attractions and minimize the dangers of growth choices.
5. Direct learning experiences toward feelings of success in an effort to encourage an orientation toward achievement, a positive self-concept, and a strong sense of self-efficacy.
a. Make use of objectives that are challenging but attainable and, when appropriate, that involve athlete input.
b. Provide knowledge of results by emphasizing the positive.
6. Try to encourage the development of need achievement, self-confidence, and self-direction in athletes who need these qualities.
a. Use achievement-motivation training techniques.
b. Use cooperative-learning methods.
7. Try to make learning interesting by emphasizing activity, investigation, adventure, social interaction, and usefulness
http://college.hmco.com/education/pbl/tc/motivate.html#motivation
FUNCTIONS OF MOTIVATION
* Account for behaviour variability
* To relate biology to behaviour
* To infer private states from public acts
* To assign responsibilities for actions
* To explain perseverance in adversity.
INTRINSIC MOTIVATION: - Activity done for you own sake for example, enjoyment, pleasure, fun etc.
EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION: - Activity done for external consequences (social approval, statue etc.)
Negative Motivation: this form of motivation moves you away from a negative happening or experience - moving you away from something you don't want to happen. Often, it comes from an external source with the threat of some kind of punishment if you don't do something. For example a teacher says you must have the assignment done or you will get detention. Or a coach shouting that you should concentrate harder or you'll never make the team.
POSITIVE MOTIVATION: form of motivation that moves you toward a positive happening or experience, moving you toward something you do want to happen. For example someone working out at the gym four times a week because they like the way they look or because they want to succeed at their next competition.
In order to be most effective in motivating others, first state what you don't want and then state what you do want - in the same sentence. When motivating the sequence in which you deliver what you want is very important. For example if you were giving instructions to a football team for defence, you could say:
"This time, let's start aggressively and maintain concentration throughout the game. No missed tackles, fumbles or sloppy passing". Or "This time, no missed tackles, fumbles or sloppy passing. Let's start aggressively and maintain concentration throughout the entire game".
The second way of saying it is better because you are made aware of what to avoid and then given a positive direction or goal at the end (which is what remains most clearly in your mind.) If you explains the positives first and then the negatives all you remember is what you have done wrong in the past, which in turn probably is the opposite effect of motivating.
http://www.staff.vu.edu.au
Every single athlete is different is a sense that one technique could be successful for one person but could be completely useless for another person. There is no point using a 'shouting and screaming' technique to try and motivate a person who is an introvert just because that technique has been successful before.
Considerations
Personality: If someone is an introvert you need to be careful how you handle them, as they probably don't have high confidence as so if you use a lot of criticism it could put them off, but you have to be wry that they need some criticism to improve.
Age: It is important not too much pressure on athletes of a young athletes.
Ability: Lower ability athletes will need different S, E & M then higher ability athletes because they are not at the same level
Gender: Girls might be more shy then boys or vice versa so a softer approach needs to be used.
Needs and Goals: Athletes set different goals and want different things so if an athlete wants to perform at the highest-level possible then a lot of S, E & M will be needed.
Name
Harry Davis
Age
7
Sport
Rugby
Personality
Extrovert
Position
Scrum-Half
Standard
England College's Under 19's
Rugby Football Union Academy
Strengths
Highly motivated and Competitiveness
Weaknesses
Passing
Goal Setting
Adapt when playing lower standard of rugby also keep motivated and improve on his passing.
Name
Matt Sterbate
Age
6
Sport
Squash
Personality
Introvert
Position
---------
Standard
Devon Under 18's
Strengths
Fitness and agility
Weaknesses
Psychological side of sport
Goal Setting
Try to use stress reduction techniques to help deal with pressure
Name
Juan King
Age
4
Sport
Football
Personality
Extrovert
Position
Striker
Standard
School
Strengths
Speed
Weaknesses
Shooting
Goal Setting
To improve shooting
Name
Roberto Bosworthio
Age
5
Sport
Triathlete
Personality
Introvert
Position
----------
Standard
Novice Just started event
Strengths
Running
Weaknesses
Swimming
Goal Setting
To improve swimming.
Harry
Harry plays a high standard of rugby for his age and he is coming up the stage where it is make or break time for him, he is still only 17 but in a couple of years he will be at the stage where if he needs to make break through into professional club rugby if he wants to become professional, the net two or three years are very important for Harry and he needs a lot of support from the staff who train him. The next two or three years are the most crucial in terms of his rugby career, at the moment he is at a very high standard or his age but he needs to make sure that he keeps improving if he wants to become professional, these next few years will also been the toughest.
His coach needs to make sure that Harry has the right kind of support and encouragement so that he maintains his focus.
* GOAL SETTING: - at this stage he is improving all the time and so he needs specific targets for him to achieve, he needs specific goals that will be challenging but yet attainable, just as example he could aim to be a regular in the England under 19 squad for next season, he will also need to set goals to achieve during the off-season like what weight to keep at and how much weight lifting to do. It would be good to set strength goals as well.
* RELAXATION: - Harry has to deal with a lot of pressure and at a young age that can be hard sometimes, while all his friends are leading carefree lives he has to be dedicated, but too much work can lead to burn-out and a reduction of motivation so it I important that the athlete be allowed to relax.
* FEEDBACK: Although by this time, Harry will have a good idea of when he has done something well and when someone has been done badly it is so important that his coach gives him feedback. A coach is qualified to recognize faults and will have a much better idea whether the performance was good or bad.
Harry needs to set himself long term targets and short term ones, you cannot just set a goal of being a professional as that is unrealistic on its own, you need to set sub targets so you have a constant record of improvements so you can see where you need to make adjustments
Matt
Matt plays at a good standard of squash and there is quite a lot of pressure when performing, the one difference between Harry and Matt is that squash is an amateur sport and there is no point in dedicating all his time to squash because he will need to earn a living as well as play sport. Matt is still very ambitious and wants to reach the top of his sport and realises that he will never make a living at it but also realises that it is the say for every other squash player. Matt plays a individuals sport and so a performance is completely based upon him unless playing doubles, which means he has to deal with a lot of responsibility so putting any extra pressure on him could be dangerous. Matt also considers himself an introvert so it is important not to push him too hard, as he doesn't have a strong personality.
* FEEDBACK: Just like Harry Matt is an autonomous performer and therefore he doesn't need to spend his practice learning skills, all he does now is practice to keep improving. This means that he needs feedback especially extrinsic and intrinsic is all well and good but he needs to hear someone else's opinion in terms of his performance.
* MOTIVATION: - At this stage of his squash career he ha got to the stage where the only way to improve his skills is to keep practising and even for the moist dedicated person this can boring and so he needs motivating constantly to keep him going even when he doesn't feel like doing the work.
Juan
Juan isn't at a particular high standard of football; he plays mostly for fun, and doesn't really have a real ambition of playing football professionally. He does have a quite a bit of talent but isn't dedicated and regularly skips training to do other things.
* CRITICISM: - He needs to be told that if he wants a place in the team he needs to be committed, it is unfair on the staff and his team-mates if you only turns up when he wants and that if he wants to play in matches he has to turn up at training.
* ENCOURAGEMENT: - Although he is disruptive he does have a talent and he needs to be encourage to keep going as if he practices and became dedicated he become a good player.
Roberto
He has just started at his sport and so everything is still new and he is still learning the art of the sport, there isn't great deal of skill involved in triathlon's a lot is based upon fitness and so he must have a lot of dedication if he wants to reach a good level. Seeing as he has just started the sport he will have a lot of enthusiasm for the sport and so will probably want to do a lot more training than someone who has been doing it for number of years.
* GUIDANCE: - He needs to know the correct technique as her is still learning the sport and doesn't really have much experience to draw on, he needs someone who knows what there doing to explain or demonstrate exactly how to do it.
* GOAL SETTING: - Being new to the sport he want have a great deal of expectations but in order to track his improvement he needs to set targets or goals to achieve by doing this he can see how much progress he has made.
REFERENCES
Davis, Bull and Roscoe
Rob Bosworth
http://college.hmco.com/education/pbl/tc/motivate.html#motivation
www.bbc.co.uk/sport
Craig Bartlett
Coaching Assignment 2