COACHING SESSION EVALUATION ESSAY

According to Sports Coach - Coaching, the coaching process is divided into three parts: the planning and organising, the conducting and the evaluating process. These three parts can be seen as a cycle:

Planning and Organising

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Evaluating <-- Conducting

Furthermore, good communication skills, adaptability, flexibility, confidence and motivational skills will determine the coach's performance.

Ewles and Simnett (1999) however provide a more detailed answer on how to promote health, which is part of a coach's task, by identifying 7 stages:

) Identifying needs and priorities --------------------------------------------------------<--

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2) Setting aims and objectives --------------------------------------------------------------<--

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3) How to achieve the goals -----------------------------------------------------------------<--

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4) Identifying resources -----------------------------------------------------------------------<--

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5) Planning evaluation methods ------------------------------------------------------------<--

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6) Setting an action plan ----------------------------------------------------------------------<--

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7) Action; including implementation of the plan and evaluation ----------------------->

With this model in mind, the author of this essay, who represented the coach in the coaching session, will consider back to the session and reflect what planning had to be involved and why, and what was intended and included.

The author of this essay is herself a passionate Badminton player, exercising regularly for the University and a local team. From her own experience in these teams, she knew that many players struggle with the tactical positioning in this sport, particularly in the doubles' game. Tactical positioning is a crucial element to succeed in Badminton (Grice, 1996). For this reason, the coach had chosen the following aim for the session: raising awareness of tactical positioning in the doubles' game of Badminton, therefore the objective was accurate defensive and attacking positioning.

To achieve these aims and objectives, the author invited four players, two men and two women, from the above mentioned teams to take part in the Badminton session (see Appendix 1). The participant's level of play can be stated as advanced, hence gender was not showing a significant impact on the later performed exercises and match situation. According to training guidelines stated by Martens (1997), the participants had to be and were able to match necessary requirements of the conducted training program, which included knowledge of specific skills and shots like 'the ready position', footwork, drop shot, smash etc..

The 45 minute lasting session itself consisted of four parts: a brief introduction, a 10 minute warm-up, a 28 minute long main part and a short cool down.

The intention of the introduction was to give the participants a concise overview of the session's aims and objectives aswell as informing about potential hazards and dangers. The sports hall policy about appropriate sports wear and shoes was already mentioned in the invite (see Appendix 1). 'To produce the safest environment possible for the athletes and the coach' (Martens, 1997), further essential risk management, within the introduction, included the explanation of emergency exits and the procedure of raising the alarm and informing the University Security Office through the Emergency telephone. The coach herself had identified, evaluated and made herself familiar with potential risks and dangers as well as appropriate behaviour in case of an emergency by a pre-session risk management through inspecting the venue a day before the actual session. Before the start of the session, the floor was examined to avoid injuries caused by potential trip hazards like wholes or dirt.
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As stated by Martens (1997), the intention of a warm up is not only preventing respectively reducing the likelihood of potential injuries but to improve the athlete's performance (Sports Coach - Warm Up and Cool Down). Moderate jogging including ballistic stretching of specific arm and leg muscles was used to raise blood circulation and the respiratory rate as well as increasing the body temperature (Martens, 1997; Sports Coach - Warm Up and Cool Down), followed by more specific Badminton movements including side walks and side steps (Grice, 1996). To progress on, the next warm-up exercise included movement on ...

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