UNIT 13 : PRINCIPLES OF COACHING
UNIT 13 : PRINCIPLES OF COACHING
Assignment 1
Here are the main roles of a coach:
Educator
* Teach participants how to do new skills and techniques.
* A coach needs to pick appropriate drills according to participants ability.
* A coach must teach how skills fit together and how they contribute to the overall performance. Involves tactics, patterns and styles of play.
* A coach must teach how participants must control their emotions and develop teamwork.
Trainer
* Must ensure participants can meet the physical and physiological demands of sport.
* This is done by coach implementing appropriate training programmes to develop the above.
* Coach needs to understand and implement the training principles for the participants.
* Coach needs to keep the participant general health good e.g. diet.
Manager
* Show good management and leadership skills.
* Coach needs to control the environment, be authoritative and respected.
* Doesn't mean shouting all the time.
* Have a good manor between coach and participants to get the best out of them.
* Selecting teams who will perform to the best of the teams ability.
* Manage other coaches and staff.
Innovator
* Coach must progress and develop.
* Find new ways of doing skills, stop boredom.
* Use new tactics in a game for variety to get most out of team.
* Take new approaches to gain extra advantages to win.
* Effective coaches must reflect on their own coaching to improve in the future.
Friend
* Coaches and participants spend a lot of time together.
* Coaches should share negative and positive experiences with participants.
* The sporting environment is tough so coaches need to support participants with stresses.
* Keep participants feet on the ground after successes and pick them up after failures.
* Help motivate participants.
* Coaches must keep a friendly and open environment.
Role Model
* Performers need a coach to guide them.
* A coach who earns and maintains trust and respect can be a very positive model.
* Performers will imitate you as a coach, so it is important to behave in the correct manor especially around youngsters.
* You as a coach must follow certain standards and practices.
I will be referring to two football coaches during this assignment. My first coach Sir Alex Ferguson, is a highly experienced premiership manager at Manchester United, and the other coach Tony Turner, is the manager of my local amateur team Bedfont Green FC.
Roles
Coach: Sir Alex Ferguson
Sport: Football
Performers: Manchester United FC
Performers' age: 17-33
Experience: Professional
His team has already been coached from an early age to be disciplined and been educated from being at youth academies. Sir Alex would mainly act as a manager and friend to his players. At times he may step in to coach because he will want to put his own points across. He can act as an innovator during games of football and produce huge impacts. He deals with elite players so he can change systems and strategies to help his team win games and outplay other teams without much difficulty.
Coach: Tony Turner
Sport: Football
Performers: Bedfont Green FC
Performers' ages: 17 - 30
Experience: Amateur
Tony has had most of this side from when they were around 8 years of age so he already will have them disciplined and they can answer for their own actions at this age so being a role model would not be such a huge part of his coaching at such a late stage. From an early age he has educated them so all he has to really do is train them and work at the skills they already have and help improve their fitness levels so they can meet the demand of the game. His main three roles as a coach would be a trainer, manager and friend. With an experienced Sunday league football team, he has to keep working with the team and push forward form where he is. They are educated, and disciplined from an early age.
Skills
Both these coaches have very good communication skills. Most communication skills in football are built on respect. Once a coach has gained respect from his players they can communicate much better and once they are communicating better they will improve, if a team has bad communication, they can never improve or work well together. Many coaches feel that the most effective type of communication is all about talking and telling performers how and what to do. Communication is a two way process. Receiving the signal is as important as sending the signal whether is verbally or non -verbally. Coaches should think very carefully about the way they communicate and spend as much time listening as they would do talking. How a coach sends a signal to a performer can have a very big impact on the effectiveness and interpretation of that signal. There are two types of communication, verbal and non-verbal. Many think that verbal is just talking or shouting, but if a coach is constantly shouting they will become less effective and the performer(s) may ignore the signal. Therefore they should vary the tone, pace and volume
of their specific messages.
Organisation skills are very well worked with both men. A team that is not organised might as well not be together, and they need someone to pull the strings to keep it together. Sir Alex has become very successful due to his organisation skills. He has his team at every session, same warm up everyday. Has his perfect side set every week and has back up plans on his bench for any injury that can occur. Tony has a harder way of organising since he only trains his team once a week and they have one game every Saturday. His organising skills are good with arranging his team early on, he makes phone calls on a Monday morning to make sure he has 16 players for the Saturday coming, he can arrange his first eleven, n work with them on a Thursday night.
A coach needs good analysing and problem solving skills to take advantage and help them win games. If you can see a weakness in a team and can take advantage, it shows good signs of coach. Sir Alex is one of the best coaches in football for analysing and problem solving. He can turn games around with one substitute. Tony is the same, can move his side around, change systems and make a difference. The only advantage Sir Alex has is that he has elite players for every position so he can exploit any part of a pitch where as Tony has to assess more around since there will be a few weak areas. Both these coaches recognise that analysing people's actions is also about instructing them what to do. It does not only apply to in game situations. Carefully observing a performer while they are practising a skill, undergoing a training session, or competing, gives the coach a lot of useful information. The ability to observe performers and then to compare their performance with the desired performance is the basis of analysis. When coaching, not everything will run perfectly how you want it to. A coach must be able to identify when things have gone wrong and be able to determine the exact reason for the problem. Then the coach must be able to pick out the right solutions to rectify the problem. This requires logical thinking and reasoning. They must be able to re-think an approach to a particular coaching situation. Four problems a coach will mainly be faced with will be; the performer may not be able to carry out a certain skill being taught. The coach will then have to try and figure out why the performer is not being successful and then try a different practice to see if the performer can grasp the skill. The second is that a certain pitch or court may not be available at particular times so therefore the coach must make alternative plans to solve the problem. One big difficulty that occurs a lot is that your team may find it difficult to deal with a certain tactic that your are using or that the opposing team are using. The coach will then have to find a way of dealing with their opponents and overcoming the problem.
Both coaches have good evaluation skills. They can easily pick out the positives and negatives from any game and know how to improve or go further. Every manager has to be able to do this so they can improve weak points in their team when either attacking or defending. Having good evaluation skills is essential for all coaches. These two coaches are like all coaches around. All coaches are always keen to asses and pass on comments on their performer's abilities and the way that they have performed. The only down point is that they very rarely look ...
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Both coaches have good evaluation skills. They can easily pick out the positives and negatives from any game and know how to improve or go further. Every manager has to be able to do this so they can improve weak points in their team when either attacking or defending. Having good evaluation skills is essential for all coaches. These two coaches are like all coaches around. All coaches are always keen to asses and pass on comments on their performer's abilities and the way that they have performed. The only down point is that they very rarely look back on their own performances, but if they do they will usually focus on what worked well. Effective evaluation of a coaching session should always be impartial and identify good and bad points. Honesty is the main key to a good evaluation because this will allow the coach to learn from their mistakes and improve their own skills.
Knowledge of their sport is self explanatory. Tony was an ex pro at Hull FC and Scarborough FC. He already has experience. Sir Alex was a pro in Scotland. It is very rare to find a football coach that has never played at least at amateur level. All coaches now days must have a least an FA badge. Most decent coaches now days have a UEFA B coaching badge. It is pointless having a coach with no background on the sport at any level because it won't be beneficial. Most coaches will have a wide range of knowledge about their sport their own performers, how people learn, sport science, tactics and session planning. They will use this knowledge and adopt their own style than the coach who lacks knowledge in certain areas.
Both these coaches have good tactical skills. A good coach must be able to move his/her side around and get the result he/she is looking for. Sir Alex has very good tactical skills, he doesn't waste substitutions, and there will always be a tactical idea behind the change. The same can be said with Tony. Coaches must always be able to change their tactics for certain games without making things to complicated and both managers are good at this. They must be able to identify when things have gone wrong with a certain system and be able to determine the exact nature of the problem. He or she must be able to assess a situation and try and identify appropriate solutions to the problem.
One way that both coaches have a basic background of sports science knowledge is that they tell their players to warm down after matches and training sessions to de-crease the chances of lactic acid building up in their muscles, especially in their legs. Most coaches have basic background knowledge of sports science due to when they do their coaching awards they cover certain aspects of sports science.
Coaches try to keep their players healthy by encouraging them to eat well, have early nights, not to drink alcohol and to relax as much as often. Both these coaches are good at this. Sir Alex despises the idea of his players being drunk and Tony encourages his side to early nights and a sensible diet.
Safety and security is taken into account by all coaches. Mainly by amateur coaches because they do not have state of the art facilities like elite players have that Sir Alex would use to coach his side. Many Sunday league teams train indoors in sports halls, or in local parks and coaches should check the area they will practice in. Tony would have to give the pitch he trains on a quick look over to make sure nothing harmful is around where as Sir Alex wouldn't have to check because his facilities are well taken care of and only used by his squad everyday of the week. Most amateur coaches like Tony will make sure their performers always do a warm up, make sure that they do no have to perform activities where there are not physically able to do so, take part in activities which remain in the rules of the sport and they should not allow activities that are technically wrong to unsafe to perform. Most coaches being employed to coach children will have to be checked by police before taking up any position.
In the field of coaching, many coaches will have plenty of time to go over what they want to do, others will only have maybe two hours a week and then only the game on the weekend. This is where elite coaches take advantage and lower league coaches have to do what they can with the time possible. You get coaches like Tony who are no nonsense and use the time he has efficiently, and you get coaches who just play a game for the two hours they have or just do shooting practice. Pro coaches have all week long to go through what they want to cover so they can spend more time on certain things and get through what they want thoroughly. Many coaches moan because they feel they do not get enough time with their teams or performers to achieve the desired outcome. This is usually a bad excuse for poor time management. Therefore coaches like Tony should use the time that they have available effectively. If a coach carefully plans a session, it would maximise the learning time and minimise the wasted time. Coaches must find a balance between providing enough time for the performer to practice a drill for them to learn and improve, and spending more time than necessary on activities that do not provide new learning opportunities.
Knowledge
All coaches have legal obligations which they need to maintain to keep professional standards. They need to be fully aware of their responsibilities. Everyone is governed by the laws that we live in, and these rules apply whether we are playing in a park or behind a local pub. In order to maintain fair play in competitive sport, coaches and performers are to keep to the rules and laws of their specific sport. There are two main areas which are common law and negligence. An example of common law can be seen by considering the laws of common assault. Assault during the course of play (mainly seen in rugby), is not beyond the law. Coaches should make sure that their performers and the coach themselves do not cross the line of unacceptable behaviour. Many coaches do not understand that if one of their performers suffers an injury, loss or damage to property due to coach's negligence, that the coach may be held liable. Negligence can be a result of both actions and omissions, what you do and what you don't do. A coach will have what is termed as 'a duty of care' towards his/her performers. Sir Alex is an elite manager so he has a contract he has to keep to and he is also dealing with adults which doesn't bring much of this into the situation, but Tony does keep to his legal obligations very well and he has always had a young side.
Child protection is a very big issue in this country. It is made sure that all coaches being employed to coach children are checked by police before taking up any position. Coaches have a responsibility to protect children from all forms of abuse. There are for main kinds of abuse; neglect, emotional abuse, sexual abuse and physical abuse. This would not apply too much to Sir Alex but it did for Tony around 5 years ago when he had a very young squad.
All coaches should hold insurance cover for the specific sport they are involved in. They also need it for their employment status (self-employed coaches need public liability insurance). Many governing bodies may include insurance as part of their affiliation fee.
All coaches need to be able to understand and execute certain skills associated with technical and tactical aspects of sport. It is partly true that a good coach can coach a person in any sport because the fundamental coaching skills are the same across all sports, and it's only the context that changes. A coach has to have a good knowledge of a sport and its demands in order to effectively coach and teach.
Techniques
Many coaches go back over games with videos to show their side what they can do to improve. Assistant coaches also give feedback on performances. Most pro clubs use videos because they have the time and places to do like Sir Alex, but amateur sides mainly stick to verbal feedback which is what Tony sticks to.
The quality of a session Sir Alex would take would be much better than a sessions set by Tony. This is due to facilities, equipment and they players themselves. Tony's sessions made need more explanation than Sir Alex's due to him having a less able squad of players.
Most coaches to get the best quality out of their team have them repeat a drill over and over again. I have mentioned before that pro/elite coaches have more time with their squad so they can repeat exercises over and over again. Amateur coaches such as Tony will not have as much time to practice everything as thoroughly so his coaching may have to be of a better quality than others. A way for him to help improve the quality of the end product is to give his players extra encouragement because if they are positive they will perform better than how they would with a negative mentality. The proper name for this technique is called repetitive-part method which involves teaching and practising a skill or technique until it is learnt and then combining a second part and practising and learning the two parts together until they are learnt.
Whole-part-whole is a method that involves teaching the whole first skill and allowing the performer to practise it. One of the parts is then isolated, taught and practised, and when it has been effectively learnt the whole is practised again. This process is repeated, adding the different parts to the whole. Tony would have done this a lot when his side was much younger. Sir Alex would not really look to do this.
When a coach is teaching a new skill the performer will need to able to see the skill being performed correctly and to have a model of the required actions. Most of the time it is easier to perform an action that to describe it verbally. It is very important that the demonstration is completely correct. If the skill is correct is will create a visual image for the performer to copy. Four things a coach should make sure of when demonstrating is; make sure all the performers are paying attention and that they are all able to see. Secondly they should ensure that the demonstration emphasises the key coaching points of the skill. Also they should ensure the skills are demonstrated at the appropriate level for the performers and they should repeat demonstrations enough times for performers to understand what is required. Sir Alex would not really have to do this because hey work on practising skills where as Tony would have done when his side was starting off to get the best out of them.
All good coaches should be able to identify weaknesses and strengths and then be able to correct them. If they can not, a team can never move forwards because the same mistakes will be made over and over again. Sir Alex can let his team flow and practice and give them a chance to bring things together. Teams that don't have as much time need to get things right from the first chance they have so they can progress. Giving encouragement is a big part of being a coach because a player will never make mistakes on purpose and if they do, have a word; bit of encouragement and then eventually you will get the final product you wanted. A lot of this is connected with analysing and problem solving. If you can spot a weakness, identify it, know how to correct it and build upon your strengths, it is a very good strength you can have as a coach.
Many coaches will give feedback, but when they do they will also demonstrate so they can put their point across better. Both coaches are good at doing this otherwise they would not be as successful as they are. Being able to give good clear feedback and being able to demonstrate well will always help your team progress. It is important to provide feedback to ensure that performers are aware of their progress. Some coaches behave in a manor that suggests that they are only criticising, but feedback should and usually is constructive and provides information that helps with learning processes. Tony and mainly Sir Alex are well known for giving out good feedback.
One of the most essential techniques a coach has to have is good decision making skills. A coach that can take off their best player while losing, and finish with a victory is a top coach. Sir Alex has done it before and so has Tony. If a coach can make good decisions it helps earn more respect, then the players being moved around will understand even more and they it will help get a good team spirit and get rid of individuals.
A good technique for a coach to have is monitoring skills. It is inevitable that a performer when practising a skill, they will make mistakes and there may be errors in their performance. A coach needs to be able to analyse the performance in order to identify which features need to be correct dot improved. Sir Alex has become very successful due to this and Tony has helped his younger players as they have progressed into higher football.
There are five main styles of coaching. I feel both managers use these styles even with the level of players they have. The first is part-whole which involves teaching all of the different component parts separately before attempting the whole skill. This method is most effective when the components do not form a natural sequence of actions. The second is progressive-part method. With this approach a performer is taught one part and then a second part. When the two parts are learnt they are combined and practised together. The third part is then taught by itself and then the three parts are combined and practised together, and so on. The third method is repetitive-part method. This approach is similar to the previous method but involves teaching and practising a part until it is learnt and then combining a second part and practising and learning the two parts together until they are learnt. Whole-part-whole method is an approach that involves teaching the whole skill first and allowing the performer to practise it. One of the parts is then isolated, taught and practised, and when this has been effectively learnt the whole is practised again. This process is then repeated, adding the different parts of the whole. The fifth and final method is whole method. This simply teaches the whole skill without breaking it down into its constituent components, and is probably not effective for complex skills.
Guidance is a good technique for coaches to have. Sir Alex would not really look to do this, he would work on practising the skills because his players would be already elite performers form being at youth academies, but Tony would have done this with his team when they were starting off at an early age. There are three types of guidance, visual, verbal and manual. In most instances a performer practising a skill may require additional guidance from the coach to help develop the correct movement patterns associated with that skill. The guidance will have been shown in the three types of guidance. Visual guidance occurs when a coach follows up an initial demonstration with a more detailed, step-by-step run through of the skill and the have the performer mirror the actions being shown. To help as much as possible the coach should perform it nice and slowly and then have the performer imitate the action immediately after having observed it. Verbal guidance is when the coach tells the performer what to do and the performer follows his/her instructions. This is a very good approach when the coach adds verbal cues to each different part of the movement and then repeats them at subsequent executions. Manual guidance involves the coach physically moving the performer through a particular movement pattern and encouraging the performer to feel the action. After a few practises the performer should be asked to perform the movement without the coach's help.
Both coaches are good a reinforcements. It is obvious that Sir Alex's positives are going to be very open for his players because he can offer them around £1000 goal scoring bonus. With Tony players would look to win trophies at the end of the season. When training maybe if you lose a certain activity you may be made to do extra press-ups or sit-ups, so this brings the best out of his players. Many amateur clubs look for trophies at the end of season, club trophies that is. They are the main incentives for that type of club. There are many reinforcements that coaches use to get the best out of their performers.
Responsibilities
All coaches have legal obligations which they need to maintain to keep professional standards. They need to be fully aware of their responsibilities. Everyone is governed by the laws that we live in, and these rules apply whether we are playing in a park or behind a local pub. In order to maintain fair play in competitive sport, coaches and performers are to keep to the rules and laws of their specific sport. There are two main areas which are common law and negligence. Sir Alex is an elite manager so he has a contract he has to keep to and he is also dealing with adults which doesn't bring much of this into the situation, but Tony does keep to his legal obligations very well and he has always had a young side.
Simple things apply to coaches conducting themselves professionally. A coach should always arrive early and allow sufficient time to set up and he/she should be fully prepared for each session. Being well prepared, clean and tidy for all coaching sessions should always be done. They should also empower athletes to take ownership and responsibility for their own development and progress. Sir Alex and Tony are superb at this type of responsibility, this can be seen in their awards history.
Child protection only really applies or applied to Tony since he raised a team from an early age where was Sir Alex start working with his players at the youngest age being 16. Coaches have the responsibility to protect children from all forms of abuse. There are four main kinds of abuse which are; physical abuse, neglect, sexual abuse and emotional abuse.
All coaches should hold insurance cover for the specific sport they are involved in. They also need it for their employment status. Many governing bodies may include insurance as part of their affiliation fee.
Many pro coaches like Sir Alex have people organised certain things for him like training kits and boots for his players. An advantage for him is that none of his players have to pay fees where that brings extra work for people like Tony who has to sort out the kit each week, the fees. Coaches in should clarify in advance with performers (and/or employers) the number of sessions, fess (if any) and methods of payment. They should explore with performers (and/or employers) the expectation of the outcome of coaching. Written contracts may be appropriate in some circumstances.
Progression of sessions will take place in any level of coaching, in Sir Alex's sessions to Tony's sessions. Performers will get a better understanding of skills and techniques they are learning if they are given the opportunity to see and practise how they fit into the wider context of their sport. For example, teaching young performers how to hold a discus and move across a discuss circle will have limited benefit unless they can see an end result and have a practice of throwing the discus. Allowing the performer to throw the discus will help the skill to be learnt and allow some performance based feedback to be gained. This will also achieve satisfaction and improve individual and team performance.
Motivation and enjoyment is a main part of good coaching. When individuals are able to see that they are improving they will gain personal satisfaction and want to continue. A coach should structure sessions in order to allow performers to see their own improvements. Coaches should aim to structure their practises in a way that allows performers to experience some form of success and then they can gain satisfaction from their achievement. This is particularly important when coaching children so this would really apply to Tony and now really to Sir Alex because his performers are elite sportsmen.
Coaches should take healthy and safety precautions with whatever type of age group they deal with and ability of players. Tony and Sir Alex always make sure that when they train everything is safe and can cause no harm to the performers. Within the limits of their control, coaches have a responsibility to ensure as for as long as possible the safety of the performers with whom they work. The activity undertaken should be suitable for the age, physical and emotional maturity, experience and ability of the performers. They must also make sure that the facilities and equipment that is going to be used it safe.
All coaches make sure that their participants are never in danger of becoming injured. Tony and Sir Alex will take extra care because they cannot afford to have injured players during a season. If a coach appropriately addresses the safety issues related to the coaching venue, the equipment and the selected activities as identified above, the safety of the participant will have been addressed. However, there may be instances where the safety of the performer can become in danger is the coach does not adhere to good practice guidelines.
Coaches must respect the rights, dignity and worth of ever participant. They must treat everyone equitably and sensitively within the context of their activity and ability, regardless of gender, ethnic origin, cultural background, sexual orientation, religion or political affiliation. Both coaches can be seen to give equal opportunities to performers. Sir Alex has players from all over the world and Tony has a few people from a few different continents also.
Coaches always give performers opportunities to develop their range of skills. Sir Alex and Tony always give their players opportunities because they believe they can still develop themselves as players. Performers will learn best when they are able to build on their own experiences and their own skills. Coaches should always look to introduce techniques progressively and show how they are linked to previous skills whenever possible. This relates to a performers progression through the different stages of learning. If a performer learns skills in isolation he or she will never progress.
With Sir Alex and Tony you will always get professionalism and you should form any coach, no matter what sort of level they coach at. Most of the time a coach is viewed as a person of authority who has a certain amount of power. It is essential that a coach knows how to use their authority and not abuse it. Coaches should always make sure that everything they do is acceptable and is in good practice. All coaches should demonstrate a professional approach to performers that is fair, honest and considerate to their individual needs. In the UK is it stressed that coaches 'demonstrate a high degree of honesty, integrity and competence'. Good coaching practice is underpinned by the following key principles; rights - to respect and champion the rights of every participant in sport, relationships - to develop open and honest relationships with participants and responsibilities - to demonstrate appropriate behaviour and conduct and achieve a high level of competence through qualifications and continued professional development.
PAUL BURROWS