reflective coaching assesment practicle:

Just before the Christmas period, I performed the practical aspect of my reflective coaching assignment one in a group that consisted of:

·         Jonathan Pennington

·         Jared Brooks

·         Ashley Marsden (myself)

As a group we collaborated several ideas on contrasting sports and with contrasting drills, until we came to a unanimous decision to go back to the drawing board and start from scratch; which we did and we collectively came up with a lacrosse based drill, this is a sport we had very little knowledge of or experience in. I believe this worked to our advantage I believe as we had no pre-conceived notions or judgements of the sport/drill so we were not too direct and autocratic in our approach. This allowed the participants to partake in guided discovery which I think allows the learning material to be absorbed quicker as they have a role in learning the technique and skills, this is emphasised by Metzler (2005), who stated, “athletes learn skills, technique, and tactics through guided discovery and through self – awareness”.

The protocol:

We planned to set the session out in the following manner using both guided discovery and whole part whole.

Start with the main session the whole, where the particpants where instructed to manipulate their racket in order to pick up the distinctive team colours bean bag and take it to their team. This provided a fun, opposed start to the session which engaged the participants and allowed us to break it down into smaller parts and gradually improve effectiveness skill and technique. The whole part whole technique worked very well in this situation as the participants got to understand the objectives and the skills required to be successful, before we showed them how to implement and improve these through a variety of questions and demonstrations. This is emphasised by Franco Ferrero (2006), who stated , “Whole part whole allows the skill to be demonstrated in its fullness , then the individual elements that make up the skill are broken down and one learnt, come back to the whole skill again”. The diagram showed below shows how the techniques where broken up into parts.

 

Segment One is the drill in its entirety

Segment two, three and four represents, how we paused the session and through interaction through both questions and demonstrations, we improved and tweaked several aspects such as manipulation of the racquet, techniques on how to distribute and pick up the bean bags.

Segment five is where we returned to the main/whole aspect of the session, with improved technique, skill, knowledge and understanding.

We then tried to progress the session and focus more on receiving and distribution with soft balls, due to the vast improvement made by the participants in order to challenge the participants, some groups where better at this than others, as is usually the case so in order to provided everyone with the same chances and opportunities, we split the group into competent performers and ones who needed more help and thus challenged each group with a variety of passes and distances. (Stoddart,1986)  said “Sport has traditionally been labelled as the great equaliser and the arena in which all persons are treated fairly, regardless of their background or social standing”. So basically we treat every participant equally no matter, what their ability or no matter how well we knew them; we didn’t want to prejudice against anyone and be more bias towards the peers we considered friends.

References:

Franco Ferrero, British Canoe Union (2006) Coaching Handbook British Canoe Union: A Manual of Coaching Techniques P97

Metzler (2005) The Coaching Process: A Practical Guide to Becoming an Effective Sports Coach p170

Stoddart (1986) http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5000177026

;acrosse Session plan

Lacrosse Passing and Distribution:

The group consisted of:

Ashley Marsden (Me), Jonathan Pennington and Jared Brooks.

A joint action by a group of people, in which each person subordinates his or her individual interests and opinions to the unity and efficiency of the group.

This is the plan we used for our groups assessed session:

We started off with the main a fun team based game:

We would start off with all the participants having a lacrosse stick, before splitting them into four teams, who will be situated behind a coned zone in the four corners, when instructed all four teams will run into the middle and collect their teams colour of bean-bag the first team back wins. This competitive activity will have them motivated for the session straight away, whilst in this fun context they will learn about manipulating the stick, scooping the bean-bag and holding the stick. The objective is to collect all the teams corresponding coloured bean bags before the other teams.

Once the participants master the above drill, we then plan to place a more competitive spin on the activity by, allowing the teams to collect any bean bag regardless of colour the winning team will have the most bean bags, this will progress the athletes as they have to work and think much quicker.

The next drill we hope to implement is a communication and co-ordination related game that requires, Scooping the ball up and placing the ball into a team mate’s lacrosse stick, then you can learn the fundamental movements required to pass the ball and again how to manipulate the lacrosse stick.

Once they grasped this we will then progress the activity again, we would have the participants perform simple passes on the floor rolling the ball to another team mate, in order to again learn to manipulate the stick, and learn about weighting and power required, as well as the skill of scooping up the ball.

In order to progress this further I would then emulate the last drill, of passing to a partner but in order to progress the drill I would add movement into the drill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

As shown by the simple diagram above the drill consists, of four participants in the middle indicated by the four way arrow, and four people on the outside (the four blue dots) all they have to do in a clock wise motion is pass the ball to each of the four players in the middle whilst moving in a clockwise motion. This will progress the drill as they now have to consider movement, special awareness of the other participants and weighting and power of the ball.

A further progression, would be to have a small passing match, where the participants would have to make a selected number of passes to their team mates before shooting such as five passes, to encourage, team work, movement and distribution.

Contingency plan:

An alternative drill could be to have the participants split into two equal teams and in their selected zone complete five passes (or more), before moving onto the next zone the aim of the game is to catch the other team by playing the passes as quickly yet accurately and move to the next zone in a clockwise motion as shown below; To catch the other team the following is required; team work, accurate and concise passes.

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This is shown in the basic diagram below.

http://www.ndt-ed.org/TeachingResources/ClassroomTips/Teamwork.htm

Mock Group Session:

       My group today performed a mock session prior to our main session which is linked to our critical discussion. The session consisted of and incorporated similar elements to our actual planned session to see if the concepts we devised worked effectively. The session was a balling based activity that had several progressive elements such as targets and competitive elements in order to motivate the participants; yet the main learning points were for us as coaches we needed to understand the dynamics we shared as coaches and the individual characteristics we provided. Whilst also determining who was going to take the leading role and who was the most competent at dealing with problems/ progressions and weaker participants.

     The coaching experience allowed us to also see which styles of coaching and delivery the participants preferred and reacted best too, which we tended to find as problem solving and reciprocal as they are older students I guess they like the freedom and creativeness these coaching methods allow. Whilst we also wanted to analyse if the transactions between drills and activities where streamline and see if the progressions where adequate.

     We also gained a greater understanding of when to intervene and how to intervene, due to the age of the participants we found that questioning the participants was most beneficial in order to tease the answers out of them and allow self-learning.

      We also decided that basic demonstrations worked most effectively as it provided the participants with an insight into how to perform the activity, without spoon feeding them, thus allowing guided discovery.

      We tried to use Van Manen’s reflective theories (as shown below) before, during and after the event in order to learn the most from the session, as it focuses on prior, during and after a session in order to obtain the most information as possible.

                                               Van Manen’s Types of Reflection:

According to Van Manen (1991), reflective practitioners are professionals, who reflect in action and are guided by the theoretical principles of their discipline.

•             Anticipatory reflection:  Anticipatory reflection allows a teacher to plan, decide a course of action, and anticipate future consequences of the actions.

•             Active or interactive reflection: Active or interactive reflection allows a teacher to make immediate decisions during class as events unfold.

•             Recollective reflection: Recollective reflection allows a teacher to make sense of past experiences and give new, deeper insight into the meaning of those experiences.

Van Manen, M. (1991). Reflectivity and the pedagogical moment: The normativity of pedagogical thinking and acting. Journal of Curriculum Studies; pgs., 23, 507-536.

Invention Session:

Invention:

   

 

During a practical session, Cliff Olsson asked the group to split into groups of fours, and distributed cards to each member of the group; on these cards was a sporting activity that had to be coached to the group, these where very diverse activities ranging from headstands to the basketball finger spin.

    The activity I was given was the Cruijff turn (Cruyff as more commonly known), which is something I was knowledgeable, not only due to football being my sport, but also because it’s a requirement I have to coach for challenger over in the States; so I felt very confident in my ability to portray the relevant information to my group. I tended to be autocratic in my coaching style as I didn’t want the participants to learn the incorrect protocol, as it can be quite a complex fake/turn for younger participants, but in hindsight I believe I should performed a demonstration of the turn and allowed guided discovery to take place and have the participants attempt the turn, due to them being older participants instead of breaking the turn up into four components like I usually do with younger participants, (like what is shown in this hyperlink http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOqQbamkPvE  ). Then as suggested by Schmidt and Wrisberg (2000) I will provide feedback on the attempted turn that will prepare the individual for future unassisted performance.

     Once the participants had mastered the Cruijff turn I then, progressed the activity from a fairly static movement in a small area, to a faster fluid movement that required more movement and space, before further progressing the activity so that the turn was performed in a opposed scenario starting with cones and working with fellow participants.

   In my group Connor McGowan was given the task of coaching spinning a basketball on the finger, something well out of his usual comfort zone, yet he performed admirably under the circumstances. I think he was aided by his inexperience and lack of knowledge about the activity as he had no pre- conceived notions in which to influence coaching, which ment he allowed the participants to problem solve and thus based on their performance note errors or improvements and assist them via guided discovery which progressed them further. This problem solving approach allowed for activity based questions such as, “does that feel comfortable”, “ why are you using that finger” etc. which not only provided an insight into the participants performance, it allowed the coach to extract potentially valuable information form the participants, that would allow pointers and coaching to take place.

  The session was very rewarding as you had to act instinctively and think outside the box with several of the activities in order to create fun, interactive mini coaching sessions. The session demanded creativity, ingenuity and instinctive coaching.

 

Schmidt, R. & Wrisberg, C. (2000). Motor learning and performance. A problem-based learning approach. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.P.94, Accessed 03/01/13

Interventions and coaching strategies:

A selection of notes from lesson, with a wide selection of drivers within sport, roles and several coaching strategies all vastly informative:

Sports coaching:

Interventions and coaching strategies:

Learning outcomes:

·         The role of a coach

·         Coaching methods

·         Drivers and influencers upon methods

Role of a coach:

·         Trainer

·         First aider                                                                                                                             

·         Supporter

·         Facilitator

·         Leader

·         Administrator

·         Manager

·         Teacher

·         Instructor

·         Trainer

The coaching process:

PLAN-DO-REWIEW

(Tinning 1993)…..Methods can be viewed not as a set of strategies…………..

Mosston and Ashworth (teaching style continuum)

Kirk distilled Mosstons spectrum into five methods:

Directive-Coach in control, yet can limit participant

Task-Designed by the coach, again coach mainly in control

Reciprocal- Requires athletes to work and support each other and provide feedback, designed to the needs of the performer

Guided discovery-Athletes are encouraged to become more independent from the coach. The coach should ask questions of the performer in order to initiate problem solving

Problem solving- Coach provides little input, performers might need to take risks

STEP:

Space

Task

 

Equipment

Player

Key drivers that influence chosen coaching method:

·         Previous experiences

·         Limited knowledge and lack of experience

·         Age of the group

·         Ability of the group

·         Resources

·         Numbers

·         Gender

·         Type of sport

·         Motivation of the group

 

Personal skills and characteristics         values and beliefs           Philosophy

*Whole part whole- start with the game, then break it down into individual techniques improve something then relate it back into the game- short term better.

*TGFU model of learning, deliver the whole skills, problems are highlighted first before technique as you have an understanding, and thus problem solving needed to eradicate the problems. Long term better

*(Take a look at diagrams blackboard/google)*

Back to basics pictures

 

Above are a few pictures showing the back to basics session, the first two pictures are off a spatial awareness and movement drill that included targets, passing, communication and movement. The last picture shows Jake Ward handling the ball after a great cathc looking for a pass his team mates in bibs are looking for space and darting to recieve the ball.

Back to basics

During, my practical session with cliff, we began to strip sports right back to their fundamental elements, this is emphasised by Chris Lawrence who said, "For us it's about getting back to our fundamentals that won us those seven games in a row. (About the tigers following two defeats in a row); going back to the fundamental aspects, allowed us to see the key aspects and requirements of the sport and allow us to see transferable skills used across a range of sports.

       My group devised a game that portrayed the fundamental elements of racquet sports, we started off by simply, having five participants stand in a star shape and walk into the middle of the star balancing a bean bag then walking back to their starting point and pass the bean bag in a way they felt was most effective allowing them to think and feel integrated and involved. Although this activity seems simple it allows the participants to think about basic movements, balance and co-ordination whilst learning how to manipulate the racquet to achieve the required outcome.

       We then progressed onto a movement sequence that involved a competitive element; we set out two grids out of cones in a zigzag shape that replicates the footwork needed in tennis as you don’t just go forwards or in straight lines. The cones consisted of two colours red and blue when you moved to the next cone if it was red you pretended to hit an underarm shot, whilst if it was blue you pretended to hit an overarm shot, this allowed them to mimic the movements and the actions required in the sport. There were two identical grids and the teams had to manipulate the course to the end performing the actions before repeating the actions walking backwards; this was performed by all participants the first team back where the winners.

    Other group’s devised activities based on the fundamentals of other sports such as basketball and football, and worked on movement, distribution and spatial awareness.  This practical was very helpful and informative as I learned that you can have fun and learn aspects of the sport even if you play the sport as it gives you an insight into the components and skills you use without thinking and take for granted.

 

 

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