During my first semester at Leeds Beckett University I have had to complete the Applied Pedagogy module for sport. Applied Pedagogy consists of delivering coaching sessions to children in a sporting environment, and throughout the module there have been many occasions in which we have learnt skills that would benefit me, should I choose to undergo the Pedagogy degree.

In our very first task, the group had to undertake an orienteering session, in which we had to get into pairs and search for cones, set down by the other pairs on and around the running track. This was frustrating as we had to rely on maps that were annotated by the other groups. I feel like I was quick to understand the moral of the session; success depends on perspective as people see things differently, hence annotating the maps differently.

We then went on to deliver running drills to one another over the next few weeks. This was our first real experience of delivering activities to small groups. I don’t feel like I struggled to get to grips with coaching, as I have always been quite confident and though I may not always want to, I am capable of standing in front of people and delivering a session.

From here, we went onto the 3G pitches and looked at football coaching and used this sport for our progress. Football is a sport that I played for many years during my childhood and so I was happy to engage, as we were able to learn through the sport that I love. It was actually during one of these sessions that I learnt how I would aim to be as a coach. Me and my partner Callum had two separate ideas of how to deliver the activity, but through counselling the tutor, Joe, we adapted and managed to deliver the session whilst highlighting both of our key points. It was here that I realised that I can occasionally rush into ideas, and so this encounter taught me to sit back for a few more minutes and really consider every possible opportunity to get the best outcome for the group.

Whilst these practical sessions were ongoing every week, we were also taking part in the course’s seminars. These were teaching us about how technology has impacted coaching, and we often found ourselves working the video analysis and the Dartfish software. As someone that really doesn’t claim to be amazing with computers I really thought that I’d struggle. Occasionally I did, and had to seek help from either Joe or Keith, who were the tutors for the workshops. Over time, I saw that the system was simple enough to get to grips with, and found it ever easier to analyse videos of performances.

To summarise this blog, I feel like I have fine tuned some pre-existing people skills whilst simultaneously developing brand new skills as a result of completing this module. Though I do not plan to enter sport coaching, I must say this module certainly made me consider it, and even if I don’t enter this degree, I have some new skills and perspective to apply to whatever avenue of sport I choose to commit to.

In my practical assessment, me and my team were instructed to deliver a 10 minute session to the rest of our course mates. The session could be any part of a 1 hour session plan that had to be completed by the team prior to us undergoing the practical assessment.

Me and my two partners agreed on the target age range of 5-6 years old, as this would only require basic motor skills and so there’d be little risk of us struggling to deliver the session effectively. This is because we didn’t want to make it too complex and have the group fail to complete the session. After choosing the age, we chose the skills to deliver and decided throwing would be a useful component (due to the main session plan being that of a passing game in which a ball is thrown).

We each chose roles, with one of us being a hovering coach that checks everything, and the other two were each tasked with micro managing a small group of 4 people – two pairs. We then delivered a variety of throwing techniques, including under and over arm, alternating the throwing arm at a set interval of 1 minute. All the while we were ever mindful of the language that we were using. Although the session was delivered to our classmates, we had to imagine the group were 5 years old.

Overall, I feel that we were successful in delivering a beneficial session, as we were able to complete our entire plan within the time frame and everyone appeared to assist us in making sure it ran smoothly. Reflecting on my own performance, I feel like I was able to make myself heard, making clear attempts to praise the group where appropriate, and alter any unwanted behaviours accordingly. I feel like we did the best that we could. The planning was completed well ahead of the session, and each of us understood our roles, who was going where and saying not.

In sport, managers are responsible for picking the starting line up each week and so they often find themselves in the hot seat if these selections back fire. However, if the team win and display a great performance it is often the players that are hailed in the aftermath. Is there a reason for this?

One potential theory that could explain why this tends to happen (particularly in football) is Weiner’s model of Attribution theory. Attribution theory is the concept in which one tries to attribute a behaviour/performance with a particular event. Attributions are classified by 2 overlapping dimensions, the “Locus of Stability” and the “Locus of Causality”. Locus of control is basically, was the failure down to you or other external factors, and Locus of stability asks if the attribution changes over time or not.

During a football match, if a team fails to win, it could be down to one of 4 components, their ability levels (this is never going to change), the effort that they put in (this can change), the opposition quality (this will not change as you are always playing teams of a particular standard) and luck (what happens on the day, refereeing decisions etc).

If a team lose and a manager aims to keep his squads morale high to the media, he will often blame the external factors such as “the referee made shocking mistakes”. Then behind closed doors they will address the real causes of defeat, which may include effort. I don’t particularly like this method, as the players are wrapped in cotton wool, and more often than not, the media sees through the cover ups, and the manager is given stick.

Ultimately, the manager picks the team and so if this selection does not fit the game, the onus was on them to identify a winning team. That being said, I feel that the managers can only do so much, and as long as they prepare the team correctly, the outcome rests on the shoulders of the players.

A life as a coach can lead to many opportunities and careers that can be achieved across all levels of sport, from amateur to professional. This career path consists of jobs as common as teaching sports to children, to jobs working at professional sports clubs and even managing teams at clubs.

If you were looking to begin a career aiming to be a professional coach you wouldn’t necessarily need a coaching degree, due to you obtaining official qualifications set by your respective sport’s National Governing Body (NGB). For example, if you were thinking of football as the sport you’re willing to go down, you take the FA coaching badges. Having said this, a degree in sport would certainly not be detrimental to making it as a full time professional coach as you will acquire the skills and knowledge relevant to working with people in sporting environments. This information can then be transferred to your specific sporting situation and applied to it, in order to achieve the best outcome.

If the professional world wasn’t the end product of your goals, there are still many opportunities to go into coaching. One such example would be to become a PE teacher that goes into schools all over the country and works with children, teaching them new sports and skills. For this, the only way you wouldn’t need a degree would be if you were say an FA coach that has been told to come in and deliver a football session, as they work for the FA. Though this would not result in huge wages, I feel like this would be a job I would seriously consider if I was to become a coach, as I would enjoy sharing my knowledge and seeing improvement in these children.

The English Premier League is arguably the most competitive league in world football. As a result, there are many, many players and managers that have come to the league who are from foreign countries. With this, there is just 4 English managers in a league that consists of 20 teams. The dumbfounding question is why? While some believe that English coaches just aren’t good enough, others say that financing may be the major hindrance.

In England, those who aim to become a professional manager or academy manager must obtain the UEFA A coaching qualification. This usually takes up to two years alone to achieve, and costs a staggering £2965 (as reported by The Guardian, 2016) to complete. Before approaching this qualification, you must also take the other three badges, which amounts to another £1192. These combined mean that in order to be a manager in the premier league, one must have invested over £4000 and 4 years of time and even then they aren’t guaranteed a job by this point. In comparison to this, the German FA (DFB) charge just €800 to take the same UEFA A course. With numbers like that it is no surprise that in the Bundesliga, Germany’s top tier of football, there are 13 of the 18 teams managed by a German.

For current players who are looking to transition into management upon retiring, you would think that money is no issue, and these costs can be easily handled by themselves. Wrong. Many of those looking to take their badges rely on their respective clubs to subsidise the costs of the courses. It seems rather ironic that an average person looking to make it in the professional coaching world must plough money they may not even have into their dream, yet players earning tens of thousands a week seek the help of clubs to pay for, what would be for them, the minute figure of £4000.

In my opinion, it should come as no surprise to anyone that there are very few English coaches in the top tiers of world football when the nation’s FA charge these prices in comparison to other countries. It would certainly be interesting to see just how many people would pursue this career if the prices were lower, as many of those who would possibly complete the courses may not have the resources to invest such funds into a non-guaranteed field of work at this present moment.

Coaches all over the world have to deal with their students and be able to have them learn effectively. Each coach has their own methods for handling this with their athletes. Some may choose to take the soft approach with the performers, in order to maintain a positive relationship. Some may choose to take the tough approach, it really all depends on the personality traits of those involved and how the coach thinks it would be best to handle it.

B.F Skinner’s 1938 Operant conditioning model is one that can be linked to sport, and used by coaches to solve the issue of how to handle athletes. The model proposes that learning will occur through an individual establishing a link between a behaviour and a consequence. That consequence may be positive or negative. If the consequence is positive then the performer is more likely to repeat the action, strengthening the S-R bond (stimulus-response). If the result is negative however, the S-R bond is weakened, making the behaviour is less likely to be replicated. An example of this would be a footballer making an a good pass which leads to a goal, and so the manager praises them. Another would be the player being greedy and losing the ball repeatedly, and so they are substituted.

A second learning theory that is associated with sport is trial and error. It’s as simple as it sounds. Coaches will identify a number of possible methods to overcome an obstacle that is hindering performance progress. If the idea is successful the athlete will use it, if not it’s back to the drawing board and the process starts again until a suitable method is discovered. This process is somewhat used in operant conditioning, and is also time consuming. This learning theory can therefore last a long time, and if unsuccessful attempts continue to happen, the coach may struggle to maintain the athlete’s confidence, leading to more problems.

My experiences with Learning Theories

During my time competing in my sport, Karate, I had to try numerous Learning theories in order to continue to make progress on skills which ultimately lead me to winning or losing (I finished in the medal’s more often than not). I found that trial and error was great for morale if I attempted something new and it immediately worked, however this was overlooked by the sheer number of failed attempts over the years. On top of this, I often preferred to use operant conditioning, and this meant that my coach had to be on hand, to give me that external consequence of either praise or punishment.

I think that learning really does rely on the the personality of the performer, and the coach must understand that and alter training appropriately to maximise their students’ potential.

Coaches are constantly striving to teach performers new skills in order to improve their skill level. One strategy used to undergo this is guidance. Guidance is defined by Schmidt as “A large class of common methods in which the learner is guided in various ways through the movement patterns”. There are 4 types of guidance which are to used in conjunction with teaching and practice methods; visual, verbal, manual and mechanical. A good coach will know how to utilise each of these guidance methods accordingly in order to strive for the best performance levels from their athletes.

Visual guidance is where you as the coach need to provide a demonstration for the performers, and would usually be used when introducing a new skill or to athletes in the cognitive stage of learning. The demonstration would be provided possibly through videos or you actually showing them yourself. The purpose of this method is to give the performer/s a mental image so that interpret the skill and refer to it when necessary. One potential weakness with this guidance method is that if your coaching students, they may be bombarded with information and struggle to understand the desired technique.

Verbal guidance consists of explaining to your performers what you would like them do. This method would be used alongside a visual demonstration if the performers were still at novice level, however if they are beyond this stage, a demo may not be needed. This form of guidance can be effective if you are giving technical information, or if the athlete is of a high level, you may be able to convey tactics. Potential weaknesses with this method include the possible overloading of information, which would result in the failure of the skill being duplicated. This can be overcome by making sure that if you’re the coach you make it concise to ensure maximum learning.

Another form of guidance would be manual guidance. This involves having to physically move the athletes into the correct position if they are failing to do it alone. This method is highly effective in ensuring that they experience kinaesthesis. This is where the body’s sensory organs are able to memorise the positioning of your body, so that you can return to a position again after moving (muscle memory). This would be useful in building an athlete’s confidence, as they are successfully completing the technique. If a performer becomes dependent on the aid it could stunt the improvement of the skill and actually make it harder for the coach to alter this habit in the long run.

The final guidance method is mechanical aids and this involves props and equipment in order to help the athletes learn. A classic example of this is in swimming lessons when younger swimmers use flotation devices. Just like manual guidance, if the aids are used for too long, performers become dependent and struggle to dissociate the skill and the devices used. This method would primarily be aimed at beginners or possibly high level athletes that are returning from injury.

 

Video analysis is a form of coaching that is widely used in the world of sport since the rise in technological advancements that sport has benefited from. Video analysis can be used by coaches in many situations, from watching opponents to tracking your own players.

In sport, it is vital to understand your opponent so that you can follow their decisions and counter with your own approach. Reviewing footage of your opponents is a technique often used by coaches in order to prepare a game plan of their own.  Through reviewing these videos, coaches are aiming to identify patterns in play, that could be seen by the players and used to overcome the opponent’s tactics. Though this is a clever strategy to give yourself the upper hand in a match, it is important to remember that if you are doing this to your opponent, they too are almost certainly analysing you!

Analysing your opponents game is one use of video analysis, but another is to re-watch your own performances in order to render any mistakes and improve your skill level.  Through video technology such as Dartfish, you are able to take a piece of footage and set up a number of “features” that correlate to an particular action or skill. In context to football, one feature may be when you take a shot. Every time one of these features is witnessed you press the button, and at the end of the analysis you would have a set of numbers showing how often you performed these highlighted skills. This information may expose any unnoticed habits or themes that are in your performances that may be either good and bad. This means you can now train accordingly to alter this habit, or continue to work on it if it strengthens you in a match.

My experience of video analysis

During my time competing in Karate, one key feature of my training plans for competitions was video analysis. Due to few of us competing consistently on the circuit there was often new faces to compete against, and so my analysis was rarely watching others but more focusing on myself. I would often re-watch my fights to pick up on cues that may be noticeable to my opponents, along with highlighting instrumental parts of my technique (such as footwork or counter strikes). It took time to spot what I was looking for, however with patience it really helped me to adapt my game, and take my performances to a new level. As a result of this I firmly believe, and will always believe that video analysis is huge in helping performers to improve as it is objective and cannot be argued with.

Talent Identification consists of discovering young athletes whilst they are at an early age, with the aim of putting them into a performance pathway programme and developing their skills to the highest level. Many sports take part in talent ID with private teams spending millions of pounds on their academies and systems to ensure that they find and produce the top talent for their respective sport.

Talent ID is implemented from an early age in an athlete’s development, due to clubs aiming to maximise the full potential of these children from the earliest point. The clubs are willing to invest all of this money because they are aware that with these talented individuals, their coaches are able to develop their skills to the highest standard. This then gives them the option of either playing them (in the hope that they will bring the club success) or selling them on and generating huge amounts of money.

Whilst this sounds profitable and worthwhile, there are those who have their reservations regarding scouting such young children. There are question marks as to whether coaches are actually able to identify talented individuals at the age of five, due to the fact that at this age it is highly unlikely that they will see any legitimate skill, or whether they are just taking more on an educated guess and risk. Along with this and the environment that these children are brought up in there is the potential for them to become desensitised from reality and this could affect their mentality on the game and sport.

With it estimated that just 0.5% of the under 9’s academy players in English Football’s elite clubs make it to their club’s first team (BBC sport, 2015) it begs the question as to whether the identification system is really good enough to justify the money spent on Talent Identification?

In order to be a successful coach, there must be some form of preparation. There is research to suggest however, that few coaches actually complete the preparation, and when it is completed, they rarely optimise its effectiveness (Abraham et al., 2014). It is reasonable to suggest that this lack of groundwork can result in a session or activity being hampered, which could potentially lead to athletes failing to improve.

Bompa and Haff (2009) proposed that the were 3 different types of training cycles that coaches must always be considering. The micro cycle refers to a short term, achievable goal and this must be in connection to a medium term goal which is otherwise referred to as the meso cycle. These must then fit into a longer macro cycle; the bigger picture. Without clear preparation and planning of a long term goal,  coaches will struggle to create efficient and fulfilling activities and so will fail to implement micro cycle goals as there is no foundation or end result to build towards.

My personal experiences with coaching and preparation

During my coaching sessions in university I learnt the importance of preparation. I was asked to deliver a session to a group whilst taking part in the social development module of my course. Due to ill preparation, I nearly failed the main goal of the session, to provide complete inclusiveness for everyone involved. Almost immediately after finishing the 20 minute activity, my tutor told me it was apparent that there was no sign of a clear plan and that although I made it by in this case, I would eventually fall short on other group work in the future.

As a result of this I have attempted to improve my preparation for sessions and activities, and though there has still been a couple of occasions where I haven’t prepared for sessions like I should of, there is in my opinion, clear improvement.