Back in the autumn of 2014 I attended a series of CPD workshops, delivered by Dan Feist (Essex CB) and Richard Hall (then with Surrey CB) – ECB Coaching Children, for level 2 coaches.
Still waiting for the “Diploma” schedule – the opportunity to convert the workshops into a recognised coaching qualification – but the workshops were certainly interesting & thought-provoking.
As with any CPD, however, attending the course is one thing, but what really matters is post-training “D” – was there actually any Development in coaching practice? How much of the workshop content have I actually managed to put into practice?
Further to the post last week on coaching (and bugs), I came across this, from Tony Dallimore, Education Director at Coachwise (parent body for 1st4Sports Qualifications, the awarding body for cricket coaching qualifications in the UK) on the role of the sports activator (and, in passing, on the level 2 qualification).
Specifically, Tony writes (my emphasis) “…some sports are finding that they don’t have the assistant roles for the people they’ve trained [to level 1] and are now looking at the alternatives. One approach could be to start coaches on a smaller Level 2 qualification (which means they can work without supervision), progressing to the current industry-standard Level 2 Certificate in a particular sport.”
The event was described as “a workshop for coaches who want to understand and teach how to increase power for all levels and age groups”, and I certainly came away with a lot to think about…not to mention aches and pains from muscles that only rarely get called on when I am coaching!
Feel the Force workshop – Mark Sheppard @HECCSportMark has a background in martial arts, and a lot of the ideas behind his very practical demonstrations come from this field – next time you see a batter throwing punches at a coach with boxing mitts, check out the batter’s feet and hips.
If he is really generating force, expect to see feet firmly planted, knees flexed to lower the batter’s centre of gravity, and transfer of weight into the punch.
Otherwise, what you will probably notice is that the mitts are being slapped, not thumped.
I shall certainly be using the demonstrations of the stable base position for power hitting and throwing in one-to-ones and group sessions with older players.
Perhaps not for all – I can’t see the Little Legends (3-4 years old) performing the “squat-shift”, just yet – but we can still make sure they are learning good movements patterns from an early age, so there is less need to un-learn bad habits later in life.
The Teesra 