Paul Shaw: “you’ve got to coach the individual in front of you” —the icoachcricket podcast

I met Paul once, at a coaching workshop, and this appears to be a characteristically thoughtful, warm contribution, and a coaching philosophy that it should be easy to buy in to.

Two thoughts really stood out, for me, however.

“…the insatiable drive, hunger and thirst to get better is so important [for coaches] and I think it’s the fundamental thing that if coaches have got that then they can progress, they can grow, they can work at many different levels in the game…”

”…you’ve got to be able to coach the individual in front of you, to inspire them, to engage them…to enthuse them to love this great game in the first place…”

How is any of this being conveyed via Coach Education courses (below level 4 “Specialist”, where Paul tutors)? Or in training for National Programmes Activators (the ultimate grass roots gig)?

Coach (self) development?

When I got my level 2 “badge” (2011) I left with the tutor’s advice that I should “go out, now, and learn how to coach” ringing in my ears. Which sort of set the scene for 15 years of ongoing, self-designed, personal development & learning.

When I qualified as a Coach Developer (2019) we were told that what we should say was “you are now a competent coach”. Which sounds rather more like an end-point.

CPD for level 2 was discontinued. Coaching Workshops, derived (in part) from Advanced (level 3) content, reach only a few.

And the focus on the individual?

There’s nothing tangible about “teaching & learning” (the interaction of coach with learner) in Foundation or Core; nothing obvious in the syllabus for Advanced when I asked back in 2019.

As a tutor for National Programmes Activator training, I made a point of emphasising the multi-ability model from Create Development as a means to understanding the individual child in front of the coach. This model has been dropped, partly, I was told, because other tutors found it difficult to teach.

Dropped in favour of a “skills-based” approach to development — identify what the player can’t do, and concentrate on that. With 5 year olds in All Stars.