The Teesra

Author: Andrew Beaven

  • A typology of coaching, revisited — what is coaching (4a)?

    As a follow-up to my attempt at a typology of coaching, I took a look at how CIMSPA — the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity — define the “Coach Practitioner”.

    Coach Practitioners improve a participant’s experience of sport and physical activity by providing specialised support and guidance aligned to their individual needs.

    CIMSPA

    And that definition of a coach as someone who provides “specialised support and guidance aligned to their individual needs” pretty much nails it, for me.

    Not explicitly technical, or tactical, or physical, or psychological — just “specialised support and guidance”, which could be “any of the above”, or something else, entirely.

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  • What is the role of the coach?

    I have just completed a fascinating online course from the Open University, hosted by Future Learn — Sports Performance: Different Approaches to Sports Coaching. Highly recommended for all coaches.

    As part of the course, we were asked: What is the role of the coach?

    • Do you think coaches should never give instructions or should they be encouraged to reflect on just how much instruction they provide?

    I have seen the former proposition formulated as “Every time you give an instruction, you steal a decision.”

    But sometimes there might only be one right answer, and instruction is the most efficient and effective route to that solution.

    So I much prefer “a brave coach intervenes when he has to” — I don’t see it as a brave option to withhold knowledge in pursuit of a non-interventionist ideology.

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  • Words. What do we mean when we say “X”?

    I have helped out with a round of squad selection trials over the autumn. An interesting exercise, and I hope to work with the squads in the New Year.

    As someone who, in a previous working life, was a certified 30 wpm typist, I have been helping to type up the hand-written coaching notes after a round of trials.

    As much (more) for those not selected as those invited to join the “performance” or “development” squads, so they have feedback to take away from the extended trial process (up to four two-hour sessions), to think about and work on with their coaches.

    Oh, but the written feedback is so varied, sometimes cryptic, often unspecific.

    Which set me thinking about the words we use to describe players, and how we could do better.

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