The Teesra

Author: Andrew Beaven

  • I’m coaching…but are they learning?

    I taught my dog to whistle…he just hasn’t learnt, yet!

    Too often, the assumption in coaching is that players learn by being coached. But that ignores other ways that people learn, and also the motivation that drives learning.

    I have had plenty of time to reflect on my coaching, recently (haven’t we all?), and I wonder if my “live” (face-to-face) coaching has always been delivering effective learning i.e. leading to the acquisition and retention of new skills and knowledge by the players.

    So, with time on my hands, I wanted to re-consider activities to include more opportunities to utilise learning types other than “Acquisition”.

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  • Follow-up: The coaches toolkit revisited (3): deliberate practice vs. deliberate play

    Many thanks to @ImSporticus for including this post in his weekly round-up of re-posts — it generated quite a few comments.

    This, from Phil Kearney: “As a means to move away from a “versus” mentality, I really like Whitehead’s description of freedom (play) and discipline (practice) as “…two rhythms, now one of which is louder, now the other, but both have a place at all stages in development”

    https://twitter.com/kearney_phil/status/922801656957493248?s=21
    Collected in “The Aims of Education and Other Essays” Alfred North Whitehead, 1929

  • Ripples on a pond — what is coaching, really?

    Initial coach training concentrates on developing coaches who can run a “successful” session, where “success” might be defined as “fun” or “purposeful” or “safe” or “active”.

    But, all too often, the players can leave a “successful” session having practiced a new skill or tactical formation, but not knowing how or when to use it.  And, in a week, or a month, how much of the learning will actually be retained?

    Clearly, then, coaching has to be about much more than just Purposeful, Active, Safe & Enjoyable sessions, more than simply “telling”, “ showing” or even “teaching”.

    Phil Race’s “Ripples on a Pond” model of how students learn suggests that some “coaching” is merely delivery of an activity.

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