The Teesra

Category: CPD

continuing professional (or personal) development

  • We don’t talk any more…if we ever did — on (the absence of) coaching discourse amongst cricket coaches, and a possible role for Communities of Practice in coach development

    When did you last have a serious coaching conversation with a fellow coach?

    Not about who gets to use the bowling machine first, or about an individual player, or the opposition for next week’s game. But actually about the art and craft of coaching?

    Just before Christmas, I stumbled into what could evolve into a local Community of Practice (CoP). It started (indeed, still largely functions) as a WhatsApp group for a group of coaches to arrange social events and to vent about employment issues.

    One of the team posted a video of a young bowler with a question about his action, and got back a range of replies, all with a slightly different perspective, all with the same objective of helping that bowler to develop a more repeatable, more robust bowling action.

    A hopeful beginning.

    But where are the open discussion boards, the CoPs, the communities of like-minded individuals striving to provide the best possible experience to their charges?

    (more…)

  • Where did you learn about coaching?

    Over the summer, a Twitter correspondent asked me how I learnt about coaching.

    Fair question.

    I do (probably too often) post quite definitive statements to Twitter of what I believe to be the reality of coaching. I am happy to express an opinion on subjects “way above my pay grade”. Even when those “opinions” are dressed up as questions, it’s easy enough to spot what I think the answer should be.

    So what are my coaching qualifications?

    I have an old level 2 coaching badge (2011) and quite a lot of hours actually coaching.

    And I have so much CPD on my CV that I need to prepare an edited version, or it looks as if I spend my life on courses…

    But I’m not sure how much of what I believe about coaching has been learnt from gaining badges or formal (and informal) CPD, and how much has been shaped by prior experience at “the University of Life”.

    (more…)

  • 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