The Teesra

Category: Coach Development

  • The Constraints-Led Approach…what is it, really?

    I have just finished reading “The Constraints-Led Approach: Principles for Sports Coaching & Practice Design”, by Renshaw, Davids, Newcombe & Roberts.

    A really interesting read, as it attempts to make sense of CLA for practicing coaches. Taking the concepts beyond the realm of sports science ‘pracademics’ and showing how they can be applied on the practice ground by coaches without a Sports Science degree.

    And this title is only the first in a promised series looking at the application of CLA to coaching in a range of sports.

    Although, if I was to be critical of anything, perhaps describing the title as “…a vital pedagogical resource for students and practising sports coaches, physical education teachers and sport scientists alike” maybe misses the point.

    This is certainly not “An Idiot’s Guide to CLA”, but “The Constraints-Led Approach…” is the “how to…” manual that coaches (should) have been clamouring for!

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  • That. Yes, that!

    Really interesting article in the current issue of the Harvard Business Review, on “The Feedback Fallacy — why feedback rarely does what it’s meant to”.

    Thanks for the share, @davidhinchliffe

    As coaches, I think we have all been there — “no, don’t do it like that”; “great, I like that!”

    The article investigates why giving feedback based on our own definitions of “excellence” can be ineffective, or even damaging to the recipient.

    And even gives an explanation, based in neuroscience, as to why affirmation can be more effective than praise.

    The role of the coach is (should be) to draw excellence out, not to hammer it in!

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  • Coach education — minimum set?

    I recently updated my CV (no, I am not applying for new jobs, just a periodic review and trim) and it is now overflowing with CPD courses — mostly interesting, and all relevant in some way to the work I am doing, but I suspect that only a few will actually change how I coach (for the better, hopefully).

    Which set me wondering about the “minimum set” of qualifications required to call yourself a coach?

    What are the most important lessons from coach education — formal qualification, ongoing CPD, informal learning — lessons that have fundamentally shaped the way I coach?

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