The Teesra

Category: coaching

  • 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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  • Is patience over-rated?

    I do quite a bit* of coaching with younger children, 7 and younger, right down to weekly groups with 3-4 year olds. Sessions can be messy, they can be loud, sometimes they must look pretty chaotic.

    In truth, I really do quite enjoy the chaos (sometimes). I’ll let activities run on, if the players are engaging in some sort of “constructive” play.

    Probably the most frequent feedback I receive, from parents and fellow coaches, regards “patience” — how I must have incredible depths of patience to work with the young groups, how much the children enjoy the freedom they get to play and learn.

    And I also get the counter-statement — “it’s OK to be firmer with the kids, if they misbehave” (i.e. “you really are too patient, sometimes”).

    But I am slowly coming to the conclusion that patience by itself might not be the virtue that it is held up as.

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