coaching by manipulation of the training environment
Really interesting post from @davidhinchliffe on how he uses the constraints-led approach in his own coaching practice.
I was particularly taken with the line “instead of a fault-fixer, think of yourself as a problem-setter…” Or, from an ecological dynamics/constraints-led approach viewpoint, coach as “environmental designer”, perhaps?
Or, maybe, gardener?
(more…)Looking at coaching from an ecological dynamics/constraints-led approach viewpoint (which I do tend to do, nowadays), the role of the coach might be likened to that of a gardener.
And one gardening skill that acquires great importance in this model is the ability to prepare the ground, whether that be the learning environment itself or the player’s own receptivity to learning.
By definition, effective CLA-style learning does not occur in an environment were all activities are closely directed and regulated (“do this; do it this way; do it again until you get it right”). The coach is charged with creating that learning environment.
Equally, the player who has only ever learnt in a formal, regulated environment (sat at a school desk, or drilled on a sports field) will probably struggle when thrown into a less structured learning environment. The coach has a role in helping the athlete adapt to the learning environment.
So the coach must prepare the ground if he hopes to see the players he works with thriving.
(more…)Clubs in England have been able to play cricket for nearly a month, now.
It’s not cricket as we know it, perhaps, but recreational cricket is back [1]. T20 & 40 over, mostly, from what I have seen, but with multiple junior formats.
Perhaps it is easy to forget, now, the trepidation around the dreaded phrase “adapted” (or was it “adaptive”) gameplay that was promised by the ECB’s roadmap for the return of recreational cricket.
Because the original version of the ECB Roadmap described a step 4 of “socially distanced matches” with
And that third bullet received an especially blunt response on my twitter timeline:
“If it’s 8-a-side, 20 overs, then I’m not playing.”
I can just about see this for adult, recreational cricket — you pay your money for a game on Saturday afternoon, and you want a game. Maybe T20 doesn’t cut it, for you. For some, it’s a run chase and a result, for others, a few hours respite from the day-to-day worries.
But is a 40-over bash, with little context, really going to be that satisfying? Might something more deliberately “developmental” have been a better way to spend the truncated summer of 2020?
And for junior cricket, what format might give players the opportunity to learn more about the game?
What follows is a lengthy, almost entirely subjective, analysis of what constitutes a “good” format — it reflects what I believe (based on 45 years playing experience, 10 years coaching), with no empirical data to back it up. Of course, you are free to disagree…just apply your own rules to justify what you do. But don’t do something without thinking through why.
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