Category: constraint-led approach

coaching by manipulation of the training environment

  • How we learn to move — mini-review

    How we learn to move — mini-review

    Rob Gray’s How We Learn to Move is sure to become the go-to resource for any coach interested in the Ecological Dynamics approach to skill acquisition.

    The book is sub-titled “A revolution in the way we coach & practice sports skills”, and this is no exaggeration.

    A quite brilliant, inspirational read, for anyone who has ever wondered if “learning by rote” and “repetition, repetition, repetition” were the only way to develop sport skills, this book provides an answer.

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  • When T20 goes wrong…

    Very interesting article from Ian Chappell over the weekend.

    “When bowlers are reduced to deliberately bowling wide and wickets come off batters’ errors, you know the balance isn’t right.”

    What, though, could be done?

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  • What are we doing when we coach? — What is coaching? (3)

    I posted a couple of pieces last week about the process of coaching — how coaching is, perhaps, a bit like gardening. But I didn’t consider the “product” of sports coaching — for all of the tilling and watering (and weeding), what actually comes out the other end?

    Or what it is that coaches actually do when they coach.

    If I write “I am a cricket coach”, what am I claiming?

    Professional status? That I am qualified to coach?

    I have several certificates that say I am.

    Or that I belong to a body of professional cricket coaches?

    I pay my subs, at least.

    That I enjoy coaching?

    I do…maybe not as much as I used to, but it was great to get back into school in June.

    But what do (cricket) coaches actually do? What is coaching?

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