The Teesra

Category: constraint-led approach

coaching by manipulation of the training environment

  • 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?

    (more…)

  • Coaching is like gardening — What is coaching? (1)

    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…)

  • Preparing the ground — What is coaching? (2)

    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…)