The Teesra

Category: pedagogy

_how_ we coach: theory, practice & philosophy

  • Ripples on a pond — what is coaching, really?

    Initial coach training concentrates on developing coaches who can run a “successful” session, where “success” might be defined as “fun” or “purposeful” or “safe” or “active”.

    But, all too often, the players can leave a “successful” session having practiced a new skill or tactical formation, but not knowing how or when to use it.  And, in a week, or a month, how much of the learning will actually be retained?

    Clearly, then, coaching has to be about much more than just Purposeful, Active, Safe & Enjoyable sessions, more than simply “telling”, “ showing” or even “teaching”.

    Phil Race’s “Ripples on a Pond” model of how students learn suggests that some “coaching” is merely delivery of an activity.

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  • The coaches toolkit revisited (3): deliberate practice vs. deliberate play

    In the iCoachKids MOOC, “Coaching on the Ground: Planning, Doing and Reviewing”, coaches were challenged to review their coaching practice.

    I have looked at my use of the coaching tools themselves, and of the spectrum of practice types, Blocked-Variable-Random.

    In this final section, I wanted to look at the question of Deliberate Play vs. Deliberate Practice.

    The design of “deliberate” (or “purposeful”) activities (all coaching activities) should include:

    • structure;
    • clear progression and challenge;
    • outcomes (“if you don’t know where you are going to, how do you know when you have arrived?”).
    • coach feedback and/or opportunities to reflect on performance and the relevance of the techniques (technical, physical, mental, social) to the game.

    But is it deliberate practice, or deliberate play?

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  • The coaches toolkit revisited (2): Blocked, Variable or Random?

    Following on from reviewing my use of the coaches’ toolkit, I wanted to take a look at how I deploy different types of practice — Blocked, Variable, Random — and what I can do better.

    I have long been an advocate of game-based practice — because I like playing games, and so do (most of) the children I coach — so I’ll admit in advance a preference for Random.

    But that doesn’t mean there is no place for Variable, or even Blocked, practice — there always will be, but for me it’s games, first.

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