14
Coaching Matters Issue 1

Coaching Oxfordshire - Coaching Matters Issue 1

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Coaching Oxfordshire, as part of the Oxfordshire Sports Partnership, is collectively responsible for the successful development of coaching at a local level.

Citation preview

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Coaching Matters

Issue 1

 

2  

Issue 1 Content

Page

Welcome to the Enews Forward – Mike Walker

3 3

"The Travels of a Volunteer" - Jenny Gray 4-5

Coaching Bursary assists Gymnastic Acro Coach 5-6

Review of Minimum Standards for Deployment 7

In The Zone courses and workshops 7

Focus on Funding 8

"Good Coaches Reflect….." 9-10

Coach CPD Coach Manager Training Sports coach UK FREE membership

10

11

11

Athletics 356 The FA and McDonalds launch new website FA Level 2 – 3 Bridging Course for Females

12

13

13

 

3  

Welcome to Coaching Oxfordshire ENews

Oxfordshire Sports Partnership is delighted to announce the launch of Coaching Oxfordshire ENews. This is not a totally new concept and some of you may remember the newsletter which was previously produced in 2005 during the Active Sports era…

This ENews is for you and will be packed with coaching hints and tips, articles from coaches and coach educators. It is your forum and your voice; we want to hear from you about your examples of good practice, projects that you are proud of and would like to share.

The newsletter will be produced quarterly at the end of October, January, March and June and the deadline for submitting articles will be the 24th of the month. We would like to hear from you regarding an appropriate and inspiring title for the ENews, to be submitted by the January deadline (24th). The person submitting the winning title will receive a free place on one of our workshops.

If you have any comments about the Coaching Oxfordshire ENews, or wish to share examples of good practice, please get in touch with Denise Brown, Coach Development Officer at [email protected]

Foreword

Mike Walker Chair of Oxfordshire Sports Partnership

“These are challenging times with National Governing Bodies, School Sports Partnerships, Local Authorities and providers of Sport all recognising the importance of high quality coaching. The recently established Coaching Oxfordshire (formerly known as the Coaching Systems Support Network), will play a major role in moving coaching forward in the county to 2012 and beyond, thus contributing to Oxfordshire Sports Partnership’s shared vision”

“Everyone more active and achieving their potential in sport”

Mike is the Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Win Tennis Academies across the UK and Europe, and has considerable experience in the world of sport; both as a player, coach, Director of Tennis and media commentator.

Mike’s full career includes being a professional tennis player, tennis coach, directing tennis internationally and working as a TV commentator. He is a former world ranked and Davis Cup player and played at Wimbledon for three years.

As a coach Mike has trained more than 100 world ranked tennis players, he has worked as a LTA National Training Manager and the Director of Honk Kong Tennis.

 

4  

Jenny Gray - Chairperson of the Coaching Oxfordshire steering group

Up until June of this year Jenny was Principle lecturer in Education at Oxford Brookes, Field chair (Course Leader for Sport and Coaching Studies). Since her retirement Jenny has not sat on her laurels and from July she has been a Free-lance consultant in coach education (Specialising in aquatics). Jenny says “I am totally involved in synchronised swimming sitting on the world and European technical committees; I chair the England technical committee.

In my spare time, I enjoy gardening and spending time with my delightful grand daughter Charlotte”

Jenny’s busy schedule is testament to her drive and enthusiasm and love for her sport. She manages to fit an incredible amount into her working week, but still makes time to offer advice and support in her role as Coaching Oxfordshire chair, no matter where she happens to be in the world!

Read on for a snapshot into Jenny’s busy life …..

(The travels of a volunteer or “get volunteering and see the world”!)

“The last 2 months have been exceptionally busy with travels across the world. I recently left my lecturing job at Oxford Brookes so I could concentrate on my volunteering role and I really don’t know how I found time to work! September was ‘quiet’ with 2 weeks in China. As a member of the FINA (that’s the world governing body of swimming) technical committee we had a committee meeting followed by organising the World Synchronised Swimming Cup. Meetings always produce more work, so there’s plenty of follow up work still to do. I think I have dedicated volunteer inscribed on my forehead, as I seem to get more work than anyone else!!

October started with a trip to Delhi to judge at the Commonwealth games. Yes Delhi Belly struck, despite being in a 5 star hotel and if you like waiting for buses in the heat and then driving down one way streets in the wrong direction, it was a fascinating trip!

Next came 5 days in Amsterdam conducting a judges and coaches clinic for volunteers from throughout Europe. Arriving back in England was a whistle stop turn around, enough time to empty one case and pack another and then off to Korea for a 3 day judges’ course. I’m sure airline seats get smaller and harder but it was a brilliant trip and after long days lecturing it was fabulous Korean food and excellent company.

 

5  

Cultural differences are interesting and knowing how to ‘deal’ with the local people can be challenging but sport is a wonderful way of quickly getting to know one another. In between trips I managed to conduct several judges’ courses in England. So much for retirement!

The next month brings 3 more trips with a FINA appointment to the Asian Games, A FINA judges’ school in Finland and some evaluation of judges in Prague.

I’m still finding time to support the work of Coaching Oxfordshire and look forward to sharing experiences in the future”.

Jenny Gray Chair Coaching Oxfordshire

Jenny is a shining example to us all, so the next time you find yourself saying “I have not got a minute”…… think again

The story of Rich Evans who has accessed funding from the South East Coaching Bursary…..

Coaching Case Study: Assistant coach and UKCC level 2 Student – Oxford School of Gymnastics

Position: Assistant Coach – Oxford School of Gymnastics. Location: Training Base – Lord Williams School, Thame, Oxon Discipline: Acrobatic Gymnastics. Coaching Status: Working towards UKCC Level 2 Coaching Certificate – Acrobatic Gymnastics Aims: Pass level 2 coaching certificate and then progress towards UKCC level 3 Club Coach as experience allows. Aspirations. To be the most effective coach I can be in order to give every gymnast the opportunity to reach – and hopefully exceed – their potential.

“At the risk of making a sweeping generalisation, it’s probably true to say that I don’t necessarily fit the standard profile (if there is such a thing) of an aspiring Acrobatic Gymnastics coach! I was never a gymnast and until a few years ago had not had any real involvement in gymnastics, let alone the spectacular, yet relatively unknown discipline of acrobatics. Consequently, my first tentative steps into coaching began relatively late (I’m definitely in the ‘mature student’ category!) and came about – thankfully - more by chance than any grand plan.

 

6  

My path into coaching probably began when my daughter joined her local club, Oxford School of Gymnastics. The club is based at Lord Williams School in Thame and is now one of the top Acro clubs in the country with national and international medal winners within its ranks.

As she progressed and began to train and compete more frequently, so our involvement in the club seemed to increase! My wife became the Welfare Officer and shortly afterwards I found myself volunteering (or was that volunteered) to help out in a general support role, which widened to include responsibility for the Clubs GymMark application. Through this work, I got to know the Head Coaches who one day, quite out of the blue, asked me if I’d ever considered coaching. Strangely enough, it had crossed my mind, but I’d dismissed it because I had no previous experience. However, I was assured that this was not a show-stopper and in some ways could be quite beneficial, as I had no pre-conceived ideas or ‘bad-habits’ to overcome (at least where Acro was concerned!), though the learning curve was going to be that much steeper. So a couple of weeks later, I found myself in the gym as a rather apprehensive novice Acro coach.

That first session was nearly 2 years ago and my only regret is that I did not start coaching earlier, as it has proved to be one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. Since then, I have passed my UKCC level 1 Acro course and am now coaching regularly for about 10 hours, 3 times a week across a broad range of abilities and ages.

In July this year I started working towards the UKCC level 2 course, which thankfully is being funded by the South East Coaching Bursary, which I found out about through the Coaching Development Officer at Oxfordshire Sports Partnership. The 5 day tutored element of the course is now complete and the 3 months of mentored tasks under the eagle eye of my clubs head coaches is just about to start!

In terms of aspirations for the future, at the risk of sounding trite, the most important thing for me is simply to be as effective a coach as I possibly can (at whatever level that may be) and to keep on learning. In this way, I should always be able to give something positive back, in return for the enjoyment  that I get from coaching a great bunch of gymnasts”

Good luck to Rich who takes his final assessment in January

 

7  

Minimum Standards for Deployment

Following an 18 month review of current position, Sports Coach UK recently published its recommendations on the Minimum Standards for Deployment (MSD) of sports within the United Kingdom. The key recommendations are to :-

Separate MSD and specified additional training into two distinct groups

Adopt and apply Core MSD to all sports coaches working within the UK, including all employed (ie full-time, part-time, self-employed) and voluntary coaches

Supplement Core MSD with additional training appropriate to the coaching role, location, activity and population involved in the coaching session

Go to www.oxfordshiresport.org/coachingresources and download

Minimum Standards for Deployment for more information.

In The Zone

Oxfordshire Sports Partnership runs a range of workshops for clubs,

coaches and volunteers.

Some of the course running over the next few months are:-

30.11.10 | Analysing Your Coaching - Oxford

13.01.11 | First Aid in Sport - Oxford

27.01.11 | Coaching Children and Young People - Thame

07.02.11 | Safeguarding and Protecting Children - Witney

09.02.11 | Equity in Your Coaching - Oxford

15.02.11 | First Aid in Sport - Abingdon

For prices, full schedule and to book, visit In The Zone

www.oxfordshiresport.org/inthezone

 

8  

Focus on Funding

Athletics Coach Funding 

England Athletics have revisited their approach to funding Coaches in order that the focus on the development of coaching and club infrastructure remains. In order to support coaches with identified areas of development, the McCain Athletics Network Coach Bursary scheme has been introduced. Full details can be found on the website link below

McCain Athletics Network Coach Bursary website

OFA Funding for Football Workshop 9th December 7-9pm

Oxfordshire FA are holding a Funding Workshop for affiliated Football clubs in the County. Come along if you want to find out about the range of funding opportunities available. For more information visit the website.

Oxfordshire FA Funding Workshop webpage

For further information on funding go to:-

www.oxfordshiresport.org/funding

 

9  

Good Coaches Reflect and Review their Coaching Behaviour

Coaching is a complex, dynamic social activity that requires coaches to have technical, teaching, communication and management skills.

Coaches learn these skills through a variety of methods including NGB formal qualifications, informal continuing professional development, learning from their playing days and by observing other coaches.

Research has shown, however, that one of the most common, and most effective ways of learning is by doing – experiential learning - as academics call it. Learning by doing is how most adults learn most things – we do something, think about how we did it, and then do it better the next time. The ‘thinking about how we did it’ is known as reflective practice and research from other fields such as healthcare and education suggests reflection is the most effective way to learn and for many of those disciplines it is the primary learning method employed by learners.

To be fully effective however, reflective practice must also be critical. By that we mean the reflection has to go deeper than simply describing what happened in a session. Coaches need to analyse the outcomes of the session or game, compare it with the intended objectives, and ask themselves whether those objectives were achieved. Often in coaching we get ‘surprises’ – things that didn’t go according to plan – and it is these surprises that can kick off our thought processes.

In order to be truly effective though, reflection has to question the underlying assumptions about what you do and how you do it. That’s not easy – by definition assumptions are often hard to uncover and discuss. To help coaches do that they can ask themselves a series of questions in a reflective conversation – questions like:

What happened? How do I feel about that? What was good and bad about it? What sense can I make of it? What else could I have done? If it happens again what will I do?

Coach Coordinators can encourage reflective practice by setting up coaching clinics, encouraging senior coaches in clubs to mentor less experienced coaches, and by generally promoting the concept of reflective practice to our coaching colleagues. There are many tools available to us that can facilitate reflection, including coaching diaries, video, and coaching clinics.

These will work in different ways for different people but research in other fields has shown that talking about what we do to others – coaches, partners, players – is one of the most effective ways of having those reflective conversations. In reflective practice then ‘talking to myself’ might NOT be the ‘only way to get any sense’.

 

10  

Finally, you might get asked ‘why should I try to change what I do? I’m pretty good!’

Here’s Wayne Smith, All Blacks coach, on the qualities needed to be a good coach:

“The key thing I think is the openness to learning. I think coaches need to look at things on merit and understand that just because they’ve played the game, they don’t know everything about it. Having a passion to improve is important. Knowing that you are part of the problem means that you can also be part of the solution.”

If you would like to know more about reflective practice please feel free to contact [email protected]

John Peel is Club Coach Coordinator at Wallingford RFC. He coaches at Wallingford and Oxfordshire School of Rugby. He is studying reflective practice as part of an MSc in Coaching at Loughborough University.

Good Coaches engage in Continuous Professional Development – or do they?

So what is Continuous Professional Development?

Put in a sporting context Continuous Professional Development in conjunction with regular coaching and reflection is the fuel that keeps the fire burning within the coach; it introduces them to new concepts and ideas, stimulates debate and reflection, provides opportunities for them to interact with other coaches, share problems and identify solutions.

We never stop learning…….

If you are a coach do you think about your development needs?

- When did I last attend a CPD workshop?

- What are the gaps in my knowledge?

- Do I know what the gaps are?

- Do I need help identifying the gaps?

- Who do I talk to about training needs within my National

Governing Body

Need some help to get started?

Contact Denise Brown Coaching Development Officer, [email protected]. 01865 252689

 

11  

Coach Manager Training

- Do you have meetings with your coaches to identify their needs?

- Do you have the skills to identify their individual needs?

- Is your Coach Development Programme “needs led”

- Have you attended any Coach Manager Training workshops recently?

A new Coach Manager Training workshop is now available (FREE)

The workshop can be delivered to groups or individually. The aims of the workshop are to help you :-

- Understand the coach management process and your role within it

- Gain skills and knowledge on how to manage your coaches more effectively

- Identify methods of recruiting coaches and the ideal process to follow for employed coaches

- Understand the importance of developing coaches and gain some knowledge of tools to use.

- Describe the coach manager’s role in coach deployment

Want to know more, Contact Denise Brown Coach Development Officer, Oxfordshire. [email protected] 01865 252689.

Have you heard about sports coach UK’s FREE membership scheme? Simply become a Network Member at www.sportscoachuk.org/coachingmembership and you will gain FREE access to the sports coach UK website where you can 

be inspired by archive articles from sports coach UK’s magazine Coaching Edge, written especially for UK coaches

gain access the vast coaching research database

gain access to further learning/CPD

download coaching Top Tips

keep look out for the latest jobs available in the sports industry

and much more

 

12  

Colourful Approach to Youth Development from England Athletics

England Athletics has unveiled a new club programme for youngsters designed to help coaches and volunteers turn London 2012 inspiration into sustained participation in athletics.

Called Athletics 356 and delivered in partnership with UK Sport, the scheme is similar to the martial arts belt system, with different colours denoting different skill levels (starting with red and finishing with gold).

Rather than focusing only on how fast someone can run, jump or throw, it seeks to develop the technical skills running, jumping and throwing

require. It also covers an athlete’s physical, mental and social development.

There are nine progressive stages, each presenting a more difficult challenge. They encourage participants to learn the full range of athletic skills and events while reinforcing the importance of a good all-round skill base. Athletes have to complete all the challenges – running, throwing, jumping, physical conditioning, lifestyle, behaviours – before they receive each award.

“We believe that through this programme all athletes will have a greater choice of events and sports in which to participate and succeed, both now and later on in life,” says Scott Grace, National Coach Mentor Youth Development for England Athletics. “By developing a better conditioned athlete it will help to increase the athlete’s performance and also minimise the likelihood of injury. The athlete will still be encouraged to participate and compete in those events that they enjoy the most, while at the same time allowing them to experience new and exciting challenges and events. Coaches who specialise an athlete’s training too early in life can increase the likelihood of them developing repetition related injuries. This could be an issue while the athlete is still growing and going through puberty and this can affect their physical development.”

Find out more on the England Athletics 365 website

 

 

 

 

13  

The Football Association and McDonalds have teamed up to launch a brand new website dedicated to the grass roots football workforce

across the country as part of the ongoing Get into Football campaign.

The new site, Your Game provides essential advice and support for people working in the game running a club or running a league. People looking to find a voluntary club role as a coach, club secretary, grounds man or welfare officer can also get the information they need and search for clubs with vacant positions. For more information visit the website

www.thefa.com/yourgame 

FA Level 2–3 Bridging Course For Female Coaches

This course is for female coaches who are considering enrolling on the FA Level 3 coaching award in the future and would like a taster of what is in store from experienced B Licence tutor Kieron Wicks.

The course will give an insight to the practical elements of the course, including Functional practices, Phases of play and 8 v 8’s, as well as theoretical information.

Burnham Grammar School, Hogfair Lane, Burnham, SL1 7HG

9.30am -4.30pm

£15 Refundable deposit

Pre-requisites: Candidates must be female and have completed the FA Level 2 qualification

To book a place on this course contact Vicky Bonham [email protected] or 01993 894403

 

The Oxfordshire Sports Partnership is the collective term used to describe the network of agencies, groups and individuals who are committed to achieving the shared vision for Oxfordshire, which is:

'Everyone in Oxfordshire more active and achieving their potential through sport'

The purpose of the Partnership is to:

'Bring partners together to improve the health of everyone in Oxfordshire through enjoyable sport

and physical activity'

Bury Knowle House, North Place, Headington,

Oxford, OX3 9HY

01865 252676

[email protected]