Session 7: A fresh look at coaching
Introduction
In this session, you will examine how coaching styles and practice sessions might be changing. The coach is the person who designs practice sessions, and they play a key role in creating imaginative situations in which their athletes can learn and refine technical, psychological and tactical skills.
You will start by hearing from leading coaches describing their work at both a club level and an international level. Both scenarios question the use of repetitive drills and you will find out why. You continue by exploring practice principles developed by Bailey (2014a) who, with some humour, called them ‘coaching commandments’.
Watch the following video featuring Alex Danson.
Download this video clip.Video player: Introduction to Session 7
Transcript: Introduction to Session 7
ALEX DANSON
I’ve been coached by a wide range of people over the last 25 years, and some of the most rewarding relationships and coaching sessions that I have had have been over the last two Olympic cycles and building into those magical games in Rio. Our coach, Danny Kerry, did an incredible job of devising really challenging coaching practises that meant we worked incredibly closely together and devised this really unique team amongst a squad of 31 athletes.
Now, when I visit schools and clubs, I’m always really interested to see how they organise their practises and see how engaged the players are in those sessions. I really enjoy pushing my mind and body to the limit, whether it’s doing two things at once like this--
[CLACKING SOUND]
--or finessing my hitting. For me, quality of practise beats quantity, and you’ll be able to see what I mean as we go through the course this week.
Introduction to Session 7
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By the end of this session, you should be able to:
- describe some outline features of ‘how’ coaches might run sessions that help people learn
- recognise the role of creativity in providing quality practices
- appreciate how principles based on the science of learning and teaching have an important place in influencing coaching, teaching and instruction in sport.