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Coaching others to coach
Coaching others to coach

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Session 8: Refreshing coach development for the digital age

Introduction

This session explores how coach learning and development may need to adjust as technology, society and coaching evolve in a digital age.

A sprinter in a yellow shirt is poised on his starting blocks ready to race.
Figure 1 How far will digital devices become integrated into learning? Will they become as widely used as starting blocks are now, following their debut in 1948 Olympic Games?
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A sprinter in a yellow shirt is poised on his starting blocks ready to race.

Figure 1 How far will digital devices become integrated into learning? Will they become as widely used as starting blocks are now, ...

Technology will be the big one and there’s a lot of unknowns in that respect and possibly something we’ve got to invest more time in, trying to predict and future-proof our approach to both coach development and player development with the advent of different technological advancements.

(Edd Vahid, Assistant Academy Manager, Southampton FC, Leaders Performance Institute, 2019)

Coaching practice is now influenced by digital devices whether they be used for filming, collaborating or communicating. But coach learning and development has also been transformed with coaches having a wealth of expertise and information available in a few clicks. Watch as Stuart Armstrong explains further.

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Transcript: Video 1

MAN
Oh, sorry. I was just on a WhatsApp there with a group of coaches who I've been working. I'm mentoring them, and we're having a really good discussion about their practise from last night and a few challenges they needed to face. This is what we're going to talk about in this next session, technology. Digital technology is changing the way we live our lives. It's also changing the way we can stay in contact with each other, and that's fantastic for coaches. Coaches are using technology on a daily basis to help them work with athletes, and coach developers can do so too.
But we've got to be careful about how we use it because the danger is that we can replace the interaction and the relationships that we need to build. We don't want to do that. We want to use technology to add to the experience for the coach. So in this session, that's what we're going to be exploring.
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As this course comes to a close you will explore the future potential of digital technology – some of which is a little controversial.

By the end of this session, you should be able to:

  • demonstrate a heightened awareness of the potential impact of digital technologies on coach learning and development
  • consider and reflect on the concept of coach developers as ‘digital content curators’
  • explore cases of coach learning and development informed through the use of social media.