2 The role of digital messaging

This is a series of speech bubbles. The text in the first bubble is ‘Evening all, how did you find Block 2? It dragged on a bit... Looks like we’ve reached half way now’. The text in the second bubble is ‘Yeah, I felt it went pretty well, gave me a lot more to think about. Really liked the idea of talking to the furthest player away from you first and then working back to the players closest to you, never thought of that before’. The text in the third bubble is ‘I found this thread on Twitter about feedback interactions which you might find useful’. In the final bubble is the text ‘Thanks, I sometimes listen to this podcast which also covers coaching dialogue on the pitch - see what you think’.

This is a series of speech bubbles. The text in the first bubble is ‘Morning guys, what methods do you use to plan for fixtures? I currently create fixture planning sheets for players’. The text in the second bubble is ‘I ping around a PowerPoint like this to everyone’. The text in the third bubble is ‘I uploaded a doc onto a sharing platform along with any videos and stuff... then everyone can access it and make comment if they want’. In the final bubble is the text ‘What platform do you use and why?’.

This is a series of speech bubbles. The text in the first bubble is ‘Hi folks, I wanted to get you thinking about information overload and how many key coaching points you make in a session. Please let me know your thoughts before we meet again’. The text in the second bubble is ‘When I first started my enthusiasm meant I was searching for quick fixes and me being on ‘broadcast mode’, about 10 points in an hours session - now at the start of the sessions I ask the runners to recap from last week. I then revisit and reinforce last week’s point in a warm up practice before advancing to the main session where I will focus on one or two points’. The text in the third bubble is ‘I coach a team sport and while I will always have a theme there are two sides to any action and its impacts on those around the play. Within the theme I try to make key points individualised to each player and sometimes other stuff or questions might take us away from the issue we are trying to address... sometimes I just go where the players problem-solving is taking us. At the end I try and link it back to our original theme’. In the fourth bubble is the text ‘It’s certainly easy to fall into the trap of trying to go through your entire A to Z of a sport in each session. Having a clear focus for any session is vital along with having an idea of what you’d like to see near the end. But if you get too attached to the idea of hammering home one key point in a session you’re not giving any wriggle room for the session going in other directions. I’ve been there... sometimes a session focus just isn’t being realised and that frustration can come across to the participants as a disappointment. The text in the next bubble is ‘From a non linear pedagogical perspective, yes starting with one idea, then as the session emerges adapting to where it leads next through task, environment and/or individual constraints’. In the final bubble is the text ‘Hang on what are all those terms, is it designed to confuse or impress us? I prefer the KISS principle and concentrating on watching their engagement... If you have people genuinely connected to what you are doing that should be your measure of how much information to give’.