This blog is an analysis of coaching techniques, highlighting the importance of observation and specific augmentation in order to get the best out of your athletes. As a coach, I found this Weeks discussions of particular interest.This blog will be utilised to analyse my own coaching philosophies and techniques but I also intend to share with you some of the key learning points that a coach must adhere to in order to benefit the athlete coach relationship.
This weeks lecture furthered on the need for observation and dwelled into ideas of augmenting information in which to provide athletes in order to better their understanding and cognitive learning process. Although, augmenting information is vital and quite often beneficial, it must be understood that frequent augmentation will infact degrade the learning process. To support the need to limit augmentation, it was interesting to note that even the skilled observer (in this case the coach) 80% of what we see is lost within 2 hours.Therefore, as a tip I suggest to coaches to always carry a hand-held notebook in order to jot down information in diaries or online like I have done is vital.
However, I took a minute to reflect on this idea, realizing that as a (young and inexperienced) coach, I had quite often over-analysed and over-organised my training sessions. I would try to feed too much information to explain a particular point and do this in a rather short space of time. In over augmenting a scenario, the athlete will struggle to understand the concepts, lose interest and ultimately lose enjoyment in the sport.
A second topic discussed in this lecture was the relationship between the coach and the athlete. A contemporary notion that has arised, is that the power of the relationship is in the hands of the athlete, not the coach. It is important for coaches to understand that it is the athlete that now dictates the path of action.
As a final point, the coaches ability to observe rather than perform has found to work for many athletes, particularly at the individual level. As Keith discussed in lecture, it is necessary for the coach to "take a step away", to observe what is being practised rather than organising more content. In taking the time to observe, the coach can learn the finer details and provide for positive reinforcement. A great example of this can be explained in Ian Frank & Harry Miller's (1991) work entitled: Training coaches to observe and remember.Observation is also beneficial for the athlete or performer. A great example of this is in reference to Peter Dowrick's work. Here, the power of 'feed forward' is identifiable and the ability of individuals to learn through 'guided discovery' becomes evident. Here, a child learns to ride a bike with a camera attached to the helmet. The child then watches the video recorded by the camera and within hours can ride the bike! The ability to learn through observing, guiding and self teaching is successful. In playing the video back to the child, they see a guided pathway and their own experiences, through the eyes of the learner.
To conclude, it is evident that the power of observation is unique and if utilised can be very effective. Furthermore, in keeping information short and sharp, providing specific augmentation can benefit the relationship between coach and athlete, while also keeping in mind that the athlete controls the power of a one on one encounter. When it comes to using the 'feed forward' technique, whether through the use of technology via video analysis (as Dowrick observed) or in scribbling a note into your textbook it is a major assistance in the learning process. Finally, thoughts and ideas should be shared and acknowledged. In this way, the world of opportunity for the coach is endless. Therefore, I would love to know your thoughts, ideas or tips when coaching
I'll leave you with two last thoughts. The first was explained by Keith Lyons during the lecture:
"Support in order to move forward"
The second is a thought I found on Twitter by Kevin Eastman
"Observing & absorbing: so important to be a keen observer. But equally important to absorb what you learn. Need both steps to succeed!"
Thankyou for reading this blog!
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