Post date: Apr 16, 2016 2:27:31 PM
Developmental Essentials by IYCA
Chapter 1 - Coaching Strategies and Pedagogy:
Realize how important your role is. You are shaping lives. Best reward is a kid saying: I'm am a better person because of my coach. The coach’s role:
Should be one of inclusion. Sports are for everyone, not just the talented.
Be a facilitator of young people.
Understand who we are working with.
Sports and fitness should be fun.
Encourage all to have fun, get better and belong.
Is to take the right approach when working with children.
Educate yourself so decisions made are in the best interest of your athletes
By understanding the needs and learning styles of the student.
By being the best part of their day.
By separating winning from the art of competition.
Winning at all costs breeds bad qualities.
Ultra Competitiveness. Promotes savagery. Opponent is viewed as enemy. Makes it easy to cheat to win
Develop contempt for the sport. Cause of emotional turmoil. Acquire bad feelings associated with the sport
Healthy, artistic, fun competition breeds.
Hard work
Respect for opponent
Working as a team
Enjoyment of the opportunity to test their skills and love of sport
Is to be a positive role model.
Kids follow the direction and behaviors of those leading them.
Build character first.
Is to provide a positive experience with sports.
Kids have tons of distraction in this day and age. If we don't provide a positive experience, they'll find another activity that does.
Provide opportunity to develop lifelong friendships and memories.
Planning. Planning is an active part of the process. Includes:
Doing appropriate research for sport and skills.
Factoring in athlete level
Age
Prior experience
Stages of physical and emotional development
Taking care of the details (the basics)
Understanding the end goal
Organizing information
Organizing physical elements
Time (micro and macro)
Implementation
Proper prior planning produces positive results. Six guidelines when planning programming:
Age
Chronological
Have plan for:
Day
Month
Year
5 years
Developmental
rolling
crawling
half kneeling
tall kneeling
vertical
Address Sensitive period. Sensitive periods are periods of development of organs and systems when they are most ready to be changed.
Demands of the sport. Prepare for success and safety.
Optimizing fitness levels. Place equal importance on
Physiological
Physcological
Neurological
Structure of the workout should be organized in order of importance of development.
Gender. Consider differences in:
rate of development
overall development
Developing age and developmental guidelines
Train well. Planning is preparation for success.
I show you watch, you do I watch
Keep descriptions brief
Do this, don't do that, do this.
Focus on external cues
Every Plan should include:
Date of the session
Goals/objectives for the session
Phase athletes are in
Length of session
Equipment (if applicable)
Time allotment of each ability being taught
warmup
review time
new skill
practice time
cool down
Closing comments/notes
Create a template
Keep track of what’s important. Buckets that need to be filled.
Protection from legal issues
Develop a long term program. Think broad to specific (multilateral to specialization)
Adding variety: Develop basic skills using a variety of activities, tools, etc.
Allow for individual characteristics:
Chronological
Developmental
Athletic training age
Learning style
Suitable training load/volume increases
Intensity increases are structured to make the skills acquisition more challenging but not difficult (frustrating)
Young Athlete’s Bill of Rights
Right to participate in sports and physical activity
Right to participate at my own level (maturity and ability)
Right to have qualified adult leadership
Right to play as a child, not train as an adult
Right to share in the leadership and decision making of my sports participation
Right to participate in a safe and healthy environment
Right to proper preparation for sports participation
Right to equal opportunity to strive for success
Right to be treated with dignity
Right to have fun in sports
M.O.L.D -
Movement must dominate
Open to communication variances
Learning style variances
Don’t train...Teach
Responsibilities
Be positive
Take responsibility as a role model very seriously.
Everyone loves a winner but we need to be more focused on how that win is achieved.
Was it done at the sacrifice of character development?
Increase self efficacy
Help focus on what they are doing well. Recognize effort not accomplishment. This provides incentive to improve by:
decreasing performance anxiety
decreasing dropout from athletics
increasing positive athletic experience
increasing self esteem
Put enjoyment and fun above everything else:
If first experience with sports is positive, kids will be hooked for life.
If negative, kids will be turned off with sports for a long time.
Teach respect for:
Self
Coach
Team members
Opponents
Officials
Parents
Spectators
Opposing coaches
The game
Avoid specialization at an early age
Students who participate in multilateral programming demonstrate
Best performance @ age 18 or later
More consistency in competition
Longer athletic life
Fewer injuries
As experts we need to
Educate parents as to the best course of action. Shift focus towards long term results instead of short term performance improvement
Look to acknowledge positives directly after the match.
Develop weaknesses during subsequent practices.
Maintain focus on attainable goals rather than the scoreboard.
Educate positives of youth sports
Preparation for society. Develop positive character traits. Develop communication and cooperation skills
Fun
Promote good health
Develops mental toughness, the ability to keep mistakes in perspective and create strategies to solve the problem in question.
Competition should teach kids to accept mistakes as a part of life: Work through mistakes, continue to develop and respond better in the future.
Educate on negatives of youth sports
Avoid thinking of youth sports as a feeder system. Kids do not need more travel leagues and tournaments. They need more practice on basic skill development
Overtraining. Training and sport need balance. Kids need time throughout the year to take breaks, to recover physically and mentally from the sport. Length of season and high volume of games are causing never before seen overuse injuries in young athletes.
Abuse. Trend towards mowing down the less athletic in order to win. Recognize that only 1 in 12,000 youth end up being professional
Lack of physical preparation for demands of the sport. Habits outside of training are main contributing factors in poor performance. Sitting for prolonged periods, inactivity, poor diet poor sleep and recovery habits all contribute to poor performance and discourage further
Viewing opposition as enemy. Do not eliminate nor view the opposition as the enemy. Aim to improve the sporting experience of all athletes. Teach sportsmanship. Don’t eliminate. In the true spirit of competition one wants the opposition to play well.
Learning
Learning has occurred when the athlete can consistently show improvements. Important to hit the save button often when learning a new skill. Revisit skill often to ensure that what is learned isn’t lost and to gauge if improvements are being made--direct feedback as to whether or not programming is working. Analyse all factors that affect performance when reflecting on whether or not an activity was a success:
Individual rates of learning
Brain plasticity.
There are critical periods for learning new skills. There are windows of opportunity. Exposure to a wide variety of movement patterns and skills sets up greater abilities later in life.
Learning stage of the child
Affinity for the sport
Learning style preferred by child
Develop Good habits for learning
Stages of learning - recognize that children will fall all along this continuum of learning
Beginning -Unconscious incompetence. Praise only for what is going right
Conscious incompetence
Be patient and provide minimal cueing(1-2 cues maximum)
Athlete is tense/nervous, overcompensation is occurring
Athlete is figuring out the new skill
Teach athlete to make peace with sucking
Sucking is the first step in the process.
Never give up.
Adapt and grow.
Get out of your comfort zone.
It’s ok to be scared.
It’s not ok to let your fear paralyze you.
Stage is complete when athlete can perform task--even if not completely correct. Next steps:
Use applicable skills previously learned to build new skill on
Physically learn the skill
Integrate new skill with previously learned skills
Intermediate - Conscious competence
More relaxed, focused on technique
Refine skill through concerted practice
50/50 ratio praise to critique
feedback should be high
motivation should be high
Deep Practice
Motivated to learn.
Pay attention to cueing.
Be given appropriate feedback (error and necessary correction noted in same phrase)
Receive positive reinforcement but continue to be challenged.(Good. Now try ____)
Advanced
Automatic skill performance : unconscious competence
Can apply skill in sport.
Focus should be on skill maintenance and utilization of skill in competition
Forming strategies along with other skills
Mainly critique. As athlete advances so too does the coaching:
whole group to individual
general to specific
Occasional praise to keep motivation levels up
Learning Styles
Visual
Important that youth coach not only know but be able to perform the movements they are coaching
Auditory
Kinesthetic
Combination Learners
Perceiving, deciding, acting (Done instantly at game speed)
Perceiving Phase
Be able to decipher between what’s important (valid) and what's not.
Proficiency equals a higher aptitude to discern what’s important = good decision maker
Coaching Strategy: pause drills and discuss options.
Deciding Phase
Deduction of the most appropriate action based on available options. Put round pegs in round holes.
Acting Phase
Ability to act. Respond.
Codependent with other phases and occur in rapid sequential manner
Instruction needs to be based on the idea of layering skill upon skill until prepared to handle demands of the sport. Play the sport but through modified games suited to focus skill.
Skill mastery should be occurring in the context of a modified game. this allows the athlete ample opportunity to develop skill while simultaneously developing perceiving and deciding phase. Remember that many sports share common traits. Create modified alternatives to respective sports with main characteristics being kept in mind:
football, soccer, hockey, basketball
Enter opponents territory
Contained defensive tactics
Use of goal to score
tennis, volleyball, badminton
Offer the ball with the idea of causing an ineffective return
Same technical skills
All players must be able to receive/serve
baseball, softball, cricket
Ability to drive ball into open areas
Fielders lined up tactically to prevent scoring
Add additional challenges as performance improves
Simple to complex. Most obvious to most subtle. Don’t over coach
verbal feedback
Cueing (minimal)
outcome based work better
Use external cues
visual feedback: Demonstration (be able to perform the movement), video analysis, mirrors
Teaching. Coaching is teaching. The most successful coaches are those who can teach and relay the proper message to kids.
Science - what to do, what works
Understand your population. Need to account for individual learning styles, physical maturity, prior athletic experience, injury history, individual needs and interests, process time, emotional intelligence.
Prepare so your give your students a chance to succeed. Use backwards design. Start with the end in mind (USA T&F)
Plan in advance
Consider skills needed to develop
Design based on needs of the athlete (where the athlete is at)
Properly warm up
Work on new/most technical skills first
Work on fitness and conditioning later
Cool down after practice
Evaluate effectiveness of session
Make sure practice is fun
Know proper methods and styles of teaching according to developmental stages. Methods of teaching:
Part Whole
Learn the process, one skill at a time, before practicing skill as a whole.
Progressive Part
Teach one skill.
Layer on the next.
When mastered, add the third.
Continue until whole skill is learned.
Whole-part-whole
Teach and practice whole skill.
Then break down into parts.
Finally practice whole again.
Whole Method
Teach entire skill as a whole until it is learned
When deciding which method to use consider:
Is skill simple enough to teach as a whole?
What is the best way to break down the skill into easily digestible parts, smaller tasks?
Progress from easy to difficult, simple to complex. Make it challenging but not difficult (strive for a 60% success rate)
Individual levels of experience (prior knowledge)
As soon as parts are learned, student should be introduced to the whole
Even if learning the parts, athletes should be shown the whole so they understand what the final product needs to look like.
Be able to perform the skill proficiently yourself before trying to teach it. 80% of time, an athlete can learn through mimicry- imitation is one of the fastest ways we can accelerate learning because it strengthens the neuronal synapse that is required to perform the task. Strategy:
step 1. I do, you watch.
step 2. You do, I watch.
Step 3. I provide feedback. You do again.
Teaching a new skill
Verbally introduce. Give the name and description.
Demonstrate the skill.
Allow for practice time.
Provide feedback and cueing.
When planning activities consider the position of students. Can they see and hear you demonstrate? Also consider space requirements. Organization is key for smooth learning and transition.
Goal setting - Switch paradigm from ‘pressure to succeed’ to ‘encouragement to improve.’
Train to win. Measures of success should focus on effort and mastery of skills, not the scoreboard result. Have a double goal approach:
Goal for training. Action goals to increase effort.
Goal for competition. Have performance (variables we have control over) over outcome (many uncontrollables) based goals.
Goals should be altered up or down to appropriate challenge for the individual
Have process based goals before performance based goals. Can student complete a certain movement pattern proficiently first?
Goals should never be volume based for younger athletes
Have a maximum of three short term and three long term goals
Goals must:
Be SMART
specific
measurable
attainable
realistic
timely
Provide regular feedback and opportunities for reflection
Develop positive character traits. As a coach put kids first:
Fill the player’s emotional tank.
Provide positive reinforcement.
Avoid intimidation and fear.
Honor the game and its element.
Art - Ability to teach. Knowing how to teach is just as important as knowing what to teach. Constantly strive to be an ever better communicator.
Practice
Block. Setting time aside to work on one new skill
Advantange: controlled environment
Disadvantage - no opportunity for random practice environment
Distributed. Skill practice interspersed with other skills and stimuli
Advantages: Better reactions to varying situations. Better learning situations as athletes are able to compare skills and strategies. Promotes higher levels of attention because of increased challenge. Applying the skill - coach can add variables little by little to more closely resemble game-like situations.
Use Block for learning the new skill then incorporate Distributed as athletes acquire basic proficiency
Communication
How we relate with our students is the most important aspect of coaching. Effective communication establishes mutual respect --this makes interactions more meaningful. When speaking always ask:
Why are you talking?
Who are you talking with?
What is the best time and place to communicate this message?
How are you going to communicate this message?
If students are capable but underperforming it is most likely due to a lack of communication. Poor understanding of the lesson or expectations is occurring
Effective communication skills include
Being assertive and passionate. Be firm in our expectations. Demand quality and concerted effort.
Communicating non verbally. Smile often. Make eye contact. Show positive body language.
Knowing how to listen well. Be willing to listen. Children are not mirrors, empty buckets or sponges. Give athlete a sense of being heard. Listening opens up lines of communication. Provides feedback on where a particular athlete is at (mentally and emotionally)
Speaking clearly, concisely. Giving simple instructions.
Giving constructive feedback. If skill based let the athlete know what can be improved:
Why they didn’t get it right.
How they can do it more effectively.
Feedback should be given immediately.
If it is something negative or disciplinary take athlete aside or wait until after practice.
Being able to use criticism for improvement. Listen to criticism. It gives you insight into how others feel or perceive the situation. Feedback from our students, both positive and negative, provides insight into the effectiveness of our programming.
Listen to the students in the middle. Hardest workers will always want more or say everything works. The most talented or most lazy probably will ask for less and are more prone to say it doesn’t work. The ones in the middle provide the most accurate feedback.
Choosing the right words. Instruct athletes to do the same.
Use the same words as our students
Always ask who
Try this, see if it's more effective.
Words should set the tone in a positive way
Confronting and resolving issues efficiently and effectively.
Recognize and confront the conflict
Use conflict/struggle as an opportunity to identify and resolve issues. Seek to learn from the experience.
Total resolution may not be achievable in certain situations but compromise must be made for the benefit of the team as a whole. For mutual coexistence communication lines need to remain open and fostered. Information must be back and forth. Teach athletes that it’s ok to disagree, just don’t be disagreeable.