Hi Keith and all of SCP13,
The topic this week is that of mentoring. I find this a tricky topic to deal with, what exactly is a mentor and what do they do? Who should have one and who should seek one?
I look first to a definition, Oxford dictionary describes a mentor two ways;
as a noun; an experienced person who trains or counsels,
as a verb; to advise or train.
That clears it up a little for me. So a mentor is an someone in a position of experience that can advise others in their field ox expertise. That brings me to the second point, who should have one and who's should seek one?
I believe that to attain any level of expertise one has to follow someone who has reached that level already. I'm certain that there are those that have blazed their own trails in life but in doing so would have borrowed an idea from another area, such as a coach in sport borrowing the theories of an army general, politician, or educator and transposed them into their particular area to great success.
An athlete today would not consider going into training without the help of a coach, why would a coach go into training without their own coach? I take an example of a friend of mine who competes in Crossfit. He himself is a coach who trains up to 100 athletes of his own, but when it came to his own programming he saw a fundamental flaw, he could not program sufficiently for himself without bias, and with enough intensity to get the full benefit. He looked around and saw an up and coming coach nearby, had a meeting with him to see how suitable he would be and went about setting up a schedule. 3 months of training ensued and his results were far greater than any he had had in the previous two years. Here I find a perfect case of one knowing when to ask for help, to seek a mentor, had he continued on his own he would not have been able to reach the heights he did.
In this case it is a relationship based on respect and goals, they begin together and set up a program with an end in sight, at the end they can choose to set new goals or finish there. But Keith alluded to a problem of knowing when to leave a mentor-mentee relationship. I can see a reason as to why this would become awkward and that is the opposite to what is mentioned previous, a loose relationship that has no discernible framework and no end date. Like any training program, this too needs a framework to ensure success.
Their was also the idea of comfort, both of the mentor and mentee, if either is uncomfortable it will be difficult to progress, this should be addressed at the very beginning when choosing a mentor. One must look at the person, not simply for their accomplishments, but their status as a person.
Do they share similar beliefs on training?
Do they share similar interests outside of training?
Do they have a sense of humour?
Do you want them to have a sense of humour?
Anything you wish to have in a mentor this person should possess, if they do not, don't enter into a mentor-mentee relationship.
I look at examples of mentor-mentee relationships
Obi-Wan Kenobi to Luke Skywalker
Sidney Poitier to Denzel Washington
Phil Jackson to Michael Jordan
Each menthe was a special talent before they started with their mentors, but it is because of the mentors that they became great.
I look forward to the thoughts of next week, with the topic of Produsing.
Kieran
Views on Sport Coaching Pedagogy. The science and art behind a coaching education.
Thursday 21 March 2013
Wednesday 13 March 2013
Week 5: Sharing & Presenting
Hi there SCP13, another week, another class, another blog post. I do think I'm getting a handle on this (much better than my basketball dribbling...)
This week was quite interesting as the theories pertaining to the lecture were quite practical in their application to the tutorial. Considering the audience and adapting accordingly is pretty much what Keith has been doing week in week out in my opinion. Not an easy task but it is his job and he is doing it well.
I consider my first foray into coaching, a university aged girls touch football team. Having played at a high level since I was 12 and having observed many different coaches and styles approached this with a 'how hard can this be' attitude. What I was greeted with was a harsh reality that it was incredibly difficult, times had changed since I was involved in this club last and the level of talent had dropped dramatically, my game plan was out the window and I went to basics, they got bored, I tried involving less skill and more practical aspects, they got bored. I punished them with fitness, they got even more disinterested. I rewarded them with chocolate, only worked two times before I didn't think it appropriate for a team to need chocolate to perform a task. This lasted for 10 weeks and away to the tournament we went. Upon getting there I found that they recalled nothing from training, deeming the whole thing a waste of theirs and my time. What I discovered was another way I could have approached the endeavour, some girls adapted really quickly to different situations and showed strengths right away. If I had have used a game situation first up to identify strengths and weaknesses rather than try to show them how to play they would have performed a lot better. Lesson learned.
Keith also suggested looking at who sculpted your teaching theory, and for me it was monkey see monkey do, I copied all of the coaches I had before, not looking to broaden my approach by looking at influences outside those I had experienced.
Since then I look at coaches I have seen in person and on tv, with styles and qualities I admire. I also delve into the past and look at those that have done it best and the qualities they possessed that led to their success. In doing this I hope to attain a more rounded approach that suits my strengths and helps the athletes in my care.
Lastly Keith mentioned the case of Role Models, breaking it up it 'What Role' and 'What Model'... I look at the most recent cases in the NRL of people frowning upon the actions of Ben Barba, Josh Dugan and Blake Ferguson. People place them on such a pedastal that the only way to go is down. No one applauds any good deeds they do, that is all in private, but when they don't follow the guidelines they are ripped apart. What 20-something year old guy hasn't had a few too many drinks and not gone to work on Monday? Are they in the paper? No. Case of extreme double standards and not entirely fair.
I have met Blake Ferguson, it was whilst he was drinking, and he was nothing but courteous to me as a bartender. He even sought me out when he was leaving to thank me for my help and service. You won't see that on the news... What role does the media want these players to fill? Who in their right mind would want their child to model themselves on an athlete? The only thing people should look at is the work ethic, what it took to get them there. Not much else is necessary.
But again you have to look at each situation in its own right, whether it be presenting a course, coaching a team, or assessing standards of behaviour among elite athletes. You can't expect something to be the same as before just because they share similar styles and themes.
Will pop back over the weekend with Keiths Friday teachings.
Cheers.
Kieran
This week was quite interesting as the theories pertaining to the lecture were quite practical in their application to the tutorial. Considering the audience and adapting accordingly is pretty much what Keith has been doing week in week out in my opinion. Not an easy task but it is his job and he is doing it well.
I consider my first foray into coaching, a university aged girls touch football team. Having played at a high level since I was 12 and having observed many different coaches and styles approached this with a 'how hard can this be' attitude. What I was greeted with was a harsh reality that it was incredibly difficult, times had changed since I was involved in this club last and the level of talent had dropped dramatically, my game plan was out the window and I went to basics, they got bored, I tried involving less skill and more practical aspects, they got bored. I punished them with fitness, they got even more disinterested. I rewarded them with chocolate, only worked two times before I didn't think it appropriate for a team to need chocolate to perform a task. This lasted for 10 weeks and away to the tournament we went. Upon getting there I found that they recalled nothing from training, deeming the whole thing a waste of theirs and my time. What I discovered was another way I could have approached the endeavour, some girls adapted really quickly to different situations and showed strengths right away. If I had have used a game situation first up to identify strengths and weaknesses rather than try to show them how to play they would have performed a lot better. Lesson learned.
Keith also suggested looking at who sculpted your teaching theory, and for me it was monkey see monkey do, I copied all of the coaches I had before, not looking to broaden my approach by looking at influences outside those I had experienced.
Since then I look at coaches I have seen in person and on tv, with styles and qualities I admire. I also delve into the past and look at those that have done it best and the qualities they possessed that led to their success. In doing this I hope to attain a more rounded approach that suits my strengths and helps the athletes in my care.
Lastly Keith mentioned the case of Role Models, breaking it up it 'What Role' and 'What Model'... I look at the most recent cases in the NRL of people frowning upon the actions of Ben Barba, Josh Dugan and Blake Ferguson. People place them on such a pedastal that the only way to go is down. No one applauds any good deeds they do, that is all in private, but when they don't follow the guidelines they are ripped apart. What 20-something year old guy hasn't had a few too many drinks and not gone to work on Monday? Are they in the paper? No. Case of extreme double standards and not entirely fair.
I have met Blake Ferguson, it was whilst he was drinking, and he was nothing but courteous to me as a bartender. He even sought me out when he was leaving to thank me for my help and service. You won't see that on the news... What role does the media want these players to fill? Who in their right mind would want their child to model themselves on an athlete? The only thing people should look at is the work ethic, what it took to get them there. Not much else is necessary.
But again you have to look at each situation in its own right, whether it be presenting a course, coaching a team, or assessing standards of behaviour among elite athletes. You can't expect something to be the same as before just because they share similar styles and themes.
Will pop back over the weekend with Keiths Friday teachings.
Cheers.
Kieran
Monday 11 March 2013
Week 4: Observation & Augmented Information
Evening Keith, evening all.
Unfortunately I was away for the lecture and tutorial so its a bit hard to interpret the information through the slide cast and associated reading as the subject of augmented is wide and far reaching. I also missed stinking up the basketball court with my grade school dribbling and ambisinister shooting.
What is it to observe in a sporting environment, how much should one merely observe before providing feedback, or as Keith refers to it 'feed-forward' (I happen to find this term rather clever in its positive rather than negative take on 'feed-back'). I dare say there is no definitive answer, but a case of having a feel for a situation that one either possesses naturally or acquires over time.
To look at the top you find revolutionary thinkers and visionaries ahead of their time, Ivan Abadjiev in weightlifting, Bela Karolyi in gymnastics, John Wooden in basketball, and more controversially Charlie Francis in athletics. In each case a brilliant mind years ahead of the pack with techniques and systems that would be mimicked and built upon for years to come. Abadjiev threw out the book on weightlifting training and adopted an intense training regime (one that the Chinese have since adopted and adapted to great success), Karolyi used a strict authoritarian style to elicit the best out of his gymnasts (Nadia Comaneci being the prime example), Wooden (possibly the greatest coach of all time), used a number of principles of training and living that he instilled in his players, he was a thinker and a listener and always ahead of the pack, Francis was in the same mould as Abadjiev, he threw away the traditional book of sprint training and focused his charges in velocity rather than endurance (he subsequently put them on courses of PEDs but his system is copied to this day worldwide).
In recent years I've followed a lot of softball tournaments and had the privilege of meeting some of the top coaches in Australia (and the US), and been able to pick there brains on their approaches in training and in game situations. At a recent national championships I spent time with a leading US college coach who was out scouting a few players to put on scholarship. He discussed approaches to offence and defence that had never crossed my mind, (and by the looks of things neither had some of the coaches there). Here was a case and point of one form of observation, this one would have little to no feed-forward to the majority of players, (only the two that caught his eye were ever approached due to NCAA recruiting rules), but I on the other hand was able to get the 'feed-forward' on his observations and at the level he was at it was more information than my untrained mind could fathom. To put it bluntly and in the basic form I understood, he was first and foremost looking for an attitude, one that would fit with his program, then he wanted a skill that would be useful, and thirdly he wanted something he could enhance, this was the basic formula he used when scouting, if a girl displayed these qualities he would proceed further, if not he wouldn't pursue it.
Moving back to what Keith put forward in his presentation, the key point that I found most interesting was the theme of 'what is the noise and what is the silence?' Meaning a coach has to know when to talk (provide information; the noise) and when to listen and observe (the silence). Finding a balance of the two that suits the athlete will go a long way in allowing their particular program to succeed. Too much noise and the athlete may get discouraged or annoyed at the coach, too little noise and the athlete may become lost, (each athlete is intricately different and may require different levels at different stages, making the coaches job all the more difficult...)
Lastly I find the theme of guided discovery to go hand in hand with what Coach Wooden utilised for his whole career; the 'Pyramid of Success' and his 12 lessons on leadership. Many past players will attribute their success to these principles that Wooden used to guide their development as players and as men. Here is a picture of the pyramid and lessons. A detailed copy is available at www.coachwooden.com
Thanks for your time.
Unfortunately I was away for the lecture and tutorial so its a bit hard to interpret the information through the slide cast and associated reading as the subject of augmented is wide and far reaching. I also missed stinking up the basketball court with my grade school dribbling and ambisinister shooting.
What is it to observe in a sporting environment, how much should one merely observe before providing feedback, or as Keith refers to it 'feed-forward' (I happen to find this term rather clever in its positive rather than negative take on 'feed-back'). I dare say there is no definitive answer, but a case of having a feel for a situation that one either possesses naturally or acquires over time.
To look at the top you find revolutionary thinkers and visionaries ahead of their time, Ivan Abadjiev in weightlifting, Bela Karolyi in gymnastics, John Wooden in basketball, and more controversially Charlie Francis in athletics. In each case a brilliant mind years ahead of the pack with techniques and systems that would be mimicked and built upon for years to come. Abadjiev threw out the book on weightlifting training and adopted an intense training regime (one that the Chinese have since adopted and adapted to great success), Karolyi used a strict authoritarian style to elicit the best out of his gymnasts (Nadia Comaneci being the prime example), Wooden (possibly the greatest coach of all time), used a number of principles of training and living that he instilled in his players, he was a thinker and a listener and always ahead of the pack, Francis was in the same mould as Abadjiev, he threw away the traditional book of sprint training and focused his charges in velocity rather than endurance (he subsequently put them on courses of PEDs but his system is copied to this day worldwide).
In recent years I've followed a lot of softball tournaments and had the privilege of meeting some of the top coaches in Australia (and the US), and been able to pick there brains on their approaches in training and in game situations. At a recent national championships I spent time with a leading US college coach who was out scouting a few players to put on scholarship. He discussed approaches to offence and defence that had never crossed my mind, (and by the looks of things neither had some of the coaches there). Here was a case and point of one form of observation, this one would have little to no feed-forward to the majority of players, (only the two that caught his eye were ever approached due to NCAA recruiting rules), but I on the other hand was able to get the 'feed-forward' on his observations and at the level he was at it was more information than my untrained mind could fathom. To put it bluntly and in the basic form I understood, he was first and foremost looking for an attitude, one that would fit with his program, then he wanted a skill that would be useful, and thirdly he wanted something he could enhance, this was the basic formula he used when scouting, if a girl displayed these qualities he would proceed further, if not he wouldn't pursue it.
Moving back to what Keith put forward in his presentation, the key point that I found most interesting was the theme of 'what is the noise and what is the silence?' Meaning a coach has to know when to talk (provide information; the noise) and when to listen and observe (the silence). Finding a balance of the two that suits the athlete will go a long way in allowing their particular program to succeed. Too much noise and the athlete may get discouraged or annoyed at the coach, too little noise and the athlete may become lost, (each athlete is intricately different and may require different levels at different stages, making the coaches job all the more difficult...)
Lastly I find the theme of guided discovery to go hand in hand with what Coach Wooden utilised for his whole career; the 'Pyramid of Success' and his 12 lessons on leadership. Many past players will attribute their success to these principles that Wooden used to guide their development as players and as men. Here is a picture of the pyramid and lessons. A detailed copy is available at www.coachwooden.com
That's about all I can manage on this for now, I'll be back to tackle Keiths take on Sharing & Presenting.
Sunday 3 March 2013
Week 3: Planning Programs
Hi all,
Another week and another basketball based tutorial, I had watched Keith's link to the Jeremy Lin foundation video prior to this and boy could I empathise with young Chris about lacking size and skill.
(Here's the link for those that haven't seen it)
This was the first thing that got me thinking about this week's theme of 'Planning Programs', how would Chris get better if he never got to play? Basketball, like most sports, is a multi-faceted game. One can't simply shoot the ball or have great fundamentals, they must be able to translate those into game situations.
Chris's frustration was with not being able to play with his brother and the older boys and test his skills, but as the video later points out, he wasn't that good and blamed external factors for his problems. Yet he put the work in and later, when circumstances allowed, he showed all of them that he was capable. I'm going to assume that the timespan of this film was one NBA season, with Lin showing up in Preseason and later after the season finished, this allows Chris ample time to hone his skills.
Back to Keith's lecture, and the concept of 'Athlete centred, coach-driven' training. I take this to mean that the focus is on the player to take control of their performance and training with the assistance of the coach. Each athlete is different and not one coaching strategy is all encompassing.
I take the example of Calvin Smith, 2x World Champion 200 metre runner and once the fastest man alive, after leaving the University of Alabama and coach Wayne Williams, he never sought the help of another coach, simply using the techniques and strategies that Williams had taught him and assumed control of his own training.
The other theme of the lecture that I found interesting was the differing theories on training plans, block training versus linear periodisation and a more conservative approach because that is what had been done before. I take the example of Ivan Abdjiev, Bulgarian national weightlifting coach of the late 60's, 70's and 80's, his approach took a step away from the traditional percentage style training that had been done previously and implemented a wave-like training pattern where his lifters would go as heavy as possible in sessions, this was extremely successful and is now copied by national programs worldwide.
In terms of 'Planning Programs' it all boils down to who the athlete is or what the team is like. Many factors need to be considered before implementing any program and that is what separates good coaches from the rest, they need to be at the forefront of every aspect of the game, psychological as well as physical, and be well versed in all the facets of their sport that is the necessary requirement of building champions.
Next week: Observation and Augmented Information.
P.S. Abadjiev still lifts at 80+ years of age, here's a video of him playing around at training.
Another week and another basketball based tutorial, I had watched Keith's link to the Jeremy Lin foundation video prior to this and boy could I empathise with young Chris about lacking size and skill.
(Here's the link for those that haven't seen it)
This was the first thing that got me thinking about this week's theme of 'Planning Programs', how would Chris get better if he never got to play? Basketball, like most sports, is a multi-faceted game. One can't simply shoot the ball or have great fundamentals, they must be able to translate those into game situations.
Chris's frustration was with not being able to play with his brother and the older boys and test his skills, but as the video later points out, he wasn't that good and blamed external factors for his problems. Yet he put the work in and later, when circumstances allowed, he showed all of them that he was capable. I'm going to assume that the timespan of this film was one NBA season, with Lin showing up in Preseason and later after the season finished, this allows Chris ample time to hone his skills.
Back to Keith's lecture, and the concept of 'Athlete centred, coach-driven' training. I take this to mean that the focus is on the player to take control of their performance and training with the assistance of the coach. Each athlete is different and not one coaching strategy is all encompassing.
I take the example of Calvin Smith, 2x World Champion 200 metre runner and once the fastest man alive, after leaving the University of Alabama and coach Wayne Williams, he never sought the help of another coach, simply using the techniques and strategies that Williams had taught him and assumed control of his own training.
The other theme of the lecture that I found interesting was the differing theories on training plans, block training versus linear periodisation and a more conservative approach because that is what had been done before. I take the example of Ivan Abdjiev, Bulgarian national weightlifting coach of the late 60's, 70's and 80's, his approach took a step away from the traditional percentage style training that had been done previously and implemented a wave-like training pattern where his lifters would go as heavy as possible in sessions, this was extremely successful and is now copied by national programs worldwide.
In terms of 'Planning Programs' it all boils down to who the athlete is or what the team is like. Many factors need to be considered before implementing any program and that is what separates good coaches from the rest, they need to be at the forefront of every aspect of the game, psychological as well as physical, and be well versed in all the facets of their sport that is the necessary requirement of building champions.
Next week: Observation and Augmented Information.
P.S. Abadjiev still lifts at 80+ years of age, here's a video of him playing around at training.
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