In my blog I will be discussing different coaching sessions and how I have used various methods to aid me in this experience. I am currently in my second year of studying sports coaching and I hope to pursue my career in teaching sports as this is a topic which fascinates me thoroughly. From an early age, keeping fit and learning new tactics in sports has been my passion and I aspire to become the best teacher in sports coaching.
Throughout this module I will be posting a blog on my experience as a coach and how I develop my coaching skills throughout this academic I will also discuss different topics relevant to coaching such as what is reflection and what effect it can have on a coach. I will also analyse my strengths and weaknesses and how I hopefully change some of my weaknesses into strengths. I, as a coach have many strengths such as communication and organisation skills. My weakness would be confidence this is something I realised during power point presentations in school and college however I am aware with experience this skill will improve indefinitely. I am particularly nervous about this module, but I am aware this module will provide me with an insight into the role and it will enable me to work on certain aspects that I need to change in order to become a better coach. I will also be sharing my experience from the previous years on what I have learnt and how I have put it into practice.
I also have a passion for boxing as I attend boxing training three times a week and I am an avid boxing fan. I also coach boxing sessions on a casual basis for children aged 13-16. The sessions are an hour long and take place three times a week. My coach asked me to coach as they wanted me to share the techniques and skilled I have developed over the years I have been boxing. Occasionally I have had breaks from coaching as I have wanted to concentrate on my own boxing events. The people who I coach are generally new to the club as I enjoy coaching at grassroots and beginner level. At this stage in their development they generally have little knowledge of boxing and do not know the science behind the sport.
Reflection
Before I continue with my blog it is very important to understand what reflection is and how much of a major impact this has on a sports coach. In the article of Gilbert & Trudel (2001) it states that reflection is used to improve coaching performance through a variety of ways and also plays a major role in the sport industry. This states that reflection is key in the sporting industry and improves and develops coaching skills. I would also reflect by keeping a journal as this would help my organisation, monitoring and evaluation skills. This would keep track of what I have done throughout the day and what went well and how I could also improve and become a better coach every day.
I have reflected on many occasions on good and bad days, this helps me become a better person as I know what I need to change in my day to day life to become the best person I can be. I generally reflect on my day when I’m in bed because I can reflect without disturbance from anyone.
In my experience when I have used reflection in coaching is when I had to teach a year 6 class PE lesson, I was nervous and looking back given it was the first time delivering a session it went remarkably well. I believe my session went well as I used peer assessment to look back on and note what went well and what I needed to improve on and also focus on.
My fellow colleagues then told me that I needed to work on my communication skills such as being loud as some of the pupils in the class couldn’t hear me as they were stood further back. To prevent this from happening, the next time I carry out a session I would change my coaching position by moving around more which will catch the pupil’s attention as they would be able to hear me more clearly. I could also get the group in closer and not let them spread out as much this will also be beneficial to my communication skills.
My fellow colleagues then spoke to me at the end and told me that the session went well and the pupils enjoyed the session. My colleagues went around and spoke to pupils individually and asked them if they enjoyed the sessions. This was verbal feedback as I went back to university and my colleagues went into more depth of my session, this helped me realise what I needed to improve on and how I could gain more knowledge of coaching. This feedback helped as I knew that becoming a successful coach I need more experience in order to fully grasp what my weaknesses are.
Bibliography
Gilbert, W., & Trudel, P. (2001). Learning to coach through experience. Journal of teaching in physical education, 21, 16-34.
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