A presentation that I delivered at a Let Them Play Coaching Conference in April 2017. Aim of the session was to present a number of ideas on coaching behaviour and session layout to be discussed by the coaches to encourage them to engage in reflective practices relating to their own coaching methods and style. Red writing was added to help explain what the slide is showing and was not part of the original presentation.
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Let Them Play Coaching Conference- Lisburn April 2017
1. Creating a positive learning
environment
Gary Devenney
Venue: Lisburn Leisure Plex 2nd April 2017
Sponge
2. For the purpose of slide share.
This slide was used to enforce
the point that children/youth
players are like sponges. It makes
not difference if a sponge is
dropped into a bucket of clean
water or one filled with dirty water
it will still soak up water. We need
to be careful with the information
that we make available to our
players, they will take in the bad
and the good.
3. Are the traditions of your sport putting a
handbrake on progress?
David Nucifora, Performance Director, IRFU
4. Negative
Positive
Coaches were
asked to think
about how their
body language
rubs off the on
the players and
the effect that
this can
have…Postive or
Negative
7. • Visual: by seeing
• Auditory: by hearing
• Kinaesthetic: by doing
VAK model- (Walter B Barbe)
Visual Kinaesthetic/tactile Auditory
Picture Gestures Listening
Shape Body movements Rhythms
Sculpture Object manipulation Tone
Paintings Positioning Chants
VARK- Added reading an writing- Fleming and Miller (1992)
Do we take this
into
consideration?
8. What changes can you make to your
sessions or coaching behaviours in an
attempt to cater for all types of learner?
9. 80% Principle
• 80% time on task
– Players involved in play like activities
– Players with a ball each or shared
60 min session= 48 mins (12 mins – 3x2 min
water break and 6 min trans between games)
90 min session= 72 mins (18 mins – 4 x 2 min
water break and 10 min trans
10. An investigation of the practice activities and coaching
behaviors of professional top level youth soccer
coaches. Partington & Cushion, 2013.
• How and why of coaching practice
• 11 pro coaches, average 8 years exp
• 16 weeks- 8-9 times each plus interview
• CAI system (Cushion et al 2011)
11. Training form Versus Playing form
• Training form (53%)
– Physical training, technique and skill practice
• Playing form (47%)
– Phase of play or small sided games
– in retention with higher variability (Lee & Simon,
2009)
– Whole- Part-Whole?
*An investigation of the practice activities and coaching behaviors of
professional top level youth soccer coaches. Partington & Cushion,
2013.
12. Lack of space?
• 9 out of 11 coaches blamed ‘lack of space’
– Can you turn that ‘disadvantage’ into an
advantage?
• Creativity?
• Instructional behaviour change
– in all instruction types in Playing form
– in use of Silence in Playing form
15. Strengths Weaknesses
Command Provide examples and
pictures, Sets Boundaries
May reduce creativity –
copy coach, reduced
motivation- less choice
Trial and error Wider set/ No
boundaries/longer term
understanding
Patience from both coach
and player
Observation and
Feedback
Positive- can develop
confidence
Negative feedback-
decrease confidence
Guided Discovery Creative
freedom/ownership
Patience needed- Long
term
Question and Answer Encourages Reflection-
deeper understanding
Open or closed-inhibit
learning
16. *Our social worlds offer no immunity to sport
fields and gymnasia. Actions, beliefs, traditions
and perspectives that define how we live in the
world also define how we live and learn in
Sport. (Schempp, 1998)
*It’s all about getting respect: The Coaching Behaviours of an Expert English Soccer Coach.
P Potrac, R Jones and K Armour. Sport, Education and Society, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 183– 202,
2002
17. It’s all about getting respect
• Subject:
– Ex pro player
– Pro Licence holder
– 20+ years as pro coach
• Method
– Observe behaviours in session 405 mins in
total over course of season, recorded using
ASUOI (Lacy and Darst, 1994)
– Follow up interpretative interviews x 2, 90
mins
19. Know your topic
“Football players will test you... They’ll say they’ve
never done that before, and if I can’t say why I
want it done that way, if I can’t give a good reason,
then I’ve got trouble. You can’t afford to lose
players. If they have no respect for your coaching
ability then you’ve had it…So, you’ve got to know
your subject; it is the most important thing. You
can get away with being a bit quiet or a bit noisy,
but if you don’t know your subject then you have
real problems”
20. Questioning?
“The concept of power may also explain the
relatively low use of ‘questioning’……Brian
largely adopted an authoritarian style of
delivery where players had little input into
the decision making process…he was keen
to ensure that he was no being perceived as
being indecisive or lacking in knowledge”
21. Know your players
“You need to get to know them and their individualities;
what they like doing, what they don’t like doing. You’ve also
got to be approachable enough so that they can come up
to you for a quiet word. If you’ve got the air of a sergeant
major, where, if they come and said look ‘I don’t
understand that’, and you say ‘well why weren’t you
listening you idiot’, then they wouldn’t come again. So it’s
important that they feel the door is always open so they can
come and talk to me about anything that is interfering with
their game or is not quite happening on the pitch and can’t
work out why”
22. Keep it short and sweet
“Make a point, make it quick, and then get
out and start the exercise again … Basically,
while it is very important as a coach to get
your message across, you need to make
sure that you hold the players’
concentration. I’ve played under coaches
who talked for too long and lost the players’
attention”
24. Creating a positive learning
environment
Gary Devenney
Venue: Lisburn Leisure Plex 9th April 2017
Sponge